Can you say 'time-filler'? Honestly, a lot of these TV segments (& magazine & newspaper articles as well) seem like somebody was scrambling to come up w/ something just to take up space...

I have a niece who does that extreme couponing thing and is constantly posting pictures on FB of all her "treasures". What a waste of time and space. I don't know how she will use any of these items before they go bad. I doubt she is donating them to food pantries or such.

I saw that, too. I hate that they would encourage non-real food in a food segment. I just shook my head.

That could have been me. I use coupons a lot, and buy most things when they are on sale. Frozen items go in the freezer, and I do use StoveTop stuffing. I haven't tried the scalloped potatoes, but I might some day. Those would go on my kitchen shelves to be used at a later date. (I pay no attention to the dates on boxed items, and have never had any go bad.) There is plenty of time between now and TDay to buy fresh vegetables, rather than buying them now. I grew up in a time when being frugal was necessary, and I still shop that way.

BTW, I see coupons getting scarce lately.

I imagine that folks that have two working parents and children might use more of the "processed" and "Packaged" foods than some who have the time to peel and prepare them from scratch. And the food industry does provide incentives for buying 'their' product. I don't see a big difference in a package of potatoes or seasoned stuffing as opposed to buying potatoes and onions and all the other ingredients to make either. And, for some it is a long time tradition to use their favorite brand...like Pepperidge Farm stuffing, that you add celery and onions and what is needed to make it "yours". Even many of the purchased Pumpkin Pies are every bit as good as those made at home. The typical Greenbean casserole, leaves a lot to be desired, but many of the families began using that recipe when "Fresh" at this time of the year was not can option. How many of us...on T-Day, serve a Fresh Salad. Does it sit there with few takers. I think so. Our Traditions were made Traditional in times when FRESH was a slim option. Why would those "two" items in particular make you 'gag'?

I grew up on Stop Top stuffing and still love it. Most of the rest of my meal is made from scratch except for the green bean casserole which I put together from canned an pre-packaged items.

A lot of people have never really learned to cook. Everything comes from a box, can, freezer or is otherwise pre-made. It's often not my favorite food because I've had fresher. In this age when most of us don't get our food fresh from the farm, nothing really tastes as good as it used to.

Not just at holidays, but starches like potatoes, grain products and rice are the closest some people get to eating vegetables with their meals. Such foods are just dense calories with limited nutrients that are mostly available from other foods.

But, they are also very filling. Which is my the poor are often over weight but malnourished.

They leave one's body mechanisms crying for more of the nutrients that they're needing.

How many of us have any real awareness of the stuff that's being used in the (heavily) "processed" foods!

And ... they ain't cheap!

O. K. - some of us may be!

ole joyfuelled ... who likes to be fuelled with real food

Next time you buy that stuff read the list of ingredients. The boxes of scalloped potatoes have a whole lot more ingredients than potatoes, onions and milk and most of them I can't even pronounce. Same with Stovetop dressing.

Oh, Nanny ;) I love pie, but can detect a store crust with the first bite. Many I know get the Costco pumpkin this time of year and I admit the pumpkin custard filling is quite good - but that's ruined for me with the crust, making it easy for me to pass on dessert. I can mix, roll, clean up from making a pie crust in about 10 minutes. The dishwasher washes all but my rolling pin ;)

Fresh fruits and vegetables can be very expensive. Buying prepackaged stuff like you listed is probably their best option on a limited budget. Or maybe they learned to only cook from boxes / mixes?

I scored nice sweet potatoes for .38/lb yesterday so I'm very happy. lol!

I teach food and nutrition classes all the time to a wide variety of people and find they don't think about what they eat with respect to nutrition, they tend to get what is quick and easy. They don't have a plan, don't use fresh foods and leftovers very well, and waste nearly 40-50% of the food they do purchase.

Personally, I don't have money to waste on "convenience" items because they are generally nothing but "dead" food (and also deadly in the long run) and empty calories. I make my own "convenience" foods from ingredients in my pantry. There are still lots of fresh and frozen foods that don't break the budget, the problem is people don't know how to use them, don't plan what they eat, and make some really bad choices when shopping.

When I see these people with their so-called "savings" I have to chuckle. I teach classes on how to save money on groceries AND eat healthy, and that's not a good example from the morning show.

I don't like the whole concept of "saving" on a holiday dinner. One wishes to shop wisely and carefully at all times, and certainly when faced with the expense of a party, but that's not the same thing as buying with the purpose of savings, rather than the purpose of good food. If you were going to buy the StoveTop anyway, because it's your favorite, by all means, use a coupon and pay less, but I buy the best quality ingredients I can to feed my guests, not the cheapest. I'd rather scrimp on the household to pay for the feast, than scrimp on the feast itself, and I'd scrimp on luxuries before scrimping on food quality.

I really don't get news segments like that. They smack of young, lazy producers who just go for the low hanging fruit without bothering to research and develop a story.

Speaking of green salads at Thanksgiving....each year, several departments where Robert works have a big luncheon buffet where everyone brings a dish to share. I decided to make a big, colorful green salad and homemade buttermilk ranch dressing. It was an experiment; Robert wasn't sure about that crowd, lol.

