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Are 'convenience foods' really convenient?

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  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
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    I don't know... When I'm very busy with work I pop out a cup of 3 minute noodles. 2 minutes to boil the water, 2 seconds to pour it, 3 minutes for it to be ready, and a few more seconds to open a can of tuna or leftover chicken and dump it in. Plus to no extra time for washing the dishes. Try making noodles from scratch in 6 minutes without having to deal with getting all the ingredients out, prepping them, putting mental energy into adding just the right amount of the right thing and cooking for the right amount of time, then cleaning counters and washing dishes.

    I prefer home-cooked foods every time when I have the time because I like fresh foods, but in no way are they as convenient as convenience foods. You'll also have to make more grocery trips for many kinds of home-cooked foods because they usually include perishable ingredients.

    It's more than just the prep time. Stove-top pudding takes about the same amount of time prepped from scratch or out of a package, but when you make it out of a package you're saving on the physical and mental energy (however small) required to find the ingredients and portion them right. Humans like to save energy by nature, even if it's as insignificant as not having to open two cupboards when you can open just one.
  • xOlaf
    xOlaf Posts: 39 Member
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    Microwavable food all the way! Pop it in the microwave for a few mins and you are done! Prep time? 1 min MAYBE to pull it out of the freezer and unwrap anything. I honestly despise cooking. From the research of a recipe, grocery shopping for multiple ingredients, meal prepping, actual cooking, THEN dishwashing. It's all too much work. If it's simple, I will try a recipe here and there and make a big batch, but most days I rely on my crockpot and microwavable meals. Only thing I really "cook" daily are veggies for my meals. The reality is, life is too hectic for made from scratch dinners daily. All the respect to people who can do it though!
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    edited April 2018
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    estherdragonbat wrote: »
    I tend to do a lot of home-made meals that rely on convenient short-cuts. Like jarred marinara or canned diced/crushed tomatoes. Plenty of Gardein in my freezer, but I'll chop up fresh veggies for a stir-fry and use a pre-made sauce. Sometimes I make my own soup stock; sometimes it's a carton of Imagine. I guess I cook from semi-scratch?

    That's my usual approach too when I have some time. Although certain things are yearly family projects like tomato sauce, cheese, our own frozen veggie packs for some things when they're in season, olives, some home canning, jams, and many other things typically prepared to store in an old-fashioned way. So I'm guessing humans have been making "convenience foods" for longer than you'd think, both for storage and convenience purposes. I mean we don't have to string, trim, cut, and blanch green beans to store them properly, but we do that and then portion them "meal per bag" for convenience.
  • JaydedMiss
    JaydedMiss Posts: 4,286 Member
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    I eat mostly smash plates and nicecream... they take 5-10 minutes total thats about the same time as say a microwave lasagna...So convenience for me isnt any faster lol. But for those into big recipes and stuff it would be
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    edited April 2018
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    Figured I'd mention what I do, not to claim it is the "best" thing to do by any means nor to judge anyone who does something different.

    My wife and I alternate cooking on the weekends. We prepare one big batch that we can then eat for the rest of the week as dinners. We tend to be perfectly happy eating the same thing every night so it doesn't bother us and it is easier than cooking every day which to me just sounds like unnecessary stress and extra cleaning. If food runs out early or we want to stretch the day we cook out a bit we will do something like get a Papa Murphy's pizza. The kids are young enough that they are good with things like chopped up fruit, string cheese, beans, peanut bread or an egg so they are pretty easy. Both of us work so breakfast and lunch tend to be convenience foods. I typically go for a protein bar or Starbucks sandwich for breakfast and then get food from a restaurant for lunch.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    JerSchmare wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    JerSchmare wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    JerSchmare wrote: »
    I’m astonished sometimes to hear how people eat. Throw chicken in the oven and do something else for a while ding, it’s ready. Set it out. Put a salad together. Done. It’s not hard to make yummy fresh food. If you don’t enjoy cooking, I guess I understand. But, it’s way better than anything frozen.

    Convenience is faster tho.

    Baked chicken and salad doesn't sound like yummy fresh food that would appeal to my family. And that's one meal. What else would be on the "super easy cooking from scratch" meal plan?

    Spaghetti. Anyway you like it. Easy peasy.

    Look, I used to make baby food. So, I just don’t understand why people think making food is so difficult. It’s easy, and always tastes better. If your family doesn’t like fresh food, it might be because they aren’t used to it.

    I used to make baby food too, if we are playing the one up game. I also cook plenty of foods from scratch, as well as relying on convenience foods because they are, well, convenient.

    Spaghetti - I assume you mean with fresh pasta made from scratch and sauce simmered for hours from fresh tomatoes? That seems like a great weeknight solution after a 9 hour work day, 2 hours of after school activities, and an hour of homework.

