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?

@MamaMeAh Aldi have started to sell frozen avo chunks.
Frozen fruit is good for smoothies etc.

Keep your avocado at room temperature to ripen, and in that 10 minute window where it's ripe, put it straight in the fridge. It'll stay good for about 5 days then.

I agree with this as discovered by accident this week! Put an avocado which was rip in the fridge as didn't want it that day and a few days later went to get it out, expecting the worst and it was perfect!

I agree with the frozen baked potatoes, burgers and pancake mix. I think a lot of the 'convenience' foods now spoilt the enjoyment and education of cooking. For me personally, anyway. I don't get any enjoyment form eating a meal that comes from the freezer and into the microwave.

Frozen veg is great for soup but I'd not use it for much else because it's too watery. Oven chips are grand but they make me sad because I always want chippy chips after eating them.😂

It's all so subjective isn't it. I tend not to buy pre prepared stuff because we prefer things fresh but they have their place and are really useful for some people.

I feel the same astonishment at slow cooking. I've yet to find a recipe that's nice that doesn't require heaps of prep first. I find I'd be as well making something at the time if I'm going to spend 3/4 of an hour browning meat or softening veg etc. But others rave about it.

The frozen jacket spuds are decent. I now do my own by chucking a few extra in the oven when I do them.

I like frozen veg, reduces food waste. Esp for a veg sauce I'll blitz for kids, a bit of frozen butternut.

Things that bother me are excess packaging like cereal in a bowl.

Well they're more than just a baked potato. I think most other people are talking about plain potatoes, not those with cheese on.

But the reviews of those on Ocado aren't good, with most people giving only 1 or 2 stars.

I always use a pancake mix because I find it more reliable than doing my own (for some reason the first one always comes out crap.

Absolutely agree on the microwaveable baked spud. Gross (and I'm not fussy).

The other convenience I don't get is those curry sauces in a jar. I'm a really lazy cook but even I avoid those. I'd rather save myself for an actual curry from the takeaway.

I use oven chips, cake mix and pancake mix. I find them all really convenient

Tinned meat, though, ughhh

Second tinned meat🤢🤢

Always buy frozen peas and frozen sliced onions. Also like the odd bag of pre chopped casserole vegetables to shot in the slow cooker with a nice bit of meat makes a lovely lazy dinner.

Presumably you have accidentally purchased some healthy eating chips as it is absolutely not normal that Oven chips don't have an oil coating . Most of them now seem to have an added crispy coating as well .

The only ones I've seen as you describe are slimming world ones which are sold specifically to be without oil , so you can add just what you need or some fry light .

Far from being useless I thought oven chips were the convenience food everyone bought !

@Kroptopbelly

Pot noodles, shite in a tub

I really think they should use this as a slogan on their next advertising campaign

I once saw a pancake mix that said "just add egg and milk".

Packet 'pancake mix' to which you have to add your own egg and milk. It's literally just flour with a pinch of salt for ten times the price.

(Full disclaimer: I have never actually bought this, just looked at the packets in horror.)

@Dilbertian

But oven-chips are coated with oil. They are vastly more convenient than making chips from scratch, and use vastly less oil.

Cake mix, though - why? (Except for Costco's brownie mix!)

Betty crockers gf devils food cake is the business. My mum always made packet cakes, I think Greens, they were the nicest sponge cakes I’ve ever had. Frozen jacket spuds are a godsend for my dh when working long shifts in a place with limited cooking facilities and they were useful on self catering holidays.

@User1511

Definitely frozen fruit and veg. Yuck. I have a friend who only uses frozen veg 🤮

Depends on the fruit and what you are going to do with it. I find frozen berries to be manky no matter what. The freezing seems to destroy the flavour of strawberries, raspberries and blackberries. Frozen currants of any colour are yum. I have a very prolific black, red and white currant bushes and we need to freeze most of the currants every year and if anything the are almost more flavoursome after being frozen. I just eat them frozen or they are used for jams and baking and they taste great all year.

