Potatoes From A Box

We are all busy. With the boss’s demands, the long commute, shuttling kids between activities, community service and other obligations, the day is stretched thin, and as a result sacrifices are made. Everyone needs to prioritize. They need to determine what activities they are going to focus on and what they are going to drop by the leeway.

For many families, dinner together has been dropped. When dad works late, mom is picking up junior from soccer practice and sister is being shuttled with the neighbor friend to dance class, many families do not have an hour in the four o’clock to eight o’clock zone to get together at a single dinner table. This is a reasonable sacrifice considering everyone can have a healthful dinner without sitting at a single table at the same time; however, if marketing and items in a grocery store are any indication, many families are not ensuring that there is a healthful meal to be eaten for dinner.

Among the ready to eat items being advertised is a bagged pot roast. Apparently everything someone needs for a pot roast is in the bag: the roast, vegetables, gravy mix, potatoes, everything. All the person has to do is add water and throw it into the crockpot and go. There is something seriously wrong with this concept. Pot roast is about the easiest meal that anyone can make. Cut up a few vegetables, wash and slice a few potatoes and throw the roast into a crock pot for ten hours. It is perfect for the busy family. It can be put into the pot in the morning before anyone goes to work, and it will be hot and cooked when the first person gets home. The simplicity of the meal makes the idea that some families are making it out of a bag appalling.

Of course pot roast is not the only easy to make item people are buying in a ready made form. Potatoes have for years been available in an instant form. Either through power or sliced and dehydrated for potatoes au gratin these may have been one of the first ready to eat boxed meal sold to the masses. It is disappointing since these are easy items to make. Why is it that we have concluded that we do not have ten minutes to boil some potatoes or slice a few potatoes and add the basic ingredients needed for potatoes au gratin?

These kinds of food items are hurting us more than they are helping. First they cost more than the raw ingredients. Second they are all high in preservatives and sodium and other food stuffs that nutritionists and doctors warn us against eating. By having bad eating habits, we are reducing our efficiency at work causing us to work longer hours and be away from home more. It is only through proper nutrition that a healthful living can be achieved. Moreover, it is unlikely that we as a society are actually so busy that we cannot spend the ten or so minutes that are necessary to make basic healthful meals for ourselves and families. There is just no reason why we need to continue eating potatoes out of a box.