Why does anybody buy . . .

[feedmec00kies]

Minute Rice

T

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I was thinking of that, too! I think Minute Rice is one of the reasons many North Americans think they don't like rice (kind of like me and my KD hatred). The first time I had Minute Rice, I think I might have been in my early 20s. Having grown up eating jasmine rice, I was really horrified. If you don't have a rice cooker, is boiling a pot of water to make rice really much harder than minute rice? Even the cheap long-grain rice is better that Minute Rice!

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Amen to that!

[divalasvegas]

I was in the freezer section the other day and actually saw pre-cooked bacon and cheese hamburgers that was pre-formed and in microwave packages. (I forget the brand name)

That sounds like something one could buy from the White Castle brand of frozen products.. Well, maybe not with bacon, but they sold 2-packs of frozen White Castle cheeseburgers in the "corner store" at school. Disgusting.

Speaking of food sold to college students with either no self-control, tastebuds, or drug-induced super-hunger...

I just thought of something to add to the list:

[insert drumroll]

Warm Delights by Betty Crocker

(I knew a girl who tried to act like she knew how to eat and cook but swore by this *&%$ last year when they appeared! )

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What's especially insidious about this product feedmecOOkies is that they gave a seriously food porn name/slogan--"Warm Delights: You're Just Three Minutes From Heaven"--to yet another substandard just-add-water boxed dessert.

Come to think of it, that name and slogan actually sounds like it would be better applied to REAL porn.

[GlorifiedRice]

Speaking of food sold to college students with either no self-control, tastebuds, or  drug-induced super-hunger...

I just thought of something to add to the list:

[insert drumroll]

Warm Delights by Betty Crocker

(I knew a girl who tried to act like she knew how to eat and cook but swore by this *&%$ last year when they appeared! )

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Thats basically ADULT EASY BAKE OVEN fare

[BekkiM]

Aunt Jemima "syrup"

[eskay]

Oh, I've got another one: Frozen premade sushi. I was amazed to discover that this actually exists when it appeared in our freezer one day.

[Pam R]

Why don't you use olive oil? It's good tasting and it's good for you. Margarine is neither.

I would use olive oil if it were appropriate for the dish, but if you need it to taste like butter, that wouldn't work. And some margarines are about as good for you as vegetable oil, or even contain olive oil.

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I use olive oil where possible, but there are times where you'd rather use butter, but can't. If you keep kosher and you're having a meat meal, that means you need something else for the mashed potatoes, baked potatoes (should we get into soy sour cream?), cookies, cakes, icings, etc. I swear by Earth Balance. I use the sticks for baking and the tubs for other stuff. I also sell a lot of it.

[Icanmakeit]

I buy the pre-formed patties sometimes, even though I think they're pretty bad.  My husband is a picky eater and won't eat a real-looking hamburger patty because he thinks they should look like what you get at McDonald's. 

As far as orange cheese, it's almost impossible to get cheddar that isn't orange in the west.  I noticed when I lived in New Jersey that there was all kinds of white cheddar.  Not sure why that is.

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You need one of these.

http://www.tupperware.com.au/dir063%5Cwebt...ges/burgerpress

I always wondered who would use it.

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[MomOfLittleFoodies]

Oh, I've got another one: Frozen premade sushi.  I was amazed to discover that this actually exists when it appeared in our freezer one day.   

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Ew. Ew. Ew.

That's hideous!

[GlorifiedRice]

http://www.banzai-sushi.com/newsletters/Re...mer_Current.htm

I saw this brand at Whole Foods.

Wouldnt the rice get hard?

[BekkiM]

http://www.banzai-sushi.com/newsletters/Re...mer_Current.htm

I saw this brand at Whole Foods.

Wouldnt the rice get hard?

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And the featured sushi is California Roll... CAN you freeze avocado? Wouldn't it get slimy? Ewwwwwwwww....

[eskay]

Wouldnt the rice get hard?

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In the name of Science, I went and poked at the remains sitting in the fridge. Yes the rice gets hard.

[CaliPoutine]

http://www.banzai-sushi.com/newsletters/Re...mer_Current.htm

I saw this brand at Whole Foods.

Wouldnt the rice get hard?

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And the featured sushi is California Roll... CAN you freeze avocado? Wouldn't it get slimy? Ewwwwwwwww....

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When I first moved to Ontario from California, I'd see haas avocado's on clearance for 99cents( and that was for 10 of them). I succesfully freeze them( and I show you how in my first EG foodblog). I scoop them out of the shell, throw a few pits in and cover with a layer of lime juice. When I'm ready to use them, I scrape off the top layer and make quacamole with them. I usually use them in a 7 layer dip where you can't really see them. They lose some of their vibrant green color, but the flavor is still there.

[eskay]

Why do you add the pits? I checked your blog to see if it's mentioned there, but I didn't see anything; sorry if it was.

[Jaymes]

I didn't know you could freeze bacon.  Well, I'll be.  I eat very little bacon, and I don't like smelling up my house and greasing up my stove for it, so I usually get an order at the coffeeshop and let them thicken the grease on their own exhaust system.  But I could see cooking it and freezing it.  Nice tip.  Thanks.

Bacon freezes brilliantly. But I freeze it uncooked. Just four slices or so in plastic sandwich bags. And then pull them out and stick them in the microwave. Takes literally seconds to cook. Sign me up with the crowd that´s puzzled such a thing as pre-cooked bacon even exists.

