Why I don’t turn my back on convenience foods

Tonight was one of those nights, you know? the ones where you just want to runaway? No need to pack or anything just take off.

My car is in the shop and tonight we went to get a loaner car because the mechanic still doesn’t know what’s wrong with it (do they ever?). The drive back from the dealership had me driving my husband’s car with toddler in tow and hubby driving the loaner car. Well, my son cried the whole drive back from the dealership home (20 very loooong minutes) because he wanted dad to drive the car not mama. When we got home, I almost parked by the curb and asked my husband to grab the screaming child from the back before I took off. No dinner was ready, they were on their own. This is where convenience food comes in, for us is frozen chicken strips. Just pop them in the toaster oven and they are ready for you in 10 minutes. Beats drive thru and it’s cheaper. I also have to confess to using frozen french fries. We don’t eat any of these two items very often, so if I were to buy potatoes to make french fries from scratch they would go bad because I don’t cook with potatoes very often at all.

Now, one thing I have tried to make at home is brownies, from a homemade mix and from scratch and they just don’t come out the same as from a store bought mix. What’s up with that? and I have also tried making devil’s food cake from scratch and it’s never as moist. Even my friend who is a pastry chef agrees!!! It must be all that delicious partially hydrogenated soybean oil.

So, what types of food items do you keep on hand that just make your life easier or you just haven’t been able to find a suitable replacement for it?