Food: Krusteaz Brand Mixes

When it comes to breakfast food, I think most people take shortcuts. Say it's 6:30 in the morning - measuring out flour, sugar, and baking powder for a waffle mix is the farthest thing from most people's minds.

Krusteaz is a line of baking mixes designed for the lazy. Like most of these kinds of products, you dump out the premeasured, powdery mix into a bowl, add eggs, water, and oil, and you're in business.

Their Belgian waffle mix is the actually the best store-bought brand we've tried - even in an inexpensive waffle iron, it cooks up relatively crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside. The muffin and cookie mixes, while not earth-shatteringly tasty, are great products for people who need to whip up a bunch of baked goods without much fuss.

Really, the only dud from the Krusteaz line I've experienced is the pancake mix - the pancakes come out tough and tasteless, like flour-flavored jerky. And to be honest, even their non-waffle products taste vaguely like waffles. But hey, who doesn't like waffles?