Mushroom Omelet

I have been putting in some extra hours at work recently leaving the spouse to do the Monday night cooking. I am not sure if he came to the end of his repertoire but he had to be out of town a couple of recent Mondays and I decided it was time to sample some of the ready made meals in the chiller cabinet at the supermarket.

I am pleased to report that "convenience food" has come a long way since frozen TV dinners were introduced about three decades back.

The sons were great fans of microwave pies, pasta snacks and the like but I rarely succumbed. When I did, I was usually disappointed. I was moved to write to one manufacturer and complain about the extreme saltiness of one of their noodle dishes. They wrote back saying they hadn't considered a low salt variety and sent me vouchers for some more. I tried others in the product range, but things didn't get any better.

The photos on the packets rarely reflect the contents with any accuracy. Meaty looking lasagne turns out to be mostly pasta with a bit of tomato paste and a couple of rubbery bits of mince - barely enough to fill a teaspoon. I figure there must be a good profit on these meals and probably about as much nutrition in the packaging as the food.

However, the freshly made individual meals are reaching new plateau.

One I recently sampled had a chicken breast swathed in bacon, poached and served with mashed potatos, carrots and parsnips. I gave it a 9 out of 10.

The beef with mushrooms a week later would have benefited from a little more time in the oven - the meat was a tad chewy. But the flavour was very good - 7 out of 10.

This week's spinach cannelloni served with both a creamy sauce and a flavoursome tomato and onion mix was another 9 out of 10 and a bargain at under $6.

The best thing about all these meals is they were ready within about 8 minutes of arriving home. At the end of a 12-hour day cooking is rather low on my list of favoured activities.

One of the quickest meals you can make at home is probably the omelet. Winter tends to be a busy social time for us and sometimes there isn't time to cook a full meal before heading back out for a concert or other engagement.

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