Come on it isn't THAT hard to do

[lilith]

I was amazed when I started looking at American "recipes" online - they nearly all needed cream of something soup and many simply consisted of instructions on what processed food to combine - like a cake recipe that consists of a packet cake mix, packaged icing and maybe some fruit or something mixed into it. That's just not cooking in my view, it's assembly.

That said, I've experimented with some cream soup casseroles, and some were nice, although I substitute my own roux based sauce when I cook them. And I love a curry I make based on condensed pumpkin soup.

[tenth muse]

I was amazed when I started looking at American "recipes" online - they nearly all needed cream of something soup and many simply consisted of instructions on what processed food to combine - like a cake recipe that consists of a packet cake mix, packaged icing and maybe some fruit or something mixed into it. That's just not cooking in my view, it's assembly.

That said, I've experimented with some cream soup casseroles, and some were nice, although I substitute my own roux based sauce when I cook them. And I love a curry I make based on condensed pumpkin soup.

That sounds really good. Love pumpkin in any form !

[lilith]

That sounds really good. Love pumpkin in any form !

You just sauté some onions, add curry powder to taste, add meat (already cooked) and/or veggies, then simmer in can of pumpkin soup and about 2/3 the volume of the can of coconut milk or water. Simmer for ten minutes or so and serve over rice.

For a really quick dinner I use a drained can of tuna in spring water and frozen peas. You can also add cubed potatoes and chickpeas, especially of you're making it a veggie curry.

[OnceModestTwiceShy]

A little tangential, but the discussion of what is and isn't healthy food got me thinking about my "food wars" with my German MIL. She loves to shit on my healthy vegetarian diet (yes I know not all veg diets are healthy, but mine is for the most part) and remind me that no matter how healthy I eat, I could still develop an unexpected disease and die young. (Nice, huh? At least once every visit she tells me the story of her friend who was a health nut and died of a brain tumor in her 40s. I try to tell her I'm just trying to get the most out of the life I have, not prolong it, but to no avail.) This weekend we (she, my parter and I) were having dinner. I was having steamed spinach with garlic and some grilled tofu; they were having a soup which is basically beef broth with potatoes AND noodles, and maybe a few carrots and sprouts. MIL lectured me on how I was using too much garlic in my spinach. I told her garlic was healthy and good for the immune system. She told me she never eats garlic, but she's healthy...and oh, has she ever told me the story of her friend who died of a brain tumor?

(She is kind of unbearable.)

[treehugger]

2. Treehugger, this type of mushroom gravy does sub well for CoM. This is not the recipe I use (I think mine is Bon Apetit) but this similar:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/guy- ... index.html

Thanks! I'm going to have to try that

[apple1]

I was amazed when I started looking at American "recipes" online - they nearly all needed cream of something soup and many simply consisted of instructions on what processed food to combine - ...

You are looking in the wrong places :) :) :) :)

Here's a better one to start with:

http://smittenkitchen.com/

Hope you like it :)

[debrand]

Maybe we need to start a thread on American food that doesn't involve cream of mushroom soup? Part of the problem is that the United States has been settled by immigrants so what is actually American food?

[docmom]

Here's the answer to too busy to cook!

[Muriel Heslop]

Here's the answer to too busy to cook!

:o :o you didn't!! :o :o

:naughty:

[ShesCrafty]

You are looking in the wrong places :) :) :) :)

Here's a better one to start with:

http://smittenkitchen.com/

Hope you like it :)

Thanks for posting that website, those recipes look delicious! I was scratching my head, because I'm American, cook from mostly American cookbooks and sites and have never once made anything or eaten anything with cream of whatever soup. Maybe I just subconsciously skip over those recipes because I know I won't like them :)

[Mudball]

There are so many issues surrounding food and what we choose to eat and cook. It'd be nice if it were always as simple as "rice and beans are cheap and healthy!" for everyone, but it isn't. Financial issues and health issues are two of them - there are also emotional issues, for starters.

Some people don't care about cooking, aren't interested in learning about nutrition much like I am not interested in any number of things that would be good for my family and our finances (gardening, sewing). It doesn't necessarily make them (or me) less intelligent.

It's one of those things that is so easy to judge. As someone who reads food blogs and cookbooks for fun, I don't always understand it, but not everyone is like me.

[ILoveJellybeans]

Here's the answer to too busy to cook!

