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?

@MissTrip82 - two scoops of milk, one of flour, one egg, press go on the blender. Whizz for a few seconds - maybe even 30 seconds? - and you’re done.

Get a potato chop it up spray some fry light throw in airfryer ....fantastic xx

That assumes you have flour. It’s not something I buy so would be a waste for just pancakes when a mix is a good alternative.

Frozen jackets are useful when kitchen out of operation and you just have a microwave.
I love chopped onions and herbs and so much easier and quicker and less waste.

@Parker231

That assumes you have flour. It’s not something I buy so would be a waste for just pancakes when a mix is a good alternative.

I cook and bake a lot; I usually have 4 or 5 types of flour at any one time (plain, self raising, cornflour, chickpea flour, rye, pan) so my brother bringing me a pancake mix when he abs his kids came to stay was coals to Newcastle. (Hence the race. Followed by pancake tossing competition. We’re very mature. 😉 )

I think those microwave curry bags for a family of 4 are useless. By the time you've microwaved all the individual trays, and heated up the oven for the onion bahjis (sp?) it would have been quicker to cook one (or nip out to then takeaway).

Cake mix. It's a bit silly because you still have to buy the egg and mix it in. By then, you may as way just make it all from scratch.

The frozen part baked jacket spuds I do buy tho 🤣🙈. They keep in the freezer for longer than fresh ones and they take half the time to cook (I don't own a microwave).

Alpha - that assumes you normally have the ingredients. I don’t bake so don’t have flour but it’s quick and easy to buy a cake mix with no left over ingredients to go to waste. Also the cake mix is a lovely cake.

The Sainsbury’s frozen berries are good. Made a trifle with them the other day...

Most frozen food we don't buy because it's easier than cooking it fresh but more because it means we've always got food in IYSWIM?
So for instance frozen jackets - 90% of the time I'd make a fresh one, but have a box in the freezer in case I don't have any potatoes. I definitely don't have them instead! Likewise with chips, I prefer to cut up my own but If I haven't got any potatoes then they'll do the job

I love convenience foods frozen chopped onions, mince (no lumpy gristly mince), frozen fresh herbs (Tesco’s do a great range), ginger, chilli, Thai herb mix (waitrose) cheese sauce (Tesco’s but haven’t seen this for a while), Italian mix that waitrose used to do was really good, fresh tomatoes (again Tesco’s) with frozen garlic and basil made a lovely light sauce only non frozen ingredient was the oil took 10 minutes to make

Jacket potatoes are good too not as good as freshly cooked but when pushed for time they make a nice meal and frozen mash potatoes (M&S the best) and carrot abs swede (always needs so bitter added)

I work long hours and all these convenience foods allow me to cook good healthy meals quickly with little effort and stress and as only two of us I can have in all the ingredients without any going to waste

I liked the ready made pancake mix too I’m useless at any baking never get it right this I couldn’t go wrong. A friend of mine who makes fantastic cakes often uses the basic Madeira cake mix it makes lovely sponge

We always have oven chips in don’t eat the often ones I like best are the crinkle cut

OhWhy - the red velvet cake mix is amazing if you want to try a different one. I did it for a friends birthday and she loved it.

I’d never tried cake mix before but in The Great Flour Shortage of lockdown 1 when everyone was obsessed with banana bread and sourdough I ended up buying a couple as it was all I could get hold of. Some of them were pretty decent, and however much people say ‘oh it only takes a minute longer to weight out your own ingredients’, it really is a whole lot easier and faster to just make a cake on impulse if all you need to do is throw a packet of mix together with an egg and some milk. Normally I enjoy making a cake so the shortcuts defeat the object, and I have a stock of all kinds of baking goods so I can normally look up a new recipe and know I’ll probably have the ingredients I need. But that’s not everyone by a long stretch.

Turns out I got ill with covid around one of the DC’s birthday and I really appreciated having and easy cake mix to hand as he got a ‘homemade’ cake when I was feeling far from my best. In fact I’ve not fully recovered the past year and I’ve definitely appreciated convenience food so much more - on days when I really don’t feel up to it I can fling something together so the DC still eat!

