Convenience Foods?

**tbs727** · 12-04-2006, 04:28 PM

Ok, here's the deal. I work full time and DH works part time and is a full time college student. We just don't have time to cook from scratch, however, we are spending way too much money eating out. I would prefer to fix meals at home that are healthy, but don't take much time. I am interested in using some convenience foods that aren't terribly unhealthy. I'm thinking like chicken strips, frozen pizzas, except healthier. Pre-cooked would be great. I can deal with paying a little more for the convenience items since I know we will save money by not eating out. I would like to spend around $4 or less a meal. I would love to hear your ideas. What do you buy that saves you time and is tasty??? What would you buy for convenience if you could increase your grocery budget?

**Bethany** · 12-04-2006, 04:39 PM

Well, I confess, I like to have a few frozen pizza on hand in case I'm having a "food emergency." Chicken breasts that are pre-cooked and breaded are pretty convenient (add a frozen veggie and a package rice, or make rice in the rice cooker.) If you had the time, cooking batches on a weekend and then freezing individual portions would be great (pizzas, calzones, some casseroles.) I also try to schedule one pasta night and one breakfast night (those are very quick meals.) Hope this helps.

**Katybird** · 12-04-2006, 04:51 PM

One thing that makes my life so much easier since I work 12 hour shifts from 7PM to 7AM is my crockpot. I can toss in a meal when I get home from work in the morning and when I get up it is ready to eat. I can toss a roast in and I will have several meals from that, roast beef one day, roast beef sandwiches the next day and stew another day. I put chicken breast in with bbq sauce and make bbq chicken sandwiches. There are so many things that you can do in the crockpot, I even cook baked potatoes in it occassionally.

**FrugalWitch** · 12-04-2006, 05:05 PM

Ditto the crockpot. You'll save much more money using the crockpot than buying all the convenience items. Library should have or be able to get several crockpot cookbooks for you.

**tbs727** · 12-04-2006, 05:50 PM

Thanks ladies, this is a great start. I do have a crockpot and I use it. I will definitely keeps some roasts on hand to stick in there. In fact, I am cooking chicken right now. Keep the ideas coming!

**dmvezina** · 12-04-2006, 08:26 PM

I agree with the crockpot. And also, if you can find a little time on the weekends, if you can just throw together a few meals & get them in the freezer, that will help.
Oh, and I must confess as well, I like to keep some frozen pizzas in my freezer too!!! LOL

**Bethany** · 12-04-2006, 08:53 PM

Another convenience (actually on another thread right now) is a George Foreman grill. You can cook just about any piece of meat on it in less than ten min. Tonight I made pork chops on it (marinate with a bit of olive oil and seasoning) and it took 7 min on George. I love it because the electricity to run George is so much cheaper than the gas to run the oven.

**MarshHen** · 12-05-2006, 05:15 PM

tbs727,

If you look at the sub-forums at the beginning of this kitchen basics forum, you will find a forum on crockpots. You will find quite a few recipes there along with some links to some great crockpot recipe sites.

**MarshHen** · 12-05-2006, 05:25 PM

Hey, LOL, it's me again.

You might also want to check out the OAMC, Homecanning, Freezing and Preserving forum that is listed in the Kitchen Basics Sub-Forums. The first sticky on top is loaded with wonderful crockpot recipes.

**tbs727** · 12-05-2006, 09:09 PM

I will keep these ideas in mind. What I am really looking for are good food products that will save me time in the kitchen. I do not have time to can or spend a day a month cooking, as much as I would like to be able to do that, its just not going to happen. I do use my crockpot and will do that more often, but I need something that I can pop in the oven/microwave/stove top and have ready in a short amount of time. Something ready made.

**monkeywrangler71** · 12-06-2006, 12:07 AM

I consider myself to be on a bit of a journey with this whole kitchen business. We used to eat out 4-5 times a week, now we eat out 2-3 times a month. I am trying to cook as much from scratch now, but the first step I took was switch from take-out to convenience foods. It really does help to establish an "eating in" habit.

We aren't the healthiest of eaters, so I don't have many healthy ideas. We used a lot of taco & fajita kits. I would cook the hamburger when I bought it, then freeze it in meal sized portions, so making tacos would take about 10 minutes. I also started cutting chicken in strips before freezing, so I could just throw it in the pan frozen and it would already be cut up for fajitas. I'm not good at remembering to defrost things.

I use premixed frozen stirfry vegetables. I buy cheap steaks and (again) cut them in strips before freezing. Throw them in a ziploc freezer bag with a simple marinade (you can buy them premade, or just mix up something simple). Again, I don't defrost the meat before I throw it in the pan. You can buy stirfry kits that already have the meat in them, but it really only takes 5 mins to mix up the meat yourself. Or you could just have a vegetarian stirfry.

We used a lot of instant mashed potatoes.

Knorr frozen entrees are good, but they are expensive and only feed two. There are other premixed skillet meals, but I haven't tried any of them.

Spaghetti with canned sauce (or real sauce if you have time to freeze a giant batch some weekend). You can buy jars of alfredo sauce (Classico makes it here), cook up some noodles and mix it together, you can add canned chicken (or tuna), and some vegetable.

