Online grocery shopping is a weird thing. Not everyone likes it, and I also understand it’s hardly profitable. However, it makes me feel like I live in the 1800’s and I’m an important count or gentryman. In that scenario the little van that turns up to my door is like a grand horse and carriage. So I can be glad to be keeping up the traditions of my elders, and that I receive my chicken nuggets the same way they did.
So, of course, our water is still not fixed. It comes on a couple of times a day for a few minutes, so we are not entirely without, but it does mean that we need to have simpler food and eat off paper plates – like it’s a childrens birthday party.
Which of course brings me to the topic of ready meals. Now, ready meals are usually something I quickly grab if I’m too tired or lazy to cook. Which means I never really look at them and compare them. But now I have to consider them properly as it is all we can eat. So, I’ve lined them up in order and done the reserach and this is what I have learned:
They are overwhelmingly meals for one. In spite of the 1980’s stereotype that microwave meals are for lonely people, my number one research result is that in 2023 is that ready meals are, in fact, still for lonely people.
If you want a healthy meal – it has to be mixed beans in a plastic pot. They can be from anywhere in the world, theres mexican mixed bean, morrocan mixed bean and indian mixed bean – all in the same plastic pot. But that’s it, that’s the healthy options, there no variety, except in the country name. All of the other ready meals are unhealthy, a 50:50 mix of salt and fat, with some element of flavour thrown at them. With one exception, there are some ‘diet’ready meals. These are much smaller and taste the same as theit cardboard packaging. On the one I’m looking at, the box proudly states ‘Contains salt substitute potassium choride’ – which I’m not sure how to react to.
Soups come up as ready meals in a search. That’s wrong, they are only half a meal. You have to eat something else with soup.
My microwave has taken pride of place in my kitchen. No longer sitting in the corner unloved, only getting used when the coffee has gone cold, it is now the star of the show. It’s happy, but it’s feeling the strain. Once I’ve cooked a family’s worth of meals for 1, it starts going ‘baaaaahhhhh’ instead of ‘hmmmmmmmm’. It still seems to be working, but I think it’s days are numbered.
We are nervous the water won’t be fixed for christmas, to the point where I’m looking on Amazon for a christmas gift for Mrs Rad, I’m tempted by the christmas themed paper plates for the 25th.