This week, the Office for National Statistics has added ready-made mashed potato to the UK’s official shopping basket, which it uses to measure inflation, and people are up in arms. Who buys a pre-chopped onion that costs three times as much as a whole one? How lazy do you have to be to choose a frozen omelette over a couple of eggs?
These kinds of convenience foods are an easy target. But for the 13.3 million people in Britain with disabilities – and those living with arthritis, chronic illness, recovering from injury or surgery, or undergoing cancer treatment – convenience foods aren’t just convenient: they are a lifeline.
This is an issue close to my heart. I’m a professional cook, but I also have a chronic pain condition, and there are occasions when I can’t even hold a knife. In times like those, I’m never going to opt for the impenetrable whole butternut squash over one that has already been diced for me.
Old people who still want to make that recipe they loved, but who now have shaky hands or whatever.
People who simply don’t have time to cook.
People who would rather spend the time doing things other than cooking.
None of those people should be judged.
I have entire recipes that measure ingredients in ‘one bag of’ and ‘one jar of’ for the days when I’m too damn tired to cook.
^ Important stuff to remember
^ yes!
Also, the pre-smushed garlic is a blessing because I loathe peeling and mincing by hand
Chef Boyardee was a life-saver right after surgery on my right leg. I couldn’t put any weight on it, so I was hopping around the house with a walker. In July and August. In Southern California. Most days I hardly had the energy to hop from my room at one end of the house, to the kitchen at the other end, let alone make anything more complicated than opening a pull-tab can, dumping the food in a bowl, and shoving it in a microwave. I’m so much more grateful for convenience foods now than I was a year ago.
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