30 Foods That Are Better Bought Than Made From Scratch, As Experienced By Folks In This Online Group

$45? I guess it depends what country you live in, it does not cost us nearly that much to make a family serve from scratch.

Agree,I love Pad Thai but I suck at making it,it is never as good as the restaurant one.Its $12 for a lunch one and then $21 for a dinner one,I couldn't make it as cheap I don't think.

Are you hiring Oompa Loompas to hand grow the bean sprouts for you? All you are really telling me is your kitchen is not stocked for Asian cooking. Most of the ingredients are either common and/or have a long shelf life and you use it again next time. If you will only ever make it once then maybe for you eating out is the better option.

I can make a pretty tasty Pad Thai for less than $10 USD, for 2 people, and have leftovers for work the next day!

I just made it last night and it was cheap and easy and tasted like our local restaurant. We had all the ingredients for the sauce and just needed a few extras for the main dish like bean sprouts and cilantro.

But, a freshly oven roasted chicken is something of wonder! And, makes your dwelling smell great as well!

It's a comparable price to buy a whole raw bird or rotisserie at my store. The time and energy saved from just getting the typically hot off the roller chicken can be very worthwhile - dad and I are both exhausted from caregiving duties and it's worthwhile for that.

The rotisserie chickens from Costco are cheap for a reason. They're nasty if you look close enough.

One of my brothers was appalled when he learned I don't BBQ roast chicken - I buy it at the store for my recipes. I do roast chicken in general, just not BBQ.

They have no chance of getting close to my version!

And the smell drives me nuts!!!

We do wings in the oven but my oldest son says an air fryer would be much better and wouldn't smell. We had the original fryer and that smelled a lot to the point of my husband cooking outside all the time so we got rid of it. I haven't checked out the air fryers yet.

I would make my English-born father in law fish and chips occasionally before he died last summer and he said mine was the best he’d ever had, and I don’t eat fish. Is always try to get halibut but that was hard to find, so haddock would have to do. Want to make the perfect batter for anything? Mix self-raising flour and beer. It’s that simple. Or sparkling water will do if you have no beer. Deep-fried mushrooms are awesome. But I probably won’t bother getting my deep fryer out ever again now he has passed.

This is my view for anything with lots of oil. My husband doesn't share this view and loves cooking with high heat (only setting he knows) and lots of oil. Guess who doesn't clean the kitchen~

I agree that deep frying is logistically complicated (setup, supplying large amounts of oil, cleanup). With that said, it is possible to do it efficiently if you're really motivated. I have a top-notch fryer that includes a built-in filter/drain mechanism. It makes cleanup a lot easier. And with all that said, for most home cooks I agree that a deep fryer is way more trouble than it's worth.

My biggest complaint with baklava is that the servings are always too small 😭

as long as you don't make your own phyllo dough, it's really easy to make

I have never had baklava as good as what I have made myself from a recipe I really like. My friends agree. Not a flex. I am just a monkey following a recipe someone else made and said recipe is very good. Store bought tends to be drier. Ingredients not cheap and my back hurts after making it so have not made it in years. But I'm almost always disappointed by store bought. Baklava fans - check out this youtube video. slightly different process but looks yummy. And I'm envious of their filo dough machine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6EtO2Swv_8

I used to get the best baklava from this place down on Pape near the Danforth Greektown when I lived in Toronto. Still miss it.

Can confirm. I made baklava for a Girl Scouts project in 6th grade and it takes roughly three years to put together. But it was sooooo good.

I am previously unfamiliar with these but now I definitely want to seek them out, they look delicious!

picture doesn't look like a kroket

I prefer the word kroket because that is the word we Dutch use. But now I am hungry! Of course a frikadel, bamischijf, kroket, berenklauw or mexicano is always great to eat!

Smart mommy that one.

I never heard of Dutch croquette before, but they sound delicious.

You mean to say you'll go to hell if the frozen and home-made ones are not 99% identical?🤔

I bet they'd pair well with Chef John's "sure you can make it at home, but why would you" ketchup recipe.

I used to just buy them. But I think, I'll start making my own, from now on.

I once made mini cinnamon sugar donuts at home. They were great but nothing like the good ol' gas station donuts

I dunno, I had a blast learning how to make baked donuts. I can’t eat fried foods or a lot of sugar without getting sick, and most of the donuts available near me are fried and/or covered in sugary stuff. There are certain flavors I will never make at home as they’re really just not as great when not fried, but for the most part I like making them. And yes, I realize some people don’t think a donut is a donut if it’s not fried.

I used to be a "yeaster" at an iconic American donut shop and my other yeaster and myself would crank out about 600lbs of do nots in a shift. I've tried a pound of do not dough at home and it took about the same 8-10 hours and I've made hundreds of thousands of donuts.

I'm limited to Dunkin Donuts and Krispy Kreme. Am I the only one that thinks the cheapest donuts from those brands are 10x better than the fancier ones?