Convenience Products? Name your favorites

[The empressof all]

I love Progresso Italian Flavored Bread Crumbs. I use Lipton Onion Soup Mix when I make Pot Roast. I love Rotell tomatoes and chili's and I'm not ashamed to admit that I use canned garbanzo beans when I make hummus. I know there are a few purists out there that eschew all convenience products and would sooner cut off their big toe than use a cake mix--but for the rest of us... Let's hear what's in your pantry.

[Stinky The Clown]

1. Jarred gravies for macaroni

Some of the products out there today are really quite good. Are they home made? Nope. But neither are they the old Chef Boy-Ar-Dee inna can, either. If I had to name just one category, this would be it.

How about canned soup?

How about dry sauce mixes? Sure lots of us can make a helluva Hollondaise or Bearnaise, but why bother when there's stuff like Knorr?

I am making crawfish ettoufee tonight. In place of the classic court boullion I'm using Swanson's vegetable broth.

Read a lot of the recipes out there and convenience products are named in them - often by brand.

The list is endless. I mean, even bread is a convenince product, isn't it? And it was a convenince product even to the Romans, who had community for-profit bakeries in every little burgh.

edited to add:

There are some convenience food items, however, that I just don't get.

Tuna salad in a can (and more recently, in a bag). How hard is it to make? Right in the dish you eat if from?

"Italian Seasoning" ... who doesn't have dried oregano, basil, parsley, and garlic powder ... show of hands, please? :)

Frozen french toast. I get Eggos, but french toast ... ? :shrug:

[livetohike]

2. Can't live without my Pace picante sauce

I use Knorr's bouillion cubes, various canned beans, and canned tomatoes.

[eleny]

3. the three you've mentioned are among my favorites

Classico Italian sauce - the plain basil one
Newman's Own Salsa - it's so good even though I like making my own, too
Tube of anchovy paste - any brand
Canned beans - yes

I couldn't take my hand away from my heart and buy the garlic or tomato paste in the tubes, even though I want them.

[The empressof all]

4. Paste in the Tube is a good thing

I love my paste in the tube. It lets me use a little or a lot and I don't need to open a can and then have to freeze what I don't use.

Garlic in a tube is another story. I can't go there.

Now I do buy the pre-pealed garlic at Trader Joe's. I use a lot of fresh garlic and just find this easier. I've tried the frozen but now that I've found the fresh pealed it's the only way to go.

[eleny]

5. I use the chopped garlic in the jar - the giant jar, too

But I'll look for the fresh peeled. I did get a big fresh garlic head the other day and it does taste better.

We don't have a Trader Joe's around here. But I'll check my Soopers. Eventually, they carry everything. How is the fresh peeled packaged?

Edit - does it look like this? http://www.christopher-ranch.com/peeled_garlic.html

[The empressof all]

6. Yes it comes in a plastic jar

No oil, no water--Just garlic. I store it in the fridge and use it up fairly quickly. I've had it go moldy on me once when I kept it too long.

[merci_me]

7. At the risk of getting drummed out of this group

I must confess.......cake mixes. I LOVE to play around with them.

Years ago, I discovered the Pillsbury Bake-off winning Four Day Make Ahead Sour Cream Fudge Torte. It became THE family birthday cake for 3 of my kids and from there, I started playing around with it.

You make a sour cream coconut filling for a devils food cake, but I started with adding Kahlua to the filling and from there, nothing could stop me.

I moved on. Some that come to mind are:
strawberry cake, adding strawberry jam and brandy
banana cake, adding a concoction of bananas Foster and banana liquor
orange cake, adding marmalade, Mandarin oranges and Grand Mariner
lemon cake, adding lemon curd and raspberry jam
pineapple cake, adding pineapple topping, tidbits and rum
yellow or spice cake, adding apricot jam, almonds and amaretto

There are others, just what I have around or pops into my head.

Mary

[The empressof all]

8. Try this one!

Ricotta Cake

2 lbs. ricotta cheese
3/4 c. sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 t pure vanilla extract
1 (18 1/2 oz.) pkg. yellow or white cake mix with pudding
Mix together the ricotta cheese, sugar, vanilla and eggs. Set aside. Prepare the cake mix according to the package directions. Pour into a greased and floured 9 x 13 inch pan. Carefully spoon the ricotta mixture over the batter. Bake at 350 degrees for 60 to 65 minutes or until tester comes out clean.

A great alternative with this recipe is to use a chocolate cake mix, add about 3/4 of a bag of sweetened coconut to the ricotta mix. When cool top with a layer of chocolate ganache.
You can also add a layer of almonds for an Almond Joy cake.

[Frogtutor]

9. If it's NOT convenient, I want nothing to do with it!

Convenience is my middle name!

I use everything: canned soup, jar spaghetti sauce, soup mixes, salad dressing mixes, taco seasoning, minced garlic in the jar, all dried herbs and spices, baking mixes, Minute rice, frozen meatballs, canned beans, tomatoes, chicken and beef broth, grated cheese from the bag, and chili kits!

That's all I can think of for now, but I'm sure there's more!

[SoCalDem]

10. McCormick's Salad Supreme

It is the BEST flavoring spice..

Try this..

Boneless chicken breasts
brown in olive oil..sprinkle with (generously) Salad supreme.. cook a few minutes, turn chicken and sprinkle the other side...

drain...munch out

or cool and chop for the best chicken salad ever..

dice chicken (I use my food chopper)
diced celery
diced onion
real mayo
and more salad supreme for flavor/color
salt & pepper to taste
chill for a bit...slather soome on Honey Nut Oat bread..add lettuce leaf & thinly sliced tomato.. TRY to stop with one sandwich

also this recipe

peel & cut potatoes into smallish wedges/chunks..brown in olive oil with onion...after potatoes are cooked, sprinkle with salad supreme,, turn heat up and brown until crispy:)

make LOTS or they won't make it to the table :)

[NMDemDist2]

11. I LOVE Bear Creek mixes

i have several potato soup recipes that are good and some are even easy, but the Bear Creek potato soup is great (chunky or not) Especially on a busy day when I'm exhausted but hungry. Potato soup and grilled cheese (with or without bacon) is a great quick dinner

http://www.bearcreekfoods.com/

I use instant mashed taters sometimes too

and I like Taco Seasoning mixes and Sloppy Joe spice mixes too

and I make boxed cakes and cornbread (Jiffy mix is good for that)

and Pace Picante sauce too, by the half gallon hehehe

and you all know I love Bisquick since I hawk their recipes all the time hehehe

[SW FL Dem]

13. Bear Creek Mixes are awesome!

I love their Damn Good Chili Mix and the potato soup. I made their Minestrone last month and my boys ate it up. I always start with the mix and add a few ingredients. Can't beat the convenience, and they are better than my homemade!

[n2mark]

12. Rarely use convenience products

too high in sodium.

[tishaLA]

15. Me too. Same reason.

[wildeyed]

14. Diced tomatoes from a can,

canned beans if I don't have any home cooked handy, canned stock if I don't have any home cooked frozen and diced garlic in a jar. Fresh garlic is way better than the jarred, but jarred is better than garlic powder, is the way I see it.