As I sat here tonight preparing my green-beans for dinner, I wondered why I have such an issue about ‘fresh’ foods vs frozen or dried stuff.
What do you always buy ‘fresh’…even if there is a perfectly acceptable frozen variety that can be substituted?
Pizza.
You mean vegetables aren’t grown in a little box with a green man on it?
[sub]I should’ve known, somehow. The ratio of peas to carrots was too perfect.[/sub]
I don’t buy canned fruit, ever. I just don’t like the syrup, even “lite” syrup. It grosses me out.
I also don’t get Pepperidge Farm’s frozen garlic toast. Why the hell would you buy frozen toast? Seriously, people. It’s toast. And it would take longer to bake frozen toast than it would be to…you know…toast some bread. This is baffling to me. Ditto for the frozen scrambled eggs. I just can’t even imagine that. Good God.
Beyond that, I have no qualms about buying anything frozen; I’m the girl who buys the pre-packaged salads, too, because I can’t be bothered assembling the ingredients for a salad myself.
I saw frozen mashed potatoes in the store the other day. Who would purchase such a thing? And then, of course, there’s flakes …
The only way to do mashed potatoes is to buy russet potatoes, peel them, cut them up, boil them, and mash them with butter, salt and milk.
I agree with Audrey, too. Frozen scrambled eggs? Toast you thaw, then bake? That is just wrong on so many levels.
Oh, and now the busy mom/dad can buy peanut butter slices. Just like cheese slices, only it’s peanut butter. Or, if you are REALLY pressed for time, you can buy premade PB&J sandwiches. Both of those sound really revolting to me. Plus I’m thinking that if you don’t have time to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, you really need a little more down time in your life.
One time, I bought some TGI Friday’s spinach artichoke dip, 'cause we wanted some quick snack foods. Turns out they forgot the cheese and artichokes; what we got in the package resembled creamed spinach. Blech. Never again. I’ll make homemade (got a great recipe for it), even though it’s a bit time consuming.
Canned or frozen lettuce sucks.
Fresh veggies. And I always make soup. Why would anyone buy canned soup when making it takes about 20 minutes?
Bread must always be fresh-baked, and must never ever be put into plastic bags under any circumstances.
Onions. They are so cheap.
I have no idea who they sell onion powder to.
Fruits of all kinds. I don’t mind dried fruit and prunes and grapes, but never buy them.
And dried fruit chips sound great for hikers because they are lightweight, but never bought them either.
I second the onions, and raise you garlic and almost any vegetable. The only ones I will buy frozen are peas and sometimes corn. And why would anyone buy canned vegetables? They are disgusting (Except beans; these are a wonderful convenience canned). Especially root vegetables; the fresh ones keep for months, so why would you buy them canned? There are a couple of fruits I occasionally buy canned (pineapple, for example, and only in its own juice), but ony to use as part of a recipe.
Ditto on the soup. I love my Crock-Pot. And I really don’t understand the thinking behind some convenieence foods. Does anyone remember Pour-a-Quiche? Eeeeewww! The first time I saw the ad, I thought it was one of those fake Saturday Night Live ads.
Being a bachelor, I tried this for a while, as I found that my lettuce and such just weren’t lasting long enough for me to use them (plus, there is always that “laziness factor” that was one of the prime reasons - the reason I never used it fast enough was that I was too lazy to make a salad in the first place).
I did this for a few months and then one day had some guests and made a proper salad. I forgot just how much better fresh stuff tastes over those bags of salad. I’ve since switched back and will never go back to bags of salad again. To make sure I actually use the stuff before it rots, I force myself to make a salad almost every day.
I love to cook, and prepare most everything from scratch. I like that for several reasons: freshness, and thus, taste; I know what’s going into my food; handpicked quality of ingredients.
Canned? I do buy canned whole corn - I find it’s an acceptable substitute for fresh when fresh is unavailable. Canned beans, like garbanzos (Goya are best), and peeled tomatoes. Don’t buy anything frozen, though I will buy cartons of berries in August and freeze them for winter months. Chicken, too. But again, even with those two items, it’s purchased FRESH. I’ll even go to the live poultry shop if it’s not too out of the way.
And I try to buy seasonally, i.e., no peaches in December, no mangoes in May, spinach mostly in the spring, apples in autumn, etc.
I used to believe in organic, but I’m not so sure anymore. I’ve never been able to tell the difference taste-wise, and in fact, have found produce which is not certified organic (i.e., normal produce from the store) almost always better-tasting.
Onion and garlic powder have desirable qualities when cooking - the flavor is more concentrated than with fresh, and it’s a snap adding it to sauteed tomatoes, lentils, stirfried anything, etc., almost like a spice. I honestly have to say that garlic powder is essential to my kitchen cabinet.
I prefer fresh to frozen or canned. However since I live by myself and am financially challenged, frozen/canned food is often cheaper and allows me to stock up when it is on sale. If the ingredient is really the basis of the meal, I’ll do fresh if possible or if the fresh is on sale when I need it. Frozen/canned also allows for impromptu cooking. As long as I have onions and garlic in the house, I can make a variety of dishes without going to the store. Put some chicken in my fridge and I can cook enough different dishes to feed myself for a month and not get sick of the same old food.
You must be one of those super-organized people, Man With Two Brains, who never runs out of onion or garlic. I generally keep fresh on hand, but I’ve gotta have a backup. Better onion flavor from a powder than no onion flavor at all.
I have a friend who only uses the powder as she can’t stand the texture of real onions.
They have canned lettuce?
Not to my knowledge, no.
I simply have amazing powers of deduction and can determine site unseen and taste untasted that canning or freezing lettuce would break down the cell walls making it limp and wilted. Lettuce is good when crunchy, and sucky when wilty. Ergo, canned or frozen lettuce would suck. 
The only things I ever buy from the produce section are onions and fruit. I don’t mess with any canned fruit, but for veggies it’s me and the green guy, microwave all the way.
I do eat fruit everyday, and that’s gotta be the real thing.
I order all my blancmanges fresh from Notlob. Er. Bolton.
Not fresh vs. frozen, but in the same vein–mozzarella. Must be fresh and packed in water, not pre-grated in a horrible little zip-lock bag (or worse).
For what it’s worth, I know about frozen lettuce. I had made a big batch of taco fixin’s to refrigerate for future single-taco meals, including a sealable container full of shredded lettuce. This container made it to the back of my fridge, which was turned (up? down?) too cold, and the lettuce was frozen, but not a solid block, just individual frozen shreds. I thought, wow, frozen lettuce, that’s gonna be REALLY crunchy! Ugh! Disgusting! Slimy, limp, textureless strands of gunk. Don’t try this one at home, kids! Fresh lettuce, by the head, every time.
I feel that way about parmesan (or, ‘Chuck-Cheese’ as the kids like to call it). A good fresh parmesan is wonderful…a packet of the grated stuff really DOES smell and taste like chunder.