The issue of convenience foods in the grocery budget is something many households deal with. Trying to save money while eating healthy and saving time at the end of a long busy day don't always mesh easily. Here are ten items I feel blend nutrition and convenience without being totally off the mark budget wise.
Convenient items do tend to cost a bit more than the uber frugal recipes made “from scratch”. I'm not disputing that. However, if you are about to drop twenty bucks on a not-so-large delivery pizza for a family of three, nothing on this list should shock your wallet all that much. And compared to the restaurant tab you might have picked up if you “stopped off somewhere” after the soccer game, any of these ideas could be used to pull off a simple money saving meal at home.
Snow peas.
I love these. Not only do they make me feel like I'm eating out at a restaurant, there is absolutely no prep other than a quick rinse. No podding. No boiling. No straining. Nothing. Rinse and dump, honey. That's it.
Herb pastes.
I've been seeing these turning up in grocery stores up and down the Eastern seaboard. While I don't really see the need for the red pepper paste (at least at our house), I do think the cilantro and lemon grass ones have something to offer. These herbs are expensive fresh, and cilantro doesn't last long at all. These pastes are a way to have the flavor you need for a recipe without running out at the last minute every time. Only a little is necessary for flavoring in many recipes. If you can grow your own, great. If not, this is a workable alternative to have that extra level of “A-game” in your cooking without taking the time to shop for and chop herbs.
Skinny beans.
I've covered my love of haricot vert previously, but I'm revisiting the product here because in addition to a great side dish, there are a number of quick and simple Thai stir fry style dishes that can be whipped up using this vegetable with an affordable lean ground meat or inexpensive seafood item.
Frozen pizza.
I'm no fan of the uber cheap stuff as far as frozen pizza goes. It tastes like cardboard and the topping amounts could fairly be called pathetic. However, there are a few that come to mind as workable solutions on nights you just don't have the energy for homemade. Hannaford bake and rise, as well as the three packs of DiGiorno you can snag at Costco are my top two picks. They also can each be snagged at a reduced price. Costco has coupons on the DiGiorno three packs from time to time, and the Hannaford ones go on sale every couple of months or so.
Bay scallops.
I buy these in bulk in the frozen section of my local warehouse store. They don't have shells, don't have to be diced and if you forget to thaw them ahead of time, tossing them into the frying pan while you are waiting for it to heat up for the rest of the ingredients will do just fine. I love them with haricot vert or snow peas and Thai seasonings. They are also great in a cream sauce with reduced calorie half and half over pasta.
Angel hair pasta.
It cooks in two to three minutes and can be served with a healthier prepared sauce from a jar and an organic spring mix salad. It's also quite elegant with pesto and white wine.
Frozen shrimp.
Preferably the shelled, pre-cooked kind with the veins and tails removed. They also thaw quickly, and can be tossed in with some snow peas served over re-heated left over rice. Who doesn't love dinner you can have on the table in less than five?
Curry pastes.
I like to get the large tubs of Mae Ploy from the Asian markets. Various flavors are available and by putting in a spoonful of paste with a can of coconut milk and some diced chicken breasts you've got an affordable curry-based meal in minutes.
Asparagus.
Rinse it. Snap off the bottom ends. Stand it up straight in the steamer pot with a tad of water in the bottom. This is ready in less than five minutes as well. Consider going international and serving this with a little prosciutto and melon. Quick, low calorie and oh-so-Euro.
Frozen lasagna.
I'm a huge fan of the Stouffer's large family size meat sauce lasagna when we are having company. It's a crowd pleaser that can easily be dressed up with frozen garlic bread and a rinse and dump salad combo. Also, for when it's just the two of us, they make smaller sizes as well. It's not something we buy all the time, but I really can't make a decent lasagna for what they charge so if we are craving it I'm happy to dish out. It saves me money and time, which doesn't happen so often in the kitchen arena.
Certain dried spice mixes.
I'm the first to admit there are some over priced spice combos out there that are easily implemented on the home front. But when it comes to things like zatyr and taco seasoning, I'm happy to dish out the dough.
Rotisserie chickens.
I don't necessarily think paying eight bucks a chicken at an overpriced grocery deli is a bargain deal. But the warehouse store in my area sells them for around five bucks, which is only about fifty cents more than the raw one costs. Fifty. Cents. I'm in.
