Re: Gretchen McKay's essay on convenience foods [Food & Flavor, Oct. 16]: Good article. Great leads for label reading. Please pass on my appreciation of the art to Stacy Innerst. The "Cup-o-Sausage" left me laughing for a long time and even this evening I am still chuckling. While I rarely purchase any of the class of items that you noted, I always stay away from items that list "cheese food product" on the label.

ANDREW DACKO
Munhall

Thank you so much for writing this article, Gretchen. I, too, am a working mom and for me that definition is not complete without the adjective "guilt-ridden." I have tried the whole "menu for a week" business where you spend your whole weekend cooking and portioning and freezing so that you can serve wonderful meals during the week. The concept is good, but my children only eat seven things. Yes, I make the same things EVERY week, and I don't want to waste the precious time that I do have with my kids on the weekends cooking for the following week.

I have found a few tricks, though, that work for me, ease my conscience, and fill everyone's bellies. One trick is the products sold by Market Day, a school fundraiser. You can go to MarketDay.com, put your zip code in and it will find a participating school in your area. The prices aren't super cheap, but they truly do sell quality foods. I LOVE LOVE LOVE their chicken steaks (any flavor). These individually vacuum-sealed, pre-cleaned, frozen pieces of chicken are life- and time-savers. Their veggies, specifically the broccoli florets and super-sweet corn, are the best I've ever had. Their steaks are good too. (We like the ranch steaks). Using Market Day products, I can usually get a good, healthy, satisfying meal on the table in 20 minutes. I have not gone as far as to buy any of the complete meals that Market Day has to offer, because I do feel like I will not ease my guilt if I don't put at least a little effort into dinner.

And I totally agree about the UFO-shaped PB&Js -- they just look gross! My kids are wheat bread eaters (yeah!), so smearing on PB&J in the morning and stuffing it into a bag is a no-brainer. I even let my husband do it if he promises to do it my way! Thanks again for standing up to the pre-packaged, pre-plasticized, pre-chemicaled, just-one-step-before-inedible, overly convenient foods that are wooing our kids with ads on their favorite cartoon channel.

Thatta girl!

HEATHER FORD
Manor

Just wanted to say that I loved the article about convenience foods. Just the other day I saw a commercial about the mashed potato cubes you microwave and I honestly can't believe that it's worth it or even could taste better than a potato you can peel thin and boil and have ready in 10 minutes instead of two. Of course, it beats instant!

Being the mother of a 12-year-old, I know all too well how convenient some of these things are. But what I think people are missing is that these products carry so many preservatives that we, as consumers, should really think about before being worried about how quickly we can eat.

I used to wonder how my 92-year-old mother, who has nothing more than a little blood pressure problem, could be so healthy. It dawned on me that she ate very few packaged products. At 50 I have rethought the convenience of it all and am opting to do more time management.

Unfortunately, I am a consumer of the pancake and sausage on a stick. Yuck! My son once swore by them but has put them on the back burner to his now favorite cheese omelet in the morning, which takes me a little more time but I feel much better about giving him.

Thanks again for the laugh!

TERRI GRIFFIN
Manchester

I'm glad you briefly touched on the sodium content of some of the products you mentioned. The sad fact is, most of these items are full of sodium -- in some cases, more than a day's worth!

I'm sure you could write an entire separate article on "Overly Salted America," because we just don't need that much salt in our food.

My recommendation for a convenience food is Bean Cuisine soup mix (bought at Giant Eagle, in the organic foods section). I make it in a slow cooker.

But it IS convenient in that everything is pre-measured for you, and guess what? NO SALT!

Of course, you can add salt to taste, and that is a huge advantage over canned soups. Plus, it tastes like you made it from scratch. I make it once a week.

BETH PEDONE
Forest Hills

I almost agree with you on convenience foods. However, Uncrustables do have one good use: beach vacations. Buy a box, throw them in the cooler with the peaches and water bottles (and by that, I don't mean bottled water), and by the time they've been defrosted, it's lunchtime, and we have a non-sandy lunch. Also, on a 90-degree beach day, a 90-degree PB&J is just unappetizing!

Otherwise, I am an unpopular mom who refuses to buy Lunchables, Pop-Tarts of any stripe (well, basically any pre-fab, quasi-warm breakfast food), or canned veggies aside from tomatoes. Just my two cents (which I'm sure you have deposited regularly in your inbox; too bad they don't accrue interest)!

HEATHER CHIRDON
Shaler

I continue to enjoy good old-fashioned canned soup as a quick and convenient meal. And since the microwave, this item has shot to the top of the list. And the container is recyclable. Other than canned soup, the only thing that compares is a jumbo sammich an' 'at, which takes all of 19 seconds to make!

DAVID MARKS
Duquesne

For the most part, we avoid that processed, well, garbage, for lack of a more elegant term. If you do any sort of follow-up, one thing I'd really like to see you suggest is not buying the "snack-size" bags. We buy big bags of pretzels (or tubs of honey wheat utz at Costco), jars of applesauce, etc. and put them in small plastic containers in our kids' lunches to try to cut down on our waste.

CARMEN PHILLIPS
Pine

Didn't know you could get the lovely Kaiser Pils in 22-ounce bottles [Food & Flavor, Oct. 16]. Am I right to assume it's available at the brewery [Penn Brewery]?

JOE MIKSCH
North Side

Yes and no, sir. The bottles are indeed available at the brewery and may be found at other outlets around town. But they're 25-ouncers, not 22, as we wrote last week.

From 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, the North Side brewery plans specials to celebrate the gold medal that it won with Kaiser Pils and the bronze medal it won for its Oktoberfest at the recent Great American Beer Festival in Denver. For more information, visit pennbrew.com or call 412-237-9400.