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Are 'convenience foods' really convenient?
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I like to use a mix of prepared/convenience food and food cooked from scratch: frozen riced vegetables can be microwaved and combined with various things I've made from scratch. I do make my own bread these days, as I'm really getting to like it, I'm slowly getting better at it, and I can play with flavors. It started as a way to help with my sodium intake, but it's turning into a lot of fun. I do cook for one now, but as I'm batch cooking, and my freezer is turning into a very good friend, I find I can treat myself as well as I can treat a couple or a family: I think that's been important to realize in my weight adventure.1
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There really are three options, not two.
- Cook everything from scratch, which is what we generally do at my home.
- Heat up ready-made store bought frozen foods, which we might do occasionally.
- Purchase complete meals at restaurants or fast food shops, which appears to be a growing market segment in the food industry.
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Setting aside that few convenience foods are filling and suitable for my needs as a diabetic, I would say they are definitely more convenient, usually cheaper, but not necessarily quicker to prepare.
My most often eaten convenience food is Marie Callender lasagna with a side of canned spinach. It's comparatively wholesome, mostly made from foods I recognize, and not too high in carbs. The lasagna takes something like 15 minutes in the microwave and 45 in the oven, not all that fast, and the spinach is a can dumped in a bowl in the microwave for two minutes. Shopping for it involves going to two different sections of the grocery. The lasagna costs three dollars for a meal big enough for two people. No clean up involved.
My quickest lazy meal made from scratch - what I cook when I want a real, filling meal but am sick or otherwise exhausted - is roasted chicken thighs in a pan with Wicker's BBQ marinade and v8 juice, with a side of canned field peas and canned spinach. This involves walking all the way to every corner of the grocery, picking out chicken thighs that look okay instead of randomly picking up the package in the front, because fresh food is always packaged in a way which is subject to damage, touching raw chicken and then washing my hands and / or putting on gloves and disposing of them, pouring, and an hour of cook time. A package of chicken thighs is about seven dollars. Plus the cost of the other ingredients. It will feed four, but I don't have four people so I have leftovers. Then I have to wash a roasting pan.
Any other from scratch meal, such as stir fry, involves washing, slicing, getting pots, pans, knives, and cutting boards dirty. A cheap frozen pizza my husband will happily eat is a dollar and takes ten minutes on a pan in the oven. A nice diabetic friendly equivalent takes half an hour or more prep time and easily ten dollars or more.0 -
What about "cook mostly from scratch, but use some pre-made ingredients for convenience's sake?" (Examples: canned tomato products, puff pastry/phyllo dough, stir-fry sauces, canned or frozen fruits and vegetables)6
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stanmann571 wrote: »MerryMavis1 wrote: »I have seen a few people talk about how convenience foods - in this case meaning pre-packaged foods and meals, like mac & cheese, frozen dinners, hamburger helper, etc... - are not really 'convenient.' Basically, not easier to make, not easy to make in less time, etc..
Mind, I'm not debating whether convenience food is healthier. Convenient, in this case, is solely looking at 'easier.' The ease of getting the food ready and in our bodies, but not about what happens to our bodies once it is there. Possibly the cost, too, as I imagine it's easier in life if you have more money. :-)
I have a friend who believes that convenience foods are NOT more convenient. My friend's argument (based on his own views plus a few articles done about 5-8 years ago) was that you still had to go to the store, so that's the same amount of time, that cooking time for convenience foods vs. home cooked foods was about the same, and that people spent nearly the same time in food prep for both (in a bit of research by Margaret Beck in 2013, people spent about 10-12 minutes more prepping 'from scratch' meals vs. convenience foods).
My belief is that convenience foods are quite often very convenient. So I'm hoping a debate on this will help both myself and my friend when we talk about this next. :-)
I'm going to just put my own thoughts on this in the next post, to keep things tidier for this first post, and I look forward to hearing what folks have to say on the topic.
Your friend has obviously never made homemade macaroni and cheese from scratch vs making a box of Kraft mac n cheese
I use both regularly-some things like instant potatoes are way easier/faster/more convenient than making mashed potatoes from raw potatoes. Or things like homemade lasagna vs a Stouffers frozen lasagna, which you literally just throw in the oven. Other things are pretty much a wash. It really just depends on specific items/meals.cwolfman13 wrote: »Of course convenient foods are easier...
