"Meal kits": do you indulge in this practice?

[Gifted Gourmet]

At a time when TV food shows are popular and consumer interest in culinary matters has never been higher, food preparation skills are declining. Phrases such as pre-cut, pre-washed, ready-to-cook, ready-to-serve, instant, microwaveable and no-time or no-fuss preparation are replacing terms like basting, searing and sautéing in the common vernacular.

What is happening to us? Your opinion?

Do you opt for these "meal kits"? Infrequently? Often? Hide the wrappers in embarrassment?

I know, it's all about time ...

[Terrasanct]

I almost never buy any kind of convenience foods. But then, I work from home. I can understand why people do it. I don't like the way most of them taste. I have never understood things like Hamburger Helper, which are expensive and not any easier than making a similar dinner from scratch.

When I'm too tired to cook, we'll just eat soup or get pizza.

[highchef]

I buy pre washed spinach AND pre washed greens.The time consumption on these two items is worth the pre-packaged price imo. Now, the idea of frozen pb&j (without crust, mind you) just boggles my mind. What's that song? I would do anything for love, but I won't do that? Well, sorry, I won't do that.

[stringcheese]

I buy pre washed spinach AND pre washed greens.The time consumption on these two items is worth the pre-packaged price imo.

Same here. Sometimes I even buy the pre-packaged veggies, like shredded carrots. I find that I am much more likely to have a salad with dinner if I don't have to wash and dry the greens (I don't have a salad spinner--not enough storage space, I guess... ).

So many of those meal kits confuse me, though. Especially the crockpot meal kits. Does it really save that much time and effort? Seems like you could throw together a homemade crockpot meal in almost as little time as it takes to open the package, and it would be much, much higher quality in the end. Of course, I've never tried one of those-has anyone here? Your verdict?

When I *have* used the meal kits (I tried some when I was living alone and they first came out), I was left with a resounding impression of sodium. Not much flavor beyond "salty". No thanks...I like salt as much as anyone, but as a flavor enhancer, not the flavor itself!

[Jensen]

I'll also own up to the pre-washed spinach and greens. Sometimes I've even bought a salad-in-a-bag (complete with candied almonds, cranberries, and dressing).

There is a vendor at my local farmer's market who sells salad mix (tiny pieces of different greens and often flowers). There's always a line-up for his produce and I'm usually standing in that line. It does require a rinse though so perhaps it doesn't count?

[Eden]

I was the worlds biggest fan of washed spinach & salad greens until a few weeks ago, when we read a piece in Science News "Ready-to-eat spinach bears tough microbes (6/25/2005): Bagged spinach may contain a significant number of bacteria, many of which are resistant to several antibiotics." Sorry no link it's one of their subscribers-only articles, but you get the gist...

The research focused on one brand of bagged spinach, but it seems obvious to me that the same processing techniques are going to be used for most brands, and for other bagged greens as well so I'm having to go back to washing greens which I HATE

[jgarner53]

I have bought bagged greens before, but since my local produce purveyor has a lovely greens mix, I no longer bother with the bagged stuff. I will buy prepared stuff for snacks or days when I know I don't want to cook (things like Trader Joe's gyoza), but as for the kits? Nope. I tried Hamburger Helper a few times when I was just starting out after college but they just were so salty! I do admit, though, that the idea behind HH (esp. the cheeseburger macaroni) appeals to the child in me, but I'd probably be more likely these days to do it from scratch, if I did it at all.

I happened to see the pasta salad mix the other day at Target; I didn't even know they still made that stuff. How hard is pasta salad?

[LynDel]

I've stayed away from the meal kits. On one hand they seem a bit pricey. I'd like to believe I can assemble a crockpot meal putting together individual ingredients and still be more economical than the chicken in a pouch and add water. And I've always had to keep an eye on my cholesterol and it seemed easier to cut out the frozen ready to eat stuff.

People I know who use them will say they are time savers. A co-worker once told me she likes the fact she doesn't have to figure out what to buy for ingredients. Buy the package and everything comes with it. Oh well.

[LynDel]

Wait a minute, I just remembered....

Sometimes I crave Annie's Macaroni and Cheese. It's a comfort food snack. Pop the box and boil the pasta.

[mizducky]

My mom checked out the Hamburger Helper stuff shortly after it came out, decided it was a ripoff, and concocted her own version, which was quite yummy. We prompted dubbed the creation "Hamburger Thing," and it became a regular star of our family dinners when I was growing up.

