Convenience Foods I Use

In efforts to control both costs and what ingredients, additives, and preservatives are in my family’s food, I am working hard to limit the use of convenience foods. Sometimes, that is difficult to do in term s of time, availability, financial limitations, and know how. Sometimes, there is just really good deals on convenience foods that when comparing the cost to make from scratch to the cost in time and effort, the difference is negligible. What's negligible is a highly personal decision and I know some people that never cook from scratch and others that always do. Of course being the rationalizing wise soul that I am, I've found a balance that works for me. In the list below, I admit to using each on a regular (R), semi-regular (S), or when on special price (P). For the most part, I can and often do make these things from scratch or have a from scratch alternative.  There are a few though I have never even attempted to make from scratch and have always bought the convenience version (A).  However, if any of you have good success, I might be open to trying.

My list of convenience foods that I use:

·         R-Spaghetti sauce

·         R-Alfredo Sauce

·         S-Condensed soups/chunky type soups

·         R-Frozen Pizza

·         P-Chili or  artisan soup mixes

·         S-Chicken broth

·         R-Baked Beans

·         P-Kraft/Velveeta Shells and Cheese

·         P-Stauffer’s lasagna

·         P-Garlic Bread/bread sticks

·         P-Premade dough like cinnamon rolls, biscuits, pizza

·         R-Hamburger patties

·         S-Uncle Ben’s Long Grain and Wild Rice

·         P-Knorr rice ad noodle sides

·         A-Cheese filled ravioli or tortellini

·         A-Frozen, battered fish fillets

 
I guess I use a lot more convenience foods than  I first would have thought. There are items in my pantry/freezer that others probably would categorize as convenience foods such as canned tomatoes, vegetables, and tuna, dry pasta, or boneless chicken portions. I am constantly looking at labels though, mostly for sodium content because of DH. There are some brands that even if they were practically free, I wouldn’t pick up as not worth the savings. What about you?  How do you determine what will or won’t come into your kitchen?

Supper or a Science Experiment?

You may not be able to read this, so let me share the ingredient list of this humble chicken patty with cheese purchased on the fly for DD#2 and I while running between music lessons, errands, and another stop. 

Ingredients: Chicken Patty: Chicken breast with rib meat, water, vegetable protein product (isolated soy protein, magnesium oxide, zinc oxide, Niacinamide, ferrous sulfate, vitamin B12, Copper gluconate, vitamin A palmitate, calcium pantothenate.... and there are 3 and 3/4 more circles to go to get through the ingredients in the chicken patty. I haven't gotten to the bun, or the cheese. 

We have a spanking new convenience store in town, and this week is the grand opening.  Every day is a 2 for $1.00 sandwich special, free slices of their "deli" pizza,  50 cent coffee and get this- 32 ounce super size sodas.  I was sucked in.  As I type this, I am drinking copious amounts of water and hoping to undo or at least water down the damage.  I must say though, it was a tasty little sandwich.  I guess those chemists in the food labs know what they are doing in combining the elements and compounds from the periodic table to make a crap sandwich  appealing to the taste buds. 

Souper Sunday: Cheating

We really like home made soup in our house, but sometimes time and energy is just a little short to prep and work through all the stages needed for some soups.  I have a confession-I keep Bear Creek dehydrated soup mixes on hand for just such times.  There are other brands, but my family likes this one quite a bit, particularly the creamy wild rice. To homemade it up a bit, I throw in a quickly diced celery stalk, perhaps a can or a few fresh sliced mushrooms, and some leftover chicken, ham, or bacon bits.  I know these are not the most  nutritious soups, and the sodium, content is 40% RDA for a 1 cup serving, so we try and keep any accompaniments very fresh and salt free, such as a loaf of crusty bread and some fresh fruit. We stock up when they go on sale, often at $3.00 or less and usually do not make more than once per month.  The package will make 8 one cup servings, so plenty plus leftover lunch for my small family.  It is not as tasty as home made varieties I have had, but considering you can get this started on the stove and to the table in 30 minutes, with relatively little watch time as most is the simmering, this is a convenience food that will stick around my pantry.  I'll be making plenty of  true home made soups this winter, but I doubt I'll attempt wild rice.

While purging my guilt with this confession, I wanted to share an interesting website I discovered that can help, or terrify, the person with kitchen duty in being more aware of what is being served when using various ingredients. Foodfacts.com is a handy, if not frightening, site where a person simply types in the product in the search bar and up will come a report on the ingredients and  brief summary of the nutritional benefits and weaknesses of the product. The report grades the food product as well. The ingredients come up color coded for controversial and non-controversial, and also red indicators for "avoiding" certain food traits.  I hate to admit the soup I will be serving my family gets an "F" at Foodfacts, but so does virtually every other variety of wild rice soup, including those at restaurants such as Panera.  As scary as it is, I think knowing what you are eating, helps you decide how to serve food around it. Sometimes the need for a warm comforting meal, even when time is a factor, overrules fresh and organic, particularly when it is waiting and ready to be prepared from your pantry.

Still, just as restaurants are being legally driven to provide nutritional details on wrappers and placemats, it is good to have a source to get the information a person may want.  Everyone knows McDonalds food eaten as a sole diet is not going to be good for you, but knowing the difference between  a Big Mac and a Quarter Pounder with Cheese, might be enough to alter a choice, or skip altogether and just get a single hamburger with a yogurt and apple slices. I'm not a nutritionist, but I did manage a government funded nutrition program contract for several years, so I can't plead complete ignorance on my food choices. With tools like Foodfacts and nutrition labels out in the open, it should make us more informed consumers.  Whether it changes behaviors is a discussion for another day.