I made lasagna for guests on Saturday night...between prep, simmering my homemade sauce, and cooking, it was about a 3 hour ordeal. I wouldn't ever do it, but I could have just bought a frozen lasagna and popped it in the oven.
Our kids really like mac 'n cheese...they usually have Annie's from the box and it takes me all of 10 minutes to make it. When I made mac 'n cheese from scratch, it's at least a 2 hour deal.
I don't generally make a lot of convenience food...I generally find them sub par to my own cooking...but most of my cooking, particularly during the work week takes me about 20-30 minutes to get dinner ready...in that regard, convenience foods are only slightly more convenient time wise.
It takes longer to get the roux started for Real Mac n Cheese than it takes cradle to grave for boxed mac.
You're using a light roux for mac and cheese, right? Shouldn't take too long. But I can make a dark chocolate colored roux in 7 minutes - use bisquick instead of flour. It's like a magic trick. Also, you can put roux in an ice tray and freeze it. Frozen roux cubes are a great thing to have on hand.3 -
There really are three options, not two.
- Cook everything from scratch, which is what we generally do at my home.
- Heat up ready-made store bought frozen foods, which we might do occasionally.
- Purchase complete meals at restaurants or fast food shops, which appears to be a growing market segment in the food industry.
You’re missing at least one category which is to prepare meals using a combination of things which are convenient (canned tomatoes, frozen veggies, dried pasta, quick cooking rice or oats) and prepare other components from scratch. I articulated other possibilities upthread - using premise simmer sauces or boxed foods but with whole foods as well. On the spectrum of foods cooked entirely from scratch from Whole Foods to foods which were prepared entirely by someone else but need simply to be reheated in some capacity there are countless variations in the middle.
For the OP or anyone else to say that one is inherently better/superior nutritionally or taste wise just shows that they aren’t considering the myriad possibilities on that cooking spectrum.5 -
There are multiple possible definitions/dimensions of "convenient". One thing that hasn't been mentioned, that - speaking only for myself - is an inconvenience of "convenience" foods that are fully prepared dishes (frozen entrees, for example: You can pretty much only eat the thing you have.
I'm a whim-oriented person. If I buy frozen lasagna or a burrito bowl, that's what I have to eat. I'd rather buy (and/or prep) some whole and semi-convenience things, like chickpea pasta, canned diced tomatoes, Ezekiel tortillas, corn tortillas, eggs, cheese, onions, salsa, beans, veggies. Only a few of those are very perishable, given a freezer. With a few things on hand, at whim I can have an omelet with veggies and cheese, a wrap sandwich, pasta with veggies and cheese, veggie chili, several types of main-dish salad, enchiladas or tostadas, . . . . etc.
None of those things take long to make, none require recipes, and - to me - it's convenient to have what sounds good to me at the time, not just one of the small number of specific frozen meals I might've bought. Also, my semi-home-made food tastes better, and makes it easier for me to hit my protein and vegetable goals at reasonable calories (frozen meals tend to be carb heavy, expecially the vegetarian ones that I need), and (compared to frozen meals I actually sort of like) cooking is cheaper.
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I think historically when everyone cooked from scratch they often cooked larger amounts that would last several meals and limited menus instead of having something different every day like people expect these days.
No. Historically, my parents both came from families where they ate specific foods on specific days. They would never have the "Tuesday" meal on a Thursday or Friday. And Sunday was always something more special than the other days. Not sure they had leftovers. Seems like everything was measured to fit the number of persons in the family.3 -
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I think historically when everyone cooked from scratch they often cooked larger amounts that would last several meals and limited menus instead of having something different every day like people expect these days.
No. Historically, my parents both came from families where they ate specific foods on specific days. They would never have the "Tuesday" meal on a Thursday or Friday. And Sunday was always something more special than the other days. Not sure they had leftovers. Seems like everything was measured to fit the number of persons in the family.
And you're certain that your family is an adequate representation of what the majority of families did "historically"?7 -
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I think historically when everyone cooked from scratch they often cooked larger amounts that would last several meals and limited menus instead of having something different every day like people expect these days.
Honestly, I know of few cultures this would apply to. Mostly because to make big batches of something, you have to have ways to store it without it rotting. And historically that wasn’t possible for meals. Although obviously larger volume food prep for certain foods was still a thing, with dried meats, dried fruits, pemmican, smoked or salted meats and fish, etc...
Most folks I know of who grow up with food culture that is very removed from first world food practices cook every single day, and often go to market every single day.
