Did you know that a recent survey declared that the number one consideration when people are deciding on dinner is convenience? Convenience trumps cost, nutrition and even taste. Modern food manufacturers understand this information all too well. They use it to their advantage to provide high cost convenience foods in small portions. What is more, these foods usually contain quite a number of artificial ingredients.
There are more and more convenience foods on the market than ever before and less staples out there. Did you know that cereal was once the ultimate convenience food? Now it is often seen as a usual part of breakfast.
The problem with convenience foods is that unless you have the time to match up high value coupons and sales every single time you purchase a convenience food, you’ll pay anywhere from twice to four times the cost of creating the same food from scratch.
Still, your time is worth some money, right? So let us talk about having the convenience without the convenience foods.
Practice bulk cooking. Yes, you still have to do some cooking, but cooking up a big batch usually requires the same amount of work as cooking a smaller batch. Think about mashed potatoes, for example. There are plenty of ready to hear versions on the grocery store shelves. Instead, cook up five pounds of mashed potatoes at once and then freeze them in muffin cups. You’ll get the equivalent of about five of those ready potatoes. Your cost: $2.50 including the butter and milk. The convenience potatoes cost: $3.50 x 5 = $17.50, plus you often have to add your own butter.
Use the slow cooker. Using a slow cooker of crockpot is an easy way to have a hot dinner at the end of the day. Just throw the ingredients into the pot in the morning. To me, this can be more convenience that opening up those convenience kits and assembling them. You can make almost anything in your crockpot, including breads and cakes. I simply threw some carrots and onions at the bottom of a crockpot and added a whole chicken, one cup of water and some seasoning. This is a practically no fuss, less than 10 minutes prep time dinner that will feed us for three days. Add some potatoes to the pot or heat up a bag of frozen peas to complete the meal.
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