To ask the most useless "convenience" food you've ever purchased

[EveryDayIsADuvetDay]

I recently added oven chips to an online shop, not realising they weren't pre-coated with oil.
Given that I prefer skin-on fries why do they always cost more? I'd effectively bought a bag of expensive sliced up potato.
On the plus side, it has made me realise that buying oven chips is a total waste of time, particularly as I have very limited freezer space.
What's the daftest "convenience" food have you purchased before realising it's a total waste of money?

microwave pouch of rice = rip off, tasted of plastic. Packet soups 🤢I bought a jar of ginger but it didn't taste of anything.

Bought a katsu chicken curry ready meal for my lunch one day to chuck in the microwave at work. The chicken had to be cooked in the oven

Aldi skin on frozen chips are lovely.
I also keep frozen blueberries and raspberries for porridge. They cool it down and it defrosts them.
I've never got on with frozen onion, mushrooms , peppers etc. They're always so watery.
I do prefer frozen peas to fresh though

Microwave chips brought whilst waiting for a new oven to be delivered and installed. Greasy, floppy, some soggy and some uncooked.

My DP sometimes buys rustlers burgers. I was horrified. But I have to say I tried one out of curiosity and it was actually pretty nice and tasted a lot like McDonald's.

@Confusedandshaken Actually when we had empty supermarket shelves last year I went in Iceland and due to the fact there was barely anything left and no veg at all I got a packet of frozen mixed peppers would never have dreamt of buying otherwise but they were great tasty lovely in soups stews curries pasta etc and about £1 definitely buy again but yeah frozen avocado should be illegal utterly vile

The thing I don't like about convenience food in general is that in order to keep it fresh after chopping it about it often needs some preservative or another.

(Although I DO buy Lazy Ginger) or grate it from frozen. But the jars are temptingly easy and I use a lot of ginger.

Liquid stock or gravy.

I don't get it as it still needs to be heated and surely that takes more time than boiling a kettle.

Frozen mushrooms, they went to mush and were inedible.

Most but frozen mash is a life saver. Bang on your sausage, fish fingers or whatever, ping your mash and peas/beans and hardly any washing up. Do this fornightly. Thank me later 😉

No need to buy frozen chips. Just cut baking potatoes into wedge shapes (no need to peel) put into a bowl with olive oil, seasalt and rosemary and bake for half an hour or so. Best chips ever and no plastic either.

I can't make rice to save my life!
It's the easiest thing ever! One cup of basmati rice to one and a half to two cups of cold water (or double it all) bring to the boil then put to a simmer, stir once, lid on and set the the timer for 12 mins. Turn off the heat and let it wait while you finish up, then serve. It never fails!

@guest2013

Pancake mix is 10 times more expensive than flour and milk? It was a quid in Asda! And it's so much easier! Oven chips are hardly expensive either? Probably about the same as a bag of potatoes without the peeling. Chopped up fruit is overpriced though.

Pancake mix is so much easier? Nooo, it really isn't. Egg, flour, milk, that's all you need. What's hard about that?

I bought a salad and a yoghurt from M&S for lunch on the run without realising they didn’t come with cutlery

M&S do a plantlife curry with sweet potatoes. The sweet potato part needs oven baked and the rest of it is microwaved so it's no good for work and you basically have to take the meal apart to cook it.

I bought a Sistema microwave rice steamer that I've seen recommended on here a lot and I really like it.

We did have an Aldi special electric rice steamer that was also very good but it was only really suitable for 4+ rice portions and there's only two of us, so we only really used it for parties anyway, but it broke.

For the poster who uses a lot of ginger, I get frozen prepared garlic and ginger from the Asian section of the freezer in the supermarket. The best place to look is a large Asda, Tesco or Morrisons in or around a large city with either a diverse population and/or lots of students, but if you find the right type it's about a pound for loads of ice cube sized pieces, prepared.

You sometimes have to separate what you need by sliding a blunt knife between the cubes and banging it on the worktop, but it sounds like the PP who struggled with this might have had some that had partly defrosted and refrozen so watch out for this when buying and getting it home.

I quite often but a tub of microwave mash to have with smoked haddock and veg, less washing up, v easy, and tasty.

Packet rice is handy for a v quick meal. It’s not as nice as rice done yourself....

@TuesdayinSeptember - pancake mix is easier as I don’t have any flour and there’s no point buying a bag just for pancakes. I don’t need flour so quicker and easier to buy a pancake mix - and we like the taste of them.

Costco brownie mix?

I need to buy this. How did I not know about this?

Liquid stock or gravy.

I don't get it as it still needs to be heated and surely that takes more time than boiling a kettle.

It takes a lot more than boiling a kettle to make stock or gravy!

@JosephineBaker

Definitely the pancake mix. My brother and I raced one year and mine from scratch took 8 seconds longer than his.

I am NEVER that short of time.

Really? I thought you just add water and shake the container? It would certainly take me more than an additional eight seconds to make my batter.

We use frozen peas and corn, and frozen spinach in cannelloni. I’m a shiftworker and also eat pasta like ravioli from the fridge section as a quick meal when I come home late and everyone has eaten.

I found frozen onions too watery.

I dont know about useless, but this week I bought a bag of frozen chips (in beef dripping, apparently) a bag of 8 frozen pre-baked potatoes (cos un-pre-baked ones done in the microwave are just shit), a bag of frozen mash and 4 boxes of frozen microwave chips (which are great if you fancy a quick chip butty without any faffing but I wouldnt use them with a meal). So clearly Im too lazy busy to waste time prepping spuds myself😂

Frozen berries are horrible though. Ive never bought any that actually taste nice.

Sliced Bacon.

We buy a whole pig, keep him in the garden for a while. Kids play with him, sit on him and ride him round the garden etc. Then we pay for a licenced butcher to come round and slaughter him. We put out the entrails for the local foxes (helps the wildlife) and I then bone and carve up the rest. I'm not very good at cooking pork, it always seems to come out a bit tough for me (and anyway Grandma with her missing teeth can't chew it) so I give most of the meat away - but I do like bacon.

On reflection it might be easier to buy it in a packet ready sliced because I had to admit it is a bit of a faff when you fancy a bacon sandwich to have to go out and rear a pig. (not a euphemism)

Cake mix for eating straight out of the tub. It just seems pointless, and so expensive.