I know this post will be quickly bookmarked as one of Nikki’s favourite posts. At our house the daily struggle is to find something for everyone to eat at dinner. Nikki and I rarely disagree on what to eat, but add three kids into that mix and there’s usually at least someone that finds something wrong with supper every night. It is tiring at best and very frustrating at worst, just ask Nikki. Even when we have a rudimentary meal plan (we try but it usually doesn’t get done) the next task is to have the appropriate groceries in the house at the right time, which hardly ever coincides with our actual tastes at the time.  Then the challenge is having whatever the meal is made and ready at the right time.  It’s enough to drive you to drink.  Anyway, this problem is obviously not just limited to our house and Nikki has often fantasized about starting a business cooking for families like ours.  Well, apparently there are lots of people with this same problem, and they have come up with a very cool slant on that idea.

Several “meal assembly kitchen” stores have opened in the Washington area and the Washington Post has a good article about this cool idea that is apparently exploding in the US.  The idea is so simple, really.  You go in and for a few bucks a meal you get to assemble a week’s worth of meals in a professional kitchen with fresh ingredients.  You take them home, freeze them and use them as necessary.  Freaking brilliant.  It’s probably not that cheap, but man that’s a huge lifesaver.  This quote is probably enough to make Nikki weep openly:

“My husband and I can do six meals in less than an hour,” says Janet Desjardins of Clarksburg, a meal assembly veteran of three months. “As a result, I barely go to the grocery store now.”

Oh man.  I spent a few minutes looking and it seems that there is no such animal in Ottawa.  Why?   Damn you, why!?