Thank you Parker231 I shall try that Before I start my after lockdown diet

Also use frozen berries. spinach (for curries) and green beans (much cheaper) and soffritto mix

I’ve mastered cooking healthy tasty quick meals because I can use so many convenience foods

The basmati precooked rice they sell in little white trays is good 75p in Aldi (I don’t like the microwave bag or frozen rice) Not as good as freshly cooked rice but good enough when I’m pushed for time

If anyone knows where I can buy frozen curry mixes please let me know (I don’t like jar mixes unless pastes and spices often go off as not using them enough) seen some online but they are pricey

It takes a lot more than boiling a kettle to make stock or gravy! 🤣
That depends on whether you are making proper stock /gravy, or preparing instant gravy granules.
Instant gravy granules are actually good with any liquid left over from cooking/steaming vegetables - you can pretend to yourself it's almost proper gravy.

@OhWhyNot - not frozen, but usually Holy Cow have a longish shelf life (3 months, and I've used beyond that and they've been fine). Goan one for prawns is amazing (and good with salmon too).

And Meah's Dhansak sauce - again, not frozen, comes in a plastic tub, again with a long shelf life. Really missing this, I usually get it from the butchers in my sisters' village, but I haven't been for ages. I must find a local stockist.

I don’t understand the hate for frozen veg. I use it a lot - always fresh and tasty. I find it cuts down on waste and means I always have a variety of veg to hand. Some not so good - spinach, peppers but rest is fine.

Hence the race. Followed by pancake tossing competition. We’re very mature. 😉 )

Can I visit some time? Your family sounds fab.

When I first met my carer he used to buy Aunt Bessie's roast potatoes and Yorkshire puddings, until he found out how easy they are to make and how cheap flour is.

I crossed an LA border to go to Costco. Mine isn't far, but I go every few months.

I have problems with my hands, so I do buy frozen veg and pre chopped stuff. Wouldn't buy tinned meat though. Its rank.

@sashh

Hence the race. Followed by pancake tossing competition. We’re very mature. 😉 )

Can I visit some time? Your family sounds fab.

When I first met my carer he used to buy Aunt Bessie's roast potatoes and Yorkshire puddings, until he found out how easy they are to make and how cheap flour is.

You’ll be very welcome.

It gets worse: we also put food coloured batter in squeezy bottles officially so the kids can draw pictures in pancake batter. But actually so we write rude words.

@Griselda1

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 remember ages ago(pre boycott) buying a burger and chips or fries from M and S and then having to take it all apart to cook. Oven for the fries, microwave for the burger sauce, and grill or fry pan for the actual burger. I did it the once and then vowed to never again bother.

Also recently got Kraft mac n cheese to try. And it's a bit sweet but ok, its quick to make but then requires a pan, a sieve, a measuring jug etc. Kind of bothersome for a quick meal when you then have to wash up so much stuff.

@Parker231 I do see what you're saying, I always have flour and sugar in. I just think they'd make more sense if the egg was included. It would be more convenient if you only had to add water!

Often people who buy the pancake mix or the cake mix or whatever it is say ‘only £1’ or ‘only £2.50’ and one of the things is that they have no idea of how much the raw ingredients costs because they never buy them. So they don’t realise that flour in a bowl of pancake mix might be 10p.

On one level, these things are the most expensive way to cook. For many people it makes sense to have a bag of frozen broccoli as it will serve 3 meals which a fresh floret will have gone off before all are done. However, it doesn’t make sense to buy pancake mix when they always have an old bag of flour in the cupboard (it can wait to next pancake day if necessary) and some eggs...so it’s easy.

But lots of people either have a lack of storage (so no place for all these half used packets) or no awareness of how to make food like pancakes, or no equipment required like scales or a measuring jug, or the upfront cost if buying all the raw ungrdeients in bigger bulk than is needed for 1 portion, is more than buying one convenience ready-mixed version - and the key thing for them isn’t long term per proton. Value but lowest upfront cost.

And then that’s before you think about people choosing these because they have mobility difficulties with grating and chopping and mashing, or who live alone and find the work involved for making for one really difficult. Or the people for whom a 3 minute saving is 3 minutes in a busy day and feels worth it.

We all know how we live and often assume it’s right. However, people live in many different ways and these convenience products serve needs plus are very profitable for the firms making them who charge us extra for a bit of convenience. I do think there’s a place for them, and because one person always has flour and eggs in, doesn’t mean everyone should and it’s a total lack of empathy or appreciation of the range of lives people have, to not be able to even imagine a situation where people don’t keep those in or don’t have scales and a measuring jug, or where upfront and one-off price is the key choice point.