I also use lots of frozen bags of cherries, pineapple, mango and papaya for smoothies. They all hold their flavour very well and they are blended while frozen so the smoothies have a lovely ice-creamy texture. In fact I chop and freeze bananas for smoothies because smoothies are so much better with frozen fruit.

Why is going to Costco illegal? It's a food shop. They're allowed to open and you're allowed to go buy food.

People were fined for going to one 100 miles from where they lived. There aren't all that many Costcos, so unless you live nearby, you probably can't go.

Frozen fruit is good in crumbles or smoothies so I buy that a lot. But ready grated cheese is horrid, it tastes like plastic and not at all like real grated cheese.

Oh mine isn't that far but it's over a "border."

It's all gone quite bonkers.

@Dilbertian

But oven-chips are coated with oil. They are vastly more convenient than making chips from scratch, and use vastly less oil.

Cake mix, though - why? (Except for Costco's brownie mix!)

Yes, normally, but the ones I bought didn't have oil which was what set me thinking! I made chips with a potato after that, microwaved for 30 seconds so warm enough for the half teaspoon of oil to distribute evenly, and seasoned with salt and smoked paprika before baking (seasoned skin on oven chips being even more ridiculously expensive).

Agree on jacket potatoes - no cutting up even!

Looking at the replies, I guess things that aren't particularly time saving or faffy cooking for one, will be when cooking for a family, and vice versa.

@Dollywilde

Not to be the loser who misses the point of the thread buuuut... please can we remember a lot of pre-chopped stuff is a lifeline for the disabled? My dad loves to cook but doesn’t have the dexterity to chop onions etc.

This. Prepared fruit and vegetables were the first things the occupational therapist recommend when l was upset about not being able to cook healthy meals most days. Frozen chopped onions are, quite literally, life changing!

Ready made chopped up fruit. The grapes are always disgusting, as are the apples. It's also very expensive and much cheaper to do it yourself

But ready chopped fruit (see also mashed potatoes, chopped veggies and other pre prepared foodstuff is mainly for less abled people to buy. They cant use a knife or a masher or carry a hot pan filled with cooked potatoes and boiling water to tip the water out.
Same as those plastic bags for slow cookers. They cant lift the whole pot to wash it, so use bags. All sorts of things are available to aid those who need it. And it's more expensive true, this is why lesser abled are meant to get more money. Although wether it's enough or actually for all is a moot point.

@bridgetreilly

Why is going to Costco illegal? It's a food shop. They're allowed to open and you're allowed to go buy food.

People were fined for going to one 100 miles from where they lived. There aren't all that many Costcos, so unless you live nearby, you probably can't go.

Well probably 100 miles is a bit of a stretch, but I can't see anything in Scottish regulations that says you can't cross a county/LA border to buy food. It says shop locally where you can, but doesn't seem to state any illegality about crossing a border.

I don't live in Scotland, but live on the edge of the LA that I live in. Those closest supermarkets are on a retail park in the adjacent area, so of course I use them.

Is this a real rule in Scotland, or a made up one?

@clary

A quid for a pack of pancake mix is still more expensive than a bag of plain flour. Even if you don't bake, you still need it for cheese sauce, gravy, rolling out your (ready made) pastry...

And you can use it for pancakes in the future as well.

Op I've got nothing to add here. I bought some reduced sliced onions once and thought it was a good idea. Frozen strawberries are grim tho.

There's a special place for Lidl frozen strawberries, I use them to make this drizzle cake. It's been my most requested repeat.

I was so disappointed in the frozen avocado. I thought it would be good for avocado on toast but it went a bit weird sadly. I thought I was on to a winner.

I love the frozen mushroom medley from Tesco, where I live I can really only get fresh white or flat mushrooms so I do like getting this to mix it up a bit!

MIL bought round some Iceland frozen battered prawns. I thought - they look crap. Absolutely gorgeous.

Daftest stuff pre made pankace mix in a bottle - though did buy it when a student for pancake day. So has its place if you wouldn't use flour otherwise.

ready grated cheese has a weird texture.