Well I Never !!! (More Pre-cooked Food)

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Well I Never !! Never thought I would see the day the grocery store would be selling pre-cooked packaged bacon, and people buying it!!

Good Grief!! I mean I do admit to being a little lazy every now and then, but I will fry my own bacon!!

grumble grumble scheezzzzzzzz

Gene

-- gene ward (gward34847@aol.com), October 31, 2001

Answers

Response to Well I Never !!!

Ha, pretty soon they will be selling frozen toast.

-- jeanne (jcd51@webtv.net), October 31, 2001.

Response to Well I Never !!!

When my husband and I had a restaurant we bought "partially cooked" bacon to reduce the microwave residue and odor associated with cooking raw bacon, which is prodigious! I don't eat much bacon, but on the occasions I buy it, I get the pre-cooked for the same reasons, and also because it comes in smaller packages. When you think of all the convenience foods out there, and the reasons why they are so popular, you gotta give credit to pre-cooked bacon. I know, to frugal homesteaders it's akin to the old Space Food Sticks that were touted as having all the nutrition you need in a pre-packaged chocolate- flavored bar, but every situation has its own "particulars", is what I say. When I get my ranch in order, things will be different because I believe in the homesteader philosophy of self-sufficiency, but for now it serves the purpose.

-- Leslie A. (lesliea@mm2k.net), October 31, 2001.

Response to Well I Never !!!

It appears that from this point in time, most people will spend their entire lives never preparing raw food. People will remember the wonderful things their mothers could prepare on an old microwave and the rich smells that filled the kitchen when their mother opened the old microwave door.

-- paul (primrose@centex.net), October 31, 2001.

Response to Well I Never !!!

Leslie I think you could be on to something hear, not an all nutrition, pre-packaged chocolate-flavored bar, but an all nutrition, pre-packaged, chocolate- coated bar.

all we need to do to get it makeded by cathy and we got it made

(Cathy -> Cathy Guisewite AKA "Cathy" the Cartoon )

Julian

-- Julian (Julian_young@nl.compuware.com), November 01, 2001.


Response to Well I Never !!!

I haven't purchased it yet, but I think it is a great idea! The elderly would appreciate the convenience and small packing. I would imagine that some people who are really rushed for time would find it a life saver for quick BTL sandwiches.

-- Ardie from WI (ardie54965@hotmail.com), November 01, 2001.


Response to Well I Never !!!

Half the fun of eatting bacon is smelling it cooking!!!!!!!!!!

-- Teresa (c3ranch@socket.net), November 01, 2001.

Well, check this out....Yesterday while in the dairy section I noticed that they now have tubs of pre-made pudding. Good God! I bet someone in the store would come and eat it for you, too.

-- Robin in Kansas (robinatt@salpublib.org), November 01, 2001.

Lots of people think that heating up this food is called "cooking". ;>)

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), November 01, 2001.

Lets not forget that favorite staple - torn up lettuce pieces, etc. for salad in a nifty plastic bag! Preserved in who knows what type of solution!

-- Dottie Shafer (shaferd@msn.com), November 01, 2001.

I precook sausage in patties, then stack them in wide mouth canning jars and pressure them. Instant stacked sausage, just heat and eat. I learned to do this when we were without electricity after a hurricane. Same premise for meatballs, and can't see why you couldn't do bacon, especially bacon bits! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), November 01, 2001.


Precooked bacon in the grocery store is bad enough but what amazed me the first time I saw it was packages of precooked mashed potatoes. At over $2.00 for enough mashed potatoes for 1 meal.

-- Murray in ME (lkdmfarm@megalink.net), November 01, 2001.

Vicky, When you say "pressured" do you mean you put them in a pressure caner and bring the temperature up?? If so how high for how long?? This idea sounds like it could work for me. Sally

-- sally stanton (mallardhen67@hotmail.com), November 01, 2001.

I was watching a morning news show and they had a cooking segment a while back. It seems that they sell pre-cooked HAMBURGER. Like.. just crumbled up. Now it seems to me, if you are too busy to cook HAMBURGER for 5-15 min, then you are just too damn busy!!! Not to mention the germs that will survive since people will think it is already cooked, why heat it to the proper temp?!!?? UGH.

