What do you consider to be a convenience food?

[lil_oli]

OK - so I picked up a copy of "Miserly Moms" yesterday. I havent started reading it, but Ive looked at the table of contents.

I showed it to my mum and she glanced through the 11 commandments. We commented on the soup and bread night (which I would love, but DH would hate) and I commented on the "stop eating convenience foods"

My mum turned to my box of stove top stuffing that I had out for dinner and said "that means you shouldnt have that stuff". She said it in a nice way, it wasnt mean at all.

Anyways....... it made me think. I dont really think that stove top stuffing is a convenience food (honestly, I hadnt thought about it at all until that moment, but my gut said no)

To me a conveniece food is the heat and serve meals like you find in the frozen section (you would need 4 packages to feed 4 people kind of thing)

What do you consider a convenience food?

Just wondering

[Neeley]

I consider things like hamburger helpers, mac & cheese, those pasta side dishes, suddenly salad, cake mixes, brownie mixes, meals in a box, instant potaotes, etc.... I call them "boxed foods", because almost everything to make it is in the box. I could be way off though, this is just my opinion of convenience foods.

[kabin63]

I agree with Neely. To me convenience foods are anything that is boxed, but could be made from scratch. Sorry lol oli, but your mom is right, stuffing mix is a convenience food. Don't feel bad though. I still make cake from a mix, unless I have the room and the time I don't make it from scratch. I do, however, make icing from scratch. If we consider what people did 100 to 150 years ago, they even ground their own flour. Most people don't consider flour a convenience food, but in a way it is, and unless you are very picky about the flour, it doesn't always have much nutritional value. Sad, isn't it? JMHO

[birthgeek]

I guess I have levels of convenience food, lol. Boxed stuff like seasoned rice is a convenience food, but to me they are still rather cheap and thus I don't feel too guilty about using them! But premade frozen lasagna, veg in cheese sauce, chicken cordon bleu... those kinds of things, to me, are the 'bad' or 'unfrugal' convenience foods I try to avoid.

Mind you, with two kids under three, sometimes it's still worth having one or two convenience meals on hand.

[kabin63]

I should add, since birthgeek brought it up. I use stouffer's frozen lasagna. I know it isn't the best for us, but I find that I can buy it premade for less than I can make it. We only have three people in the house and it lasts a while. I just portion out leftovers and freeze. Then, when there isn't any leftovers for hubby totake in his lunch I get one out and he takes that. It works well for us, but that's the whole point. It's about what works for each family.

[YankeeMom]

To me convenience food like someone (Kathy?) said above...anything that is boxed that could be made from scratch. Store bought dinner rolls to me are a convenience food because I can make them from scratch & my family loves them. Store bought bread could even be a CF, but my family refuses to eat the hm stuff on sandwiches so it's almost a necessity here

Boxed meals like those hamburger helpers, mac & cheese, lipton noodles, those crockpot meals in a box or bag, the frozen meals (big & small portions), frozen waffles & pancakes, etc.

I think it's a decision based on what you decide is worth it to spend your $$$ or spend your time on.

[i.m.cheap]

Convenience foods are not more expensive for me, since I get most of that stuff FREE with doubled coupons. I might be HEALTHIER to make it from scratch though. I have gotten all of the following items free in the past few months with coupons:

Hungry Jack Instant potatoes
Eggo Waffles
dozens of boxes of cereal
Hamburger and tuna helper
cake mixes
brownie mixes
Ketchup
Mustard
BBQ sauce
Salad dressing
Oatmeal
Raisins
Quaker "Breakfast Cookies"
Tennessee Pride "Heat and Serve" Sausage Gravy
Welch's Grape Jam
Rice-A-Roni
Star-Kist marinated tuna fillets
canned refried beans
Margarine
Toothpaste
Deodorant
Toilet paper
Frozen Garlic Bread
Mrs. Smith's pie slices
and much more that I am sure I am forgetting right now...

I like the boxed stuffing mixes, and I don't think I have ever gotten them free, but I do "stock up on the coupons" when they are available during the Thanksgiving/Christmas holidays, then wait for the lowest sale price on the stuffing. I have purchased Stove Top brand stuffing for as little as 19¢ a box by doing this. Coupon for 25¢ off one, or coupon for 50¢ off two, doubled, when the stuffing was on sale for 69¢ a box.

[babetteq]

for me, like the others, packet or box food, preprocessed.. is convenience food. And it's not all about the price tag... Most of those foods are so bad for you... lots of chemicals, high in sugar, salt, fat, dyes. It may be cheap, but that's the stuff that's killing north america. I use them very very rarely (like twice a year?). I find when I eat them now, I can feel it.

babs

[i.m.cheap]

One more thing to consider in the cooking from scratch vs. convenience foods debate, is the cost of ingredients. I find that instant potatoes are almost always cheaper than fresh, and when making stuffing from scratch, the cost of celery is sometimes quite high, like $1.69 a bunch. Onions are also at least 99¢ a pound where I live, or about 60-75¢ for one average yellow onion.

