What things to you "Doctor" up?

[mrodgers]

wow, I'm surprised at the amount of processed food, packets and premade things you all use.

I would never use a boxed cake mix or pancake mix, or jars of pasta sauce or canned vegetables or boxed mac and cheese.

The one thing I do "doctor up" is Franks Hot Sauce. I used to work in Hard Rock Cafe and still make their buffalo wing sauce, which uses Franks Hot Sauce as a base.

I also "doctor up" my breakfast muesli by adding fresh mango and blueberries.

Well, the pasta sauce is really all that I eat pre packaged on a regular basis. I don't do the typical add water pancake mixes (Aunt Jamima for example). I usually buy a package when I'm at a specialty store (Amish country) which really is just the dry ingredients. I don't eat pancakes very often.

As I'm a meat and potatoes kind of diner, everything is typically made fresh. I usually make my own BBQ sauce, though it is made with Ketchup which is a processed packaged ingredient.

I am thinking of starting to making my own sauce from San Marzano tomatoes. If I could have a garden, I would grow my own and everything in my spaghetti sauce would be home grown including the beef. I can't dig ground and put in a garden so I tried a few tomatoes and peppers in pots. No sun. I'd have to stay home all day to move them around every half hour as that is all the sliver of sun I have that moves through the yard.

I don't have an oven so I never make cakes. I could make brownies in the toaster oven, which won't cook fully so they'd be awesome! LOL. I do have pre packaged cookie dough I keep around and can toss a couple cookies in the toaster oven if I want. I always have fresh baked cookies that way, never old cold leftover cookies. I should mix up some cookie dough, roll it into a log in the fridge, and cut up individual cookies and throw all that in the freezer, but it's just easier to see it in the store and think, "I'll grab a package of this." I don't have cookies very often.

 

[BadPinkTink]

I don't have an oven so I never make cakes.

omg , wow, seriously you don't have an oven
Everywhere I have lived , all rented places have had an oven

I have never bought pre made cookie dough

I have never grown any vegetables, I just buy fresh fruit and vegetables, and make most things from scratch. Both my grandmothers were very good cooks, so from an early age I was taught to cook at home.

 

[mousefan73]

Kraftr Mac and Cheese I turn into a more health meal by adding brocolli, caulifloer and carrots and shreading real cheese on top. I usually dont cook so much processed, but that "fake" chedder flavor powder is somehow addicting. I have been known to also Doctor up popcorn with those cheese packets...

 

[Kittyblue]

My brother was home on leave and I was making ramen noodles and he grabs one of the packages, "You ever eat these raw?" and takes a bite immediately spitting it out. "Aak, these aren't the same as in Korea!" No dummy, they're 15 cent Oodles of Noodles for crying out loud, not fresh ramen in Korea.

That's funny because my kids also DO it it raw from the package as a snack!

 

[GreatLakes]

Depending on the sauce I will usually add star anise to any jarred marinara sauce.

 

[DLgal]

wow, I'm surprised at the amount of processed food, packets and premade things you all use.

I would never use a boxed cake mix or pancake mix, or jars of pasta sauce or canned vegetables or boxed mac and cheese.

The one thing I do "doctor up" is Franks Hot Sauce. I used to work in Hard Rock Cafe and still make their buffalo wing sauce, which uses Franks Hot Sauce as a base.

I also "doctor up" my breakfast muesli by adding fresh mango and blueberries.

Well, the Rao's pasta sauce I use isn't so much processed as just someone else made marinara sauce and put it in a jar for me. It has no preservatives or anything crazy. The ingredients are: Italian whole peeled tomatoes, olive oil, onions, salt, garlic, basil, black pepper, oregano. Those are literally the same ingredients I use in my own tomato sauce. So, it's basically just a time saver. This sauce gets moldy about 10 days after opening, so it's basically fresh sauce.