-- notnow (notnow05@yahoo.com), November 01, 2001.

Had to laugh! The comment about remembering the smell of mom's dinners comming from the microwave!:) I saw the packages of mashed potatoes too! I know I have seen frozen garlic toast! Gee that's hard, toast some bread, butter it and add garlic. I think it would take longer to open the package of frozen garlic toast. Prepared jello! Yuck! I too prefer to fry my own bacon. Smells great! I rush around enough, and get stuck eating fast food, I don't need Fast Home Food too!!

-- PJC (zpjc5_@hotmail.com), November 01, 2001.

Just think! At one time store bought sliced bread was a new convenience! Things certainly have changed in the last 100 years. I'm one of those people that will stick to homemade everything. I am glad that I am lucky enough to have the time to make everything from scratch. Pre-cooked bacon sounds awful! Just my opinion.

-- cowgirlone (cowgirlone47@hotmail.com), November 01, 2001.


Hey Vicki, During Y2k one of my wife's friends pressure canned some hot dogs. They looked so gross after they were done that she re- labeled them DOG FOOD! She also did hamburger patties but don't know the temp. or time. Ron in E. WA

-- Ron (Ron @Verizon.com), November 01, 2001.

....And the folks buying this prepared "food" wonder why their kids have so many learning disabilities, Hyperativivity disorders, and asthma.....can't be that trendy could it?

-- Sandie in Maine (peqbear@maine.rr.com), November 01, 2001.

I stay away from pre-processed food as much as possible. Not only is the quality and ingredients questionable but because of the cost. For the price of one frozen TV dinner, I can feed myself and my kids cheaper and it really doesn't take much more time. Some of the meat in those processed foods closely resembles dog food. I doubt it's much different.

-- Dave (something@somewhere.com), November 01, 2001.

Maybe pre cooked eggs too?

-- renee oneill (oneillsr@home.com), November 01, 2001.

<>

cowgirlone your comment reminded me of something cute my little daughter said one day while we were grocery shopping. I guess she was either not very observant or had watched me slice so many loaves of homemade bread. Either way, we went through the bread aisle and she said "Mama look! They have bread and it's already been sliced!" I thought she was joking at first, but she wasn't. Wasn't that cute?

-- Nancy in Maine (paintme61@yahoo.com), November 01, 2001.


Renee, I saw hard boiled eggs in the deli section of a grocery store!

-- Ardie/WI (ardie54965@hotmail.com), November 01, 2001.

My favorite is Pre-Packaged Jello (water already added). I guess some people just can't master boiling water. Maybe we should have waterboiling 101 in school or something like that.

Talk to you later.

-- Bob in WI (bjwick@hotmail.com), November 01, 2001.


Hey Bob, apparently you've never been treated to a meal in an Army mess hall. They really CAN'T make jello! It's amazing! Runny on the top and almost crunchy on the bottom. Thank heaven for pre-made, huh? Now if they could only get a government contract!

-- Laura Jensen (lauraj@seedlaw.com), November 01, 2001.

I do child day care and the other day one of the moms came in while I was making breakfast....waffles....and was so shocked that I was making "real" waffles!! I didn't understand what she was talking about at first. Then she said she had only ever bought the frozen kind. I forgot about them...have never bought them (never will) Actually, the only time I go down the frozen food aisle at all is if I need frozen juice concentrate. And that is not often. I don't always know what is out there. Another gal brought frozen french toast over for the kids to have for a "treat". I make regular french toast at least once a week here. It was funny. Precooked bacon...ugh! Have you all heard about the peanut butter slices that are packaged like those american cheese slices???That takes the cake. Too dang lazy to spread peanut butter on bread.

-- Jenny (auntjenny6@aol.com), November 01, 2001.

I admit, I did not make my own waffles until I got married - I was raised with the frozen ones. But at least waffles require an extra piece of equipment to make them. Now there is also frozen French Toast and frozen pancakes! Also premade pancakes in the dairy section! And yes, I'm sure they are chock full of preservatives! People have been taught to believe that it takes two hours to make pancakes, I think! With the recipe memorized, it takes me about 5 minutes to assemble the ingredients and another 10 minutes to fry them for 6 people!