Power bars.
I used to have the opposite opinion and thought these things were one of the worst things on the planet to spend my money on. Times have changed. After being on the road for long periods of time and seeing how many times I hit the drive through if I leave the house without enough protein in the morning on an errand run, I'm now a convert. My husband and I buy a case at a time and force ourselves to not eat them for breakfast unless we are already going to be on the road. We'll also take along one each in our day packs if we know it's going to be a long and unpredictable day out. A buck a bar might not be our idea of frugal when working at home, but for out and about with a take along water bottle, we're both willing to go there.
These are selections I've made for our home and changing lifestyle. They reflect where we're at now, although we will certainly go more inexpensively when circumstances dictate. However, compared to breaking down and ordering takeout, we still find these to be money saving alternatives that promote reasonable nutrition. To borrow a phrase from our own Julie Rains, I invite you to explore my list as you consider and share yours below.
Interesting list. I'll be sure to buy some scallops.
One thing I hate about cooking is the prep time that is involved. What I usually do with veggies is cut all of them and store them in tupperware. When I cook a dish, I just grab whichever tupperware I want and then toss the already cut veggies in. It saves the 5-10 minutes prep time each time I cook. Just make sure you use up the veggies w/i the week or else they might go bad.
We've probably talked about this before, but to my mind, there's very little that freshy ground black pepper and good kosher salt can't fix. I can't fathom using the kind of pepper that you get at bad restaurants - the weird, perfectly square grains of dry, flavorless gray specks. I love big, crackly chunks of black pepper in soup, on sandwiches, in salads... now I'm hungry.
I have gotten lazy about pre-chopping the veggies. Hence the ones that made my list. But yes, that is a valid strategy and one I'm trying to get back to. Ditto with pre-boiling a boatload of eggs every Sunday and shelling them to have simple protein snacks on hand through the week.
Andrea, I am a HUGE fan of the freshly ground pepper and sea salt thing. I do keep the other pepper for when I have to measure it out with baking spoons for breading and such. But for over the top seasoning? I'm all over those grinding options.
I've been using puff pastry a lot lately. That's worth paying for. Same for filo dough. But I'll make my own biscuits and crescent rolls. And I usually make my own bread. Come summer, I'll have to decide if I want to try making my own pie crust or buying premade. I think if I can find a way to work the rolling out in advance I'll try my own.
I like keeping a lasagne or equivalent in the freezer for those times I don't want to cook. It's not as cheap as homemade but it's cheaper than eating out.
when we lived in KY I liked this local farm's herb blend. Now we're miles away and I think it will be worth it to keep getting it even with the added shipping costs. The flavor is great and there's no way I could reproduce it.
I like fresh pineapple in the produce section: if it looks good and on sale, it's great. The deli/chicken area is nice for a quick, gotta-stop-by-the-grocery-store-anyway, meat with 2 veggies meal that's better than faster and cheaper than standard alternatives (especially good for days when I don't feel like eating a sandwich again). I like the frozen pizzas (often there is a 2 for 1 sale) and the Stouffer's -- there four-cheese is perfect for a crowd, especially if a non-meat-eater happens to be among the diners.
The snow peas and herb paste both sound good -- I'll check those out.
Hi Myscha,
All of these are great tips for helpers in the kitchen. Thanks. So true about the rotisserie chicken; and it's already cooked! What's not to love?
One of the battles I fight with most convenience foods is the sodium content. Scoob has high blood pressure, so most ready-made items are out.
One of the things we've changed is I now make a taco seasoning at home—it takes me all of 3 minutes to assemble the spices. I use a mortar and pestle to gring the oregano, then dump everything else into the mortar.
I definitely agree with the Powerbars (Clif bars are good as well). I always have one in my pack with me. They're also great for taking on airplane trips. I don't know how much I've saved on airport (and airline) food by having a food bar in my pack when I got delayed (or, worse yet, stuck on an airplane on the tarmac). Also, if you have extras, you can have a new best friend for life (or at least until you get off the flight) by offering one to your seat mate. I've swapped food bars for magazines on multiple flights and everyone comes out happy.