Also most dry boxed mixes are just shortcuts where they combined all the dry stuff for you and you still have to add eggs, milk, butter or oil, etc. We also have a huge selection of this kind of stuff in our stores (foreigners are often shocked at how large our supermarket aisles are and how many choices we have) and many are literally just ingredients you would use if you were starting from scratch. I have a vanilla cake mix right now that is just flour, sugar, baking powder, Madagascar vanilla bean, salt. I have to add milk, eggs, and melted butter.

I know sometimes it seems like Americans use a lot of boxed foods, but it's mostly out of convenience. It's not all junk. Especially nowadays with so much focus on foods being healthier.

 

[mrodgers]

omg , wow, seriously you don't have an oven
Everywhere I have lived , all rented places have had an oven

Propane. I ran out of propane a few months after moving, tried to get someone to deliver, tried to get the old company to pick up their tanks, before any of it happened, my furnace went out. I had to make a choice, 4° in the living room and 350° in the oven or 68° in both the living room and the oven. I chose 68° in the living room.

Car and furnace is paid off now. I just need to get rid of 2 very large tanks that the company won't come pick up and get another company to deliver. I've lived on an induction burner with my cast iron, charcoal and now a gas grill, and toaster oven so long I don't think I could keep my stove top cleaned off enough to cook, LOL. It's become an extended counterspace for when I need to move stuff off the counter to cook.

I have never grown any vegetables, I just buy fresh fruit and vegetables, and make most things from scratch. Both my grandmothers were very good cooks, so from an early age I was taught to cook at home.

Store bought produce is terrible. I've never had a tomato with any flavor that came from a grocery store. The town I'm stuck in is also terrible for groceries. Walmart is empty (not due to Covid) every time I'm there and can't afford the grocery store. So I drive over an hour to get groceries, I can't do that several times a week to have fresh veggies. I typically go to the private owned grocery store once a month, a different Walmart once a month (though I try to limit my Walmart shopping now) and on occasion Aldis as that is on the way home from work.

I lived in the country, the middle of nowhere. I'm not use to the flavorless store bought vegetables as we always had a garden. There is no comparison, from the store is garbage.

 

[klacey1]

There are very few things I do not make from scratch. But one insanely bad for you thing that I used to crave was Domino's cheesy bread pizza. I've found that Aldi's cheesy breadsticks with their marinara and chemical garlic butter are a really good dupe with some doctoring up with additional cheese and parsley and a complete reimagination of the directions.

 

[nw6675]

For Ramen, drain the liquid, add a scoop of peanut butter, soy sauce, and hot sauce. Chopped peanuts, green onion and cilantro if you have it. Yum.

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

Pancake/waffle mix: add pinch sugar, vanilla and malted powder. Makes them taste like Disney.

Spaghetti sauce: add meat, onion, garlic. Sometimes basil or oregano. Never sugar, they are too sweet as it is.

Bear Creek vegetable beef soup: add a can of fire roasted tomatoes, and some more veggies, so it's super veggie forward, plus the ground beef.

Soberbread Hatch Green Chile bread: (add the cheddar called for in the recipe), then salted butter poured over top when it's about 10 minutes from being done, along with a coat of cheddar.

This is the last two, lol. Lunch today:

 

[Micca]

Pretty much anything from a can or a jar gets my medical attention. I often resort to ICU: Intense Cheese Usage

 

[Moliphino]

I add extra shredded cheese and a dash of chipotle hot sauce when I make Kraft mac and cheese. I'm going to try putting some Boursin garlic and herb on it next time I make it, inspired by the Food and Wine booth.

I like adding egg to ramen. I poached it in the broth while cooking last time and I liked that even better than the scrambled egg drop method.

 

[LuvOrlando]

I do mostly homemade but this is amazing with some good Italian bread or a Baguette, although I tend to leave out the cream cheese. It could also easily be a pasta sauce, and I use the same base without milk and diced tomatoes for stuffed cabbage (mix with ground beef, cheddar and roll up in preboiled cabbage leaves then bake) and stuffed peppers (mix with rice, cheddar and put in a pre boiled scooped out pepper then bake).
https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/rich-and-creamy-tomato-soup/
I also make pot pies with Campbells Creamy chicken, just add precooked chunks of chicken and a can of peas & carrots, can do it in a store bought pie crust of with store bought biscuits on top.

