Kitchen

[HonnyBrown]

Fresh produce over canned food any day.

[chessylady]

I live alone and mostly cook from scratch. I don't mind eating leftovers and often freeze beans and chili. Yesterday I made a wonderful Carribean rice recipe that has coconut milk, kidney beans and mango. My point is that I can make tasty, inexpensive food that is better than boxed. I do use canned beans and tomatoes.

[Sabatini2]

On 7/23/2014 nantucket shore said:

On 7/23/2014 ChynnaBlue said:

You're trying to get people to make healthier choices by suggesting they make homemade frosting?<br />

of course not, 2 thoughts addressed in one thread.

Just too easy for everyone these days to open and heat or open and spread. Need to sit back and realize what are we really doing and what's really in that can.

It's hard for people who live alone, they look for convenience and it's really hard to shop for one let alone prepare meals. I think too watching Guy's Grocery Games last Sunday and having a woman talk about how her mom cooked by buying frozen dinners and "fixing them up" so the entire family could eat. I never even thought about taking all the food out of the tray and making something else out of it....too easy to start from fresh than starting from processed.

It's not just ease of preparation, I think much of it is just how people were raised.

If their mom served Dinty Moore Beef Stew from the can on stew night, and opened a jar of Ragu on spaghetti night, then so do they. It's what they're used to, and might never occur to them to make their own....and they wouldn't even know where to start.

[Still Raining]

I only use a can opener for pet food and sometimes in the winter I buy canned fruit when I just can't with apples and bananas anymore. Right now I would have to think where it actually is. Not that into the taste or ingredients in people canned food.

[peachesncream]

We eat a variety of foods - fresh, frozen and canned.

It turns out that frozen foods may have more nutrients than fresh produce from the grocery:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2449843/Frozen-food-IS-better-Higher-levels-vitamins-anti...

I cook from scratch, most of the time. But I'm not baking my own bread or raising fruits and vegetables. That's not practical for me.

One thing is certain - canned frosting is gross.

[stilltamn8r]

It's funny, but most of the recipes passed on to me, well let's say the ones that include the ubiquitous canned cream soups are OLD recipes, from older family members long since passed.. Could it be that at one time, a time when most meals WERE prepared from "scratch", these recipes featuring convenience foods were considered "cutting edge" somehow?????? To have a squash casserole made with cream of celery soup might have been thought to be very modern????

[sidsmom]

On 7/23/2014 Sabatini2 said:

On 7/23/2014 nantucket shore said:

On 7/23/2014 ChynnaBlue said:

You're trying to get people to make healthier choices by suggesting they make homemade frosting?<br />

of course not, 2 thoughts addressed in one thread.

Just too easy for everyone these days to open and heat or open and spread. Need to sit back and realize what are we really doing and what's really in that can.

It's hard for people who live alone, they look for convenience and it's really hard to shop for one let alone prepare meals. I think too watching Guy's Grocery Games last Sunday and having a woman talk about how her mom cooked by buying frozen dinners and "fixing them up" so the entire family could eat. I never even thought about taking all the food out of the tray and making something else out of it....too easy to start from fresh than starting from processed.

It's not just ease of preparation, I think much of it is just how people were raised.

If their mom served Dinty Moore Beef Stew from the can on stew night, and opened a jar of Ragu on spaghetti night, then so do they. It's what they're used to, and might never occur to them to make their own....and they wouldn't even know where to start.

Unfortunately, that's ignorance at its best. I like to think these people have evolved a little bit to 'figure it out'...laziness wins out.

[151949]

but if you make homemade frosting with processed powdered sugar isn't it the same thing? You should go out and cut down the sugar cane and go from there - then you have food that is not processed. otherwise you are only fooling yourself.

Personally, I am of a mind that I have to die someday and in the time between now and then I will live however makes me happy (within reason of course) and let everyone else do the same.If you want to go out and cut down sugar cane - have at it - but please quit telling me I have to do the same.

[esmerelda]

nantucket shore...I'm glad to see your post.

In another forum recently, a poster was looking for help finding brand name food to work with a WW program. I thought, "why not food without a label?" Seriously, especially now with so much fresh stuff available!

I'll have a can of soup occasionally, or a frozen dinner...usually because it's too late or I'm too tired or just don't have anything in the house to cook. My preferred route is to have cooked something (including soup) that I've divided and frozen for those times.

It's an effort sometimes, but it's worth it.

Thanks for starting the conversation.

[Sabatini2]

On 7/23/2014 sidsmom said:

On 7/23/2014 Sabatini2 said:

On 7/23/2014 nantucket shore said:

On 7/23/2014 ChynnaBlue said:

You're trying to get people to make healthier choices by suggesting they make homemade frosting?<br />

of course not, 2 thoughts addressed in one thread.

Just too easy for everyone these days to open and heat or open and spread. Need to sit back and realize what are we really doing and what's really in that can.

It's hard for people who live alone, they look for convenience and it's really hard to shop for one let alone prepare meals. I think too watching Guy's Grocery Games last Sunday and having a woman talk about how her mom cooked by buying frozen dinners and "fixing them up" so the entire family could eat. I never even thought about taking all the food out of the tray and making something else out of it....too easy to start from fresh than starting from processed.

It's not just ease of preparation, I think much of it is just how people were raised.

If their mom served Dinty Moore Beef Stew from the can on stew night, and opened a jar of Ragu on spaghetti night, then so do they. It's what they're used to, and might never occur to them to make their own....and they wouldn't even know where to start.

Unfortunately, that's ignorance at its best. I like to think these people have evolved a little bit to 'figure it out'...laziness wins out.

Yes, unfortunately, that is ignorance, as well as a part of human nature. People just repeat the past. It's ingrained behavior.

It reminds me of that old story of cutting the ends off of a big ham. I'll try to make it brief. (Ha!)

Story:

After a young couple marries, the guy notices that his new wife always cuts the ends off a ham before she puts it in the oven. When he asked her 'why?', she said "IDK. It's just the way my mother did it."

One day, he thought to ask his MIL why she cut the ends off the hams, and she repeated the same thing: "IDK. It's just the way my mother always did it."

Then there was a big family reunion, and he saw the old grandmother, so decided to ask her the same question. He went up to her and said "Grandma, my wife always cuts the ends of a ham before she roasts it, because that's the way her mother does it, and her mom did it because she said that's the way YOU always made them. So, can you please tell me why you always cut the ends off the hams you cooked?"

The granny replied: "Well, I don't know why they do it, but I had 16 children to feed, so had to buy the biggest ham I could find, and that darn thing never fit into the roasting pan."