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?

@cookdabooks

I agree that frozen oven chips are pointless and rubbish. It takes very little time to chop potatoes up into chips or wedges, sprinkle on some oil, salt, pepper and anything else you want like paprika, and cook in the oven. They taste a million times nicer.

I despise frozen oven chips and hate when they're served up in a café. I do love MacDonald's fries and chippy chips however.

I've been married 50 years, brought up 4 kids. If I never have to prepare chips again it will be too soon.

Plain sponge cake mix or pancake mix. It takes two seconds to measure out actual ingredients and mix. A damned site cheaper too!

- cheese sauce: mix with water from a packet, or never make a cheese sauce because it’s already in your ready meal

Packet cheese sauce is vile. Home made, even with half fat cheddar, is a million times nicer.

@MuddleMoo

I'm not peeling loads of potatos to make the kids dinner when I can just shove some premade ones in the oven.

I was going to say a ready made omelette from the freezer compartment but then remembered my nan used to enjoy these as she found it difficult to crack eggs.

Frozen Avocado is pretty grim. But then there's probably a place for it.

Froz avo is ace in smoothies, esp if you're trying to get extra fat and nutrition into a small child

I use frozen mash and steam bags of frozen veg all the time. If I cook something and I'm hungrier or it looks a bit light on veg, I just Chuck one of those bags on the plate

I don't think I've ever bought a convenience food all that hasn't saved time. The taste is the usual problem.

I like oven chips. If the ones you bought weren't coated in oil, they probably weren't oven chips. You can buy pre-chopped frozen potato chips to go straight into a deep fat fryer. I think that is what you bought.

I dont really get this point about the convenience of not having to have fresh potatoes in the house

Stored properly potatoes keep for months!

@CounsellorTroi

- cheese sauce: mix with water from a packet, or never make a cheese sauce because it’s already in your ready meal

Packet cheese sauce is vile. Home made, even with half fat cheddar, is a million times nicer.

Not going to disagree with you @CounsellorTroi 🙂

I don’t use it myself. I’m just refuting a poster saying that even if you don’t bake, you have flour - for example, to make cheese sauce. I think that’s a bit of a bubble to think that everyone has flour - and makes their own cheese sauce 🤣

Frozen baked potatoes? Nothing is easier than cooking a baked potato from scratch and if you start it off in the microwave it is really quick too.

@ancientgran

I've been married 50 years, brought up 4 kids. If I never have to prepare chips again it will be too soon.

I don't get this. What preparation? I don't peel them I just slice them up roughly.

@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?

90% of frozen Indian ‘convenience food’ requires too much effort. For example it takes longer to bloody work with thin useless shop bought gujarati samosa filo pastry than make your own if you know what you’re doing. Frozen Indian veg from fancy brands often still need to be chopped when defrosted.

@IToldYouIWasFreaky

Pancake mix is 10 times more expensive than flour and milk? It was a quid in Asda! And it's so much easier!

Genuinely not meaning to be goady but I don't understand how it's easier. For me, the difficult bit of making pancakes is actually cooking them....getting the right amount of mix in the pan, not letting them stick etc etc. Mixing up the batter is the easy bit, and cheap as chips if you use flour, egg and milk

I don't really understand the point of frozen baked potatoes for the microwave when you can just use a microwave to cook a potato from raw. Am I missing something?!

Because its just pour milk/water in the bottle and shake and throw the bottle in the recycling at the end.

No mess, no bowls and mixing stuff etc to tidy up

@cookdabooks

I agree that frozen oven chips are pointless and rubbish. It takes very little time to chop potatoes up into chips or wedges, sprinkle on some oil, salt, pepper and anything else you want like paprika, and cook in the oven. They taste a million times nicer.

I despise frozen oven chips and hate when they're served up in a café. I do love MacDonald's fries and chippy chips however.

Oven chips are rank. Especially the Lidl ones, the oil is really foul. Better to just pick some chips up from the chippy if you don't want to cook them. If you have too many you can heat them up next day and they are no worse than the frozen shite.

I also cook real ones in the oven.