As an adult, I tried the Hamburger Helper style mixes a few times, discovered they had enough sodium in them to turn me into a dirigible, and promptly dropped them.

I will buy bagged salad greens on the (rare) occasions I'm in the mood for a green salad. Once in a very blue moon will I do the prepackaged mac-and-cheese. But that's about it for me and the kits. They just don't inspire me very much--even their organo-groovy natural-foodstore counterparts. I did try a felafel mix a while back just to see how it tasted. Answer: just not very good.

[SuzySushi]

I buy bagged spinach and mixed greens, Kraft macaroni & cheese for my daughter (she doesn't like mac & cheese made from scratch with real cheese!), and the occasional box of Rice-a-Roni (which reminds me of my childhood). I also use Krusteaz Oat Bran Pancake Mix, which is delicious and I haven't been able to duplicate from scratch (it has apples in it.) I've never tasted Hamburger Helper or Shake & Bake!

[*Deborah*]

Those stir-fry in a bag things always look expensive, so I never get them, even the ones without meat. I can't imagine buying meat I couldn't see, all frozen in a bag!

I do buy salad in a bag, though, and those baby carrots.

[saskanuck]

I never buy any of the ready to cook mixes like the frozen crockpot dinners or Hamburger Helper, but I do keep Kraft Dinner on hand for my 7 year old. I'll even eat some of it with extra real cheese grated on top if I'm feeling lazy.

I buy bagged salad mixes when I don't have fresh greens from my garden or the farmers' market, and also buy pre-grated cheddar/jack cheese so my 11 year old can make his own quesadillas and grilled sandwiches.

Oh, and I always keep some good jarred pasta sauce on hand for a quick meal when we're rushed.

That's about all we buy for pre-packaged stuff. I do buy frozen vegetables in the winter when our supply of fresh produce is sub-par/wildly expensive.

[Terrasanct]

I don't think frozen stuff is convenience food. People can't go to the market every day.

[PopsicleToze]

I don't buy the meal kits, but I do head to the salad bar for prechopped vegetables when I'm short on time.

[melkor]

Aside from supplies for backpacking trips, I buy almost no convenience items. The closest I get is buying mustard instead of making my own; ketchup is worth making myself. Veg comes from the garden, farmers market, or a local grocer – almost never from a place like safeway and certainly never in a bag. If you have anything that remotely resembles decent knife skills you save almost no time buying pre-cut veg and the difference in quality is enormous. I buy bread, that’s a convenience item, but a necessary one since my bread baking ability is questionable at best.

Food tastes better if at each step of the way the ingredients are taken care of. My morning latte is vastly better than what I can get at a café because I take the time to properly roast and cool the beans, I give them time to gas out, and I take the time to properly steam the milk and pull the shot. The same is true for something as simple as a salad – if you spend the time to find the best greens you can, clean and dry them carefully, and make a dressing that goes with whatever type of greens you bought, you’ll have a much better dish than opening a bottle of dressing and pouring it onto a sack full of greens.

I suppose I’d feel differently about it if I didn’t have time to cook, but I do, so there isn’t any excuse not to do things right.

[daniellewiley]

I do admit, though, that the idea behind HH (esp. the cheeseburger macaroni) appeals to the child in me, but I'd probably be more likely these days to do it from scratch, if I did it at all.

←

If you are truly intrigued, Annie's makes an organic version that is actually quite tasty and not terribly salty. We like the beef stroganoff. The ingredients list is short, and for a once in a while thing, I don't mind doing it.

My husband and daughter eat more helpings of this than many other more gourmet meals!!

[jgm]

I'm a big fan of bagged salad, and I often grab other salad ingredients off the salad bar.

When we first married, my husband and I often ate Hamburger Helper, the frozen stir fry kits, etc., and we liked a lot of it. Then I started cooking, and now that we're eating "real" food, the packaged stuff just doesn't taste very good, so we don't buy it.

My husband continued to eat a lof of prepackaged foods after he got home from work; he works second shift and I work regular business hours. But the beer gut turned into a keg, and finally he decided he had to start eating better foods. He's now lost more than 50 pounds. On weekends, he will eat the "old" foods, but during the week, he sticks to the good stuff. Last weekend he told me that the local grocery store has changed their fried chicken recipe, and he doesn't like it now. They haven't changed it --I asked-- his palate's just improved.