Ewww that looks disgusting.

[Andromeda]

I was amazed when I started looking at American "recipes" online - they nearly all needed cream of something soup and many simply consisted of instructions on what processed food to combine - like a cake recipe that consists of a packet cake mix, packaged icing and maybe some fruit or something mixed into it. That's just not cooking in my view, it's assembly.

That said, I've experimented with some cream soup casseroles, and some were nice, although I substitute my own roux based sauce when I cook them. And I love a curry I make based on condensed pumpkin soup.

This isn't all there is to American recipes. I think a lot of these recipes began as ways to advertise the soup. My grandma and mom used to have all these cookbooks that, I think, were given out free or free-with-purchase, and all were focused around one company's stuff. So, for example, one of my grandma's cookbooks was from the Pet company and you never would have guessed there were so many uses for Pet condensed milk, Underwood ham, Ro-Tel, and so on. Every recipe used some premade product this company produced. She also had some "secret" cookie recipes, all of which turned out to be printed on the packaging of various ingredients.

I think this started in the mid-20th century but a few generations later, these had worked their way into people's family traditions and become "their family's secret recipe," and people didn't even necessarily remember where they'd come from.

[lilith]

This isn't all there is to American recipes. I think a lot of these recipes began as ways to advertise the soup. My grandma and mom used to have all these cookbooks that, I think, were given out free or free-with-purchase, and all were focused around one company's stuff. So, for example, one of my grandma's cookbooks was from the Pet company and you never would have guessed there were so many uses for Pet condensed milk, Underwood ham, Ro-Tel, and so on. Every recipe used some premade product this company produced. She also had some "secret" cookie recipes, all of which turned out to be printed on the packaging of various ingredients.

I think this started in the mid-20th century but a few generations later, these had worked their way into people's family traditions and become "their family's secret recipe," and people didn't even necessarily remember where they'd come from.

I know there is more to American cuisine, and I didn't mean to imply that there wasn't. My apologies.

[RosyDaisy]

Every time a thread like this comes up, I think about how you can take my cream of mushroom rice from my cold, dead hands!!! It's really lovely with pork chops and broccoli. One of my favourite meals.

I take leftover roast or chicken, heat it in a skillet, pour in cream of mushroom soup with just a little water added, and pour it over rice. It tastes a lot better than it sounds.

[frumper-rump]

I started slowly revamping my diet while pregnant with my toddler and even moreso now that he is eating table food. I am a working, single parent of two so time and money can be short. We do eat processed foods at times out of necessity, but I try to choose better quality and always make sure to pair them with "easy" fresh foods. Last night, we had Annie's organic white cheddar mac-n-cheese with frozen fresh veggies (peas, carrots, and broccol floretsi) mixed in, along with fresh peach slices for desert.

[apple1]

Thanks for posting that website, those recipes look delicious! I was scratching my head, because I'm American, cook from mostly American cookbooks and sites and have never once made anything or eaten anything with cream of whatever soup. Maybe I just subconsciously skip over those recipes because I know I won't like them :)

Enjoy. :D

[GenerationCedarchip]

This idea floating around that "all fundies eat nothing but tater tot casserole" is false anyway. SO many that I read do ALL THE THINGS from scratch -- wheat berries (if they even eat wheat), extensive gardens, organics only, etc. The fundies I've known IRL wouldn't touch TTC with a 10-foot pole. If anything, I'd say a lot of fundies are suckers for following every bit of internet advice from "doctors" such as Mercola et al.

I think there's definitely some truth to that. It definitely explains things like Little Natural Cottage, Jacinda or the MacDonald's recipes - not to mention the whole Trim Healthy Mama Craze. My mother has that book and you cannot cook that way without spending some serious $$$ at a health food store.

From real life experiece, I'd say fundies tend to split between the "everything from scratch" and the "let's be superfrugal and buy cream soup and frozen potatoes by the metric ton at Costco/Sam's/etc.." camps. I see plenty of both at my old fundie farm, though I'd say the balance tips a bit in favor of the all-natural, from scratch cooking.

One thing I have noticed - in recent years, it's become a major fundie mark of shame not to bake your own bread. I love making bread but I'd hate to be shamed into it.

[Savoring Samsara]

There are so many issues surrounding food and what we choose to eat and cook. It'd be nice if it were always as simple as "rice and beans are cheap and healthy!" for everyone, but it isn't. Financial issues and health issues are two of them - there are also emotional issues, for starters.

