Blog.EmealsForYou

Meal Planning – A Rant About the Cost of Laziness

June 12, 2008

Years from now when the social-anthropologists look back and try to determine when the decline started, they will settle on Bill Cosby and Jell-O pudding. Some of our moms made pudding from scratch; some from a package labeled instant…but the downfall can be traced to the advent of the ready-to-eat pudding cup. In our lay-the-blame society, you know the one without mirrors; it’s easy to say that is when kitchen laziness began.

It all gets back to- how much does it cost? For those few people who can afford it, kitchen laziness must be a very nice thing. Our society rewards kitchen laziness, the inability to push ourselves beyond opening a package to provide food for ourselves and our families. We have a whole slew of businesses designed to prepare our meals, actually just the entrées, in nice little freezer bags so that we won’t have to overwork ourselves in the kitchen. On a diet, not to worry, just order up from the Internet…Get 6 weeks of food for the cost of 4. Let’s not even get into the fast food route.

First let me attack the Diet Plans. Let’s look at what’s missing besides the vegetables, salads et al that you have to provide on top of paying “only about $10 per day” as the ads say. We are missing the self-discipline to use portion control… to limit our daily intake of calories and carbs. Will we stay on these pre-arranged diets forever, how will we learn to push ourselves into better physical shape if the only way we can diet is by checking off a list of meals on a menu? Besides diets don’t work; unfortunately we’ll need to change our lifestyle to really make the difference we are looking for.

Now about those Meal services, Dream Dinners, My Girlfriends Kitchen, etc. What are we really getting for our money? We have ourselves convinced that they are just like going out to dinner only cheaper. Surprise, you still have to cook them, still have to come up with sides or salads to go with them. Just what have we gained except less money in our checking account and bragging rights at the PTA meeting? Come on… take some time and plan you own meals. You will find it refreshing to have control over what you want to eat and not what they have on the menu for that week.

Look, I don’t care how you plan your meals; use your recipes, get recipes off the Internet or cookbooks. Like the Nike phrase, JUST DO IT! Show some discipline. For those who say they can’t plan meals I say bull. The only thing between your family and good meals is your laziness. Get over it. Don’t you want your kids to look forward to good meals at home?

Entry Filed under: Meal Planning, Rants, Semi-Rants and Non-Rants. Tags: cooking laziness, laziness, portion control.