-- Christina (introibo2000@yahoo.com), November 01, 2001.

Just wanted to add...imagine what the early settlers of this country would think if they walked in to a modern day super duper grocery store...might make a great movie..

-- Christina (introibo2000@yahoo.com), November 01, 2001.

uggghhh. Laura, you just gave me a flashback to elementary school cafeteria lunches with their rubber-bottomed jello.

-- Steve - TX (steve.beckman@compaq.com), November 01, 2001.

Christina's comment brought back a memory: My friend Julius, after immigrating from a poor, civil war ravaged European country ( can't remember which one)to the US and working for several years had finally saved enough money to bring his wife and children over, the first time he brought her into a grocery store she fainted! Out cold! After spending all of her life, literally fighting over potato's at outdoor markets she couldn't believe you could just walk in and buy anything you wanted. Let's not forget how fortunate we are, spuds are spuds and ham is ham. How you choose to buy it, is personal.

-- Karen (karen2@bestweb.net), November 01, 2001.

My mother threw a big party for my Dad's 75 birthday combined with their 50 wedding anniversary, and the pre-cooked bacon sure did make those breckfasts easier! Of course, with 6 kids, in-laws, & grandkids there were an awful lot of people there who's stomachs were on different time zones! However, like a clever lady, SHE MADE THE PRE- COOKED BACON HERSELF AND FROZE IT INDIVIDUALLY! Whenever people wanted bacon she took out a few strips and microwaved it for a few seconds. It tasted pretty good, too.

-- Terri (hooperterri@prodigy.net), November 01, 2001.

Ah yes Gene; when I first saw the precooked it was 2OZ. for $4.

ets see 8 2OZ. packages times $4 = $32------for a pound of bacon!!!!

Step right up Sheeple..............

-- Jim-mi (hartalteng@voyager.net), November 01, 2001.


My husband has worked for a supermarket for 27 years, so I get to hear all about the modern food marvels. Do you want to know who he says buys most precooked, expensive, nutritionless foods--people using food stamps. Now I absolutely do not want to deny a poor hungry person a meal, but I wish they would realize how many more meals they would get out of a bag of potatoes versus those little baggies of yucky premade ones.--Vicki

-- vicki in NW OH (thga76@aol.com), November 01, 2001.

yup Vicki. People routinely pass over the dry beans and rice at the food banks but they sure snap up the canned spaghetti. A family of 3 can get nearly 300 a month in foodstamps. That's considerbly more than I spend on groceries for me and my 2 kids and we eat very healthy and still manage to have steak once or twice a week.

-- Dave (something@somewhere.com), November 01, 2001.

I agree..when I worked at a grocery store...I noticed the same thing. It is sad. They could get so much more out of that money!!

-- Jenny (auntjenny6@aol.com), November 01, 2001.

You know, by and large I abhor things like frozen french toast, prepackaged cooked pudding and so on, but at the same time, there is a good point here that people have different needs. Having dealt with a number of elderly relatives who have become increasingly unable to take care of their daily lives, I've thrown away a lot of wasted food that they couldn't cope with that small packaged items would have prevented. It's not a great solution, I REALLY hate all the plastic non-recyclable waste it generates, but I do not have time to spend my entire day running after them and doing their cooking for them (when they want to live on their own and not go into a nursing home).

We are currently dealing with elderly relatives who we have had to disconnect the stove on and limit them to microwave use only because they are too much of a fire hazard in cooking food that they forget about on the stove (and have lost enough cognitive function to even realize that that smell should be telling them something, or else they just go to bed, or wander out of the house entirely forgetting what they're cooking). The are working with a microwave and a lot of precooked convenience foods in order to not burn down the house with them in it.

Likewise, I've spent time on the phone over the years, verbally walking some young women through how to cook a meal that have NO idea how to. A lot of times I see comments about how abysmal this is that 'They' aren't teaching their children good values, but it is kind of hard for a mother to pass on cooking skills when she was killed in a car accident when the child was nine. She spent a lot of years relying on prepackaged food for meals until I gave her some basics and my favourite simple recipes and taught her how to prepare them.