Some people don't care about cooking, aren't interested in learning about nutrition much like I am not interested in any number of things that would be good for my family and our finances (gardening, sewing). It doesn't necessarily make them (or me) less intelligent.

It's one of those things that is so easy to judge. As someone who reads food blogs and cookbooks for fun, I don't always understand it, but not everyone is like me.

Not only that, but access issues as well. Google "food desert" sometime for some information that, for me, was really eye-opening. There are entire urban neighborhoods, sometimes entire cities, in the US that have NO full-size grocery stores in them. Not a one. That's not a big deal if you have a car, but if you are dependent upon walking and public transit like many of the urban poor in the US, it really limits your options. I think I would have a pretty difficult time cooking and eating healthfully based only upon what I could get from a convenience store. Add that to the initial financial outlay needed to get started (rice and beans are only cheaper in the long run if you can pony up the cash up-front to buy them in bulk, and if you already have all the spices and pots and pans and other cooking equipment needed to make them edible), and the time limitations involved with raising a family (possibly on one's own) and working (possibly multiple jobs), and I find it totally understandable that many people in the US eat fast food or convenience foods rather than cooking from scratch. (Not that the Duggar family fits this description, of course.)

The way that my family has responded to the time vs. healthy eating crunch is by getting a lot of our meals from one of those meal preparation places. You spend a few hours at the store putting together the various components of a dish in ziploc bags and freezing them, and then you can thaw the meals one by one later and cook them fairly quickly because all of the prep work of chopping, measuring, making sauces, etc. has already been done. We supplement that with bread and fresh (sometimes frozen or canned) fruits and vegetables. The main downside of this service is the cost, which can be a bit steep - but it is still cheaper than takeout every night, which is what I have a feeling would be happening if we didn't do it.

[RosyDaisy]

Ewww that looks disgusting.

And ranks right up there with the canned whole chicken...NASTY!

[2xx1xy1JD]

I think that part of the problem is that there's this idea out there that healthy eating = make stuff from scratch, time consuming, shop only at expensive natural food stores for organic produce, eat stuff that resembles birdseed, etc.

It would be better to recognize that the average American has limited time, and just needs better cheap & quick options.

Eggs are quick and cheap, and a few additions can pack a lot of flavor. A can of diced tomatoes can be a based for a ton of quick and cheap dishes. Smoothies with frozen fruit are quick and easy. A crockpot stew can be assembled in a few minutes, cook while you work or sleep, and be a great hot meal greeting you when you get home. A bottle of mustard can be a magic ingredient that gives a punch of flavor. A can of chick peas or beans, a mini-chopper, some olive oil and some spices can create a bunch of hummus and bean dips.

[DarkAnts]

And ranks right up there with the canned whole chicken...NASTY!

I got to taste the PB&J one. The bread and jelly tasted nasty. I was not brave enough to try the others.

[lemonhead]

And ranks right up there with the canned whole chicken...NASTY!

Please tell me this is an urban legend :shock:

[bal maiden]

Those canned items look horrifying! The American relative of Fray Bentos :ew:

Although it's frustrating to see the Duggars with all the land and free labour that would make growing their own veggies a breeze, I can see to a point that it would be impractical for them: the amount of travelling that they do would mean that they'd miss harvests and get all behind with the crops. I find it annoying enough when I put effort into growing runner beans, and then go on my summer vacation when they come to fruition! Half of them end up going to waste... I bet the Duggers would have that issue, exacerbated by a lack of knowledge.

[lizziesmom]

Those canned items look horrifying! The American relative of Fray Bentos :ew:

Although it's frustrating to see the Duggars with all the land and free labour that would make growing their own veggies a breeze, I can see to a point that it would be impractical for them: the amount of travelling that they do would mean that they'd miss harvests and get all behind with the crops. I find it annoying enough when I put effort into growing runner beans, and then go on my summer vacation when they come to fruition! Half of them end up going to waste... I bet the Duggers would have that issue, exacerbated by a lack of knowledge.

Ah, but think of the possibilities of employment for one or more of the boys. Not sure how much land there is but they could grow and sell vegetables to local restaurants and stores, many of whom are on the farm to table/local providers kicks. In return, maybe one of the restaurants good provide them with some healthier meals.