Speaking of dried spice mixes, if you search for "homemade taco seasoning", you'll find a recipe that isn't hard at all. Of course, you have to invest in the big bottles of spices to begin with but perhaps that is more cost effective in the long run.
Thanks for keeping the convenience food conversation going, folks.
Julie, the herb paste brand I've seen again and again at various grocery chains is called Gourmet Garden and they are usually in the refrigerated produce section where you can buy the bunches of fresh herbs.
Oooh... Great list... My stomach is rumbling...
My vice is really good frozen vegetable mixes, like the Green Giant baby vegetable medley. (I tend to stock up when the sales are on).
When I hear "convenience food" I automatically think of processed food. I would never class raw vegetables in that camp. But I can see where you're coming from; your list makes me reconsider that assumption.
I really have gotten it down to the point where I hardly buy any value added foods anymore. My "processed food" purchases now mean cheese and flour - things generally classifid as basic ingredients. But there is one processed food I will cop to, and that is Hebrew National hot dogs. This is one of my emergency foods. When I'm ravenous and don't have time to thaw one of my homemade frozen meals, I can boil a frozen hot dog and get some food in me in less than 10 minutes.
I've started drinking raw milk too and I've been absolutely amazed at how satisfying it is. If I'm ravenous, I can pour a glass of milk (something I *never* used to do) and drink that. I can't even drink it straight off. It's so rich I have to sip it, and it leaves me feeling very satiated.
Costco has some of my favorite convenience foods:
Kirkland lasagna is outstanding! It is huge and will feed my family of 4 at least 3 dinners, with a few smaller lunch-sized servings as well. I can't make it that cheap -- I think it's 12.99 or something like that. It must weigh 3 to 4 lbs. & the meat alone would cost more than the price of the entire dish.
In the produce section you will generally find a tub of pineapple spears. These are delicious, and can be wrapped in a paper towel by my children and eaten as a healthy snack without me having to do a thing.
Finally, if you like hummus, their hummus toppers package is great. The hummus is my favorite -- it's very smooth, and has a distinctive nutty flavor (I think it has extra tahini or something). Plus, it comes with a little 4 compartment package of mixins -- chopped roasted red peppers, chopped fresh garlic, a spicy cilantro paste, and pine nuts. It's absolutely THE BOMB! And right around 4.99 for the package, which is huge. Awesome for parties.
Zatar is easy to make - and cheap, if sumac grows in your area. Other than that, it's just oregano, sesame, thyme, and salt for the most common type.
Another brand of frozen pizza I like is Homerun. While it's not better than fresh, it's pretty tasty.
Canned beans like cannellini, kidney, chick peas, etc. They can add protein, fiber, and flavor to so many dishes.
We put them in salads, pasta, rice...
Really inexpensive, too!
At my local Giant, the Rotisserie chickens are often on Bonus Buy cheaper than buying a whole chicken and cooking it. The wal*mart has them cheaper, but we don't like the spice mix they put on the chickens.
Careful tho - all protein bars are not created equal. In fact, many (most?) of the readily available protein bars really don't offer that much protein but do come saddled down with truckloads of sugar and usually little or no fiber.
I recommend Premier Protein Bars if you like a candy-bar like protein bar. If you'd prefer a bar that more like a baked good, I highly recommend Chef Jay's Tri-O-Plex Bars. Both of these options offer 30+ grams of protein (2-3 times that of other bars) and net carbs of about 16 or fewer grams (or about a third of most other bars).
(For the sake of comparison, most Powerbars products offer only 6-8g of protein yet are loaded with over 45g of carbs.)
The Chef Jay's bars are especially nice because they don't get squishy or melt if you toss 'em in a hot glove box or such. And they can be nuked for about 10 secs to make for a nice warm treat that's similar to banana bread. The Chef Jay's bar is also a bit more dense and slightly larger, so it takes a bit longer to eat.
Great article!
For bars, I highly recommend LARA bars. They can be hard to find in stores, but they are unprocessed, all natural, vegan, kosher, and they taste great. They are a little dense and very full-flavored and I've had my more "white bread" friends turn up their noses at them. I'm quite fond of the lemon bar flavor and the chocolate-coconut flavor.