Although I would agree that eating staple foods daily was much more common, in older food tradtions. my mother grew up in a different culture where they still churned their own butter, lived on well water, lived mostly off food you grew yourself, that sort of level of modernity. They had pretty much the same food for each meal for a season or two, because that was what you had.
She still remembers when they did a huge favor for another villager who, as a thank you, gave them some of his rhubarb crop- rare in that village- for years after. It was a huge deal for them to get a piece.4 -
There really are three options, not two.
- Cook everything from scratch, which is what we generally do at my home.
- Heat up ready-made store bought frozen foods, which we might do occasionally.
- Purchase complete meals at restaurants or fast food shops, which appears to be a growing market segment in the food industry.
I don't agree with this at all - in fact is complete opposite of what I said upthread.
I don't see it as 3 distinct options at all but as a continuum or spectrum along which there is lots of overlap.
I doubt many people in modern society always cook everything from total scratch so they are using some degree of pre prepared ingredients.
Or they might buy a pre cooked BBQ chicken and then have with home made salad or veg.
Or cook their own meat but add bought salad
Or have tinned soup followed by home cooked meal
Etc etc etc - the variables along the spectrum are many more than 3 distinct options.
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stanmann571 wrote: »MerryMavis1 wrote: »I have seen a few people talk about how convenience foods - in this case meaning pre-packaged foods and meals, like mac & cheese, frozen dinners, hamburger helper, etc... - are not really 'convenient.' Basically, not easier to make, not easy to make in less time, etc..
Mind, I'm not debating whether convenience food is healthier. Convenient, in this case, is solely looking at 'easier.' The ease of getting the food ready and in our bodies, but not about what happens to our bodies once it is there. Possibly the cost, too, as I imagine it's easier in life if you have more money. :-)
I have a friend who believes that convenience foods are NOT more convenient. My friend's argument (based on his own views plus a few articles done about 5-8 years ago) was that you still had to go to the store, so that's the same amount of time, that cooking time for convenience foods vs. home cooked foods was about the same, and that people spent nearly the same time in food prep for both (in a bit of research by Margaret Beck in 2013, people spent about 10-12 minutes more prepping 'from scratch' meals vs. convenience foods).
My belief is that convenience foods are quite often very convenient. So I'm hoping a debate on this will help both myself and my friend when we talk about this next. :-)
I'm going to just put my own thoughts on this in the next post, to keep things tidier for this first post, and I look forward to hearing what folks have to say on the topic.
Your friend has obviously never made homemade macaroni and cheese from scratch vs making a box of Kraft mac n cheese
I use both regularly-some things like instant potatoes are way easier/faster/more convenient than making mashed potatoes from raw potatoes. Or things like homemade lasagna vs a Stouffers frozen lasagna, which you literally just throw in the oven. Other things are pretty much a wash. It really just depends on specific items/meals.cwolfman13 wrote: »Of course convenient foods are easier...
I made lasagna for guests on Saturday night...between prep, simmering my homemade sauce, and cooking, it was about a 3 hour ordeal. I wouldn't ever do it, but I could have just bought a frozen lasagna and popped it in the oven.
Our kids really like mac 'n cheese...they usually have Annie's from the box and it takes me all of 10 minutes to make it. When I made mac 'n cheese from scratch, it's at least a 2 hour deal.
I don't generally make a lot of convenience food...I generally find them sub par to my own cooking...but most of my cooking, particularly during the work week takes me about 20-30 minutes to get dinner ready...in that regard, convenience foods are only slightly more convenient time wise.
It takes longer to get the roux started for Real Mac n Cheese than it takes cradle to grave for boxed mac.
America’s Test kitchen has a stovetop Mac & cheese that’s quite good in their 30 minute cookbook . The secret is evaporated milk. Of course nothing in the ATK 30 minute cookbook actually takes 30 minutes start to finish because I don’t yet have a personal prep cook.
