15 Store-Bought Substitutions That Are Ina Garten Approved

From skillet-roasted lemon chicken to vanilla brioche bread pudding, Barefoot Contessa — and certified modern domestic goddess — Dame (we added that, but it fits, right?) Ina Garten, taught herself how to make everything we would ever want to eat. We picture ourselves living the Ina Garten life, waking up to fresh coffee from Jeffrey, the New York Times Magazine, and an almond croissant we sleep-walked to the kitchen earlier to pop in the oven for 30 minutes. We'll take our mid-morning snack on the veranda, overlooking the garden, lush with every herb and spice, a chocolate fountain, and spun-sugar swans, while the sound of the ocean waves gently crashes against the beach made of molasses cookie crumbs and macaron seashells.

But, as Garten crafts her flawless recipes, she keeps us amateurs in mind. Just because she can do it all from scratch doesn't mean she wants to. So, where does she draw the line between totally worth it and taking it one ingredient too far?

Ditch the peanuts, the Yukon Golds, and the bread crumbs. Chuck the egg yolks, the double broiler, and the hundred-dollar truffles. No candy thermometer, masher, or pie tin needed. And, don't you dare lay a finger on that cookie sheet! Kick back and relax ... these store-bought subs make every dish feel like a vacation in the Hamptons.

Next time you space out in front of the grocery store fridge section, thinking, "Am I really this person? Do I buy pre-made mashed potatoes?," you stick your arm out, proudly grab those microwave taters, and put 'em in the basket. Yes, you buy them. Even Garten does. At least sometimes. Mention it once, and we're sold!

Obviously, we crave the glory of sweating it out in the kitchen, peeling a million spuds, cooking and mashing them into lump-less oblivion, and folding in a luxuriously buttery cream sauce to finish. We have our award ceremony acceptance speech already written out for "Most Crying in a Scene Involving Potatoes," otherwise known as two whole hours of your life, shoveled down everyone's gullets in less than 30 seconds. Special thanks to little Penelope, for dumping them on the floor ...

What if you could nail all of the flavor in zero the time? For the record, Garten did this for (gasp) Thanksgiving, the most sacred meal of the entire year that involves turkey butts. To zhuzh up Bob Evans Mashed Potatoes, Garten adds cheese and sour cream to land them squarely in the neighborhood of her famous parmesan smashed potatoes. As she told the New York Times, "I think the goal for store-bought ingredients is that you don't know that it's store-bought, that it tastes just like you made it yourself." Mission accomplished.

So ... homemade mayo? Yeah, no. Not happening. In no world would we ever make this ourselves. Why? It already comes in a weirdly shelf-stable, squeezy, upside-down bottle that's best used by 2073 — no heroes necessary here. We'll happily leave this gloopy emulsion to the pros.

But, what about a stone-cold domestic diva? Garten's limitless bounty of recipes features a single basil mayo concoction with eggs, lemon juice, vegetable oil, and olive oil. But, even her seasoned buttermilk herb mayo calls for store-bought Hellmann's (which is the same as Best Foods on the west coast). Julia Child famously loved the brand, too.

In an interview with the New York Times Garten explains, "Mayonnaise is one of those things people think will taste better if you make your own. I don't think that's the case. If it's perfectly good prepared, why bother?" Sign us up for the easy A on this one.

We're 99% sure Garten isn't punking us with this one. Okay, maybe 98% ... solid 97%. When we heard that our favorite self-taught chef was cool with chocolate syrup from the store, we obviously pictured a glass jar of rich, dark chocolate from someplace like Williams Sonoma, sealed with one of those waxy stamp things that people used for letters in pirate times, and priced at $1 zillion.

Nope! Guys, Ina Garten likes Hershey's chocolate syrup. No special editions, no secret, off-market hookups from the Hershey family — just regular Hershey's chocolate syrup like you find on the shelf. Want proof? Check out her chevron chocolate cake or chocolate ganache cupcakes. Told ya. Crazy for Hershey's.

