10.11.07

prepare to be prepared.






















Land of Convenience, is that actually even a catchphrase? I could Google it to find out, couldn't I. Maybe I will someday. But for now, let's assume it is, and that way I can bring this paragraph to a close by finishing its initial thought: America's convenience foods are light years beyond the other developed countries in the world in terms of sophistication and taste.

This, my friends, is not news, is it. Nor is it a particularly good thing under normal circumstances, as it robs the consumer of the satisfying, creative experience of cooking and replaces it with the brainless consumption of mind-bogglingly long lists of chemicals and preservatives that have who-knows-what kind of long-term effect on your body.

However: if you suddenly decide to scrap your dinner plans for the evening only to find out that there's no "real food" in the house, then, mmyeah....maybe it's OK to pop a package of these in a 375°F oven for 26 minutes:

































They were all totally fine, the crab cake was less weird in fact than the crab cake that Pitty had when we went out to dinner a couple nights ago. And, I did not do one creative thing to these, but if I'd made a sauce or two, and been careful about keeping everything juicy, this might even have been an above-average dinner.

The down side would have to be the nutritional content. Pictured at the top of this post is the tilapia ingredient list, and it contains more non-food than I normally consume in a month. And I know that you people out there who work for convenience/processed food companies (and who are reading over my shoulder at the moment) are saying, "Whatever, I'm sure you're eating tons of chemicals all the time that you don't know anything about." I'm sure that's true, but I'm also preparing 98% of what goes into my mouth, and very little of it could be considered "prepared" before it gets to me. After it gets to me, well...I don't exactly know what you'd call it.

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