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?

What for? Gritting roads?

I honestly dont get microwave rice...it tastes like shit, the bags are tiny and cost about £2. I can get 5kg of basmati for £5 so it's like a 1000% mark-up and normal rice only takes about 10mins to cook

Does it make you a better person if you don't use convenience foods?

I@ve never had the squeezy honey bottles crystallising. Must be warmer in my kitchen!

I like to add the ready made stir fry noodles, like someone said. So much more expensive and how hard is to boil some noodles for 4 mins??

I've tried the tinned onions - but prefer the frozen diced onions myself. In recent years I've developed an extreme sensitivity to chopping onions.

I was put off microwave rice after I opened a bag to find all the rice was black, slimy and very stinky. And it was well within date.

IMO avoiding convenience foods doesn't make you a better person, as with all things there is a balance to be struck. In general, you're usually safe with e.g. Stock cubes, but on shaky moral ground with e.g. microwave burgers.

What's instant tea? Isn't adding hot water to a tea bag pretty instant anyway? I thought that was why teabags were invented, because leaf tea was too much of a faff!

I buy ready made mash, because my hands get too sore peeling/chopping/mashing potatoes. I might microwave jacket potatoes and scrape the flesh out though.

And I buy frozen sweetcorn and peas, they are so handing for adding extra veg or bulking up a meal when you realise you've not made enough!

It does, usual.

I'm pretty sure Rosemary West used Aunt Bessie's on a Sunday.

I buy grated cheese - it is often cheaper than the block of cheese.

I have also recently bought chopped onion and ready made mash. The children didn't like the mash though (Tesco Finest!).

I have lazy garlic too.

I also buy the Uncle Ben's rice - the flavoured versions rather than the plain ones (which I can make myself) and Ainsley Harriott's couscous.

I would never buy cake mix though or batter mix. I recently bought auntie bessie's yorkshire puddings for the first time.

In my defence I buy these because I work and the au pair finds it easier and quicker to cook using these foods and also to keep an eye on the children.

My mum has instant tea. It's because she has a quarter of a teaspoon , because she doesn't really like tea [double hmm].

Peeled garlic cloves. Not crushed, just peeled. In Asda. Didn't last long, they don't sell 'em now.

A colleague couldn't BELIEVE that I made my own pasta sauce the other day. I mean a bog standard tomato, onion, basil sauce. She thought I was showing off.

I used to think prepared mash was ridiculous but if I had the money I'd buy it. I hate peeling potatoes.

All that frozen scrambled eggs etc - what the what? That must be SO disgusting.

I really don't see tinned foods as convenience, just a cheaper (and often better) alternative. It's not like we can grow stuff year-round in this country. I think tinned tomatoes make a nicer sauce than non-tinned.

Oh yeah and grated cheese is often cheaper than a block.

"Does it make you a better person if you don't use convenience foods?"

I don't believe anyone who says they never use convenience foods. Even top chefs will use tinned tomatoes and tomato puree for instance.

I think some of the things mentioned on here seem pointless to those of us who know just how quick and easy it is to whip up some pancake mix (only 3 ingredients) or an all-in-one sponge cake for example.

I consider myself a competent all round cook, but I use shortcuts. Life is too short to spend hours making my own stock, I sometimes buy bagged salad, I buy bread even though I have a breadmaker.

I like ready grated cheese

I dint find it any more expensive tbh and I hate grating cheese, hate, hate, hate it!!

Tinned toms are not a convenience food really, just a practicality, they are much better for a pasta sauce than fresh.

am also tempted by pre-chopped butternut squash. Those buggers are like chopping pure granite .

I use loads of convenience foods. Frozen onions, garlic, chilli, ginger, coriander & basil. Grated cheese. Uncle Ben's micro rice. Ready cheesy mash. Straight to wok noodles. Frozen veg, including peppers, mushrooms, leeks as well as peas, cauli etc. I sometimes buy tins of stir fry veg (bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, baby corn etc.). Frozen yorkshire puds

The only thing I think of as being ludicrous are things like tins of "bolgnese" "chilli" or even worse, breakfast in a tin . I'm not certain whether they could actually be classed as food though

The only frozen veg I use are peas and broad beans. I find other frozen veg tasteless and watery.

FGS, since when are tinned tomatoes a convenience food? What are we "supposed" to be using? Fresh tomatoes? For a pasta sauce? How the hell does that work?

ah . I never use frozen veg [smug points to me]

you need a really sharp knife for butternut squash, that's all. I use my carving knife and sharpen it first. I can see the appeal of pre-chopped but then you'd have to be more organised and use it quickly, wouldn't you? Great thing about squash is that it keeps for months.

Usualsuspect - not even frozen peas?
I'm sure they were Scientifically Proven by Birdseye scientists to be better than fresh ones.

No I use tinned peas

I must be walking through the supermarket with my eyes shut. Grabbed the 'one pot recipe' book and was v. excited to find out I could make sausage casserole in a frying pan. Then read further to discover, only if I had a packet of precarmelised onions and a packet of prepeeled and precooked potatoes on hand. These things exist?

Ended up using 2 pots, sieve, knives, chopping board and frying pan. Tasted good though.

Frozen peas def good. Ditto frozen soy beans.

Tinned toms are a staple. More flavour than fresh for nearly all the year in the UK.

Has anyone ever bothered baking their own beans? Me neither.

Aunt bessies mash and yorkshires