Know Your Role

A couple of weeks back we picked up a few of those "dinners in a bag" meals. The idea behind them is that all the prep work is done for you, so all you have to do is pour the contents of the bag into a skillet, cover, heat, occasionally stir and after just 12 minutes (it actually turned out to be less than that), viola! You're eating chicken and broccoli in Alfredo sauce with sun-dried tomatoes and portobello mushrooms. I have to confess, although you don't get a lot of food in the bag, it was really easy to make and the meal turned out a lot better than I was expecting it to, admittedly with the bar starting pretty low. That being said, I did not feel like I was eating at a Tuscan Villa like the package claimed I would.

The thing that stuck with me from the whole process was that next to the cooking directions was a suggestion for what wine to drink with the meal. Aiming kind of high, aren't we? Look, if I'm eating what amounts to a glorified MRE (that would be Meal Ready to Eat for those of you who have never been in the military or didn't watched copious amounts of G.I. Joe growing up), what makes you think I'm going to be fancy enough to be having wine with dinner? This, to me, is the same as offering several recipes on the side of Mac & Cheese box. If people are eating Mac & Cheese they aren't doing it as compliment to a larger meal - that is the meal. No one is ever going to confuse food that comes with powdered cheese with fine dining.

On more than one occasion on this blog I have said that accepting where you stand in life will go a long way to making oneself happy. Once you understand your role you can dive head first into making yourself the best damn whatever-the-hell-it-is that you can to be. These "meals in a bag" serve a very valuable role. I'm sure there are lots of people out there who appreciate the fact that they can cook for 12 minutes, make it look like they put in a lot more effort than that and still end up with something much better than they normally have for dinner. But, they are not about to use these to entertain clients or impress a first date. They are good... but only up to a point.

I would suggest that the makers of these bagged meals look to the gold standard of knowing your place: Ramen Noodles. The makers of Ramen Noodles long ago acknowledged that they exist to feed college kids at 2 AM who don't have access to anything more than a hot plate and need something to eat right now. That is why you can get six for a dollar, they take four minutes to cook and no where on the package will it suggest things that nicely compliment the noodles. You eat the noodles, then you get back to cramming for a test. There is no talk of side-dishes or delusions of grandeur. Sure, Ramen occasionally strays with more complicated attempts at dinner, but the best seller remains the simple noodles. They know their role and they do it well. We should all be so self-aware.