What to have for dinner?  Hmmm?

Fast food?  Barbeque?  Indian?  Pizza?  Casual dining ?  (This is a term which refers to restaurants like Applebee’s, Chili’s or TGI Friday’s.  In reality, it sounds kind of like staying home and having left-overs.)

Hey, that’s an idea.  Let’s cook at home tonight!  You heat up the oven and grab the sauté pan and I will get online and order dinner!  For next week sometime.  But we’ll do it at home.  Ourselves.  So it will be fresh.  Sort of.  But it sure sounds good, doesn’t it?

What I’m talking about is ordering our meals on the internet so they can be delivered next week, say, Tuesday – and then WE have to cook them.  This keeps us from having to go through the tremendously stressful task of deciding what to have for dinner next week Tuesday.  I do understand that in today’s society we are increasingly inundated by family demands.  The kids have ballet recitals, soccer practice, play dates, violin stringing rehearsals, basketball recitals and any number of useless appointments to keep them from being, you know, kids.  We, as adults, are busy with work, kids, chasing after the kids, paying the housekeeper to clean up after the kids, being a single Dad, a single Mom or dealing with a relationship.  Worse yet, being a NOT single Mom or Dad and dealing with another relationship…good luck with that!  In addition, with the universal use of email and cell phones, we are working any time of the day!  We need the stress relief.  We need the help.  We need…, well, we need to quit coming up with excuses and do stuff for ourselves!!!!!!!

HOW did we GET here?

Not you and I; I know how we got here.  I couldn’t find anything on television, so I sat down and wrote this and apparently you are in a really B-O-R-I-N-G meeting and are reading it…because you have poor wi-fi reception and couldn’t download those cat videos from Youtube.

Now, so you know where my perspective is based, I am an older male (it’s okay, I came by it honestly) living in the Midwest/West.  I no longer have to worry directly about the kids, I’m too used to not being single and I’m WAY too lazy to deal with an outside relationship.  While that places me outside the marketing demographic for this type of business, it maps my progress through the demographic.  What that experience has taught me is…Damn!  I don’t care how many channels you have, take the time to stop at the grocery store, for God’s sake!

I know what you are saying, and my advice to you is, keep it to a whisper or your boss will know you’re sitting in that meeting but not paying attention!  Anyway, your stand is that, aside from being old and not knowing anything, I am not familiar with the hectic urban lifestyle.  I don’t know anything about life in the stressful business world of today and I probably ride my pony right by the corner mercantile on my way home from my job at the Scrooge & Marley Counting House.  (Don’t laugh; many people have a view of the “hinterlands” that is not much different from that.)

First of all, that was a different guy and, according to Dickens, he didn’t have a pony.  Secondly, every one of my friends and acquaintances from the city tell me how wonderful it is to be able to get whatever you want any time of the day on any corner – unless you live in the suburbs, and that’s not my fault – and you’re telling me you can’t take the time to go to the store!  I get that the lines are a bit longer, but you could maybe buy enough for a few days or a week.  If not, maybe you could invest in one of those ice-box-refrigerator-things.

All kidding aside (no, not really), there are a growing number of businesses nationally advertising their complete meal delivery service…without the cooking part included.  This business plan is predicated on the assumption that you, the consumer, are a lazy…um…person.  Oh, sure.  They don’t SAY that!  They tell you how easy it is.  How much time it saves.  How it allows you to try so many different types of cuisine or how it helps you learn to cook better.

Okay, you want to learn to be a better cook?  Do you have the internet?  Of course you do; you were going to order dinner there.  Well, punch in the word “recipe”.  You don’t even have to spell it correctly.  What did you find?  LOT’S of stuff, right?  You want vegetarian recipe’s?  Type that in.  Are you interested in gluten-free meals?  If you don’t have celiac’s desease, quit looking for problems where there aren’t any…but go ahead and put that in there.

What did you find?  You found that you don’t know where to begin because there are so many, THAT’S what you found!  You want to learn to cook better, grab one of these recipe’s.  Not sure about your skill in reading that complicated kitchen code?  Look for recipe’s for the beginning cook.  As far as having the right product, no matter which one you choose, they always start with a list of required ingredients.  Amazing, right?

If you still feel the need to order something, get online and order an archaic tomb called a “cookbook.”  Your mother might have one, but she’s probably still using it because, let’s face it, some of us “older people” aren’t so handy with technology…but at least we know how to cook in a non-pretentious way.

Here’s an idea.  Go to one of those meal delivery websites and set up a once or twice a week delivery. Go ahead; I’ll wait.

Done?  Okay, now two other nights a week I want you to pick an interesting recipe’ and do it yourself.  That’s right, have a friendly competition with those fine entrepreneurs at whichever delivery service you choose.  I think you will be pleasantly surprised at your ability and at your available time.  No, you won’t have any more time than you did before, but you will likely find you won’t have any less, either.  In addition, you will have saved a few bucks and find a new skill.

Still think you’re just too busy?  I suggest you follow this plan until you’re comfortable with cooking…  And then start your OWN meal delivery business, build it into a thriving brand and sell it.  Then you’ll have time and money to have your meals delivered with a chef.