I've whipped up some of those Pillsbury crescent rolls to go with a small meal.

Fish sticks, or battered fish fillets. We have a lot of different fish entrees available in the frozen food dept.

I don't know if you get M&M shops, they have a whole store of readymade food.

We have also bought frozen Chicken Kiev and Chicken Cordon Bleu.

Frozen vegetables. Most only have to go in a little pot with a bit of water.

I make rice in the microwave, although instant is probably easier (I don't like it). You can also buy flavoured instant rice packets.

I can't think of anything pre-cooked, unless you stop at the grocery store on the way home and pick up a rotisserie chicken.

**jinx** · 12-06-2006, 08:39 AM

I Understand how easy it is to grab convience food. It is so much easier to pop something in the microwave, rather than did out pans and start cooking. Yet, aside from the fact that it isnt the healthiest way to eat, it is also expensive.
I agree with those that suggested use a crockpot. I use mine a couple of times a week. I usually cook stews, pot roasts, soups. What I also do is to cook double, it doesnt take that much more time to double a recipe and freeze the extra portions. I do that with soups, stews, cassroles, and things like breaded chicken cutlets, pasta dishes such as lasagna, or just a baked pasta and cheese dish, meatballs, tomato sauce. Items like this can be frozen in any amounts.
Currently in my freezer, I have a small lasagna, a container of meatballs and sauce, (for meatball sub sandwiches) a casarole of chicken and rice, seasoned cooked ground beef for tacos, and a couple containers of assorted soups, and stews. It is easy to take out something the night before, let it thaw in the fridge overnight.
I do confess, that I do have some frozen pizza, smartones meals, and burritos in the freezer. When I do serve a meal that is a convience food, I try to balance it out with a salad or some kind of veggie.
We also keep out grill out year round, during the winter we will grill at least once a week. In the warmer months we grill out 4 or 5 times a week, nothing big or expensive everynight, but the usual, hamburgers, hotdogs, chicken, and the occasional steak or chop, again I balance that out with a salad. Sometimes we will grill veggies, like asparagus, eggplant and summer squash.

**monkeywrangler71** · 12-06-2006, 10:36 AM

Okay, my last post was probably too long already, but I just wanted to add a couple things. I know that once we broke the fast food cycle, it was a pretty quick move from readymade foods to really simple recipes. I have a lot of things that take almost no prep time.

The fastest is a glazed ham recipe. It is made with precooked ham steaks. I buy them prepackaged, they are round and in the same area of the store as bacon and packaged lunch meats. I keep them in the freezer and (of course) don't bother defrosting before I cook them. Turn the oven on 375-400, throw the ham in a shallow pan (glass casserole dish) mix together - 1/2 cup brown sugar, 3/4 tsp dry mustard, 1 tbsp flour, 1 tbsp white vinegar - and just spread the mixture over the ham. It will be ready to go in the oven before it's even heated up, it's really that quick. Bake for 15-20 mins (really just heating it and melting the glaze), which is enough time to cook up some instant potatoes or a noodle sidedish, and some frozen vegetable.

There are a lot of chicken dishes that have very short prep times, but you have to remember to thaw the chicken ahead of time, and they typically are in the oven a long time. Not very convenient if you work late and are hungry.

I mentioned before that I fry up hamburger before I freeze it. I have one simple dish we lovingly refer to as "slop". Throw a precooked bag of hamburger in a frying pan on medium with a can of cream of mushroom soup, a can of mushrooms, some Worchestershire sauce and some steak spice. We have this over rice, so I just cook it until the rice is done (20 min in the microwave). It is really pretty tasty.

**tbs727** · 12-06-2006, 01:40 PM

Monkeywrangler, thanks for all your effort and suggestions, I will definitely put them to use.

I'm not really sure I've made myself clear on here. My problems is that, while I know how to cook from scratch, I do not have time. I make a good hourly wage, so I'm better off purchasing more ready made foods, than spending my time cooking. If I could save enough money by cooking at home, I would do that, but its just not worth the loss of money. This is only during the time that I am supporting my hubby while he is in college. When he graduates, it will be his job to be the bread winner. I also don't have freezer space to keep many frozen ready made foods that would come from OAMC, although I love the idea.

Specifically what I am looking for is something that can be cooked, start to finish, in about 15 minutes. I have been cooking from scratch and just basic ingredients for so long that I don't really know what convenience foods are out there. Perhaps I should just go browse the grocery store and pick up a few things to try out.

**monkeywrangler71** · 12-06-2006, 03:14 PM

I just thought of one more thing, but I don't know about pricing or availability in your area (I've never heard of a razorback, so not even sure where your area is). Maple Leaf, which is a large Canadian meat company, makes fully cooked roasts, packaged in gravy. I don't know if they operate in the States, or if there is another company doing something similar there, but you might want to keep an eye out for them. They come in a box, and are ready in 10mins. They are not frozen, so our stores usually have them at the end of the meat aisle. You just heat them up in the microwave. It's not like a tv dinner, it's a one-meal family sized roast - you have to add your own side dish.