Every single morsel was eaten, even in the midst of umpteen casseroles, dressing, etc. :-)

We love those things too Angelaid :-)

Rhizo, I'm sure your salad was delicious, but there's just something about eating a salad at a buffet that gives us permission to eat all the other things.

I have some friends whose idea of a salad is pasta with a few small diced vegetables for crunch. Thanksgiving is starch heavy, too. Rhizo, not only would I be eating your salad, I'd be the first one to snag seconds after everyone had a chance at it. I'm not surprised it all went. :)

My SIL makes a wonderful green salad for 30+ for family dinners, romaine, a little bacon, garlic, tomato, grated parmesan...there is never any leftover. We eat it with ribs, turkey, ham, pork loin, burgers.... If she's not making the salad, we'll often set up a mini salad bar and let people build their own with lettuce, sliced olive, red or green onion, garbanzo, chopped tomato, shredded mozzarella (which I will usually not take, seems to make the salad heavier than a salad needs to be) .

we either have a veggie tray or salad to cut the starch, lol...

rhizo, did you use the dressing recipe that you asked about, I believe that marilyn_c gave the recipe. Is that the one you used? Apparently they liked it! :)

I can't seem to use any recipe exactly, but I followed the quidelines in marilyn's recipe. I used less garlic, I remember that, and more chives.

I've struggled with what to make for this event each year and have always gone by what Robert has suggested that would be a good addition. For years he has voted down taking a salad, lol.

Ha! This time, I made the executive decision about the salad....and it was a big success. I guess I won't have to worry about what to make next year!

Mor, I kept my salad simple, too. Mostly chopped romaine and a little of the more exotic lettuces added, maybe one fourth of the total volume. Halved grape tomatoes, carrots, cukes, scallions, and radishes. That's it.

Maybe I didn't make my point clear on my earlier post. THANKSGIVING traditionally has certain foods that were available during the winter season of the year. I'm from California where greens ARE available most months of the year. Was Cauliflower available in the Northeast way back when? What was available were root crops that would be stored, not necessarily very fresh. My grandparents on farm in Ohio, had root crops....potatoes, carrots, dried corn and grains and CANNED (by my grandmother) only if she grew, picked and canned them. Pickles...maybe some cabbage fermented, Beets....ALL, more or less starchy foods, because that was what they could preserve and survive on in the winter. Ask YOUR grandmother.

Michael Cain was on tv one night...laughingly was telling about how his wife was an "organic' this and that" person....and he said You Know...during the war were sent to live on farms and ALL we had to eat was 'organic'....if we did't grow it, harvest it, store it (properly) we didn't have it to eat. That goes for most of us who are in our 70's and 80's. We ate potatoes, turnips (and their tops if they weren't too shriveled up) bread, oatmeal and other available grains. I lived in San Francisco...not a farm. Few eggs, less meats, rationed everything, including shoes.

So, now we have a celebration of the things we are thankful for......called THANKSGIVING. Our traditional celebration meal focuses on food...and foods that were available to our ancestors who came to our country knowing very little of what its' potential would be. The early celebrations were about not starving....learning what could be grown on the land and 'stored' so winters could be survived. For a few hundred years our people had no refrigeration. Products like produce and meat were not shipped thousands of miles.

SO...my point. Thanksgiving traditionally IS heavy on those starchy things that sustained our people thru many generations. Those foods have a comfort level and a feel that takes (some of us,at least) to a memory of long ago family traditions and reason to gather again to celebrate our past, bringing young and old together to reminisce a tell our children and their children of our long heritage. SO WHAT if that celebration includes Aunt Marthas (horribly sweet )potatoes that I no longer prepare....or Grandma Dee's Dressing....so full of calories that will take a month to walk off, and mashed potatoes that should never appear on a table with all the other 'starches' that taste so good. And, the kids will scoop up that green bean casserole soaked in Cream of Mushroom Soup and sprinkled with French Fried Onions....Every one of them will fondly remember Grandpa loving them. That's what makes it a Once in a Year indulgence to put in our memory bank.

Amen, nanny! I understand, (or as the young folks say now: I get that.) Thanksgiving dinner now, for me, will be at noonish, everything home cooked, using some old favorites, first at my DGD's and later at sixish at my DGS's. Living alone changes things considerably, and the food on the table will still be wonderful, pretty much like back then, regardless where it was grown; even though I have not cooked any of it. My DGD has finally learned to cook green beans like I did, which is like my DM did, which no doubt is like her DM did; and that means with FATBACK!

I guess I forgot the "processed part". Processed Potatoes usually consist of just dried potatoes. My brother lives in the Potato growing part of Washington where they Process potatoes...he works in one giant process plant. They are washed peeled, cut and dried. Period. Some producers take those 'fresh, processed and dried' potatoes and add spices or other flavorings to them, or dry them and make them re-hydratable so they become mashed before eaten. Imagine, they don't have to use a chemical spray on a fresh potato to keep it from sprouting or spoiling....just a freshly dug up potato, scrubbed, dried and made edible in its' freshest state. IF YOU add cheese (or a cheese product) YOU are adding a chemically altered product to a product. Do you know WHAT makes your cheese the product you like? Spices are made the same way. Dried onions, dried chives, peppers, salt.....do we know exactly what is in the 'additives' that make our 'scratch' cooking superior to others methods of cooking. Have you 'vetted' your cinnamon, nutmeg, milk (now that 's a great one, how YOUR cow gave you your milk) coffee, tea, chocolate, cocoa....even the paper product it arrives in sometimes contains a preservative. That is the world we live in.

