A while ago I tried one of those "Make At Home" meals you see popping up in grocery stores. I said it was quite tasty, and that an experienced cook such as myself could make it in the 20 minutes allotted; on the other hand, if you aren't comfortable in the kitchen it would take more than 20 minutes, there are risks to handling uncooked chicken, and $18 is overpriced.
Last night I made it myself and I now have good numbers on just how overpriced, and how environmentally unfriendly, those box meals are. I made the meal myself, picking up the fresh ingredients on the way home. I used a wild rice blend and broccoli instead of peas.
It was delightful. Even the boy liked it, and he protests constantly that he's always hated chicken, and he cleaned his plate. I used a thick, aged Balsamic (provenance sketchy, though), a good French Fig jam, Grey Poupon mustard, Trader Joe's California olive oil, and Dixie kosher salt (soooo much better than Morton's, trust me on this). The broccoli is just broccoli, the rice was bulk P.C.C. Wild Rice Blend (Puget Consumer Co-op, a local chain of "organic" grocers going upscale recently), and the chicken was, well, whatever the Kroger butcher's counter had. I again used a white wine for deglazing, the Bota Pinot Grigio (a cheap box wine).
It took me 25 minutes going from "the ingredients are here" to "dinner is ready," but that's only because I had to trim the broccoli and rinse the rice first (the boxed version comes with blanched, pre-cooked rice; where's the fun in that?). Cleanup was fairly trivial, but then I have a very nice cast iron pan for the meat, a non-stick pot for the rice, and a casserole dish to steam the broccoli and garlic slivers in the microwave.
Total cost for a meal for four: $9.25. Note that the $18 price tag is for a meal for two, which means that the effective price is one-quarter what the boxed sets are selling you.
The rice and broccoli came in decomposable bioplastic, the chicken in butcher's paper. The wine box says its recyclable, and the glass around all the other ingredients is certainly supposed to be. I can make this recipe 13 times before I have to throw any of the seasoning containers away unless I use them up cooking anything else. The boxed set comes with the box (only recyclable if you tear out the plastic window showing you the "fresh" ingredients), tiny (glass, I'll be fair) bottles of mustard, balsmamic vinegar, and fig paste, heavy petroplastic-wrapped, vacuum-sealed container of blanched rice, and more plastic for the vegetables and the chicken.
When you make this recipe once a month from the box, you spend $216 per year, your environmental footprint is rather large, and you don't learn a whole lot. On the other hand, if you commit to making it once out of the box and then using that experience to make it yourself, you'll spend only $61, have the freedom to modify the recipe (sprinkle feta or gorganzola on the chicken to finish it! Add herbs like rosemary or parsley! Try it with different mustards, or different jams! Add a goddamn salad!), and have a much smaller environmental footprint.
I encourage you to learn how to do this. Learn how to set the world within your reach to right. Don't be lazy about it; you can learn to care about what you put into your mouth, care about the environment around you, and give the middle finger to companies trying to sell you on your own incompetence.
Last night I made it myself and I now have good numbers on just how overpriced, and how environmentally unfriendly, those box meals are. I made the meal myself, picking up the fresh ingredients on the way home. I used a wild rice blend and broccoli instead of peas.
It was delightful. Even the boy liked it, and he protests constantly that he's always hated chicken, and he cleaned his plate. I used a thick, aged Balsamic (provenance sketchy, though), a good French Fig jam, Grey Poupon mustard, Trader Joe's California olive oil, and Dixie kosher salt (soooo much better than Morton's, trust me on this). The broccoli is just broccoli, the rice was bulk P.C.C. Wild Rice Blend (Puget Consumer Co-op, a local chain of "organic" grocers going upscale recently), and the chicken was, well, whatever the Kroger butcher's counter had. I again used a white wine for deglazing, the Bota Pinot Grigio (a cheap box wine).
It took me 25 minutes going from "the ingredients are here" to "dinner is ready," but that's only because I had to trim the broccoli and rinse the rice first (the boxed version comes with blanched, pre-cooked rice; where's the fun in that?). Cleanup was fairly trivial, but then I have a very nice cast iron pan for the meat, a non-stick pot for the rice, and a casserole dish to steam the broccoli and garlic slivers in the microwave.
Total cost for a meal for four: $9.25. Note that the $18 price tag is for a meal for two, which means that the effective price is one-quarter what the boxed sets are selling you.
The rice and broccoli came in decomposable bioplastic, the chicken in butcher's paper. The wine box says its recyclable, and the glass around all the other ingredients is certainly supposed to be. I can make this recipe 13 times before I have to throw any of the seasoning containers away unless I use them up cooking anything else. The boxed set comes with the box (only recyclable if you tear out the plastic window showing you the "fresh" ingredients), tiny (glass, I'll be fair) bottles of mustard, balsmamic vinegar, and fig paste, heavy petroplastic-wrapped, vacuum-sealed container of blanched rice, and more plastic for the vegetables and the chicken.
When you make this recipe once a month from the box, you spend $216 per year, your environmental footprint is rather large, and you don't learn a whole lot. On the other hand, if you commit to making it once out of the box and then using that experience to make it yourself, you'll spend only $61, have the freedom to modify the recipe (sprinkle feta or gorganzola on the chicken to finish it! Add herbs like rosemary or parsley! Try it with different mustards, or different jams! Add a goddamn salad!), and have a much smaller environmental footprint.
I encourage you to learn how to do this. Learn how to set the world within your reach to right. Don't be lazy about it; you can learn to care about what you put into your mouth, care about the environment around you, and give the middle finger to companies trying to sell you on your own incompetence.
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