Kia ora koutou, I’ve discovered the delight and plain helpfulness of frozen meals. I have always kept to a narrow course regarding takeaways. Cafe Ngā Purapura down the road does pretty good fish and chips and they’re such good neighbours …and I love pies, always have – but other choices are fairly much on the hoof. I’m either inveigled into choosing something because of someone’s recommendation or I might walk past a shop and think, okay, today’s the day for something new.
The thought of having a whole lot of meals delivered at once, to be stored in the freezer, ready to thaw and heat up when needed had not occurred to me. I freeze my own cooked foods, mainly casserole–type meat dishes, but I’d never assembled whole meals to freeze.
I’d heard – who has not? – of meals on wheels, but had never seen or eaten one. Then my moko sent me some meals as a present and I entered the delicious world of frozen ready–to–heat–and–eat meals.
They worked beautifully. There’s a great variety, and you can also get puddings if you’re into them. A good friend sent me a chocolate pudding at Easter and oh bliss oh joy – D for Delicious is the only score..
Like all of my generation, my immediate thought was… memo to self – ‘you’re being lazy’… then intelligence crept in and said, ‘Don’t be stupid – you’d be spending the money anyway on foodstuffs, meat, vegetables, electricity and in my case, risking cut fingers. The risk of that seems to be minimal at the moment or I’ve just been lucky but there are times when I don’t want to think about food and there are times now when I simply don’t feel like eating at all. I think this comes with ageing but those of you with older relatives might be able to confirm that?
Luckily I have a lot of common sense and I always eat something. I still cook meals – can’t entirely dispense with what seems like the habit of a lifetime.
So I entered the world of frozen meals. Most meals are ordered online and when I tried to order over the phone (can’t use the credit card because I can’t see the numbers properly) – I got a couple of knockbacks, one very terse rude one. I gave her the East Coast comeback (fku2Mate) but only after I hung up you’ll be glad to know, and then I crossed them off the list. The others were happy with my request which was, take order over the phone, send me the total by email, I put the money through straight away via online banking, they receive it and we’re good to go.
The best way though is simply to send an email to my moko and ask her to do the ordering, send me the total, pay her through online banking. Not only is this a great help because of my eyesight, but its also a bit like a surprise present because sometimes there’s a different one or two in the mix. I love that. Sometimes the suppliers pop in a little extra – a delicious biscuit in its packet or a little sweet thing also in its packet as, I assume, a kind of thank you for the order.
The best thing is I don’t have to do it myself. I don’t even have to think – I just have to reach into the freezer and grab. Its like having a surprise packet on hand whenever I want it. I still like making salads and I like making pizza, I like cooking a roast with all the trimmings, but not all the time.
There is that slight residual guilt though – inevitable I suppose – but hey, I open the freezer door and there they are saying Eat Me. So I do.
Renée
PS One of my favourite writers, Catherine Robertson, has a new novel out. Spellbound is the third in the Gabriel’s Bay series. If you haven’t read the other two, you’ve missed a treat and should remedy that immediately. If you have, Spellbound is a fabulous story of what happens next to all those characters we know so well. Loved it. Kei te pāi, Catherine, tino pāi…
