how is the value proposition here? was this an adequate use of money?
(keeping in mind as well fwiw i don’t eat meat)
Do people really fuck with uncrustables? I almost picked some up tonight
This is $87 worth of shopping. Please feel free to use the space below to critique my purchases
Submitted 8 months ago by _number8_@lemmy.world to mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/acf9f24a-f24f-4d6b-aec8-d6d4a42d95d9.jpeg
Comments
Phowrath@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Garbanzo@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Hell yeah, straight out the freezer into my fat face
discostjohn@programming.dev 8 months ago
Uncrustables fuck, bro. They’re fantastic. Try the hazelnut spread ones, too.
ReverendIrreverence@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
More veggies, less Smuckers
beneeney@lemm.ee 8 months ago
I have cravings for Uncrustables. I know that you can just like… make a pbj for way cheaper, but they just hit different.
Probably all the added sugar, lmao.
Djtecha@lemm.ee 8 months ago
Am I missing the beans here? Or is this insane to have all these fixens and no beans?
cheesymoonshadow@lemmings.world 8 months ago
Suggestion: Get some canned refried beans. With the tortillas and cheese, you can make burritos.
Better suggestion: Get a bag of dried pinto beans and learn how to make your own beans. It’s really simple, just needs to be aimmered a long time.
felixwhynot@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Beans would be a good source of protein. Rice and beans and spice!
Aceticon@lemmy.world 8 months ago
You can use a pressure cooker to trim down the time it takes to cook beans to 10-15m. Just remember to soak them at least 8h beforehadn (which you should do anyway) except for blackeye beans which don’t need that.
Also works on pretty much anything that you boil and would take a long time to cook (mainly stews).
MrBusiness@lemmy.zip 8 months ago
I’ve always just checked for rocks, wash them, then put them into a pot of water on low heat for a few hours on the stove. Just add salt midway through and check periodically.
Side note, if you prep em this way wait a bit for the water to get to a soupy consistency. A really easy and cheap recipe my mom always made when I was a kid:
Ingredients-your beans you just cooked, tortillas, and Chihuahua cheese
Pour some of the beans with the soupy water into a bowl. Heat up some tortillas and then tear them into small squares and mix them with the soup. Top with your preferred amount of cheese, preferably grated or torn to small pieces so it melts faster. Can also add salt, pepper, or any seasoning you like but it usually tastes good as is.
If you got time and wanna be fancy you can dice up tomatoes, onions, avocados and/or jalapenos and chuck em straight into the soup.
PlasmaDistortion@lemm.ee 8 months ago
That is a lot of processed food.
Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 8 months ago
You have a kitty, swiss rolls, and (from the looks of it) a hammock. Are you accepting house guests?
Steve@startrek.website 8 months ago
great value swiss rolls 🤢
JoMiran@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
This is an extremely binary haul. Items are either very healthy or very unhealthy with nothing in between. It’s kind of impressive.
Tips: Make your own Mac & Cheese and tortillas. Both are cheap, easy to make, and taste way better than premade stuff.
Nurse_Robot@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Time is also a factor
vormadikter@startrek.website 8 months ago
Yepp.
And making a simple cheese sauce takes you the time that the pasta cooks.
Heat broth or milk or both slowly in a pot. Shredd cheese (i like a mix of bluecheese and swiss) and add. Stirr until solved. Add salt, pepper, nutmeg, a dash of white wine. Either use potatoe-starch to thicken or use enough cheese to have it be thick by itself.
Takes you 10 mins tops.
CrayonRosary@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Ahh, I see someone’s making swiss roll enchiladas!
BeMoreCareful@lemmy.world 8 months ago
With Alfredo sauce, just like Mom used to make.
KidnappedByKitties@lemm.ee 8 months ago
It looks like a reasonable buy for what you’re probably used to in terms of cooking, convenience and diet. As long as you get at least one cooked meal in you each day, you’re doing good. Don’t sweat it if you don’t want to, there’s plenty of other things to worry about.
If you are looking for some input, I would probably add more varied sources of protein (lentils, nuts, eggs, beans) and fiber (carrots, cabbage, kale, wholegrain), but I also live on another continent and have both other availability and tradition than you might.
If you’re worried that your food is too expensive, there’s plenty of suggestions in the other replies better geared toward US markets, but I’ll also add that you could make groceries last much longer by learning a bit more about cooking. A lot can be gained by using/substituting with local or seasonal ingredients, as well as re-using leftovers and scraps in creative ways.
If learning cooking is a steep lifestyle change, you could also find a group to share the burden with. Do weekly meal preps together, or for each other, or do batch cooking of condiments/pickles/sauces and swap with each other. It’s a fun way to learn from each other, keep to the habit, and might even be a nice way to get to know someone.
Cooking 3 dishes (to get enough variety) for the week’s meal prep is a big ask, but you could do one batch each and swap with a couple of friends.
Doing batch cooking and canning of sauces is also an excellent way to use up ingredients that are on their way out. Found cheap second assortment tomatoes on a farmer’s market? Pasta sauce for a week! Got too much milk? Make some cheese! Someone’s apple tree yielding too much fruit? Apple sauce, dried apple crisp/cubes/snacks, base for indian/far east curries/stews, in salads, drinks, snacks as fresh whole apples or wedges, made into jam/marmelade, used as substitute for potatoes or tomatoes, and/or as part of delicious pie or other dessert.
Also: leftovers can almost always be put into a pie crust (water, flour, butter/oil), covered with shredded cheese, and become a Quiche du semaine/pie of the week. With practice you’ll find how much of carbs, protein, fibers and flavouring you prefer in it, and you’ll make an actual great dish you look forward to.
KidnappedByKitties@lemm.ee 8 months ago
On the topic of pie of the week.