Salsa is so easy that to me it´s a shame the stores are full of Pace products. I really dislike that stuff. If you HAVE to buy jarred or canned salsa, at least buy a decent brand like Herdez.

[Terrasanct]

Salsa in jars makes a nice ingredient for some dishes, though. Or if you want a late night snack of chips and cheese with salsa. Of course the quality isn't the same, but it's still fine in its own right.

I might wonder why anyone would buy the sliced, boring bread at the store when homemade is so much better...but we all know that most people aren't going to be making their own. It's about convenience.

[Jaymes]

Salsa in jars makes a nice ingredient for some dishes, though.  Or if you want a late night snack of chips and cheese with salsa.  Of course the quality isn't the same, but it's still fine in its own right. 

I might wonder why anyone would buy the sliced, boring bread at the store when homemade is so much better...but we all know that most people aren't going to be making their own.  It's about convenience.

Ah yes of course.

But homemade bread is nowhere nearly so easy to make as homemade salsa.

Which takes about five minutes tops.

[Octaveman]

Has this been said already?

....artichokes the size of the average coffee cup for $4 each. Screw that.

[faine]

I bought a bunch of organic grapes here in Great Barrington, MA for *eight dollars*. Holy smokes. I remember paying that much in yuan when I was in China over the summer! Definitely NOT equivalant. (They were pretty good grapes, though.)

Salsa in jars can occasionally be acceptable, though I refuse to allow Pace to pass my lips. There's a brand whose name I cannot remember at all that's sold at Raleys home in Sacramento. It's chipotle flavored and it's actually pretty darn good as long as it's chilled.

I'm with you guys: frozen premade sushi sounds like an absolute crime against nature and possibly motherhood and apple-pie. Ew ew ew.

I'm in college right now and I am forever mystified by the kind of gunk my cohorts survive on. A few kids I know seem to subsist on instant Hamburger Helper (Freeze dried beef included in the package!), instant mac n' cheese (off brand) and the occasional hit of Amy's Shells for the "healthy" factor. A boy I know actually got scurvy last year. Twice.

[qrn]

Bacon.... fold/roll each slice up in a paper towel, so you have at least two layers on each side.Put it on a plate and In the m/w on high for minute 45 or so. Take it out of paper and let cool a few seconds. Crispy, and ready to eat...Tough to do more than three or four, but easy. Doesn't splatter etc.

Only problem is you don't have the grease to put on the.....whatever,,,or fry the onions or eggs.

Bud

[Pierogi]

I think Minute Rice is one of the reasons many North Americans think they don't like rice...

Oh. My. God.

I was like, 25 before I realized I actually liked rice, and it was because the only rice my mother ever served was Minute Rice. The BOX tastes better, I'm sure.

NASTY stuff. Bleech. Insert "pukie" icon here..........

[annieC]

That's 23 cents an ounce versus $4.60 an ounce (search for "yeast" under "gourmet food" on Amazon.com for a quick price comparison of several products). So it's exactly 20 times cheaper per ounce to buy a pound, and the overall purchase price is roughly equivalent as between a pound and .75 ounces. If one truly only uses .75 ounces of yeast before all the yeast dies, then the full-pound purchase is wasteful, but that stuff lasts a good long time especially if you refrigerate it and even more so if you freeze it -- freezing has worked for me for well over a year.

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I buy it at Sam's or GFS and then give little jars of it to all my friends once a year- they think its great I'm giving them such a 'gourmet' cooking item and I don't have to feel bad about wasting any. BTW- if you're really organized, you can even pre-measure your own little packets into Tuperware Smidget containers or something similar- 2 1/4 teaspoons by volume OR 1/4 ounce or 7 grams by weight equals one packet of yeast (I have it on a cheat sheet inside one of my cabinets )

[annieC]

Well on that note, what about Soy Milk? OK, if you're lactose intolerant.. but for health reasons? Milk should not need an ingredient list. I do not believe for a moment that it is actually any better for you than real milk. There's just no way...

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What's even sadder is one of the major brands of Rice Milk has a recipe on the back of the tetrapak carton that calls for real cheese & real butter. If you're using Rice Milk, you are most likely allergic to dairy or have personal/religious reason for not ingesting dairy, but I guess the marketers never thought of that-lol.

Making your own soy milk, rice milk, almond milk, etc is pretty easy with basic kitchen equipment, even easy I would imagine if you spring for an Automated Soy Milk Maker. Some people balk that home made isn't fortified, like the store bought....so take whatever vitamin with your glass of home milk faux-milk!

[GlorifiedRice]

My salsa doesnt take 5 minutes, it takes 30 mins.

I am anal and only make one kind and it is gorgeous to look at

and in order to make it look gorgeous, I must make 8 cups at a time.

[feedmec00kies]

...A boy I know actually got scurvy last year. Twice.

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Awesome! I was always surprised I didn't know anyone who had scurvy at school, but the fact that my university forces students (starting with my year.. bah) to buy into meal plans means that only students older than me would have had an issue.

Doesn't mean that people ate much better though.

[Jaymes]

My salsa doesnt take 5 minutes, it takes 30 mins.

I am anal and only make one kind and it is gorgeous to look at

and in order to make it look gorgeous, I must make 8 cups at a time.

Beautifully said. Such love makes me smile.