This month the makers of Thai Kitchen products, Simply Asia, has two new all-natural noodle packages to help you get started with a quick dinner or lunch. They come in garlic black bean and sesame teriyaki flavors and include noodles, a sauce, and a topping. Each package also suggests "appropriate" vegetables, proteins, and garnishes to go with the noodles for vegetarian and non-vegetarian cooks.

Just in time for school lunches (or for those older children among us) are two new all-natural savory crackers by Our Family Farm. Captain’s Catch Baked Cheese Crackers are sea creatures made with organic unbleached wheat flour and real cheddar cheese, and Field Friends Baked Wheat Crackers are made with organic unbleached and whole wheat flour in shapes representing farm animals.

Annie’s also is now making new flavors of their totally natural bunny crackers in BBQ Cheddar, Whole Wheat, and Ranch. These all contain organic unbleached flour and real cheddar cheese made without rennet (totally vegetarian). The whole wheat variety contains whole wheat flour as its first ingredient and no sweetener whatsoever; the evaporated cane juice used in the other two types comprises less than 2% of the total ingredients!

For a sweeter taste, we now carry Barbara’s Puffins Cereal and Milk Bars. Each bar is said to contain the same nutrition of a bowl of cereal and a glass of milk. They are fortified with 21 vitamins and minerals and are wheat free. They come in the flavors of Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip, Strawberry Yogurt, and French Toast and there are six in a box.

We also now have a new Cascadian Farm chewy granola bar that has earned the right to have the USDA organic stamp on its box. These are six to a box and come in flavors of Fruit and Nut, Multi Grain, and Harvest Berry.

From the Camel company comes Halvah bars, all-natural sesame bars which use barley syrup for sweetening instead of sugar. These come in two flavors, vanilla and marble.

We also have recently added several flavors of snack bars to two lines we have already available. We now have Clif Bars in the flavors of Cookies and Cream and Peanut Butter, each with 20 grams of protein. Luna Glow snack bars now come in Chocolate Peanut Crunch, Fudge Almond Brownie, and Strawberry Caramel Sundae, with three, two, and three grams of carbs, respectively.

If you are looking for more of a cookie for your snacking needs, we now carry Almondina Brand Biscuits, which is a wonderful thin wafer-type cookie with almonds and raisins, containing no cholesterol. Country Choice, a maker of certified organic sandwich cookies, now has two delectable new flavors, ginger lemon and mint crème (with chocolate wafers). These cookies have no hydrogenated oils or refined sugars.

If you are looking for more of a homemade taste without the fuss, we now carry wheat free, gluten free Brownie Mix by Bob’s Red Mill. Add butter, egg, vanilla, and water for a gluten free treat described as a deep and intense dark chocolate flavor with a wonderfully moist cake texture.

The Saratoga Salsa Company brings us Saratoga Salsa in temperatures of hot, hotter than hot, and half as hot. This local company gives a percentage of their profits to the Retired and Disabled Jockeys and Backstretch Family Fund. For connoisseurs of heat, it should be noted that the hotter than hot salsa is made of tomatillos and Serrano peppers instead of the usual tomatoes and jalapeno peppers found in most salsas.

Those who prefer a cooler experience will be pleased to see that we now carry Enrico’s all-natural chunky no-salt salsa in mild. It is billed as a stick-to-your-chip salsa for those who find chips and salsa difficult to handle.

From the relatively local (Rutland, Vt.) company of Food To Live By, we now have available three new mixes to dress pasta, sandwiches, salads, pizzas, etc. Bruchetta is a fresh tomato and olive tapanade, Muffalletta is a New Orleans-style olive and garlic concoction, and Hot Giardiniera is an spicy olive and peppers combination sure to warm up whatever you put it on.

To go along with all those spicy foods, you may want to try the two new flavors of Boylan All Natural Seltzer in lemon and orange. These clear, sparkling beverages in glass bottles contain only carbonated water and natural flavors without sweeteners, so they can be enjoyed by those trying to avoid sugar who desire something beyond plain water.