My State Fair prize winning pumpkin bread comes from AllRecipes and uses canned pumpking. (No cake mix, of course!)
IMS, there are (traditionally) 2 types of clam chowder: one is cream based, the other is not. One has thick chunks of potato, the other… not. One is called New England CC, the other Manhattan. I vaguely remember reading about this “controversy” a long time ago when I was (really) reading The Joy of Cooking for pleasure as a teen (I read a lot of odd stuff).
Clam chowder is like BBQ or chili–it varies by region and (for lack of a better word) culture.
I have made and had pumpkin muffins made from canned pumpkin and spice cake mix. They are good, but it’s almost as easy to make them from scratch (I do use canned pumpkin; hell, I’ll use canned sweet potatoes–drained and rinsed of their “light syrup”–in one sweet potato biscuit recipe I have). It does save time.
I’m not against white sugar or think that one must grow their own vanilla beans or whatever, but most cooking today is not hard and not beyond the reach of most people. You don’t have to be a foodie or a gourmet (I am neither) to make good, healthy meals for your family from scratch. It boggles my mind that people truly don’t do this! I mean, I like take-away as much as the next guy, but dinner from McDonald’s or similar just doesn’t happen in my house. Mickey D’s is for when we’re starting a long car trip, and even then we prefer to stop at Steak N Shake. YMMV and I’m veering OT. 
Canned pumpkin is one of those things that virtually all people agree is almost indistinguishable from the “from scratch” variant. I have NEVER heard someone say, after experimenting with home roasted/pulped pumpkin, “wow that was SO worth it.”
I’d like to point out that cake mix + canned pumpkin would be a HUGE step up for most of the people the OP is talking about, since using brownie mix was seen as a major accomplishment. Pumpkin does improve the nutrition and fiber content.
I do think a lot of the “bad” or “bad-ish” cooks I know shoot way too high and choose complex foo-foo recipes because somehow that is “real” cooking. Most of the stuff I cook for everyday is quite simple and doesn’t require much fuss. I have a lot of cookbooks that I use for even familiar recipes (Joy of Cooking, The Minimalist Cooks Dinner and The New York Cookbook are my go tos). I think some people think “real” cooks don’t follow recipes - total bunk. My husband thought I had some secret insight into lasagna and was amazed when I told him I just followed the recipe on the back of the noodle box. By following the recipe on the back of the noodle box, he too became a lasagna maestro.
Oh, I don’t have anything against canned pumpkin. I use it in pumpkin bread most of the time; I just happened to have the fresh pumpkin, so I used that.
Hello Again, I also use the lasagna recipe from the back of the box. It’s very good.
I’m a pretty good cook, but from time to time I have issues.
I’ve been reading the book Cook Wise. It has been a revelation. The reason why my pie crusts didn’t turn out? Probably due to the flour having the wrong protein content.
Anyway, nothing ventured, nothing gained. I have had mistakes turn out hockey pucks, and had them turn out wonderful.
I guess I was lucky. My mother encouraged my urge to cook (she bought me my very own copy of The Joy of Cooking when I was 7 
)
snerk
I went shopping with a close friend, a single unemployed mom with 2 kids. She could be one of the women in the OP’s board. I watched her grab 2 boxes of Minute Rice off the shelf at about $6 per box. I went to Goodwill and got her a used rice cooker, and bought a big bag of rice from the grocery store, both together costing less than her 2 boxes of Minute Rice. I told her to pay me back in what she saved from not buying Minute Rice for a week. She said she always wanted a rice cooker but never thought she could afford one. !?! Obviously, she could have gotten one brand new if she didn’t buy Minute Rice every week. This is a post-college-educated woman.
I have another friend who eats only what can be bought at a gas station mini-mart (fried burritos, frozen chimichangas, 2 hot dogs for a dollar, etc.). She actually lives 2 doors down from the mini-mart, but across the street from a real live grocery store. She’s 43, and from an (East) Indian family. I figure if she can live off of crap after being raised with some of the best food in the world, then there’s no hope for the human race.
The minute rice story is really typical. And when pointed out that you can get a 30 lb bag of rice for $20 at Costco or an Asian market (that lasts my rice eating family months), they will say that they use coupons for the Minute Rice and get BOGO. The fact that Minute Rice is still much more expensive - even with a coupon - doesn’t sink in. Coupons - in this world - magically make everything a bargain (which, I suppose they do - relative to the original price of the item. But that doesn’t mean Minute Rice is cheap compared to the huge bag from Mr. Kim’s Asian Grocery).
(We do our rice on the stovetop in a pan the old fashioned way. Yeah, takes 20 minutes rather than the eight of minute rice.)
That’s how I make rice, too. I don’t get rice cookers - what is the advantage? Is it just that it takes less time? We don’t have a lot of space in our house, so I don’t have a lot of different appliances, although I would really like to get a food processor.
I wouldn’t know a rice cooker if it bit me in the butt. I do it on the stovetop and it’s happening while the other food is cooking, so there’s no “added” time. I prefer cooking it myself to Minute Rice. That stuff has a strange texture to it, if you ask me.
