With the hustle and bustle of everyday life, especially during the COVID-19 era, many folks find themselves longing for convenience. Working from home, remote learning and responsibilities around the house mean less down time and less time to prepare meals. This can lead to us feeling stretched beyond ourselves and therefore very cranky. Wherever we can, we search for shortcuts that help us to manage our time wisely. This helps us to feel a sense of normalcy and accomplishment, even during a crisis.
When my husband and I began to date, I was aware that his parents worked full-time. My mother-in-law picked up my father-in-law from the Hicksville train station, then drove back home to create a beautiful dinner for her family. My husband offered to cook for her, which enabled her to have a little personal time to decompress after a hard day at the office.
One day, I noticed that he was engrossed in the tedious task of peeling potatoes for a side dish of mashed potatoes. I looked at him quizzically and asked why he lacked a box of Hungry Jack or Idahoan instant mashed potatoes on hand for a midweek dinner side dish. He gave me a look that suggested I had grown a second head.
I explained simply that my mom had begun to work full-time for my dad, which meant that dinners were often later than our normal 5 pm. As we all worked full-time, nobody was present to start the evening meal. Mom began to employ items that offered her a bit of convenience, which meant that instant mashed potatoes were often on the menu. They were clearly not as delicious as the real deal, but they served a purpose as a starch and tasted kind of decent when added to her pre-made meatloaf. Frozen vegetables from a slab of ice were boiled until tender. Dinner rolls came from a tube, rather than a mixing bowl.
My husband shook his head. Thoughts of a convenient meal for him included a carry-out pizza or takeout from Fo Ming in Old Bethpage. When his parents returned that evening, I mentioned the instant mashed potatoes. Hubby’s mom was down for the experience, so I purchased a box for her cabinet. And the rest is history. After that, the only time my husband’s mom purchased a bag of fresh potatoes was when she wanted to bake or fry them for Saturday night’s dinner. She also always had a tube of ready-to-bake biscuits on hand for every Sunday family meal.
After we were married, Hubby and I often found the task of creating dinner after a long day exhausting. We opted for no boil pasta during the week, which in the early days was terrible. I won’t ever forget the lasagna that I made for him on a Sunday, after we had cleaned the entire house and finished up the laundry. Hubby remarked, much like Oscar Madison on an episode of The Odd Couple regarding a whitefish sandwich, “Is lasagna supposed to make noise?” It was clearly the crunchiest pasta dish I had ever made. It was also the last time I tried to cut corners with Italian cooking.
When our daughter began to work full-time, she wanted to “meal prep,” which entailed meals that were cooked ahead of time and frozen or refrigerated. These meals were then re-heated at work and supplied her with the vital nutrition necessary to get her through the rest of her day. In the beginning of her meal-prep phase, our girl headed over to ShopRite to purchase chicken, fresh vegetables and pre-made rice packets. She used segmented reusable containers to portion out her food. This worked well in the beginning. After a while, she grew tired of cooking mass quantities and looked for an easier way.
Enter companies like Freshly and Eat Better Meals. With the company “Eat Better Meals,” an order for a week’s worth of meals that are tailored to your specific diet had to be placed by Thursday at 10 p.m. The meals were delivered on Sunday evening in a refrigerated bag. Each meal was labeled and could be microwaved when needed. As an aside, a new company opened on West John Street several weeks ago. It operates off the same premise and is called, “Healthy Meals Direct.” If you are meal prepping and need a shortcut, they can customize your meals based on dietary needs or challenges.
Whether you prep ahead of time or create and refrigerate until it is time for dinner, we can all use a bit of convenience now and then. While nothing takes the place of a home-cooked meal from scratch, when time is of the essence, shortcuts can help us to get the job done. As Alan Lakein once said, “Time equals life; therefore, waste your time and waste your life, or master your time and master your life.” Just remember to take some down time to appreciate every beauty that life has to offer.
Patty Servidio is an Anton Media Group columnist.
