Friday, March 18, 2022

Adventures in food, and more

The internet has a decent habit of finding things I've expressed an interest about and sending me ads from every variety they can locate. Remember the food business, and my struggle to find someone local. That turned up a restaurant in the next city south, and the next week's menu available every Thursday.

The good news was, no obligation. Order some meals or skip a week. The not so good part was that the selection became sort of boring after three or four weeks. The good news was, suddenly meal delivery services began popping up.

I ordered from a service in New York City. The deal maker was that all the packaging was recycled and recyclable, and they took it away. The fine, fine print was that they took it away if your meals were delivered to NYC. The rest of us had to empty ice packs (not down the drain) and schlep plastic to a plastic recycler. They did package with padding of recycled denim that is touted to be usable as stuffing or quilt batting. We'll see.

The other problem with the out of towners is I become a "subscriber" once I've ordered. If I don't place another order in a week, they place one for me. So I have a list on my desk pad of who I must cancel. But it's been nice to mix up my local kitchen with another provider. If I only find one whose meals I could eat for the rest of my life! I'd be in pig heaven then.

In a week I have an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon to see if I need a new hip. The right one, not the left that was replaced 19 years ago and did not shift when I broke my femur! If I could only resolve this nagging pain in my right hip, I'd be a new person. I know it's getting close to my summer show season, but I think these new hips are good to go in a month. I think I'll ask Nancy, who used my walker to have her hip replaced.

 

32 comments:

  1. I would love a meal delivery service. Thinking up something for dinner has just become purgatory, migrating towards the 7th circle of Hades. Yep, first world problems, but really, after all these years, I just can't do it anymore. Happy to hear that you are working the problem for yourself.

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  2. I've never used one of those food kit services so it's interesting to read your comments about them.

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  3. I buy a couple of family sized meals in a week. Things like shepherd's pie, quiche, or lasagna from a shop making it on site.

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    1. That's an idea too, approach a local deli or restaurant.

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  4. This is interesting about the meal delivery companies you work with. My only experience is with Kansas City Steaks Co. Their prime rib roast is delicious. If a hip replacement can resolve your pain, that would be outstanding.

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  5. It's s puzzle, to find what's interesting to eat, affordable, reliable, all that. I hope you find a good source or two.

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  6. My daughter is a working mom with 2 teenagers in the house. She's using Hello Fresh for 4 meals a week, and is thrilled. (She's a great cook, and one of the kids is in culinary school, so they are discriminating about food.) She's trying to convince me to go that way because I no longer cook well for myself. After her rave reviews, I'm considering it.

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  7. It's great that you're finding a variety but it certainly can be a pain when you end up subscribed to them. I still get emails every week or so from Hello, Fresh.

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  8. I had a meal service once where they would deliver the fresh food and recipes and then I had to make it. The recipes were all excellent but I didn't continue with the service. I find deliveries to my door too much of a hassle. I like to be 'free' to dash out the door whenever I want and am usually gone for hours. One day I may try it again as the recipes were so lovely and the food too. Good luck with the hip replacement process.

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  9. Hari OM
    That auto-subscribe thing on various sites of all kinds is a real put-off in my book... I am sure there ought to be legislation against it! Anyway, I wish you tasty meals from here to there... YAM xx

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  10. These delivered meals must be affecting grocery stores.

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  11. It gets tough to eat your own cooking all the time even if you're a good cook. However, I look at the meals in the senior residences here and I'm not impressed.

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  12. Do you have Schwan food delivery in your town? https://tinyurl.com/nmhp64ww I've ordered from them several times and food is always good. I hope the dr. is able to fix your hip without having to go through surgery and rehab.

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  13. One of my daughters had meals delivered in insulated foam boxes with ice packs, after a while she had so many icepacks she didn't know what to do with them. She kept a couple in her freezer for use as icepacks on sprains, and I don't know what she did with the rest. She did cancel the food deliveries though.

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  14. I would love to find a healthy meal service. After 50 years of cooking I'm tired of it! I appreciate you telling us the pros and cons of what you find. Good luck with your hip. You deserve to be totally pain free after all you have been through!

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  15. You seem to have been in pain for such a long time Joanne, fingers crossed this dr is able to get to the bottom of it.

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  16. It's good to have the option to order delivery meals. Here unfortunately there is no such thing. Only in the big cities.

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  17. I'm surprised, considering you've already had one hip replaced, that this hasn't already come up. You'd think that that would be one of the first things they considered. I'm glad you found an alternative or two for the meal delivery. Our meals were not very varied as Marc's cooking style is plain and the least effort possible. Since I've been cooking dinner twice a week, dinner has improved.

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    1. Everyone's reaction: "it's broken". X-ray, no break, have a shot of cortisone. I would be much further down the road had it not been for the broken femur that sucked months from my life. Then getting an appointment! The poor doctors are hamstrung by covid. Elective surgery is at the will of the universe.

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  18. I wish I had an answer to any of your problems but I just don't. As usual though, you are being proactive and figuring it all out. Good food and the relief of constant pain are very high on the quality of life lists!

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  19. Good luck with your food search. Hope they solve your hip pain issues.

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  20. I've been getting boxes of meal kits since the pandemic began and I confess I'm hooked. I tried many of them and settled on Dinnerly (less plastic than most of the others, and a good price). I've tried to rationalize the plastic on the grounds that even if I shop at a grocery store for all the ingredients I'm using some plastic; ditto for carryout. And I've learned a bunch of new easy recipes too.

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  21. Those meals plans can be great. There isn’t as much choice here as you have.

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  22. I have used Hello Fresh for over six years. We are on a once a month subscription and it is so nice when the box arrives. I read recently that during the first two years of the pandemic, sales for companies like this rose, but now that many have learned to cook interesting meals, or have gone back to restaurants, business is on the downturn. I do not mind cooking but I do hate to think about what to cook. I have never had a bad meal from them and if something goes wrong, customer service has always been good.

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  23. It's interesting to hear your thoughts on these different meal services. I find it hard to cook for just myself but I'm not ready to pay someone else to do it yet :)

    I do hope you can get some relief for your hip. I think the surgery has good results for most people so if you're hoping for it, I'll hope for it too!

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  24. Hope you get some relief for your hip pain, and soon!

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  25. I would certainly cancel a service that orders something when you didn't. What a scam. All the best.

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  26. A friend of mine received a gift of a couple of months of a food service. They provide everything needed for a meal (for two) along with detailed instructions. And within 20 minutes there was a very nice meal. The downside though - they are fairly expensive.

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  27. It would be wonderful to find a meal delivery service that provided organic, tasty, varied meals at an affordable price, packed in totally recycled and recyclable materials. Dream on. But we can dream... Speaking from double hip replacement surgeries last year, a hip replacement these days is almost miraculous. I'm sure every surgeon/hospital has their differences, but mine were both done on an outpatient basis and I was pain-free and mobile in under a month.

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  28. I hate it when you get companies who automatically reorder for you.

    I hope you can get your hip pain sorted out.

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  29. Good luck finding that magical meal plan, Joanne. My mother-in-law had her hip replaced recently and I was surprised at how fast she was back to normal. I think it was less than 2 weeks.

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  30. Bummers, Joanne. I'm so sorry you have to suffer through this pain.

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