CAREGIVING with LEAN CUISINES
If not familiar, Lean Cuisines are manufactured by Stouffer’s (owned by Nestle) and are premade dinners found in the Frozen food section of the Grocery Stores. As a Caregiver, they are something for which I have learned to be Thankful.
They are not something that I would normally purchase, and I had never purchased them before becoming a Caregiver. I have never actually eaten one and I find it hard to believe they are as tasty as my Mother claims. Certainly not as tasty as a delicious homemade meal prepared with love.
But I simply had to find a viable option to preparing three meals a day. And so, I have added these frozen entrees to the menu here in the private dining room of Casa del Caregiver. And I typically chose flavors that I don’t prepare as much as she would like. She likes the basic meat & potato options, and she is capable of cooking them in the microwave herself. Thank God and Stouffers for Lean Cuisines.
The meals are usually featured on the Lunch menu and are available two to three times a week. I could not in good conscience serve them daily as I am a tad suspicious of any nutritional value. They are however a perfect solution to the 3 meals a day cooking dilemma.
In case you’re interested or vaguely curious, I make a variety of homemade soups and decent sandwiches if I must say so myself. I used to work for SUBWAY Sandwiches. Ok so perhaps I didn’t make a lot of sandwiches in Advertising, but I did spend quality time in the stores where I watched the crew members make sandwiches. And I paid close attention.
At any rate between Soups, Salads, Leftovers, and Sandwiches, she has a variety of lunch options. But that is not the topic at hand, except that it kind of is–Lean Cuisines and Lunch are the topic of today’s story.
As per my Holiday Blog, for some odd reason I did host Thanksgiving dinner. I do know the reason; I had a strong compulsion to make the meal and the day special for my Mother. Therefore, I took requests and set out to prepare her favorite dishes.
Anyone who has prepared an entire Thanksgiving dinner solo knows that it takes time, energy, and creative time management in order to serve dinner at the time you have locked yourself in to. Then there are Appetizers and for some cooks, Desert. Luckily, I firmly believe that Desert can be purchased from a local establishment whose specialty is deserts. But then there is the Turkey—the star of the show. And preparing the best Turkey stuffed or with dressing on the side generally requires hours of time.
I cooked until midnight Thanksgiving Eve and woke up at the crack of dawn to make sure that the Turkey arrived at its oven destination on time and then continued the preparation of my Mom’s favorite dishes.
As is our custom we had breakfast with Champagne Mimosas and watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade with me running back and forth from the kitchen to see my favorite Floats. It was a busy but good morning.
At around noon as she always does, she announced, “It’s Noon so it is lunchtime.”
“Are you hungry,” I asked.
“Dinner is at Three and appetizers will be served around 1:30 PM,” I continued, hoping that her answer would be no.
“Not really but I’ll have a little something,” she responded as if I was not in the kitchen where I had been all morning—COOKING!
I took this moment to go out for a breath of fresh air. Not quite in tears but wondering why she felt the need to eat just because and also come into the kitchen to give new meaning to the words, “in the way.” It is a very small kitchen area.
It was a beautiful day, so I took some time to enjoy the sunshine and listen to tunes all the while thinking that most people who had eaten a hearty breakfast would skip lunch on this day in favor of an extra-large dinner. Especially a dinner comprised of all their favorite dishes. But I decided to look past that and focus on what still needed to be done for the meal.
I returned to notice that my Mother had prepared a microwavable meal. A meal that in the short time I had been gone she was now eating.
I didn’t think any more about the situation until, until I needed to throw something in the trash. I truly believed that my eyes were deceiving me when I noticed the box–the Lean Cuisine Box!
On this particular day, less than 2 hours before the main event, my Mother had chosen to eat Lean Cuisine’s “Glazed Turkey Medallions with Dressing and some sort of Apples.”
There were several other options.
Note to Self—not myself—my Caregiver’s Conscience: Never ever again allow this to happen. And “this” is cooking a special meal for an unappreciative guest with absolutely nothing I wanted to eat on the menu!
Written in Thanksgiving for Lean Cuisines. Perhaps, I’ll try one.
“A CAREGIVER’S CONSCIENCE”
Thanks!
Goes way back to the Lobster!
The relationship with Stouffers is a long-term commitment. LOL