Op, I agree with you that for the most part—convenience foods actually are more convenient. Everyone has their own happy place between convenience and from-scratch cooking. I think that which convenience foods are worthwhile is one of those completely subjective arguments like which foods make good leftovers. Someone who grows up eating really good homemade fried fish is a lot less likely to enjoy frozen fish sticks. Or the opposite-I don’t taste much difference between a good frozen lasagna and a decent homemade lasagna, so the time and effort aren’t worthwhile to me.2 -
estherdragonbat wrote: »What about "cook mostly from scratch, but use some pre-made ingredients for convenience's sake?" (Examples: canned tomato products, puff pastry/phyllo dough, stir-fry sauces, canned or frozen fruits and vegetables)
Yup, that's what struck me as obviously missing from the "there are three choices" thing.1 -
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I think historically when everyone cooked from scratch they often cooked larger amounts that would last several meals and limited menus instead of having something different every day like people expect these days.
No. Historically, my parents both came from families where they ate specific foods on specific days. They would never have the "Tuesday" meal on a Thursday or Friday. And Sunday was always something more special than the other days. Not sure they had leftovers. Seems like everything was measured to fit the number of persons in the family.
And you're certain that your family is an adequate representation of what the majority of families did "historically"?
Historically it was deeply important that people coordinated their meals with their underwear, which was of course marked with the day of the week.
Kidding (duh), although I did have that day of the week underwear for a bit as a kid. I thought it was cool, but as a rebel I sometimes went with a different day (Friday underwear on Wednesday!).5 -
woah... now THAT'S a kid I don't want to meet in a dark alley!3
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For me...
Cooking (not even from scratch, just assembling ingredients and following a recipe)
- almost never tastes as good as something boxed/prepared.
- almost always takes longer to "cook".
- almost always results in more left overs that no one wants and gets thrown away.
- is usually *slightly* cheaper.
Prepared/Prepackaged foods
- almost always taste better
- are almost always faster to prepare
- are almost always more macro flexible (maybe that's because I'm more familiar/learned in how to combine/balance them)
- are almost always more family friendly
- are usually more expensive
Wow. Barring the costs, I have almost always found the reverse to be true. I think I just really don't like the taste of ready meals over my own cooking. They seem either to sweet or too salty or something.
I am not against "convenience" though. I will happy use dried pasta and tinned tomatoes / beans etc. It's just the ready meals I can't do with.
Plus I enjoy cooking - for me it's relaxation after a long day. Not for everyone though.
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sytchequeen wrote: »For me...
Cooking (not even from scratch, just assembling ingredients and following a recipe)
- almost never tastes as good as something boxed/prepared.
- almost always takes longer to "cook".
- almost always results in more left overs that no one wants and gets thrown away.
- is usually *slightly* cheaper.
Prepared/Prepackaged foods
- almost always taste better
- are almost always faster to prepare
- are almost always more macro flexible (maybe that's because I'm more familiar/learned in how to combine/balance them)
- are almost always more family friendly
- are usually more expensive
Wow. Barring the costs, I have almost always found the reverse to be true. I think I just really don't like the taste of ready meals over my own cooking. They seem either to sweet or too salty or something.
I am not against "convenience" though. I will happy use dried pasta and tinned tomatoes / beans etc. It's just the ready meals I can't do with.
Plus I enjoy cooking - for me it's relaxation after a long day. Not for everyone though.
And I think that's the subjective part of this conversation that makes it interesting. What is tasty vs bland or gross or whatever... what is easy vs tedious vs whatever... those things can vary person to person. Heck, even cost can vary a bit based on factors. Perhaps the time required to prepare the meal is the least subjective/varied aspect, but that is only 1 small part of the conversation (or at least has been for most people).1 -
I have been eating fast food and what used to be called "TV dinners" since I was a latchkey kid back in the day and they are still a significant part of my diet. Back then my parents worked a lot and didn't have the luxury of spending hours a week cooking meals from scratch for us 7 days a week. Today it is the same theory - both adults work full time, I exercise at lunch and eat microwaved food at my desk almost every day, and most evenings we have a very narrow window of opportunity to eat between getting out of work/school and getting kids to event destinations nearly every weekday.
The good news is that "convenience food" has evolved and there are higher quality options available than when I was a kid7 -
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I think historically when everyone cooked from scratch they often cooked larger amounts that would last several meals and limited menus instead of having something different every day like people expect these days.
No. Historically, my parents both came from families where they ate specific foods on specific days. They would never have the "Tuesday" meal on a Thursday or Friday. And Sunday was always something more special than the other days. Not sure they had leftovers. Seems like everything was measured to fit the number of persons in the family.
And you're certain that your family is an adequate representation of what the majority of families did "historically"?
are you sure it isn't?
my family was and is the same. extended and immediate. my friend's family were too. my inlaws too0
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