Food for thought

[kerravonsen]

Well, I just had a very nice, very simple lunch: beef (pre-cut for stir-fry), cooked in a pan with Worcesterchire sauce, then the meat and pan-juice poured on top of a large bowl of Caesar salad fixings (sans dressing) (a Caesar salad kit consisting of pre-cut lettuce, croutons, bacon bits, parmesan cheese and a separate packet of dressing). Eat while hot (and before the lettuce wilts too much). Yum.

Why do I feel as if I have to justify having A Caesar salad kit in my possession? Yes, a Real Cook would never have stooped to such expensive convenience, they would have made it all themselves, down to cutting up the lettuce and lovingly slicing up every piece of beef. And I know it was a waste not using the dressing, but I was originally going to use it when I bought the thing. (Frankly, I was surprised it was actually in my order, since the last three times I've ordered it, they haven't had any)

Why do I feel so defensive? Here, I've just had a lovely lunch, and I feel vaguely guilty about it, even though I wouldn't have felt guilty if I'd gone out and eaten a meal which was entirely cooked by someone else.

?

Comments

[hawkeye7.livejournal.com]

Slicing the beef is one thing but cutting up the lettuce is another. I rarely get through a whole lettuce here. They can't be frozen so i end up tossing the rest away and feel wasteful. Moreover, the Caesar's salad kits here usually have three types of lettuce :P

I used to have a packet of croutons on the cupboard but what's the difference there? And I never use the supplied dressing. (I also prefer adding Feta cheese or that stuff that's like Feta but less salty.)

So I guess it boils down to what is practical. For me, the aversion to wasting food tends to override concern about not doing the preparation.

[hawkeye7.livejournal.com]

And anchovies. Gotta have anchovies.

[kerravonsen]

No, loathe anchovies.

[jomacmouse.livejournal.com]

Sort of puts me directly in the middle of the pair of you then :)

But fear not the salad kit and the pre-cut anything. At least you added something of yourself to it, and that's a lot more wholesome than saying, "Bugger it", and putting something frozen in the microwave...

[kerravonsen]

and putting something frozen in the microwave...

Well, that depends on what the "something frozen" is, really. Frozen green beans? Or frozen something-really-fatty? Or frozen here's-something-I-prepared-earlier? It isn't the frozenness that is the problem...

[jomacmouse.livejournal.com]

I suppose I mean that I don't feel guilty if I buy a roasted chicken and a pasta salad from the deli section of a supermarket and combine some of them for a meal as I do if I put a Lean Cuisine or McCains frozen microwave meal on. I've had something to do with the process of turning it into a meal, just as you did with the caesar salad and the meat. So I don't think you need to be defensive, though you may not think "lots of people do it, and it's no big deal" much of a reason to follow suit.

If I've missed some announcement that you are determined to improve your cooking skills, then ignore the above...

[kerravonsen]

If I've missed some announcement that you are determined to improve your cooking skills, then ignore the above...

No, I'm not worried about my cooking skills. They're adequate. I can cook bacon-and-eggs-on-toast and boil rice and pasta and make stir fry and spaghetti sauce and casseroles and soup. I have a few tried-and-true recipes memorized. I have in the past made cakes and bikkies from recipes.

But the problem with cooking for one is that there's very little motivation to make the effort, and with some things (such as cakes and bikkies) it's downright dangerous to cook things when you are trying to lose weight. I actually do eat things like Lean Cuisine on weeknights, not because I can't cook, but because I shouldn't cook, if I'm coming home tired and I would be really tempted to make something fat and easy (some things inherently fat, like bread and cheese, some things fat because they're in double quantities, like a can of soup) when having a frozen meal like that would mean I was eating something thin and easy. It is so extremely difficult for me to lose weight, that I can smother my pride in that area because I know from experience that I would eat something fatty (or too much) if I didn't have something extremely easy to prepare instead.

But on weekends, there is time to prepare Proper Meals, so the pride thing comes in again.

[jomacmouse.livejournal.com]

But on weekends, there is time to prepare Proper Meals, so the pride thing comes in again.

Which you have to balance out against the need to relax. Cooking properly can put me on edge, but there will be people for whom the process is like meditation, I suppose. I don't know where you are on that score. Having some healthy pre-prepared stuff on hand gives you time for other things that will relax you if cooking doesn't. And you can always be proud of yourself for doing something with a packet food that isn't exactly as the vendor planned. Hence, who says that caesar salad dressing absolutely has to be used on all the greenstuff it came with? :) You thought about it, and brought things together that might not have been intended as such, so that's a very good thing.

[kerravonsen]

Yes, I'm in exactly the same position regarding lettuce -- you have to buy a whole lettuce and most of it gets wasted when there's only one person eating.

And I never use the supplied dressing.

I normally don't have salad dressing at all, but with Caeser salad I like to put on a little bit.

[reveilles.livejournal.com]

Not to belittle the detailed conversation everyone's having, but if you enjoyed the meal, what does it matter how much of it you made yourself? As long as it's reasonably healthy, tastes good, and didn't take up more time than you were willing to spend on it, I think you've succeeded.

[kerravonsen]

what does it matter how much of it you made yourself?

I don't know why it matters. I don't know why I feel vaguely guilty/embarrassed. If I knew, maybe I could figure out a rational reason to counter it.

[reveilles.livejournal.com]

Maybe it tasted good and you didn't know whether or not you could congratulate yourself on making a good meal. Did you really "make" it or did somebody else? I think you should congratulate yourself on the ingenuity that made the meal happen with so little effort on your part and yet still be very tasty. :)

[kerravonsen]

(scratches head) Thing is, I don't feel at all guilty about the pre-cut beef. Because, like, it's no stranger than having minced beef, is it? Nobody expects people to mince their own meat nowadays (though at times I have, in the food processor, when I had steak and I needed mince).

But I'm bothered about the salad kit. Maybe also because I consider it wasteful because it's not economically priced.

[reveilles.livejournal.com]

Ah...you paid extra for the convenience of a pre-packaged salad.

Well, if you had bought all the salad ingredients and made the salad from scratch, would you now awkward amounts of those ingredients left in your fridge, not enough to make a nice whole number of future salads? Usually I run out of the tomatoes before I run out of lettuce, etc. And would buying all the ingredients individually have cost more?

These are deep questions; I can see why you must be wracked by guilt. :)

[kerravonsen]

Well, if you had bought all the salad ingredients and made the salad from scratch...

Well, I would have to buy... (goes to my trusty online shop) a whole Cos lettuce ($2), bacon pieces (250g) $3.78, shredded Parmesan cheese (125g) $2.53, Caesar salad dressing (250g) $2, Croutons(*) (150g) $3.82
Which comes to a total of $14.13 as compared to about $5 for the kit, but would give me ingredients for several salads before the lettuce and the bacon went off. Except that I'm not sure I could trust myself around that much bacon...

(*) I am not going to make my own croutons!

However, I am glad you prompted me to do the research, because I discovered that I can buy 100g of pre-cut Cos lettuce for the same price as a whole lettuce ($2) which strikes me as a good balance.

[reveilles.livejournal.com]

Excellent. :)