Laziest products

[gingerbeer]

An article from the Guardian today about the laziest food products: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/200...eggs-lazy-foods

What are some that you can think of? Any you'd never use and ones you never would?

Here are some I admit to using:

- Pre-sliced cheese (I know!)

- Frozen chopped onions (I have overactive tear ducts so chopping onions is truly a trauma for me)

- Box cake mixes (when I don't care/have no time)

- Crushed ginger/garlic (I think this is different though, plus this is a regular in Indian cooking that my grandmother always used)

- Pre-chopped garlic (I don't know why and never again, it didn't even taste like garlic)

[chezcherie]

The worst one I've seen are pre-scrubbed baking potatoes, wrapped in plastic, presumably microwave-ready. I only hope they pre-poked them with a knife so they don't explode. I mean, reallly???!!! Who is THAT pressed for time?

[gingerbeer]

The worst one I've seen are pre-scrubbed baking potatoes, wrapped in plastic, presumably microwave-ready. I only hope they pre-poked them with a knife so they don't explode.    I mean, reallly???!!! Who is THAT pressed for time?

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The worst is when you go shopping and they ONLY have those things. I had 10 mins to do some shopping today and went to M&S, and they only had microwave ready carrot sticks/peas/potatoes.

I've also seen pre-boiled & peeled eggs.

[cbread]

precooked bacon?

[Toliver]

Batter-Blaster

Pre-made Pancake Batter in a pressurized can.

[BarbaraY]

precooked bacon?

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It's already here in our markets. Wouldn't touch it with a stick.

[Hard H2O]

Batter-Blaster

Pre-made Pancake Batter in a pressurized can.

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I tried that stuff. It was not very good. I think there is too much air in it when you squirt it out. It was hard to get the temp of the pan right. They were either over or under done. I couldn't find the sweet spot.

I thought it would be easy to do letters and shapes for the kids. That didn't work out so great either. The stuff was too thin.

The flavor on the ones closest to being cooked right was OK.

I used up the whole can in one session. It was fun to use. The can is just like a Reddi Whip can.

[gingerfreak]

Peanut butter slices!

http://www.pbslices.com/

[gingerbeer]

Oh whoa all of these are terrible but I think peanut butter slices is the worst.

Also, frozen scrambled eggs.

[Beebs]

Pre-toasted and buttered toast. I forget where I saw/heard of this.

[Jamon.Iberico]

Have y'all seen those bagel twinkies? Bagels that look like Twinkies, but stuffed with cream cheese. What the fuck kind of tripped out, strung-out, drunk of his/her ass chimp came up with such a thing? When I saw those in the freezer section of my grocery store, I almost had an epileptic seizure.

Bagel stuffed with cream cheese

(not my photo).

[Hard H2O]

Have y'all seen those bagel twinkies?  Bagels that look like Twinkies, but stuffed with cream cheese.  What the fuck kind of tripped out, strung-out, drunk of his/her ass chimp came up with such a thing?  When I saw those in the freezer section of my grocery store, I almost had an epileptic seizure.

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Another product we have tried. Anything to get the daughter off to school on time.

They are terrible. Neither the bagel nor the cream cheese is edible.

[P1800Girl]

I thought it would be easy to do letters and shapes for the kids. That didn't work out so great either. The stuff was too thin.

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Hey HardH2O,

Your kids might be impressed if you can nail down this method:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/how-to/flapjack...ures/index.html

-sabine

Edited March 17, 2009 by P1800Girl (log)

[Hard H2O]

I thought it would be easy to do letters and shapes for the kids. That didn't work out so great either. The stuff was too thin.

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Hey HardH2O,

Your kids might be impressed if you can nail down this method:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/how-to/flapjack...ures/index.html

-sabine

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After my expeiments with the Batter Blaster I was thinking of just using a squeeze bottle.

I use kind of the same method but my shapes and designs are quite a bit simpler. You lay down in reverse whatever shape you want darkest. Then you cover with more batter. Flip and you are done.

[Peter the eater]

Have y'all seen those bagel twinkies?  Bagels that look like Twinkies, but stuffed with cream cheese.  What the fuck kind of tripped out, strung-out, drunk of his/her ass chimp came up with such a thing?  When I saw those in the freezer section of my grocery store, I almost had an epileptic seizure.