    Aren’t you a ball of fun.

    If you don’t want to cook, don’t fukcing cook. I don’t care. Why are you picking me out?

    Dried pasta is a convenience food (one I use a lot).

    At one point in my life (not a sensible one), I considered it a failure for me (not anyone else) to use convenience foods like dried pasta and anything but fresh tomatoes in a pasta sauce. Personally, I now make convenient and fast pasta dinners all the time, using dried pasta (and occasionally a pre-made ravioli I will get from the store, although I still like to do my own ravioli sometimes), canned tomatoes, cheese that someone else made for me, stuff like that. So that's a nice fresh meal made fast using some convenience foods which do, indeed, make it more convenient.

    I think that's basically Winogelato's point.

    If you are a cooking purist or snob, it's easy to claim that buying, say, a premade sauce or spice mix is something you would never do (personally I don't buy premade dressings or pasta sauce, for example). But there's no superiority in that, and some might well find that using those convenience products (as I use some others, such as canned beans and dried pasta) make life (and cooking) easier.

    Where's the line? There's not really any -- people have different ideas about what convenience products make things easier for them. I sometimes buy a salad at a place near my office for lunch. Drawback? Cost. More convenient? Sure.
  • shaumom
    shaumom Posts: 1,003 Member
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    kommodevaran wrote: »
    I have found that I don't just enjoy preparing my meals, I especially enjoy a meal I have worked for - meal schedule turns into routine and "flow" when preparing and eating a meal is so much hassle that I won't be bothered unless I'm really hungry. And creating something delicious makes me feel accomplished; conflating healthy and boring, is a big contributor to why and how eating has gone so terribly wrong.
    smolmaus wrote: »
    I don't buy convenience foods because generally I can do a lot better myself....
    Good tasting food is my priority, with cost-effectiveness coming second so although "convenience foods" are time-saving they don't meet my personal needs so they aren't convenient at all. It all depends on your personal priorities.
    JerSchmare wrote: »
    It’s not hard to make yummy fresh food. If you don’t enjoy cooking, I guess I understand. But, it’s way better than anything frozen.

    Looking at some of these statements, I wonder if some of the differences between 'convenient food is convenient' don't stem from something as simple as an ability to cook good tasting food. I mean, if everyone had the same cooking ability, I think there might be more agreement, you know?

    But being a good cook is not a universal skill. This is not even an 'if you cook enough you will become good at it' skill. I mean, there's a reason being a good cook was actually a skill women worked hard to develop in patriarchal societies, because a really good cook was rare enough it upped your status as a marriage prospect.

    For many of us (and I am definitely included), a lot of effort will not necessarily bring about a good meal. Which means that, many times, all that effort ends up feeling like wasted time. It's awesome that people DO have skill in cooking. And I'm kind of envious because we have to cook and eat all the time, just to survive, so I WISH I had the ability to cook. But I don't. And I don't think it's going to come any time soon. My family has tons of allergies so I've been cooking from scratch for over a decade now, and I still suck at cooking. :-(

    Another related problem, I think, looking at replies, is that cooking a meal from scratch will not always make a meal that is better tasting than one made from convenience foods (or even good tasting, period), UNLESS you are a good cook, or at least good at that recipe. There are many convenience or frozen meals that miles above what I could make on my best day of cooking, ever. So while I totally understand that for some folks, making a meal yourself is going to get you something better than some frozen meal, for some of us, well, yeah, ha, just not going to happen.




  • shaumom
    shaumom Posts: 1,003 Member
    edited April 2018
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    WinoGelato wrote: »
    I would ask what sorts of foods your friend cooks from scratch, to see if that’s influencing his or her assessment that it’s not that much easier to use convenience foods. Is it really an apples to apples, or in this case macaroni to macaroni comparison?...

    This is a good discussion so I would be interested in you following up with your friend to find out what his or her analogous cooked from scratch meals are with total time, costs, and ingredients.

    My friend tends to cook a lot of rice, pasta and egg dishes like omelets, where he adds in spices, fresh veggies and/or eggs, etc... Sometimes some baked potato kind of stuff. He uses dry pasta rather than make his own fresh, though. He typically doesn't cook anything that would take more than an hour, tops, to make from start to finish. When he does eat out, he tends to eat all the things that would be more time to make, like curries.

    I feel like I should also add that he has no kids or roommates, so he only has to cook for himself, with no distractions, which as a mom of two, i feel contributes sometimes to one's love, or lack of love, for cooking. :-)
  • zdyb23456
    zdyb23456 Posts: 1,706 Member
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    For me it’s a cost issue. Buying pre made frozen dinners to feed my family is far more expensive than cooking it up myself.

