Boxes, Cans and Plastic Bags

I was walking through the aisles of Walmart's Supercenter, where the groceries are, and it suddenly occurred to me that everything was in boxes, cans and plastic bags. Yes, I know you can get a can of beans, but there were a lot of what we call "prepared foods". I love a simple box of rice with seasonings or a bag of tortilla chips with a jar of salsa, but these are prepared and more costly than home-made foods. I couldn't fix the chips at home, so having a company make them and have them regularly on the store shelves is a great benefit to all of us who enjoy them. That's true of the prepared foods in general and that's a main reason we have them. But, I wondered, when was the last time I fixed my own meal from scratch.

I immediately thought about fixing a meal and settled on chili. It's not too hard or time consuming and I hadn't had any for a while. You begin with ground beef, maybe some sausage (ground or link), onions, green pepper, garlic (optional), tomatoes (diced at home or in a can), tomato juice (in a plastic bottle), pinto beans (from a can), kidney beans (from a can and already in a chili sauce), maybe some diced chilis (from a can or not is your choice) and some water. Already, in this home-made recipe, I have beans in a chili sauce and pre-diced tomatoes and tomato juice in a bottle and garlic powder instead of a clove of garlic and pre-diced chilis. It's real work to think of the really really raw ingredients and how long it would take to cook the dish that way.

Some people think raw foods are naturally better, but I think that's a bit impractical. We've grown used to having cans (or jars) of foods and bagged & boxed cereals, flour, sweeteners and various other things. Truly starting from scratch may be possible in many cases and for vegetables that's easier, but a lot of the boxed & canned things are fine. If you don't like the highly-refined flours (for example) you can get bagged whole-grain flour for making breads and such. It's odd, but you pay more for the less-refined because there are fewer people buying those.

Is it cheaper to begin with truly raw foods? I think some would be, but once you get beyond potatoes, onions, tomatoes, peppers, lettuce and things like that you have more expensive things like fresh herbs & spices. And, you have to do a tiny bit more to prepare and use them, so that's your time being used. Again, it's clear Americans favor the time-saving canned & boxed things to save time with some simple preparation issues: peeling or dicing or smashing (to paste) tomatoes for example are easier than doing it yourself and they're just as good.

Beyond that we are seduced into things like rice in a box (very cheap stuff) with some other seasonings (not so easy for everyone to toss together) to make a nicer dish. And, once we go down that road the possibilities for prepared foods becomes very complicated and more expensive and possibly less healthy for us. I noticed a box of pre-made servings of hash-brown potatoes. You wouldn't have to peel and cut any potatoes. Just pull one out of the freezer and put it in a toaster oven or on the frying pan for a few minutes. It's almost a miracle, but somehow it also seemed a lot less appealing than home-made. It's hard to grow up in our world and not be skeptical of food quality. Frozen meatballs or chicken strips are other examples. Is the meat quality what you really expect?

It pays to know whether you're eating healthy and reasonably-priced foods. If we then make the choice for easier prepared things then at least it's our choice. Just buying what's on the shelves without consideration is putting your wallet in someone else's hands.