Enjoy the game

Enjoy the game

With some pregame planning, you can spend more time cheering on your favorite team. Check out the tips and recipes to add to your playbook, such as this Avocado Cream Cheese Dip (above), on C2.

Real Medleys

Here’s another new product from Quaker: Real Medleys, single-serve cups of instant oatmeal plus other grains, dried fruit and, in most of them, nuts.

There are four: Apple Walnut (and cranberries), Peach Almond, Cherry Pistachio (and almonds) and Summer Berry (strawberries, blueberries and raspberries).

Add boiling water and let steep, or add cold water and microwave.

Besides being a single-serve product, Real Medleys differ from the envelopes of flavored instant Quaker oatmeal sold in packs of 10. The fruit named really is that fruit, not pieces of colored and flavored dried apples or figs (that’s what’s in the Quaker Fruit & Cream strawberry and blueberry oatmeals). And the single serving is about double that of one of the instant envelopes (around 2 ounces before adding water, compared with around 1 ounce in the 10-pack varieties).

They run 250 to 290 calories, compared with 130 in an envelope of Quaker’s regular flavored oatmeals.

Real Medleys also cost more. At one store, where Quaker 10-packs are $3.49, Real Medleys are $2.19.

Seasoned beans

S&W Fine Foods, maker of canned fruits and vegetables, including 15 varieties of beans (six of which are versions with 50 percent less sodium), introduces a line of “recipe collection” seasoned beans.

The new varieties are mild jalapeno black beans (with lime juice), chipotle pinto beans (with mesquite flavor), Cuban recipe black beans (with onions, peppers and cumin), and pinquito beans (with onions and cumin).

Combined dispatches