Totally agree, and there have been times when even I have been tempted.....mind you, tempted.....to take the easy way out and pick up a frozen dinner or two.....just can't do it, especially after reading the ingredient list......
I do get frozen on occasion....but...not usually the "complex" frozen stuffs...scientifically fabricated mystery meat with 50% filler. The last one I picked up was chicken fried rice (and I make that myself 99% of the time, but was short on time yesterday, and hadn't pre-made any rice and let it chill!). I think it was around 6 bucks, but I didn't have to
buy chicken nor make rice + egg + veggies. Probably had preservatives in it 'n stuff, but mostly decent-for-you.
Another one I'll pick up is frozen chicken that's already battered and comes with a sauce...like a PF Chang thing, or other brand (garlic chicken, sweet-and-sour, etc). I make those myself too, but sometimes all that oil for frying the pieces first is too much mess.
All those are mostly basic-ingredient things. And then there's the OCCASIONAL frozen pizza because I didn't want to wait for making the dough. Or take-out pizza.
It's basically all about time. There are very few things I could
buy frozen that I can't make myself and/or do better. But time is time.
Still, I'm getting real irritated at having to pay 4.80 or whatever for a "real" (not value-menu) burger and 2.50 for a beverage ....even if I do go fast food.
I guess my budget just hasn't caught up with inflation. Then yeah, there's all those chemicals too. And mystery meat. And added soy stuff. And and and...
/rant