Ludicrous "convenience" foods

[inmysparetime]

Chatting about pre-grated cheese got me thinking about "convenience" foods that are actually not that convenient. What foods have you seen in shops that are just as much effort as but twice the price of normal food?

I don't get the baked potatoes others have mentioned.

I put a raw potato in the microwave for four minutes then in the oven for two to crisp.

It would take me longer to open the box, read the instructions and cook one of those McCain convenience ones.

Fuck it, I'm having Supernoodles.

Maybe we should turn this into a thread about convenience things we do use. I didn?t realise how much I do until I saw History?s list. I use all of the following at least some of the time, depending on what I?m making and why/when.
Frozen onions
Frozen other vegetables (especially peas)
Salad bags
Grated cheese ? for pasta and pizza
Ready made mash (YUM)
Diced meat
Ready made yorkshire puddings (in my defense, I?m not a huge yorkie fan and so I buy them for family who love them)
Stock cubes or pre-made stock
Cut up fruit
Precut butternut (when I have a specific meal and am in a hurry)
Tinned rather than dried beans
Garlic in a jar. Ditto chilli, ginger and lemongrass.
Does this all make me a lazy slob?

The microwave potatos are not nice. DH bought me some last week. they are watery and tasteless and still take 9 minutes to cook properly. I can do an actual potato on the 'jackets' setting in my microwave in 10 minutes or I can decide on the afternoon that I will want a jacket and set DH a text at the appropriate time to turn the oven on.

Oooohhh Soffrito too = saves all that fecking about chopping - in we go wkth diced meat, chopped tomatoes, lazy arse garlic and a squeeze of oxo paste.

I found a fly in a bag of M&S ready to eat salad once - never ever again!! Wasn;t very kosher.

Surely Iceland wins the award here? Frozen scrambled eggs on toast anyone?

How about precooked stir fry type noodles? About three minutes to soak to edibility from dry, about 2.5 mn in the microwave to warm them up. About 2x the price. Who would even do that?

DH loves the mircrowave jacket potatoes for work as they are easy and he says are tastier and quicker

I buy grated cheese & frozen mash as they are easier for me - recovering from surgery. However DH now says that Aunt Bessie can make better mash than me

I saw a tin of fried onions in the supermarket the other day and I did wonder about buying it because my DD complains so much when I cook onions because it makes her eyes hurt (we have an open plan kitchen so unless she goes to her bedroom it's a fair enough complaint). Anyone tried those. Personally am eager for any genuinely labour-saving foods but batter mix clearly doesn't save any labour and I can't agree with Aunt Bessie type yorkshires because they are not nice and stodgy as nice as mine.

wow, never thought of diced meat as a convenience food before. The butcher does it in a couple of his seconds with his big knife and doesn't charge any extra, surely it makes sense to get your meat in the form you're going to cook it?

I buy lazy chilli sometimes because it's such a faff and stays on your hands for ages. Even more since I found minced chilli for £1 in the 'world foods' section and I don't have to fork out for the square jar.

I don't bother with onions or owt though. It takes seconds to chop an onion. And not long to make mash. I don't buy ready grated cheese unless it's reduced to 10p in M&S (happened once, I bought the lot and froze it). I think it tastes a bit dry.

I do often eat supernoodles for lunch though.

Oh and I nearly always use tinned toms, skinning tomatoes is a pain in the arse.

Diced beef is to my mind only convenience food inasmuch as having the luxury to buy your meat already dead is. How many purists out there are chasing a cow around a field with a knife? I thought not.

You may have a point MrsMicawber

The one that has backfired on me lately is honey in a squeezy bottle. Sounds like a good idea, but in practice it crystallises really easily so you have to put it in hot water for ages (or the microwave, which is quicker but probably dangerous) before you can get any out. Whereas if it was in a jar you could just spoon it out.
I may have to start keeping it in the airing cupboard.

"thanks, i buy cake mixes to use with DS and I KNOW its ludicrous but I dont know what the measurements are to make it from scratch."

This is easy peasy. Basic sponge cakes have the same proportions, so it would be 4 oz each flour, butter and sugar to 2 eggs; 6 oz each flour, butter, sugar to 3 eggs; 8 oz of each to 4 eggs and so on.

A home made cake tastes ten times better than shop bought or cake mixes. Also, you know what is in the mixture.

or you can weigh the eggs and use the same quantity of everything else as the eggs

I don't even think of tinned toms as a convenience food. Just as a cheap way to add tomatoes even in winter when ours are horrid. I would never, ever skin tomatoes though. Even if using fresh I don't find it's necessary...am I particularly skin-oblivious?

Will try out that whitworths stuff though.

"or you can weigh the eggs and use the same quantity of everything else as the eggs"

Yes, I do that as well.

Instant tea baffles me. What's so time consuming about making tea.
Also, if you can't spare the extra minute to squish a tea bag surely you don't have time to drink a cuppa?

my mum only likes instant tea [exasperated emoticon]

and my friend's mum only likes coffeemate and so travels with some with her wherever she goes - in little sachets in her handbag - because you can't really get that shit in cafes and stuff.

Delia recommends those tins of fried chopped onions.