Every evening, families across the nation face the drudgery of meal prep. The planners among us have a month’s worth of meals scheduled or a freezer full of ready-to-eat dishes. The rest of us do our best to choose a dish, gather up the ingredients, prep the elements, cook the meal, eat the meal, and then clean up. Meal planning and prep isn’t necessarily hard—it’s just so consistent. Every day it comes back to haunt and weighs on the mind. Savvy businesses have heard our weary cries and are responding with solutions. Meal kit delivery is soaring through companies like Blue Apron, Plated, Hello Fresh, and others. A subscription to one of these will get you a box of meals delivered to your door with a detailed recipe card and fresh, pre-measured and labeled ingredients. Another food trend that’s taken over Pinterest and social media is the Instant Pot. It’s a multi-use small appliance that transforms frozen food into a complete meal in like five minutes. Well, perhaps it’s not quite that fast, but users rave about its ability to eradicate meal time frenzy.
In this episode of Persuasion, Erin Straza and Hannah Anderson dish on these latest food trends that are taking the drudgery out of meal prep. Pertinent to the conversation is assessing the gain/loss in preparing recipes devoid of family history or in meal prep that consists of tossing everything into a pot and pushing a button. Are we trading culture for convenience? Will we lose our sense of heritage when we are too weary to prepare family recipes that have been passed down for generations? These questions are worth considering, as food is a foundational component to our sense of self and to the community at large.
Listen to Persuasion Episode 87:
More from Persuasion Episode 87:
Not Just a Crock: The Viral Word-Of-Mouth Success of Instant Pot, NPR
The $5 Billion Battle for the American Dinner Plate, FastCompany
It’s Dinner in a Box. But Are Meal Delivery Kits Cooking?, NYTimes
Bring Back Home Ec!, Boston Globe
Theme music by Maiden Name.