I know that I’ve already talked about frozen meals. Stouffer’s lasagna, however, has a special place in my heart.

It is a beauty amongst frozen foods – an extra sparkly gem in a sea of gems. It is comforting, it is homestyle, it is delicious! As Ted Mosby put it in How I Met Your Mother, “I have a Stouffer’s lasagna for one in the freezer that is going to be unforgettable” (S7, E21). What a night that sounds like.

From the compact dish that it’s in, to the zero clean up needed, it’s ALSO a hot, saucy, cheesy, and savory lasagna to boot. A Stouffer’s lasagna is more than just a frozen. It’s a lifestyle.

Am I currently starving at work and daydreaming about it? Perhaps. Do I mean what I say, regardless? Ab-STOUFFER-lutely.

Tonight, as I was rewatching The Martian, the rationing that Mark Watney went through caught my eye. Packets and packets of heavily preserved food lined cartons in the cabinet. Yes, the food was rarely shown, with the exception of his Martian-grown potatoes, but through the compartmentalization of the meals, this made me think of airplane food, frozen meals, etc. These are all areas of food that people don’t generally like … but for some reason, I do.

Is it because there’s something innately homestyle and ‘American’ about these dishes? Is it because they’re both cheap and pre-made (for the anti-chef, me)? I’m not really sure. All I know, is, they’re good. 😮

2 examples just popped into my head. 1) Matilda. 2) The Host.

These are two very different books, with very different reasons that TV dinners/packaged meals are eaten. In Matilda, we see that her family is lazy, tasteless, and all together horrible. All that they do is sit in front of the TV and eat TV dinners (hm, should I take this as a warning?).

“They were all in the living-room eating their suppers on their knees in front of the telly. The suppers were TV dinners in floppy aluminum containers with separate compartments for the stewed meat, the boiled potatoes and the peas”.

In addition to this perhaps less popular meal, there are MANY other delightful food quips throughout Matilda, from hot drinks that Matilda takes up to her room while reading, the buttered bread she’s served by Ms. Honey, to that scrumptious and infamous chocolate cake. Keep an eye out for more on these later.

Second, in The Host, survival is always the most pressing issue. Especially living in caves, the access to fresh food (that is not grown by the residents) is scarce. After one particular health scare (that ends up being alright), Jeb decides to celebrate. He whips out a box of dehydrated food – I know, I know, not the same thing, but similar.

“Jeb let the unwieldy box falls onto the mattress. [Jeb] ‘Thought we might have a bit of a celebration. Dig in’…

‘Wow, yum!” Jamie said, pawing through the box of dehydrated meals of the sort that hikers used. ‘Spaghetti. Excellent’…

‘Dibs on the garlic chicken,’ Jeb said”.

Why is there something that sounds so appealing about a dehydrated meal? Maybe it’s the fact that it’s presented in a world where tasty treats are hard to come by (and processed food is missed dearly by the surviving humans)? Hm, what does this say about me, now? Pass on the frozen meals? No, thanks. 😉