[Shilah]

I think that the whole center of the store is convenience food, but of course, I still buy it. I totally skip chips, cookies, soda, juice, but I DO BUY cereal, rice pilaf mix, some frozen stuff like tater tots. I won't buy Lean Cuisine stuff unless I get some for the freezer at work (so I don't run out to fast food last min.)
I do spend a great deal of money on cereal, but I only buy store brand. We eat a box a day practically. I do buy dinner rolls, and store bread.
Anyone got a recipe for home made rice side dishes? I have a rice cooker and I'd love to use my own rice to make side dishes.

[tigo]

I agree with most folks on the board- technically a number of things I buy are convience foods (boxed or bagged) as well as really non-essential (little debbies for the kids lunches). When times are super tight we cut back on those but when things come up (scheduling snafus) I still try to balance the cost of the convience food vs grabbing take out. Lol! I guess it is my crutch- going from take out most nights to meal helpers but we are working our way to doing more from scratch.

[Valerie in WA]

I consider most in boxed, frozen and canned things to be convenience foods.

Do I buy some, yes. I buy canned chili, baked beans, refried beans, occasionally cereal and crackers. When I work, dh makes things like canned soup, h-helper & tuna-helper. Once in a while, it's nice to throw chicken nuggets & fries in the oven.

But for the most part, my cupboards/freezer contain: noodles, rice, flour, meat, vegetables, fruit.

Deb makes a good point:

originally posted by i.m.cheap
One more thing to consider in the cooking from scratch vs. convenience foods debate, is the cost of ingredients. I find that instant potatoes are almost always cheaper than fresh, and when making stuffing from scratch, the cost of celery is sometimes quite high, like $1.69 a bunch. Onions are also at least 99¢ a pound where I live, or about 60-75¢ for one average yellow onion.

My rebuttle ( ) to that is this: Buy potatoes when they are on sale. I recently saw non-organic 10lb bag for $1.29 - that will get you a lot farther than a $1.29 box of flakes. Onions too can be picked up for well under 50c/lb. Buy them when they are cheap; they last for months, particularly if you a have a basement. Onions can be chopped and frozen FOREVER. Celery is a bit harder, you can omit it and use celery salt, or do what I do. I buy celery when we want to eat celery. Then I dry the leaves (200* oven for about 10-20 minutes), crumble them and use them for celery seasoning in things like stuffing.

My next post has some recipes.

[Valerie in WA]

Hamburger helper mix:
2 cups dry milk
1 cup cornstartch (buy Bulk if you can)
1/4 cup chicken or beef granulated boullion (buy Bulk)
2 tbls. dry minced onion
1 tsp. basil
1 tsp. thyme
1 tsp. pepper
2 tbls. parsley dried
1 tbls. garlic powder
Mix all and store in an airtight container.

To Use:
1/2-1lb. ground beef browned
2 cups water
1 1/2 c. uncooked egg noodles
1 1/2 cups hamburger helper mix

Bring to a boil all ingredients, let simmer 15-20 min. or till noodles are done.....top with cheese or sour cream.

Opt. add 1-2 cups cooked veggies

Variation: if you used the chicken boulion you can use cooked chicken or even tuna

I made this recipe with ground beef (the bouillion was half chicken-half beef) and a can of mushrooms – needed more water, but also was cooked on the campstove. Might have been okay on the regular stove.

[Valerie in WA]

Seasoned rice mix:

3 cups long grain rice
6 tsp. beef or chicken bouillon
1/4 cup dry parsley
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. thyme
1/4 c. dry minced onion

Mix all and store in Ziploc bag

To Use:

Chicken or Tuna Bake:

1 can tuna or 1-2 cups cooked chicken
1 1/2 c. frozen veggies - your favorite
1 cup seasoned rice mix
2 cups water
1 can cream of chicken soup (use homemade version in next post!)

Mix all in a baking dish and bake for about 1 hour or till rice is tender at 350 degrees...

To Use:

Burger bake:
1 lb. cooked hamburger or shredded beef etc.
1 cup seasoned rice mix
1 can drained mushroom (opt.)
2 cups water
1 can cream of mushroom or beef soup

Mix all well in baking dish and bake 1 hour at 350 degrees or till rice is tender.

[Valerie in WA]

Cream Soup Mix:
2 cups dry milk
3/4 c. cornstartch
1/4 c. chicken or beef boullion
1/2 tsp. crushed thyme ( opt.)
1.2 tsp. basil
1.2 tsp dry parsley
1/4 tsp. granulated garlic
2 shakes of onion powder

mix and store in ziploc....

To use:
1/3 c. dry mix
1 c. water

Put in pan and heat till it thickens this will equal 1 can of cream soup....use in your recipes when it calls for a can of whatever

This recipe alone has saved me TONS of money. No more looking for sales on 'cream o' soup.'