Packaged, chopped onions

I agree that frozen oven chips are pointless and rubbish. It takes very little time to chop potatoes up into chips or wedges, sprinkle on some oil, salt, pepper and anything else you want like paprika, and cook in the oven. They taste a million times nicer.

Not everyone has the same taste. DH would agree with you but I much prefer oven chips from the freezer. I particularly hate the fact he doesn't peel them.

[quote Cocomarine]@cookdabooks I agree that chips/wedges are easy to make and far nicer. (I hate oven chips - won’t touch them)

But I’ll make the sane point as I did got microwave spuds. For me it’s not the convenience at the making stage. It’s the convenience of not having to ensure that I have fresh potatoes in the house, and the convenience to indulge my preference not to meal plan. I serve my kids frozen chips about once every 6 weeks (really really not a fan!) but on the day where I think, “hmmm, I fancy xyz but the kids won’t - oh I know, I’ll do x + chips for them” - I know I can just do that.

I’m not going to argue that it isn’t easy to plan... I just like not doing so![/quote]

We live in a village and the butcher, fishmonger, grocer etc are just down the road a few minutes walk. I can see that it would be more of a pain if you have to head off in the car for a big shop. If we fancy potatoes we just walk over and choose some and are home in the space of ten minutes.

I love potatoes! I'll never stop making my own chips and mash. And the thought of frozen ready baked potatoes is madness to me. And for mash I recommend the massive Ikea masher. The bugger mashes your potatoes like nothing else!

@NoseOfJericho

Yes, if I'm craving really serious thick and soft chips I get them from the chippy. I can't replicate that at home. Absolutely gorgeous with salt and vinegar. When they ask "salt and vinegar?" I look them straight in the eye and say "plenty."

@MaryIsA

I keep a tin of M&S curry in the cupboard for when there's not quite enough curry to go round - it's nice.

I agree! I sometimes use it if I have some left over pastry and make chicken curry pasties, they're great!

@NoIDontWatchLoveIsland

I dont really get this point about the convenience of not having to have fresh potatoes in the house

Stored properly potatoes keep for months!

We get through them so quickly that this is never a problem! But... please tell me how to get them to last so long.

@Belladonna12

I agree that frozen oven chips are pointless and rubbish. It takes very little time to chop potatoes up into chips or wedges, sprinkle on some oil, salt, pepper and anything else you want like paprika, and cook in the oven. They taste a million times nicer.

Not everyone has the same taste. DH would agree with you but I much prefer oven chips from the freezer. I particularly hate the fact he doesn't peel them.

Agree. Proper chips only taste better when thrice fried

Frozen veg can be hit and miss. I love Morrison's frozen parsnips, Waitrose and Tesco frozen spinach and Aunt Bessies carrot and swede mash and mashed potato are all delicious and so much cheaper and easier than buying fresh. Most brands of peas, runner beans and Brussels sprouts are good. OTOH I've never found a good version of frozen broccoli, cauliflower, mushroom or pepper. They are always waterlogged and soggy.

I was intrigued when I saw frozen avocados in Tesco and snapped up a bag instantly. They were vile. I had one bite and the whole lot went into the compost.

Tbh I don’t think any of its really useless as such...
I think it all has it’s place depending on the person using it.
I didn’t like super noodles but when I was a young, single mum trying hard to provide a decent balanced meal for my DD, they were cheap and quick and they did the job.
Same as frozen/tinned veg...easier for people who struggle to chop veg for various reasons.
Ready meals/frozen jacket pots etc, great for people who maybe work long hours and only get short breaks.

I don’t really get the whole pancake mix/ready made mash thing and personally I wouldn’t use them myself but then I’m fortunate to have the time to make things from scratch and enjoy doing so

For me it's ready made meals, and I have eaten plenty over the years and the better quality ones. However many I have tried a ready made lasagne will never ever be on an equal with a home made one . Or a pie or a risotto. I'm always left disappointed.

I guess they are fine for busy people that don't cook, but I think they are shit.

Frozen spinach dip gross and wet bleaurgh

Ready meals are s great disappointment.