I’m relieved to see this article.
I used to love cooking. But that changed over time with pandemic. I think a part of it is that now, I’m not at work trying to remember what’s in my kitchen. Looking at recipes isn’t a form of escapism when you don’t have a lot of alternatives about what you’re going to eat. And it’s no longer convenient to plan to drive by the grocery store on my way home from work when I’m not driving home from work any more.
Every piece of meal prep had begun to feel Like a chore, and each next step more difficult. Ok, sure. First I had to find recipes that looked interesting enough to cook. Then to put together a grocery list? And a monumental trip to the grocery store? All before dinner could even begin to be started let alone arrive on the table.
Since before I moved I have solved the problem by going back to a meal subscription service. (HelloFresh in this case.) it has really helped. I am still cooking — which I firmly believe should be how we consume at least approx 80% of our meals, in terms of being economic and healthy — but it is brainless now. I get to pick what looks good from a limited selection ahead of time; I pick meals that support my values (I try to go 50% vegetarian, for instance) and can stay within my caloric desires at the same time. 4 box kit meals = 8 Servings, do with $80 I pay for more than half my food every week. (I am a breakfast skipper.)
Last night I invented my first meal on my own in a long time. I had subscribed to another box — an ugly foods box. I’ll be honest, I think these months of meal box kits have also improved my own cooking in terms of figuring out a meal with multiple components and how to make it all ready about the same time, and considering sauces, seasoning and condiments more holistically and thoroughly than I would have before.
My kitchen mojo is coming back, just a teeny weeny bit. But right now I will take scraps of anything!
Best lines of the article:
- “I remember, when I was 8 years old or so, asking my great grandmother what it was like to live through the Depression,” she says. Her grandmother had responded that they ate a lot of oatmeal, a lot of pickles, and sometimes, an orange with a peppermint stick as a big treat. “There were bleak moments in late March, early April,” Randall says, that “I did not want oatmeal again, and I would think about my great grandmother, and think: We know how to do this in our family.
Beans are my reset food, when I need something good enough and easy enough and healthy enough and I just want a break from planning meals. Brothy or spicy or refried. With cornbread, or rice. or chips or tortillas or potatoes. Beans, beans, they're good for your heart, the more you eat, the more you like em. When I lived alone I'd cook enough to last a few days, when they were done I'd be ready to cook other food again.
I've occasionally gotten "free trials" of those mail in meals. Tried both hellofresh and goodfood - and to be honest, it's kind of exciting to open a box and having a whole recipe prepped for you, with all kinds of techniques and flavour combos I would not put together myself. But at 10$/meal, I don't see myself actually subscribing. One time, the meal they sent me was literally 4 potatoes to grate and bake, with some yogurt sauce on the side. I would have felt pretty dumb if I had paid 20$ to bake potatoes, but the techinque used was actually nice and the result delicious.
The pandemic has made me appreciate cooking a lot actually, and I feel like my cooking skills have improved quite a bit. I'm better at improvising, tacking more complicated recipes... When I'm stuck at home all day, sitting in front of my computer on the couch, i start to feel trapped. Spendig 1-2h messing around in the kitchen is a nice escape where i'm totally focused on something else.
Right? I don't know that I would appreciate this service so much in a non-pandemic world. There is a definitely plus right now in grocery delivery; it makes one appear safer. Maybe it makes one feel safer. (Depends on the one in question, I believe.)
In fact, I'd previously used another meal kit service before the pandemic (like, a few years before) and quit it -- out of boredom, if I remember myself. And there is something to the defined form of meal kit dinners --- meat, carb, veg -- that doesn't resonate with how I suspect most "real people" approach their "real dinners." Certainly not me. But -- i suspect -- the format cannot truly be faulted, either.
As for plastics, I'm a consumer that tries not to put my produce in plastic bags when I buy it from the grocery store, yes. So this does result in more plastic use for me. However...how many other people can say that? Because in review, if you buy your produce and put it in a plastic bag....you are creating just as much waste as a kit.
Good article. I too have felt the effects of the pandemic stifle my former passion for cooking... and I've also turned to hello fresh. Even with hello fresh, cooking feels less creative and move like a chore anymore. Tomorrow I am planning to make an can homemade sakura jam, and I am hoping the experience is more pleasant
Does it matter who it’s sponsored by if it resonates with you and helps you explore a point of view? Classic inceptionism.
I sent my dying grandmother flowers recently. Did I do it because I could use money to assuage my guilt or did I do it because it was a nice thing to do? Guess what — whether I’m a manipulative sack of shit who refuses to SEE my family in grief situations or someone who’s moved just far away enough that the drive doesn’t merit the discomfort, she, an 89 year old with kidney failure and dementia, can still look at a bouquet of sunflowers and have her spirit rise up.
I am not sure intent matters so much as impact these days. Certainly, when it comes to some things, I no longer care.
PS for those wondering: I see no mention of this article being sponsored content in any way, which leads me to conclude uhhsguy has made this conclusion based solely on the written content of my post. In which case, theoretically I could ask why the fuck he thinks I’m wasting my time on promoting other content for SEO when this post is a shit poor job of SEO AND I have my own content to effectively SEO If I really were any good at that shit — but why bother? It’s pretty clear uhhsguy never read the article I linked anyway.