I try to keep at least five emergency meals in the house - stuff that I wouldn't serve/eat under usual circumstances, but that are perfectly adequate if we're tight on time, out of groceries, or Mom is too sick to be useful. Frozen chicken patties, ham & boxed scalloped potatoes, frozen pizza, lasagna, Stouffers enchiladas, and (gasp) even an occasional box of hamburger helper.
I'm very curious about these herb pastes...where do you find them at the store, and how could I make my own when I've got fresh herbs.
Thanks for writing this!
Thank you for providing such a great list that covers some foods many people would never even think of when considering a quick meal! I especially give kudos to the ideas about curry pastes! They can sure add great flavor and some spice to the usual!
but I do love the variety in this list! I linked to it on my blog. I'll have to start looking for herb pastes at the grocery store. I'm not much of a cook, so I love anything that makes it easy to produce something flavorful.
Bacon bits. Dice up bacon finely when you get home from the shops and store in zip lock bags in your freezer. It keeps for months and I use a tablespoon or two straight from the freezer in pasta sauces, omelets etc. It's a cheaper alternative to get the meat flavor without having to use meat.
Hi Guys.
Thanks for keeping the conversation going. Kate, the herb pastes are nearly always in the produce section where you can also buy the fresh herbs. The brand is Gourmet Garden. As far as making your own, I don't know what you would do to make them "squeezable", but I would think you could break them down to fine pieces in the blender or food processor, mix them with water and freeze them in ice cube trays.
Also, not sure if I made this clear in the article, but we have found the haricot vert (skinny beans) to be convenient for the very reasons snow peas are convenient for us. No snapping, cutting, etc. They are very much a rinse and dump type of vegetable to toss in the pan for a quick steam or stir fry.
While I do shop frugally, there are some things I stand firm on when it comes to convenience foods. I feel that if I buy something cheaply and it sucks, then I ended up wasting my money anyway. I don't mind spending cash on the things we love and will eat every bite of each time. When I was growing up, both my mom and my grandmother would say to us at the grocery store "Get what you want just as long as you are going to eat it." I say the same thing to my own daughter now. I absolutely hate wasting food!
Good list. Although in my house store bought lasagna just does not cut it. Every fall I can my own "gravy". I have a recipe given to me by my Italian friend's mom. They call it gravy or sugo not spaghetti sauce. I can enough to last a year. We are big italian food eaters! So, I make my own lasagna. I make double when I make it and freeze portions. Even then unfortunately it is not the same as steaming from the oven, actually always better the next day as the flavors meld even more.
I agree also that koshar salt is the way to go. We grilled last weekend (first of the year here in Minnesota!! YEAH!) Since there were 8 of us I bought cheaper steaks. I sprinkled a littel koshar salt on the, that's all just koshar salt and everyone raved at how good they were. Although I always think anything tastes amazing off the grill especially the first of the spring season!!
NOTE: when I do my sugo, I always do extra to give away. With all the ingredients it ends up coming out to about $1.50 a quart jar. Friends love when I give this to them.
Post-surgery last year, here's what a dietician sent me to eat: lemon Jell-o, super-salty beef broth (with an extra salt packet!), caffeinated black tea (with a sugar packet, of course) apple "juice" (it contained 10% juice) and 7UP. I was horrified - a meal without any actual nutrition. I vowed then to make better choices for myself and my family. This is not always convenient or cheap, but it can be both. I feed two picky children and have a baby, so I'm not as processed-food free as I'd like to be, but here is my list of convenience items:
1. Goldfish - cheaper at Costco, and other than the sodium level, relatively inoffensive
2. organic canned diced tomatoes - again from Costco; cheaper than fresh, better quality and have 101 uses
3. chicken soup base - from Penzey's; salty, but perfect when you need just 1/2 c of broth and forgot to defrost 2 c of the homemade stuff
4. Stouffer's frozen lasagna - I have 3 kids. I do not have time to make lasagna (and my kids will eat this, but not mine)
5. Trader Joe's cereal bars - not cheap, but a quick stroller snack that is less offensive than the name-brand version
6. pre-shredded mozzarella - unlike Cheddar, mozzarella gums up my processor when I try to shred it (and doing it by hand is a pain); we eat pizza at least once a week, so I buy bulk and divide it for freezing
7. frozen vegatables - nutritionally close to fresh and quicker than topping beans or, heaven help me, paring and steaming artichoke hearts (TJ's has CHEAP frozen artichoke hearts); artichokes always make a meal seem more elegant
8. bottled Thai peanut sauce - yes, I can make this, but it requires about 15 ingredients and more measuring than I'm willing to do on a weeknight; great as hot sauce or cold dip
9. organic canned beans - I buy them on sale (Safeway often has them for $1/can) because I cannot be bothered to soak dried beans
10. individual kid-sized yogurt cups - I'm ashamed of this (the wasted plastic, the sugar level), but they allow my children to serve themselves and until they make banana yogurt in a quart-sized container, we're sticking to TJ's brand or YoBaby
Thanks for stopping by. You know Bettie, I've always wanted to try canning my own sauce in bulk. My mother used to can a ton, and I've got all the stuff. So far marmelade is the only thing I've tried to do a year's batch of at once. Who knew there was so much sugar? Won't be trying that recipe again any time soon.