Yes, she drizzles her ice cream sundaes and warm, fudgy brownies with scratch-made chocolate sauce. But, while she prefers a topping of fancy gold leaf, her chocolate ganache cake recipe calls for over a cup of Hershey's chocolate syrup. No need to visit Hershey's Chocolate World in Hershey, PA, because this is the factory tour ride straight into your face.

We fully leaned into the viral homesteading trend a few years back. Besides the apocalyptic garden with a tomato plague and a Wicked Witch–looking sourdough starter, we also put our talents to the test with homemade ice cream. And, we low-key nailed it. We crushed salted butter caramel, we slayed rhubarb crumble with toasted anise, and we squeaked out a decent strawberry ice cream of our own. We thought of opening our own bicycle cart and riding up and down the boardwalk, ringing our bell and putting smiles on faces. It was a whole thing.

But, you know what's even easier than making ice cream? Not making ice cream. And, at least when we're talking vanilla, Garten agrees. She goes for Häagen-Dazs, taking it a step further than devouring it from the pint with a fork because all the spoons are dirty. As she clarified with the New York Times, "Ice cream is actually crème anglaise that's been frozen." She uses it to top a tart or level up the presentation as a five-star sauce. Ooh là là.

Her blue ribbon–worthy dessert tip? Forget about a pint of vanilla on the counter for a while, then dress the plate under a slice of pie with 2 tablespoons of melted ice cream to serve up Four Seasons vibes with Motel 6 money.

Fun fact: Three out of four Americans are on team store-bought cranberry sauce, according to a study from KRC Research (via Ocean Spray). And, just about the same number of us prefer to see it in its natural habitat, as a quivering, can-shaped blob adorning a tired leaf of iceberg lettuce. Three out of four people — we have clearly set a very low bar!

We can still buy our beloved Ocean Spray cranberry sauce, but we can also make it much better with a few stealth moves from Garten. First, grab a can of cranberry sauce with whole berries — skip the one with the rings. Heat the berries to a boil in a pan with fresh granny smith apples, orange juice, and zingy orange zest. Set a timer for a 15-minute simmer, then take it off the burner and add raisins, walnuts, or pecans. You won't even remember that depressing cranberry creature you used to serve as an actual side.

This recipe mimics Garten's cranberry fruit conserve recipe, which calls for fresh cranberries and sugar, instead of the canned stuff. But after a few of her bourbon-laced hot spiced apple cider cocktails, nobody is gonna know the difference.

When you mangia la pasta, it's all about the sauce (and also, the family-sized amount of parmesan we grate on top of our own plate). With a garden that features literally all the ingredients she needs to make it, Garten would have no problem whipping up a magnificent marinara.

Still, she doesn't need to because a perfectly good jar of Rao's homemade marinara works just as well. She admits that this is one where scratch-made is her thing, but for the rest of us non-Ina's, Rao's does the trick. While we totally imagine ourselves stirring a steaming pot of fresh tomatoes and sprinkling in oregano like Salt Bae, let's just be honest ... we're way more Swedish Chef.

Store-bought pasta sauce can sub in all over Garten's culinary repertoire. Along with Italian nonna–like bottomless portions, we love it in Garten's real meatballs and spaghetti, where we get to focus on mixing the meatballs and not the sauce, or her eggplant gratin dish that actually calls for jarred sauce and all the ricotta and parmesan we could ever want.

Until recently, we blissfully spent our days spreading boring old whatever butter on literally everything. But, we soon begged for a life beyond salted and unsalted. Enter truffle butter, the 2015 hit by Nicki Minaj and a food. While those lyrics might have us clutching our pearls, we're spreading the actual butter on more suitable-for-work things, like bread. (Please, someone, reach out to Nicki and let her know it also works on food.)

With all the friends in the world, we expected Garten to have a few European truffle hunters on speed dial. Then, she would don a blue button-down and casually craft the most expensive, drool-worthy butter known to humankind. At that point, we just spontaneously combust from FOMO as she mmm's and oooh's over the final dish.

Garten loves this stuff just as much as we do, and just like us, she doesn't want to make it! She gets her white truffle butter at Urbani Truffles, and D'Artagnan specialty foods company, online. It's all fettuccini with white truffle butter and mushrooms and rainbows, from there.