re: #223 Belafon

It’s cheap for a machine to make a million versions of something that save me a half an hour to an hour to put together (and forget anything taking longer than that). I’m willing to pay a bit for that for the time. But, in a lot of cases, I’m not only saving time, but saving money. When you buy the ingredients needed to make a particular meal, you generally can’t buy just enough to make your meal, you end up with a lot more, which don’t get used and then go bad. So, between time and money, it works out a lot cheaper for me to buy a premade meal.

And, before anyone chimes in, no, I do not care for cooking that much. I want to get done in the kitchen and then get out of it.

That is a cultural aspect. And a matter of personal choice. And one that I also have to consider on a regular basis as I live on my own these days and have nobody to cook for unless I have guests or my kids are visiting.

I try to compromise by cooking big batches and freezing the leftovers for a later date. And I try to keep things as fresh and whole as possible for reasons of health and flavor.

I recall seeing some frozen paella on sale at the supermarket and thought, well, that sounds healthy: fish, chicken, rice and vegetables. Then I looked at the ingredients and found that one serving contained nearly a whole day’s RDA of salt and decided to leave it.

I find it personally a shame to look on food and cooking as wasted time rather than an enjoyable and enriching past time. And I guess I need to find another girlfriend I can cook for on a regular basis, but that is also a matter of personal choice…