You’ve read a thousand articles on meal-prepping. You hit the farmer’s market religiously, even have a few tidy bags of healthy dinners still lining your freezer. However, even the effort it takes to pop on in the crockpot seems too much. Plus, your kids want pizza.
Here’s the deal: life isn’t black and white. Delivery apps exist for a good reason. They solve the modern problem of getting you food when you’re famished and fatigued. Here’s why it’s okay to get takeout sometimes, Mama seriously.
1. You Can Find Healthy-as-Homemade Options
Why do so many advice columnists treat restaurateurs like malign wizards, injecting their culinary creations with no end of unhealthy ingredients like cottage witches sprinkling a touch of eye of newt? Food is food and that prepared by a professional trained in the science of flavor profiles showcases the benefits of their education. It’s delicious and nutritious.
Takeout doesn’t have to mean a gooey deep-dish Chicago-style pizza laden with sausage and pepperoni although even that occasional indulgence won’t kill you. Consider the ingredients in this takeout chicken dinner:
- Chicken: That’s lean protein, baby, yeah.
- Turmeric: An Asian spice that’s also an incredible anti-inflammatory agent, good for treating aches and pains after a long day.
- Garlic: This bulb contains allicin, a potent antioxidant that helps prevent cancer and lower blood pressure.
You also round out your plate with colorful pickled slaw, radishes and lemongrass rice. How many mere mortals could whip up something so nourishing in their kitchen after pulling a 10-hour shift?
Another perk? Clicking that app lets you skip the preservatives and artificial junk in many pre-packaged convenience foods. Look for takeout restaurants that use fresh ingredients.
2. The Food-Reward Dynamic Is Tricky
Here’s the deal: if you restrict ordering takeout to only special occasions, you create a psychological link between food and reward. Doing so could tip the scales toward dysfunctional eating patterns, especially if you have teenage daughters living with you. One out of every ten adolescent females develops an eating disorder.
A healthier relationship with food entails eating what tastes good and makes you happy every day, not trudging through bland meals like a naughty student serving detention. Deliciousness doesn’t mean non-nutritious. You can nourish yourself with what you need while enjoying great taste. That rule applies whether you prepare the meal yourself or let someone else do it, Mama.
Your children will learn more from your relationship with food than they will from the words you say. Let them help with the decision-making process. Are you hungry for what’s in the fridge? No? Okay, what alternatives do we have for a dinner that’s both nutritious and tasty? Model how to make good choices, and your kids will imitate what you do.
3. Leftovers Are Bomb
Is there anything more frustrating than discovering that you’re out of milk right before you pour your kid’s cereal? Sometimes, a slice of cold pizza makes the perfect breakfast. After all, the crust provides rapidly absorbing carbohydrates for energy, the cheese gives you dairy and lean protein and veggie toppings contribute antioxidants and phytonutrients.
Leftovers can also make cooking more fun. Have you ever seen the hit Food Network series Chopped? If not, check out a few episodes then recreate the fun in your kitchen.
Get your little ones in on the game. It’s never too early to start teaching culinary techniques. What would they add to that leftover takeout rice as their basket ingredient to make it a complete meal? Will they add some chicken broth and veggies to make soup? Perhaps they’ll fry it into a fritter or use it to stuff burritos.
4. You Can Safely Expand Your Horizons
You decide it’s time for a taste of Thai. You drop a small fortune at the grocery store on galangal and cha plu leaves to whip up the perfect-sounding recipe you found online. You follow the directions to a T but the result isn’t what you expected. Worse, it makes your kids cringe away from the dinner table as if you put a live, wriggling squid on their plate. Now you have a pantry full of funky ingredients that may never again see the light of day.
You should have grabbed takeout, Mama. Doing so allows you to sample exotic dishes without the big commitment of buying all the necessary ingredients yourself. Once you find a recipe your family adores, feel free to recreate it but first, discover what you and the littles do and don’t like. Consider ordering in an opportunity to teach your kiddos the value of not wasting food. Explain your thought process when asking what they’d like to sample.
5. You No Longer Spend Full Days in the Kitchen
Look. If you’ve already achieved the dream of a self-sustaining homestead where you can spend the morning puttering in the garden followed by a full afternoon of meal-prepping and canning from your harvest, more power to you. The rest of us mere mortals have things like work and bills preoccupying way too much of our time to spend hours in the kitchen.
People invented the convenience of takeout for a good reason, Mama. Sometimes, one person can’t do it all. You might not be able to afford a personal shopper or chef, but you can spring for letting someone else do the dinner dishes once in a while.
It’s Okay to Get Takeout, Mama Seriously
Today’s media abounds with stories about the glories of meal-prepping, full of suggestions on how to keep your family nourished cheaply and conveniently. However, their emphasis on the pure and wholesome side of life can make you feel guilty for simply being human.
You deserve a break now and then. Clicking a delivery app doesn’t have to damage your family’s physical health, and it might just save your emotional well-being on a crazy day. It’s okay to get takeout, Mama seriously.
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