You can make dishes with similarly upcycled leftovers in burritos, stir frys, pizza, pasty/pirog, and often in a pasta and/or au gratin (with melted cheese on top). Although I find none of them are quite as versatile as the quiche, they are excellent for variety.
Ironfacebuster@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I wish I could get this much food, I keep ending up buying candles instead
I’m so hungry
mxl@lemm.ee 8 months ago
Not a critique, I first wanted to encourage you to try making your own, but kinda backtracked since it has a big downside which is that they are so much better that going back to store-bought is kinda a dilemma: they taste much worse, but you don’t have to spend hours kneading and rolling and cooking. On the other hand home-made can be frozen, so there is that… If you still might like to give it a go, I use a video from Jack Ovens in YT, which I recommend. Now I want to make tortillas…
Cqrd@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
Had to get to the very end to see you were talking about tortillas
mxl@lemm.ee 8 months ago
My bad, I now edited it. I rewrote it multiple times and missed it.
cheesymoonshadow@lemmings.world 8 months ago
It was the “hours kneading and rolling and cooking” that gave it away for me, then the end confirmed it.
zipsglacier@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Same, but we knew it was going to be about tortillas didn’t we.
Hello_there@kbin.social 8 months ago
- Muffins/Swiss rolls - depends on how much it is but I get it being a quick comfort food. Also, check if there's a bakery of some kind (including catering to Chinese / Latinos) near you. It's nearly as cheap or cheaper and much fresher.
- Pasta sauce: my wife actually just makes a Alfredo sauce from scratch and it seems to be just a bit more complicated than Mac and cheese sauce. Flour, milk, and cheese. Probably a lot more cost effective.
- Instead of a red tomato sauce I would buy diced tomatoes ( or those fire riasted ones) and dump them over noodles. It tastes better than the bottled red sauce.
- Mac and cheese: see above - but also, if you're going to get it, get the box. The single serve things are worse than the generic box Mac.
-Also, you gotta report that grocery store. Cats are friends not food.
ris@feddit.de 8 months ago
Why did you buy so much plastic and can packaging?
Cqrd@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
This is very typical looking for groceries in the US
Filthmontane@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Probably living in the US
ralakus@lemmy.world 8 months ago
In the US, those are pretty much the only option unless you know a local farmer or producer willing to sell in bulk directly to you
Bluefalcon@discuss.tchncs.de 8 months ago
Your colon is going to hate you.
reddig33@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Try the app for your grocery. Chances are there are coupons for sone of this stuff on the app. Try fresh or frozen green beans next time. Canned green beans are awful.
EdibleFriend@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Oh god. Are we gonna do this? Is this gonna spawn a month of “This is how much I got for X in X” posts?
ilhamagh@lemmy.world 8 months ago
How many days worth of food is that?
taiyang@lemmy.world 8 months ago
You could have bought 16 packs of Oreos for that price!
Outsider9042@aussie.zone 8 months ago
Learn to cook/bake, you’ll save even more by not buying processed foods. You’ll get more micronutrients too. Less jars, more fresh produce. Look for protein rich vegetables to make up for the lack of meat, or toss in a few eggs into your diet.
ReallyKinda@kbin.social 8 months ago
You can make fresh spinach last longer if you layer in some napkins/paper towels (something something moisture, I don’t really know the science).
ryathal@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
You can buy a cutter from Amazon to make your own uncrustables. Cheaper and you have more control on flavors.
Hello_there@kbin.social 8 months ago
Just eat the crust
Witchfire@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Never understood why people think it’s inedible. It’s basically the best part!
ryathal@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
I do, but it makes my kids lunch a lot easier.
ShadowCatEXE@lemmy.world 8 months ago
For fun, I tried to find similar or same items for a local grocery store to me to see the price difference… it’s roughly $160CAD. That’s a crazy difference.
Minus a few things on the left, cause it’s hard to tell what they are.
Dkarma@lemmy.world 8 months ago
You can’t afford uncrustables or the Mac n cheese. No need for any of the 3 jars.
Learn to fucking cook.
nul9o9@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Get better tortillas.
Stores should stock some from local mexican markets.
Bennettiquette@lemmy.world 8 months ago
i know the enchilada sauce is one of the cheapest items in this picture but i recently made some from scratch and can confirm that canned enchilada sauce is absolutely flavorless. alternatively, it is super simple, quick and inexpensive to make from scratch. broth, tomato paste and toasted spices (chili p., ground cumin, garlic p., onion p., pinch of oregano/cayanne/salt/pepper and optional dash of apple cider vinegar) made in a roux and simmered for 10m. that’s it! the difference is night and day. go forth in flavor.
Maggoty@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I just use the can to get it started and throw all that in anyways.
LifeOfChance@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Did you really need to splurg on the Thomas bagel thins vs great value?!
/s
I’m joking that’s mental
chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
That frozen broccoli is pretty good and useful, great choice
Pandantic@midwest.social 8 months ago
Do you actually need bakery muffins? You know you could make your own for half the price!
jmf@lemm.ee 8 months ago
kudos to those who can afford being vegan. I know that with this spreads nutritional ratio I would either gain weight rapidly (and thus have to sub in more expensive proteins) or have to work out all the time. I
Floey@lemm.ee 8 months ago
They aren’t vegan judging by the crazy amount of cheese. Also you can eat an entirely plant based diet that is both high in protein and very cheap.
jmf@lemm.ee 8 months ago
My mistake, though I am curious how do you accomplish a high protein plant based diet that offers complete proteins?
snausagesinablanket@lemmy.world 8 months ago
For the price of one 10 pack of uncrustables you can get 2 loaves of bread and a jar each of PB and J, and have sandwiches for 2 weeks!