A Day Off

I took the day off from parenthood yesterday. Well, sort of. You know, once you become a parent, there are no real days off. But, at least I didn't have to haul a child around with me while I ran errands. On my day off I did go for a hike and have lunch with a friend. Otherwise, it was nothing but errands.

One of the things I did was try out one of those pre-fab dinner places. At this place, you register on line, select 6 meals from a menu, make an appointment, then show up and assemble the meals. The meals are easily frozen, so that you can eat the meals as needed. I have always been intrigued by this concept as cooking dinner is a tough assignment with my kids. It seems like everytime I pick up a knife to chop something, a child tries to climb up my leg. And I really hate feeding all of us CostCo frozen meals.

I selected options like Thai Chicken Skewers, Savory Flank Steaks, Louisiana Rice and Beans, Greek Chicken and Marinated Pork Loin. The assembly portion of the meal experience only took me a little over an hour. I loved the fact ingredients I would use only once, like Coconut Milk and Cilantro, were provided for me--less waste. Plus, I could easily avoid wheat and seafood, with my selections and on-site substitutions.

Tonight we ate our first pre-fab meal, well we could only eat half of it, the portions were so generous. (It looks like my six meals will be closer to 12 meals for us.) It was fantastic. To me, the proof of this concept will work if the food is good and if we get more than one meal out of each portion. With one night down, this could be a winner.