See, I think attitudes like this are just totally unproductive. If you want people to cook more and take food seriously, to stop treating cooking as this fancy and rarefied skill, it’s a good first step to stop sneering at food they like, will eat, and are likely to actually try cooking.
It’s one of my pet peeves, really, the goddamn food snobs. Real butter, for instance, is not empirically better than margarine. I personally don’t care for the stuff–I think it tastes…pale and greasy, and gives baked goods a weird mouthfeel. And frankly, I’ve never had the foodiest foody turn down any of my cooking, not even the ones who look furthest down their noses at cooks who use things like margarine and fake vanilla. In fact, most of them seem to think it’s pretty damn good judging by all the snorking going on.
Okay, so cake mix with canned pumpkin (most versions of that I’ve seen have called for at least one egg for lift, but the pumpkin provides enough moisture you really don’t need the oil) isn’t haute cuisine. But it’s cheaper and healthier than a box of Ho Ho’s, and making that gets people in the kitchen seeing that cooking isn’t a big intimidating thing. And it helps people to see that pumpkin is pretty tasty even if they don’t like pumpkin pie. I’m all for it on all counts.
When I was a kid, I thought I only liked rice at Chinese restaurants. Later, I figured out that my mom bought Minute Rice, and that’s why I didn’t like rice at home.
For me, it’s that there is less thinking and checking involved. You don’t have to worry about turning the burner up or down, or stirring. You just put the rice, water, and salt in the rice cooker and turn it on at least 30 minutes before you want to eat. Then, with no further effort or thought on your part, there is rice when dinner is ready. You could even walk away and play a computer game while the rice is cooking, which to me makes it the best kind of cooking.
Rice cookers do have to be nonstick, though, or else they’re hell to clean. I don’t understand why non-nonstick rice cookers exist, but they do. I used to have one, and I never used it because the cleanup was hard. When I got rid of it and got a nonstick one, I started using it all the time.
Rice cookers are an easy way to get consistent rice without having to babysit it on the stove. It is much beloved of busy parents smart enough to buy real rice but looking for short cuts. Also, I know many Asians who swear by them, as they eat enormous quantities of rice. For them, a dedicated appliance makes sense.
Me, I used to cook rice on the stove, but I inherited a microwave cookbook from mom so now I do rice, noodles, and baked potatoes in the microwave. It’s not so much a time saver as the fact I don’t have to babysit the stove. So while the rice is cooking I might be chopping vegetables for stirfry, then doing the stirfry. Timed right, it all finishes at the same time.
Similar story for me, except that we never went to Chinese restaurants so I thought I didn’t like rice… until the rice at the college cafeteria wasn’t so awful. So I accepted an invitation to a Chinese restaurant with friends, and dang! The rice was actually good!
I also use a rice cooker for the set-it-and-ignore it feature. I like being able to forget about it entirely and concentrate on whatever else I’m cooking. But I wouldn’t call it a necessity. If you’re happy making rice on the cooktop, why bother - especially if space or money is tight? But for a beginning cook who is intimidated by rice, it’s got to be a thousand times better than instant rice.
With all the websites, magazines, and cookbooks out there offering ideas for frugal, simple meals, it takes a certain lack of intellectual curiosity to avoid it all. At the risk of sounding like an armchair psychologist, I wonder how much of what the OP describes comes from people not wanting to admit that The Good Life just isn’t happening any more, and they need to make changes whether they want to or not.
I fail at rice every time, so I have a rice cooker. Does it perfectly, keeps it warm - hell, the rice can be done hours before dinner and it’s still perfect. Also makes me steel cut oatmeal in the morning on a timer so I can have a really good breakfast without waking up early. For most people it’s not a necessary appliance, but for me it’s a huge help. YMMV, of course.
Hey, I just think it’s sad that this recipe is the highest-rated pumpkin muffin recipe on a major online recipe site. Cake mix + canned pumpkin = 5 star, best muffins ever? Really?
I mean, I’ve previously eaten boxed mac-n-cheese plus a mixed-in can of diced tomatoes as pseudo-Spaghettios comfort food, but that isn’t really much of a recipe, and if it ever got 5-starred on a giant recipe database I’d probably cry.
If you buy a dedicated rice cooker from the Asian store, (not a vegetable/rice steamer), it not only cooks the rice, no tending, perfect every time, it also keeps it perfect for up to 6 hrs.
My rice cooker is my most used small appliance, more than my toaster.
This is my rice cooking technique:
Put 2 cups water in a saucepan…bring to boil.
Throw one cup rice in there, stir once.
Put the lid on. Put burner on low. Set timer for 20 minutes.
Play Bejeweled Blitz until timer goes off (or, alternatively, cook the rest of the dinner).
Once the timer’s on, I don’t touch it. It turns out better if you don’t take the lid off at all.
Every time I meet someone who tells me they don’t like rice, I make it a point to make them some of my aged Basmati that I saute in butter before adding the water. I’ve made many, many converts. The problem isn’t rice; the problem is that 90% of the rice you get in this country simply sucks, whether it be minute rice or just overcooked standard rice.
I think I use mine more than my toaster! It’s also great for cooking other grains, and things like lentils.
My stove heats really unevenly, so the rice cooker is great for things that need a consistent temperature.