    I plan out in advance what we will eat and it makes it much easier. A typical week includes a soup like chili or vegetable soup, meatloaf, tacos, pasta, some type of chicken... I have kids in sports so I’ve been gravitating towards crockpot dinners.

    Now I do use convenience items like canned beans, already made flour tortillas, taco seasoning, dried pasta, jarred sauce, shredded cheese, etc to get meals on the table faster.
  • jjpptt2
    jjpptt2 Posts: 5,650 Member
    edited April 2018
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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



    To be clear, "convenience" foods for me include everything from frozen, precooked foods that I can microwave and eat to entrees my local grocery store prepares that all I have to do is unwrap and pop in the oven at 350 for 40 minutes (chicken cordon blue, meatloaf, herb crusted tilapia).
  • bingo_007
    bingo_007 Posts: 101 Member
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    I think it depends what you cook. We often eat stir fry vegetables with tofu and rice, this can be cooked in under 20 mins (including time to cut the vegetables and cleaning up). Another regular Dinner is sourdough or yeast bread and cheese. If I have time I can make my own bread. Sourdough will take about 6 hours, yeast 2. Store bought is obviously a faster option. egg dishes are usually very fast to cook too.
    We have lot of staples frozen (Such as bread, spinach, and other veggies). If I do not have much time, I use frozen veggies. Otherwise I cook from scratch (batchcooking on Sunday, takes about 2 hours for 3 to 5 days worth of lunch). I use my oven a lot though I roast chicken and vegetables together so I can cut down on the cooking time :-) Pizza dough is easy (takes less than 5 mins), but this is more of weekend food. Sometimes I will prepare the dough the day before let it raise and put it back into the fridge for the next day. Then you just need to put sauce and topping and it will cook in the same times as frozen one. Overall it would just take 10 to 15 mins extra for the dough and some time to cut the toppings. Our Pizza sauce is either fresh tomato and dried tomato made to a paste in a blender or tomato puree from a packet.
  • ultra_violets
    ultra_violets Posts: 202 Member
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    I feel like convenience foods are a fact of life for many people. As much as I wish I could afford to eat organic and have the time and talent to make every meal from scratch, it's simply not going to happen. Cooking for one is tough enough, especially when you're on a budget. I just try to approach it with an eye to my bottom line and some common sense. I have a healthy, very simple breakfast every morning (1 cup of Cheerios and half a cup of 1% milk or, if I'm really in a rush, I'll have a Nutri-Grain bar) and I usually have a frozen meal for lunch. I try to have only one frozen meal in a day, so dinner is usually a salad or a simple homemade meal like veggie pizza or a piece of fish and steamed veggies. Healthy Choice Café Steamers are excellent...some of the lowest sodium I've ever seen in a frozen meal (the Beef Teriyaki bowl clocks in at a very respectable 450 mg) as well as great taste. Sometimes I have a high-protein steak and cheddar Hot Pocket for lunch. Why not? I like them and they fit into my macros. I'm a terrible cook and I'd rather use convenience meals than end up frustrated and exhausted with a big mess to clean up.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 8,996 Member
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    Depending on your definition of convenience foods, i think they are a fact of life for most people - to varying degrees and in various frequencies.

    Some people might live entirely on pre packaged frozen meals and bought takeaways ( I doubt many do so entirely but I could be wrong.)

    Others might entirely make everything from totally scratch - use no packaged or jarred sauces or tinned or frozen vegetables or bought bread and churn their own butter and make their own cheese and grind their own flour and grow all their own fruit and veg and slaughter their own animals- I highly doubt this is anyone in modern society though

    Everyone else fits somewhere on the spectrum between the 2 polarised hypothetical extremes.

    Myself i do now and then eat pre made frozen meals and buy take away but I often cook at home too.
    Most of my home made meals would be described as from semi scratch.
  • hotskytrotsky
    hotskytrotsky Posts: 14 Member
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    There are other benefits to convenience foods, depending on your living situation, as well.
    -Can be purchased many places fresh groceries can't. This is especially important if you rely on public transit to get to the grocery store and there isn't a reliable/straightforward route where you live.
    -Sometimes are portioned better if you are only feeding one person, whereas fresh groceries might go bad before you can get to them.
    -Can be more "hands-off" to prepare, so even if it still takes 20 min to cook you can go do something else during those 20 min, versus being attentive.

    I used to prepare most meals for both myself and my partner, and I found that cooking from scratch or scratch-ish was more rewarding and more efficient when I was making things for both of us. Now that I'm a single human, it feels a little pointless to make a nice meal just for myself so I understand the allure of convenience and snack foods more. I also have noticed that many groceries come in portion sizes that don't totally make sense for one person, so I've started to reorient my shopping strategy around things that keep well (e.g. beans instead of meat).

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