Inconvenience Food

Last night I screwed up white rice.  Yup, white rice- the kind that you measure, dump into boiling water, throw a cover on, and wait 5 minutes.  I also forgot to turn on the steamer to cook the snap peas.  All in all, dinner was terrible, and it wasn't completely my fault.

As much as I love to cook, I do try to keep convenience food in the freezer for those nights when a fast meal is needed.  I had been out of town since Thursday afternoon, so it was slim pickings for dinner on Sunday night.  Cue the frozen fish sticks.  Ughh.  Who ever thought fish sticks were a good idea?  Truth be told, I used to be ok with fish sticks.  They were quick and they filled the hole when necessary.  However, since I've switched to eating mostly whole, fresh food, my tastes have changed considerably.  I thought that they were bland, salty, and well, just plain nasty.  To top it off, I grabbed a boxed rice mix from the depths of my cupboard.  It was an Uncle Ben's wild rice mix.  Sounded good.  However, I didn't realize that it was a "garlic and olive oil" blend.  To put it mildly, the vampires avoided our household last night- Peeeyuuuu.  And that's coming from someone who loves garlic.  That's why the white rice came into play, the mix smelled, well...inedible.  The white rice was backup.

The irony of the whole meal was that I screwed it all up.  I had too little water in the instant rice and forgot to turn on the snap peas, which were the only saving grace of the whole meal.  So, why can I cook fairly complex dinners, yet screw up some crappy convenience foods?  Ownership.  Because there was nothing creative or interesting about the meal, I was so distracted and disinterested that I messed stuff up.

I think I'll be steering clear of the frozen foods section for a while.

So, if you're reading this, please add to the comments some convenience foods that you do like.  I'm interested to see some options that are better than fish sticks.  Go.