[ingridsf]

I buy Lundberg's Parmesean Risotto in a box. Yeah. I know how to make a good risotto. But I actually like this stuff because it's not too salty. I also -- sigh -- like Ragu Classico Spicy Red Pepper, esp with Italian sausage and penne. And I grew up with a mother who never bought a jar of spaghetti sauce!

Sausage is kind of like a meal kit, isn't it?

I get the Lundberg mix through my organic produce home delivery. They have a thing called Farm Fresh Meal Kits. Basically what you're paying for is someone to do all your prep. You get to be like a tv cook, literally all you do is cook it. (And clean up, of course!) I have to admit they're tempting, and at least one features Rancho Gordo's beans.

The thing is, when I don't feel like cooking, I don't feel like cooking. That's when I pick up the phone and support my local Thai restaurant. That's me -- I CARE about my community.

(Those products like Skillet Sensations don't appeal to me. They still take some effort -- again, when I'm feeling lazy, I'm lazy.)

[misstenacity]

I love Starkist tuna "meal kits", when I can get them at Target for a buck each.... They are preferable to a protein bar, if that's my only other option for a snack.

(I've found that Target doesn't have a lot of food items, but if they have it, its damn cheap - like cereal and energy bars in particular)

Andrea

....who ate her fair share of boxed mac & cheese, hamburger helper, and 'noodles & sauce' in her college days....

http://tenacity.net

[cakewalk]

I don't think frozen stuff is convenience food.  People can't go to the market every day.

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That's precisely why they're convenient. I don't think convenience foods are necessarily negative, although they often carry that connotation. I appreciate convenience. A lot. But there's often a trade-off, and the question becomes -- what are you willing to give up for that convenience? Taste? More money?Everyone draws the line at his/her own place, of course.

I buy bagged spinach and, less often, bagged salad greens because I know I'll eat more of it that way, so it's worth it to me. It's convenient. To others, it might not be.

[purplewiz]

What is happening to us? Your opinion?

We don't have any time to cook. This promise of technology giving us more leisure time was a lie.

Do you opt for these "meal kits"? Infrequently? Often? Hide the wrappers in embarrassment? 

←

Meal kits? No, because most of them take about as much time as cooking it from scratch. They just take less thought.

But bagged salads, prewashed broccoli and cauliflower florets for snacks, stuff like that, yup, I use it. Without it, I probably wouldn't eat as many salads and vegetables. Out of all the prep jobs with cooking, I find vegetable wash/peel/chop to be among the most boring.

(Ok, second only to peeling and deveining shrimp. But did you know you can buy shrimp already peeled and mostly deveined?)

Marcia.

[Terrasanct]

I keep veggies in my freezer because I run out of fresh ones too quickly. I suppose that's a convenience food, but I was thinking more of the things that are prepared or partially so. But then, frozen veggies are often more fresh than what you get in the supermarket.

Most prepackaged foods are high in sodium and other things that I don't really want. I always wonder when I eat a can of soup--does anyone really like this much salt? I have to drain out most of the broth and replace it with water just to make it somewhat palatable.

[Pam R]

I buy the pre-washed salad/lettuce mixes. They actually have a flavour I don't really like. And fresh whole romaine, butter lettuce etc. taste so much better. But after cooking at work all day, washing lettuce when I get home from work is not something I want to do.

The other thing I'll do occasionally is pre-made hamburgers. We sell chicken burgers (which just need some seasoning) and pre-seasoned hamburgers that I like. I can throw them onto a hot bbq frozen - so dinner is ready in 10.

[easternsun]

At a time when TV food shows are popular and consumer interest in culinary matters has never been higher, food preparation skills are declining.  Phrases such as pre-cut, pre-washed, ready-to-cook, ready-to-serve, instant, microwaveable and no-time or no-fuss preparation are replacing terms like basting, searing and sautéing in the common vernacular. 

What is happening to us? Your opinion?

Do you opt for these "meal kits"? Infrequently? Often? Hide the wrappers in embarrassment? 

I know, it's all about time ...

←

sometimes it is not just about time but about availability of ingredients. - and time!

i buy some thai goods already mixed up because most days i CANT get some herbs and the thai grocery is half way across town. thai green curry paste　from mae ploy and chili sauce with holy basil leaves are my friends

i think those bagged salads and pre-cut veggies definitely encourage consumption of greens but everytime i look at them all i can think is bacteria in a bag.