Bagel stuffed with cream cheese

(not my photo).

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You said what we-all were thinking, and in a very amusing way.

I bought a good lazy product -- concentrated tomato paste in a fat toothpaste-like tube. Considering how much work is involved getting a thick paste from actual tomatoes, and the only ingredient is tomatoes, I like it.

[ravenshadow13]

The canned pie fillings are kind of a cop out, but not too bad. I was going to say the pancake blaster and the cream-cheese filled bagels but those are already covered! I can't believe they sell precooked, peeled hard boiled eggs...

Oh! Shucked corn wrapped in plastic.

Boo =(

[sparrowgrass]

Sliced mushrooms. Half again as expensive as whole 'shrooms, and I will bet you a dollar nobody brushed the dirt off before they sliced 'em.

[Reignking]

Bottled water. Because taps are too difficult to use.

Seriously, I know there are good things about it -- your water at home is off, you are on the road, you don't have carbonated coming out of the tap -- but the explosion in bottled waters is/was excessive.

[WK2]

I met the bagel-twinkie person, or at least one of them. You get some goofy results out of focus groups, sometimes. "People love our cream cheese. (yay!) People really love bagels (yay!). But buying bagels and putting our cream cheese on them is inconvenient (boo!) It involves knives and things. Also, people like breakfast bars (yay!) So let's somehow combine our cream cheese with bagels in something that looks like a breakfast bar!

But I think the worst product is the ready made peanut butter sandwich. I mean, come on. It can't take more than 30 seconds to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for your kid.

Edited March 17, 2009 by WK2 (log)

[Lilija]

Those frozen premade peanut butter sandwiches...because a pb sammie is so complicated to throw together... Edit: I see those have been called out too: Tragic, they are.

I was gonna call out peanut butter slices, and preocoked bacon, but I see we've already covered them.

Also, the stuff that's crowding out the meat section at our local Stop & Shop those "like home" pot roasts, and stews, already soaking in their own modified food starch gravy, to go with those lovely refrigerator section buckets of cold mashed potatoes (that cost like $5 for a few servings)...LAZY.

Now, on to my lazy admission. I buy huge jars of minced garlic. I use fresh garlic a lot, too, but when I'm not in the mood to lovingly peel and mash 20 cloves of the fresh stuff, I dig a scoop out of the pre minced. A few years ago, I bought some, because my friend insisted that it was the secret to making her arroz con pollo (and, for real, it was...fresh garlic just doesn't taste the same). Now, I find myself using it kinda frequently.

Edited March 18, 2009 by Lilija (log)

[Peter the eater]

Peanut butter slices!

http://www.pbslices.com/

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Wow.

That product is new to me. I saw the link briefly, the site's goofy arcade aesthetic is hard to look at. Is the peanut butter cold, or frozen? Has it been chemically altered to remain between two slices of plastic from factory to table?

[christine007]

Frozen, mashed potatos. Cause it's so F@#$$% hard to boil and mash potatos.

Takes a degree from a culinary school, right?

[gingerfreak]

Peanut butter slices!

http://www.pbslices.com/

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Wow.

That product is new to me. I saw the link briefly, the site's goofy arcade aesthetic is hard to look at. Is the peanut butter cold, or frozen? Has it been chemically altered to remain between two slices of plastic from factory to table?

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I've never actually seen these things but remember reading a snarky article about them a while back. Apparently they solve the problem of overprocessed white bread tearing when spreading normal PB. Oh, and these are FUN!!!

I have no idea what they've done to it to make it stay in that form, and I don't want to! Seems that info is overlooked in the website's wackiness.

Other lazy products: anything "portion-controlled". Come on. You want to lose weight, how hard is it to figure out your own portions?

[TheFoodTutor]

"Pasta Anytime." You know, because boiling water is so labor-intensive.

[Mayhaw Man]

Ice tea by the gallon for 3 or 4 bucks a pop.

Maybe it's where I'm from or something, but it cracks me up to see people buying jugs of iced tea. Hell, you don't even have to boil water. Just get some tea bags, a jug, and some water. Stick it in the sun. Waalaaah! Tea. A gallon of FRESH tea for about fifty cents.