Heidi - LOVE your list. We have been doing the preshredded mozarella lately too, and while I've made my own chicken stock for some time, I recently bought my first stock in well over ten years. I got it by the case - one quart boxes of organic free range broth from Costco. I'm sure other moms are digging your goldfish suggestion as well.
- Pie crust. So few people even notice the difference between homemade and pre-done it's worth saving the time (unless, of course, it's some sort of special time of crust, like an anise-flavoured one)
- Frozen spinach. This is such a time saver, and actually works out to being cheaper than buying fresh and cooking it down.
- Frozen fruit. I always use this for pie fillings.
- Anchovy and sun-dried tomato paste. I haven't tried the herb pastes, though now I will. These two pastes, though, are a huge convenience, and add a ton of flavour, quickly, to dishes w/ no effort.
- Herbes de provence. I love this stuff. I realise it could be made at home, but it's a huge punch in the flavour of roasted veggies and homemade salad dressings for relatively little cost.
- Pita bread. I am usually just too lazy to make my own (oddly I make my own other types of bread), though I do make my own hummus (I tend to be a purist w/ hummus).
- Canned tomatoes. I keep diced, whole peeled, stewed, crushed, sauce and lastly, ro-tel.
- Canned palm hearts. Useful in so many things. Not cheap, but certainly adds a lot of flavour for little effort.
- Olives. We use several pounds of olives a week, so I buy bulk containers of them.
- Microwave popcorn. Despite my ownership of both a large pot and an air popper, I still love late-night snacks of those 100 calorie bags. But for air popped or stove popped, I recommend tossing it in olive oil, salt and freshly cracked pepper.
To Heidi (#27): If you freeze the mozzarella first, it shreds beautifully in the food processor or by hand. Though I buy the pre-shredded too, because I never remember I need it until right before it's time to add it to whatever (thereby meaning I don't have enough time to shred it).
To Myscha: If you can your own sauce, do pressure can it. I can my own sauce too, and the pH is not consistently low enough to do it in a water bath safely.
I love looking at snap peas and the like as convenience foods. It's true - Nature has come up with some very convenient options!
I'd have to add
-Fruit: bananas, apples, oranges
-Ezekiel bread (not cheap, but very filling)
It's not hard to cook a chicken especially with a V-rack, but I live in Texas and when it's 105 degrees, there's nothing like a Rotisserie chicken!
Thanks for a great post.
Thanks, Jodie. Glad you liked it. I agree, when it's hot a rotisserie chicken is the way to go.
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I love that you consider asparagus a convenience food!
I would add canned beans. I buy dry beans in bulk, but it's so much easier and less time-consuming to grab a can than cook dry beans. We also keep frozen veggie burgers and faux chicken fingers, etc. on hand for when we're really pressed for time. They're great sources of vegetarian protein, too. Small containers of greek yogurt are a must for me, too. I'm not a morning person, so you will not find me in the morning measuring yogurt into a container before work. It's strictly grab-and-go before 11 a.m. in this house. Which reminds me - though they are not typically thought of as convenience foods, I always have apples or pears on hand. They're a great snack, and they come prepackaged in their own container.
