Almost all of my meals are quick, convenient, and simple that require only a few minutes of preparation time. However, this does not mean that they are especially expensive or unhealthy, nor are they limited to Stouffers type frozen meals. For example, one of my more common meals is rotisserie chicken + oatmeal + fresh fruit. I buy the rotisserie chicken pre-coooked, so only prep time is ~3 minutes to microwave the oatmeal. Total cost for this meal is usually between $1 and $2.
Are you saying you can get a rotisserie chicken for $1-$2 or that you make X number of meals with your chicken and it comes out to $1-$2 per meal? I pay around $7 for a rotisserie chicken at the local grocery store and $11 at a local green grocer store.
I don’t eat an entire rotisserie chicken in a single meal. An oversized Costco chicken costs $5. This is ~6 servings for me, so contributes ~$0.83 towards meal total. Fruit + oatmeal brings up the cost of the full meal to over $1.
I also regularly get rotisserie chicken via delivery from supermarket. Now that it is a new month, my next one will be via Uber Eats, using my usual 50% off coupon stacked with monthly $15 off Uber, from credit card. My net price will be under $5 for a full chicken after discounts above.
Ah Veselkas, the woman who cut my family’s hair had her salon on that street and we used to go there occassionally (usually it is crowded unless you catch it just right). In school it used to be the Kiev down 2nd ave a bit, but veselka is still the kind of place where you see people eating breakfast any time of the day or night.
One of the problems with packaged meals is that you microwave them in the container they come in and that leaches chemicals from the plastic into the food that scare the hell out of me, among other things endocrine disruptors (it isn’t BPA any more, most have stopped using that, but other common chemicals in plastics are as well, like PEET. It isn’t easy to put them in a ceramic container to reheat them, but it is something to think about.
The prepared foods are usually very expensive, we recently tried fried chicken at Wegmans, and while it was good, for an 8 piece meal it was like 20 bucks. It is true with just the two of us (plus the dogs and the cat’s bit), that we had a lot left,but it is expensive. Their other prepared foods like mac and cheese, or italian style pasta dishes, are pretty expensive given what you are getting. I understand why, cooking from scratch,if you for example cut up vegetables, or other prep, can take time for some dishes (and obviously, there are always shortcuts, like frozen vegetables), but it still can take time and with people being busy, it takes energy and time.
We don’t buy packaged food much at all, and get takeout a couple of meals a week. There were times when with my son and his crazy music schedule where we ate meals in the car driving to/from things, or when we didn’t have a functioning kitchen for a couple of months, or when it just wasn’t easy to cook, but even then we tried to be as health conscious as we could, rather than getting takeout or fast food.
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When Safeway has $5 Fridays, I sometimes indulge in 8 pieces of fried chicken for $5! That is a lot of meals for us but it’s oilier and less healthy than what we usually eat so I don’t buy it often. I don’t deep fry at all, so if we are going to have that, it’s from takeout.
Our local grocery chain has started competing with $6 Fridays. Their offerings look healthier and more tempting to me so I will go and try them out one day.
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It’s fun to see how low the price of a healthy meal can actually be. The other day, Costco had boneless skinless chicken breasts in 6 convenient portions for $2.99/lb. I bought a pack and froze it and am thawing it out was we need it. I have used it as the protein for multiple meals already. I thawed some, cut it into chunks and added it to marinara and made pasta. Just last night, thawed more, stir fried it with other ingredients got lettuce wraps and will do that again tonight for a different potluck party.
It’s very easy to thaw—either via the microwave or soaking the bag in a bowl of water in the fridge.
When I buy food in a plastic container or bag, I have no issue transferring it to glass or ceramic to reheat. I often heat in the bowl I plan to eat the food in so no extra dishes.
Yesterday at the grocery store I noticed they had frozen burgers on sale. Quarter pound burgers with all the sales came out to $0.75 per burger. Buns were $0.25 each. Party-size Ruffles were $3.99. With condiments you could feed 4-6 people for $15 easy there.
But people would rather order the same thing and pay $15 for delivery and tip before the cost of the food.
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To be fair, if I’m ordering a burger for take out it’s going to be a deluxe/gourmet burger with special toppings and condiments, maybe a nicer bun …and I’m not getting chips to eat with it.
So, not the same thing.
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To be fair, you wouldn’t have greasy pans/dishes to clean up and standing over the stove for 15+ minuets. Haha, but I get what @gpo613 is saying.
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Every year my friends and I go to a restaurant with a Christmas pop up scene, I’m not a fan because the menu is limited, we usually order food for the table, I’m the least picky eater so I’ll let others order. Last year there was a homemade onion dip served with ruffles, cost about $15. We live in an area with very good restaurants. I think we’re trying a different pop up this year. Our most frequent order delivery is pizza, after that it’s Thai, Indian or sushi. If I want a burger, I’ll make it (and get nice rolls, I don’t eat regular sandwich bread or rolls, way too sweet).
Another thing that deters me from food delivery (in addition to inflated menu prices) is that it often arrives warm/cold/soggy. I like my pizza hot so I don’t usually get that delivered, nor do I pick it up unless it’s at the one place that’s really close to my house. I would not order a burger or fries to be delivered either (soggy bun/fries).
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I had a nachos appetizer yesterday at a restaurant. It was HUGE. The waitstaff asked me if I wanted a take home box. NO. Those things get soggy when you heat them up.
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@CollegeNerd67 My exact feeling concerning burgers and fries! During early Covid, my husband and I had date night by ordering online and eating in the backseat of the SUV! He brought a huge travel cup with ice and a 2 liter caffeine free diet coke; I had my water. We had a bag with extra napkins and condiments, which changed depending on what we ordered. This allowed us to “eat out” but not in the restaurant.
To this day, I will not order a burger for takeout, but will do a pizza. Cold leftover pizza was a breakfast staple for my kids as they were always eating as they drove to school in the morning!
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My husband loves cold leftover pizza and makes fun of my need to heat it in the air fryer before eating it 
I can’t do cold melted cheese or cold chunks of meat.
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AIR FRYER. It will bring them back not 100% but worth snacking on. 
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I can confirm that a Patagonia Nano Puff jacket is the best pizza “warm bag” in the world. Our favorite pizza place is about 15 minutes away. When I get home it is still hot, thanks to that jacket.
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No…actually because the nachos already have cheese on them…they just are never again crunchy.
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so maybe a liquid cheese instead of a shredded cheese? That makes more sense.
We have had decent luck reheating nachos. I do add a few fresh chips. Maybe we aren’t as discerning. We reheat Mexican food all the time. I put parchment on a small sheet pan. Reheat in my convection oven.
I agree about not ordering burgers and fries as takeout. The only foods my husband enjoys to takeout are Thai food and burritos.