Tuesday 22 November 2011

RIP Microwave Meal; all aboard the 'Lunch Pot' bandwagon...

Packed lunches. Erh. What a chore!

Even for someone who loves eating as much as yours truly, the thought of assembling sandwiches, chopping fruit, and rifling through Tupperware after a gruelling day at the office, fills me with unquantifiable dread.

In light of this irrational loathing, I’m always looking for an out. But despite the abundance of aisles devoted to microwave meals, pre-packed sarnies, or ironically coined ‘pasta salads,’ most foods of convenience within our supermarkets, are also foods of additives, fats and incredulous calorie counts.

As a result of this realisation, an insalubrious obsession with the ‘micro-lunch’ has worked its way onto my radar, and scouring supermarket shelves for healthy, expedient yet stimulating luncheons, a standing item on my weekly agenda.

In light of this irrational hobby, I have been privy to observing a number of emerging trends in the ready-meal market; (sweet Jesus, what’s happened to me!?) and interestingly (or not) I have noted a sudden insurgence of microwave meals masquerading behind a much less stigmatic title.

Ladies and Gentleman, may I introduce to you - the ‘Lunch Pot;’ a vegetable-centric one-pot meal, purporting to provide healthy, fresh and nutritious food of convenience, in a handy little tub.

No typical meat and two veg variations here, no school dinner-esk trays dividing potato gloop from gelatinous stew in sight. Just well-presented and eye-catchingly colourful chillies, curries, and casseroles - free from soggy cardboard sleeves and ‘piercable’ film lids.

But where an earth did the Lunch Pot come from, and who’s driving this long awaited bandwagon?

Oh who cares… let’s see how the main contenders fair…. It’s scoffing time!