Well, isn't that convenient?

I know I'm not venturing into a new topic here, but convenience foods are on my mind. I was reading the coupon insert that got stuck through our mailbox yesterday (who doesn't?) and was $1 off a bag of "flame grilled" Ball Park frozen hamburgers. Yeah, already cooked, microwaveable. This disturbs me on 3 levels. First, just ugh. Second, I'm never getting a hamburger at a ballpark again because I'll assume they're using these. Third, how frigging hard is it to make a hamburger? Who doesn't know how to flatten a lump of ground beef, put it in a frying pan and cook it? And if that's beyond your skill level, how can you afford the frozen precooked kind?

It's like pancake mix. I make pancakes from scratch every week. You know what's in pancakes? Flour, salt, sugar and baking soda in a bowl, and pour in an egg mixed with milk. And it you go from start to serving in 10 minutes tops. Is this so hard you need to pay 5 times the price to get a mix? Or buy them frozen? Oy.

I like my convenience foods to add value. Like a chocolate bar. That's convenience food. It's hard to make chocolate. Or even cereal. Even if I can find corn, I don't have the steamroller thing they use to squish it into flakes. And whatever it is that makes Cap'n Crunch so crunchy? I'm pretty sure I don't have any in my house. So come on food manufacturers! Come up with some better ideas!