Sometimes we also have to remember that it is a luxury to have good health, our parents, or parents that aren't incompetent (for one reason or another). I've taught quite a few people from disfunctional families how to cook for themselves.

-- julie f. (rumplefrogskin@excite.com), November 02, 2001.


VERY good point julie!!! It is so easy for us to criticize people who do not have our skills, but all too often it is just not something that they were brought up with and therefore do not even realize how much they could save if they could cook. I also have spent time over the years teaching those less fortunate how to cook from scratch and combine cheaper items to make a complete protein. Ignorance and laziness can sometimes be confused.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), November 02, 2001.

Some of the food horrors perpetrated with food stamps this week, a lady buying $36 dollars worth of Cadbury candy bars, a shopping cart full of 12 packs of Coke,(the lady told my husband that she wished her kids would drink more water, milk, etc., but they just didn't like the taste, so she knew what was more nutritious), 2, 2lb. bags of shrimp worth $32. By the way, who buys the most nutritious foods, the senoir citizens. I have taken bushels of produce to the local sharing kitchen, and have been told that I may as well take them back home because no one would want the vegetables and fruit. You can't tell me that no one doesn't know how to eat an apple or grapes. When my son was in public school they taught health and nutrition every year, so ignorance for most is no excuse. Also, it is mandatory in our school system for the kids to take a year of Life Skills, they teach cooking, budgeting, laundry and so on. Isn't anybody listening in class, or is this just another example of my taxes being frittered away?

-- vicki in NW OH (thga76@aol.com), November 02, 2001.

vicki, and your point would be??? Stop all food stamps and drown their puppies??? Have you collected any GOOD stories?? Would you share them??

Shame on your local sharing kitchens.........ours loves to have fresh produce and creates lists of people who would like to have it and conducts classes on how to preserve it. Does your area have a mentoring program??

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), November 02, 2001.


Diane, I have never said or thought to stop the food stamp program, only that it should only permit nutritious foods. I have this funny idea that food should be nourishing. No, my area does not have a mentoring program, that is a great idea. We do deliver, good homecooked meals to seniors and to the handicapped. They have become like family to us. Drowning puppies?--you've got to be kidding.

-- vicki in NW OH (thga76@aol.com), November 02, 2001.

thanks for the clarification vicki.....I too think there should be a list of acceptable foods to use the stamps on; like the WIC program does. Sorry for the puppy reference..........it actually comes from an old family joke. We used to have a really outrageous friend of the family with a very big heart who used to say "should have drown them when they were puppies" when anyone would complain about their children.

I am a person who has personally experienced being at the really "down and out" point that required a short-termed venture into the welfare system. It was no picnic I can guarantee you. I obviously didn't know how to play the system right because there was certainly no stamps to be used on anything except the most nutritious foods if I were to feed my children.

peace :>)

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), November 02, 2001.


Why do people on welfare have so many children? Do they make the best parents?

-- paul (primrose@centex.net), November 02, 2001.

Could work the other way. The more kids you have, the more likely you might have to seek assistance if you lose your job or income source somehow.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), November 02, 2001.

Just throwing this into the pot for amazing food stories and the stuff people don't learn at home: I knew a university student who told me she liked bananas, but since her roommates didn't, she couldn't eat them up fast enough and half of them would get rotten. I stared at her, amazed, then suggested she just buy 2 or 3. She said she could never find any bunches that were that small. Again, I was amazed. I told her to just break off how many she wanted from a bunch. She had NO idea that you could do that -- her family had lots of children in it and they had always just gotten the "big bunch". It probably never occurred to her mother to tell her that she didn't have to take the whole thing!

-- Joy F [in So. Wisconsin] (CatFlunky@excite.com), November 02, 2001.

I had a friend in his 30s who thought pickles came from a pickle plant. He had no idea they were cucumbers.

-- Dave (something@somewhere.com), November 02, 2001.

Joy, I had to admit to this and give all the people on this forum proof that I can be an idiot but here it goes. Until now I always thought IT WAS AGAINST THE RULES TO BREAK UP THE BUNCHES!!!! Yikes, I wonder how many other little things are out there that I thought were rules and are not.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), November 02, 2001.