There certainly are many hundreds of products out there that are nutritionally questionable...I'm thinking so many beverages, including juices. Cookies and pastries, as well as other sugary stuff. Convenience or pre-prepared items,IMO, should be deemed acceptable for many different reasons. The world we live in is the safest food-wise in centuries. Our country has the highest food to $$$ economy in the world.( I only think I have read this, can't prove it) In other words, we can feed more people with our $ than any where else. That says much about how our farms grow, store, preserve and ship to the whole world our farm grown products.

t

Nanny, I get your point, but I'm still going to be first in line for the green salad. I am in Southern California, and greens are never out of season here. Traditional includes the guacamole, my job since I was 14. We always have guacamole at Thanksgiving and it's more of a happy memory food than the anonymous sweet potato casserole that changes year to year. My mother grew up on farmland here. They had far more fresh fruit and vegetables than preserved. Our lands go back to the Luiseños and Chumash, and the Spaniards and Portugese, not the Wampanoag or Algonquins or English or Dutch. Our traditional Thanksgiving reflects that.

p-log, as far as European "settlement" of California is concerned, I don't think the Portuguese played any part. Azoreans did come via whaling ships and relatives followed starting a bit more than 100 years ago, but the numbers have never been large or the impact all that significant.

Oh. Right. I forgot. It was in the Times recently that Cabrillo has been Plutoed. :) They think, now, that he was Castilian. Until recently, however, he was Portuguese!

No matter what Cabrillo's own origin, as with Cristoforo Colombo from Genoa, both sailed for Spanish royal interests. And the further explorations and ultimate military and civilian settlements both set the stages for were all from Spain. (Spain and Portugal entered into a treaty in the late 15th century to split the world in half, one half for each. The result of the treaty was a line in mid-Atlantic, west of which was where Spain would explore and exploit (being North and Central America and most of South America) and east of which would be for Portugal (being eastern Brazil, Africa and Asia) ).

Back on point - always have green salads and other veggies at Thanksgiving or any other dinner but as I'm also from California, I'm not extending the scope of what p-log said

I don't think California was on the minds of the people who settled our country for the first few hundred years and established our TRADITIONAL Thanksgiving feast. I suppose one could argue that the Southern California first few hundred years tradition would have been Beans, lettuce (not like todays) peppers, corn, corn tortillas, bits of meat, more beans and spices and Avocados. (Not known in the East until late in the 20th century) And Fruit like Oranges. Even the tomato that is so prevalent in SoWestern cooking, did not gain any fame until Luther Burbank made it more edible and famous....1900's? What did your ancestors, the Luiseños and Chumash, grow to feed their families in the 1700 and 1800's. The Portuguese that I knew in their town of Gustine, Ca....where 20,000 gather every September to celebrate their heritage and religion, were not eating salads. They were eating and sharing beans and sausage and spicy lamb and soups with more beans. They were my friends and neighbors for 12 years.

Lol, much of this little discussion began when someone suggested that a green salad would be left untouched on a table loaded with the typical T'day fare. My recent experience with around 40 people of widely diverse backgrounds proved that not to be true.

That's all.

The controversy over 'real' or 'processed' food has probably been going on for generations. I'd not have a problem with dehydrated or canned goods, if only they didn't add all of the artificial ingredients.

I've got to correct Nanny regarding tomatoes, sorry....but I taught special topics in Horticulture for several years, including the history of some of our most popular fruits and vegetables. Tomatoes have a fascinating history!

Luther Burbank had little to do with making tomatoes more popular in this country though he did introduce a tomato or two. Tomatoes were very popular long before that. Canned tomatoes help feed soldiers during the civil war!

First considered an oddity in this country (ironic since it's an American fruit), it was widely cultivated by the early-mid 1800s. One of the earliest breeders in this country was (Alexander?) Livingston, who is credited with developing the first uniform, marketable tomato in the latter half of the nineteenth century.

Tomatoes, though already popular, really took off after that! Uniformity of size and shape had been lacking until that time.

OK, class dismissed; lecture is over. There will be a quiz on Friday!

Southern California has always been different, hasn't it?

o j

nanny, you know that the Central Valley, especially north and south of Turlock, is one of the areas with a visible community of people of Azorean-Portuguese ancestry. There are only a few and they're small, their influence on the state and its culture hasn't been major. I've been to a Portuguese Festa and like most religious and cultural celebrations, the foods eaten are traditional for the holiday.

I saw that segment and yes, most of it was highly processed crapola, sodium-laden convenience foods.

I'd rather everyone focus on less, high-quality dishes to put on their tables.

It doesn't take a genius to use coupons and combine with the loss leaders that everyone has on sale and save money.

You get what you pay for.