 

[klacey1]

LOL. Shades of Pioneer Woman on TV. Open a box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, put bread crumbs on top, and then claim it is a Five Star Restaurant dish. Buy a foot long sandwich from Subway, put Grey Poupon on it.....gourmet sandwich.

Huh? Is this a weird joke? I've been reading her blog long before she had a TV show, and have watched many episodes and have literally never seen anything remotely close to the above, even in jest.

 

[tvguy]

Huh? Is this a weird joke? I've been reading her blog long before she had a TV show, and have watched many episodes and have literally never seen anything remotely close to the above, even in jest.

She is notorious for this. My wife screams everytime she does this. Her doctored up Hot Pockets episode was hilarious. I think SNL even spoofed her.

EDITED: Her Doctored up boxed cake mix recipe. https://www.thepioneerwoman.com/food-cooking/recipes/a93862/9-ways-to-elevate-cake-mix/

Her Doctored up pre-made stuffing recipe. https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/delicious-doctored-dressing-4530853

 

[tzolkin]

....have visited homes where all they did was dump the jar on the hot noodles.

I guess I'm the odd one out. I always assumed that's what you were supposed to do with jarred pasta sauce. Isn't the entire purpose of it that it's seasoned and ready to use? I have never used jarred sauce so maybe I'm totally off.

If everyone is taking the time to "doctor it up" by sauteeing garlic, changing the seasonings, and possibly adding meat or vegetables, why don't you all just buy cans of crushed tomatoes and make your own sauce? It can't see where it could take any more time and then you have exactly what you want. What's the point of buying the pre-made sauce if you don't like the way it tastes?

For Ramen, drain the liquid, add a scoop of peanut butter, soy sauce, and hot sauce. Chopped peanuts, green onion and cilantro if you have it. Yum.

Yup, was just about to post this. I use some of the shrimp seasoning packet in the cooking water. Drain it most of the way. Add soy sauce, sriracha, and chunky peanut butter to make a creamy sauce.

 

[skittles67]

I doctor up my hot chocolate with kahlua.

Well that sounds amazing!
I add Italian seasonings and a little sugar to jar pasta sauce.

 

[AustinTink]

Canned pinto beans. I make them into refried beans with a little bacon, onion, tomato and spices. Canned refried beans are disgusting.

 

[Moliphino]

I guess I'm the odd one out. I always assumed that's what you were supposed to do with jarred pasta sauce. Isn't the entire purpose of it that it's seasoned and ready to use? I have never used jarred sauce so maybe I'm totally off.

If everyone is taking the time to "doctor it up" by sauteeing garlic, changing the seasonings, and possibly adding meat or vegetables, why don't you all just buy cans of crushed tomatoes and make your own sauce? It can't see where it could take any more time and then you have exactly what you want. What's the point of buying the pre-made sauce if you don't like the way it tastes?

It's what I did in college when I was looking for cheap, easy, and fast meals. I'm not really a fan of tomato sauce, though, so I never cook with it myself now (I will eat it it someone else makes it).

 

[TwoMisfits]

My favorite thing to "doctor up" is muffin mixes. When you scratch make muffins, they just don't quite taste like the beautiful bakery ones, especially when you have to keep it dairy and tree nut free.

But, man, a beautiful allergy friendly boxed mix and some fresh produce and herbs (with adjustments to the water and baking time to account for the amount of water in the produce) is a beautiful thing.

Today, since I used the fennel bulb in a veg dish earlier this week, I decided to make the best apple fennel cinnamon muffins (a cinnamon muffin mix with 2 grated apples, 5 grated fennel stalks - you get less than you think, some diced fennel fronds, and 1/4 cup less water and 5 minutes more baking time). I just had one and it's a dream. Healthier than it started, but so, so tasty...

Most mainline store muffin mixes have no real fruit/veg in them even if they have "the flavor" - so I pick my favorite spice flavor and just jazz them up with my favorite fruits and veg...