I tear the grapes off the vines and pull the stems off the cherries and pull the stalk off the heads of brocolli and cauliflower! When you pay by the pound you might as well get your money's worth. Now if I could just trim the fat off all the meat before I buy it, I'd be content.

-- larry (karlog@rocketmail.com), November 02, 2001.

the stems off the cherries? Larry, please tell me you're kidding.

-- Dave (something@somewhere.com), November 02, 2001.

Well, apparently I've seen a bit more of what some people have to deal with. I've seen kids (during a stint in teaching) given an orange who were trying to bite through the peel,then give up on it because they couldn't eat it. They'd never HAD an orange offered to them at home apparently, or else never been shown how to peel one.

Had another person who lived on peanut butter sandwiches because those two things didn't go bad while she was living out of a car. She didn't even know how to cook a vegetable or rice because she had never been served it at home, nor taught how to cook by her alcoholic abusive mother who beat the whole family up and mostly threw a box of donuts onto the table while she drank her scotch. Even if her Catholic school upbringing had included something like Home Ec, it would be hard to do much cooking living in a car after her mother threw her out.

Another one had her mother abandon the family when she was ten and her brother was 8. Her father used to serve them casseroles made out of broken up crackers, ketchup and olives because he didn't know how to cook either, or didn't have the heart for it after working all day to support the family. No such thing as Life Skills classes taught in school.

I had a grandmother who taught me to bake bread when I was 5 and make soup, and a mother who taught me how to make meals so that by 14 I could make an entire Thanksgiving dinner for 26 people.

Be grateful that you are rich.

-- julie f. (rumplefrogskin@excite.com), November 02, 2001.


My My My !!!! Isn't it amazing how a simple thread topic can go through so many different twists and turns?

Where DID all these different thoughts come from?

Gene

-- gene ward (gward34847@aol.com), November 02, 2001.


Eggs do come pre-boiled - I worked in a restaurant where the eggs for the salad bar came pre-cooked in a long roll - somehow the yolks were forced together so that we just thawed the roll and sliced it with an egg slicer. Strangest thing I had ever seen at that point.

-- Linda Al-Sangar (alsangal@brentwood-tn,.org), November 04, 2001.

Like a couple of the above, I cook up bacon and breakfast patties in batches, freeze on cookie sheets and then keep them in the freezer in zip-lock bags. Takes just a minute or so to reheat.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), November 04, 2001.

Well lets see. Since Ken shared the idea last year, I pre cook some bacon, sausage , ham , chicken even steak and I have even started making my own "toaster scramblers" and freeze them all so I guess you can say I pre cook eggs too. I see so many of you laughing at pre- preperation of foods, but to be honest with you,I think its silly to buy them when you can make up a months worth for the freezer in one Sunday afternoon. I sure do like being able to get out of bed in the middle of the night and have a perfect steak as a mid nite snack in less than 10 minutes or a "homestead instant" sausage and egg breakfast in less than five if I'm in a hurry in the morning instead of a twinkie and a glass of milk.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), November 05, 2001.

My husband used to work at a church and we would get the "leftovers" from the food bank. We got a lot of slightly old but still good fruits and veggies, especially potatoes, yams and squash. We got a lot of weird canned stuff too, which I experimented with, but we drew the line at Spagetti-O's. Even the dog wouldn't eat it!

I make up a lot of my own pre-cooked meals for my husband, a non- cook. Then if I'm not home or sick I know that he & the kids will be eating something healthful.

-- Bonnie (stichart@plix.com), November 06, 2001.


When my husband's grandma died his grandpa did not want to eat anymore. He just was so depressed that he forgot sometimes what time it was. I started putting a serving of whatever we had that evening in a ziploc freezer bag and kept it in the freezer. Once a week I took him his little stack of goodies in single servings. Chili, stew, beans, chicken and noodles, roast beef, fried chicken, etc....lots of things freeze great! He loved it and started eating again! Easy for him to put on a plate and heat it in the microwave. Anyway....just thought that I would share that after enjoying all of the comments that you all have made. The visits once a week were probably as much a benefit to his eating as the food though! Boy do I miss him now that he is gone too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-- Nan (davidl41@ipa.net), November 07, 2001.

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