Help! Need Your Thoughts! - Important Survey

Hi, 

We are conducting a brief survey to get a better understanding of the types of dinner meal solutions you use to feed your family so we can improve the resources available on tasteofhome.com. We really appreciate your help. Thanks!

Here's the Survey- http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/survey-intro.zgi?p=WEB2296PC5CK3D

Thank you for your time!

Minimal prep

Less than 5 ingredients

We keep it very simple.  It's just my DH and myself.  We try to eat healthy, plan our meals before we shop and prepare as much a head as possible and cook a bit more and eat left overs for lunch the next day.

I hope this helps.

Molly  

The Survey was quick & painless!  Can't wait to see what fun new recipes come from it!

Interesting survey. Sounds like somebody's thinking about getting into the frozen/prepared foods market!

MarthaM:

Sounds like somebody's thinking about getting into the frozen/prepared foods market!

I use frozen prepared ingredients such as frozen boneless, skinless chicken - or frozen peppers and onions regularly.  Recently I discovered frozen prepared brown rice that I can just microwave.  3 minutes later - I have perfectly prepared rice to go with my dinner!

One of my more recent finds is frozen peeled raw shrimp.  What a time saver!

 I was thinking the same thing, Martha.

 I  enjoy cooking from scratch and have the time to prepare meals. I do like rotessiare chickens available at my favorite Fareway store, becausethey are so moist and good and can be used in lots of ways. Of course use bottled salad dressings. However cans see that working famlies don't have the time to cook from scratch and hate to think they do the drive through as often as they do. Children are becoming more obese, diabetes, hypertension and heart disease are going to be life long health concerns for the kitchen very therapeutic and relaxing and the kitchen smells so good. Sharon F. 

I'd love to cook from scratch, but the limited amout of space in my apartment kitchen keeps me from doing so.  I use a lot more convenience foods than I used to, although I do use my crockpot a lot.  That way I can "set it and forget it"!

purselamplady:

I'd love to cook from scratch, but the limited amout of space in my apartment kitchen keeps me from doing so.  I use a lot more convenience foods than I used to, although I do use my crockpot a lot.  That way I can "set it and forget it"!

I've actually found the opposite--that 'convenience' and pre-packaged foods take up way too much of my limited cupboard space and smaller apartment-sized fridge/freezer. But my biggest complaint with them is the taste (or lack of it!) and all of the junk that goes into them. Those ingredients labels creep me out sometimes!

I do use my crockpot a lot.

I had to reread some of the questions on the survey before I answered them to be sure I knew what they were talking about, and I'm still not sure I did. I think people consider different things to be pre-packaged convenience foods or frozen foods or whatever. A lot of people would probably think that I cook mostly 'from scratch' if they saw me cook, but based on how I interpreted the survey questions I don't think that's how the survey-takers would see it.

You're right, Martha.  I've really got to clean out my cupboards of stuff I don't use and offer it up on Freecycle.  I also need to clean off the "bar" and my kitchen table, which always seems to be a drop-off point. 

I agree.  This didn't seem to be an honest survey about what people cook.  It's about what "solutions" they should try to sell us, as an alternative to cooking. 

Strange thing for a purported cooking magazine to be focusing on.  I mean, if we all ate boil-in-the-bag, pre-made food, there would be no reason to read cooking magazines, right?

Anyway, I answered.  I do occasionally use pre-formed, frozen burgers, and I sometimes bake a frozen pizza (with or without additional toppings) if I'm too tired to cook.  I use a shredded 3-cheese blend for Mexican food.

I never use those "whole meal in a box" type things, because I figure there's bound to be at least one element which I could do better, cheaper, and just as fast from scratch.  I've tried the pre-marinated meats a time or two, and found that the texture is always mushy.  Besides, which, through the marinade you can't tell how fresh the meat is.

sstetzel:

The Survey was quick & painless!  Can't wait to see what fun new recipes come from it!

I agree.  Good survey. 

Well, I do think it was honest. Surveys are taken to find out what people think or need or want, and this one does that, whatever the reason.

But that's where the confusion came in for me. I always thought of things like Hamburger Helper and Lean Cuisines and frozen pizzas and frozen bagged meals as convenience foods, but I guess the packaged pizza burgers I sometimes like and the breaded chicken patties I indulge in sometimes are, too. I wouldn't mind some recipes about ways to doctor up those kinds of things, and I've seen those sometimes in the TOH mags.

I agree with LP.  I think TOH might be checking things out for advertising purposes.  I personally can't justify feeding my family a frozen meal entré from the store.  with high cholestrol running in DH's family, I can't serve most frozen foods. The price is outrageous when you think of the fact that it is only one meal.  I have too limited of a budget to fit this into my grocery bill.  I do occasionally buy chicken strips, also french fries and of course I mostly do bottled dressing, and some mac and cheese, but otherwise, it's pretty much from scratch.

I"m glad it was a short easy survey, I'm curious to see the results.