You know, it’s comments like this that make me laugh and realize how much of a privileged life someone has. Anyone saying, “Oh, it only takes 10 mins to make bread crumbs!”, has never actually been required to make all of their food homemade. Let’s take a journey and use a generic recipe.

• bake at 275 degrees until dry, about 10-to-15 minutes

ok so maybe 15 mins, preheat oven, getting it all ready, maybe like 30 mins but very relaxed. Lowest priced loaf of bread is $1.39 at a local grocer (it’s a horrible brand that’s more airpockets and made from the cheapest ingredients possible but it’s still counts as bread).

• Add them to the food processor, and process them until coarsely crumbed.

Oh shit, now I need a food processor (cheapest is 40 on amazon and walmart), or I could stand at a blender for 2 hours doing one handfull at a time (if I have a blender). Wait, wasn’t this only suppose to take 10 mins?

Ok let’s just chop the bread by hand, now we’re about an hour into the process after it cools and is chopped. But I wanted shake n’ bake, so let’s head over to this recipe.

• Mix all ingredients in a large bowl until evenly mixed and the bread crumbs are no longer ‘clumpy’ from the oil. Let’s see here, Vegetable oil ($2.99), Salt ($0.79), Dried onion flakes ($2.19), Paprika ($1.29), Sugar ($3.19), Garlic powder ($1.29), Ground black Pepper ($2.29), Cayenne ($2.49), Parsley ($2.19), Basil ($2.59), Oregano ($2.49). (all cheapest prices listed from local grocer, nothing premium)

So now we’re at over 25$ for the homemade shake and bake ingredients. 65$ if I want a food processor to keep this under an hour. Oh yeah, I hope I have foil, baking sheets, sanitary plastic bags to “shake” it, a long term storage container for the amount I’m making. I’m over $100 as a fresh person starting life to make bread crumbs. 2 hours between prep and time spent getting ingredients… and I have bread crumbs, guess I’ll start actually cooking the meal! You can make excuses for people that already have some of the required items, but generically you can’t make that statement unless they’re privileged and have hand me downs or time to bargain shop for cheaper appliances. It all costs in the long run and with homemade you’re paying with your time that no one has.

The whole point of the shake and bake was a convenience for overworked families trying to continue to participate in society in a “healthy” way. If you can’t afford “convenience” as a worker, then you’re not getting paid enough.