Pumpkin Squash Curry

The second lady was almost perfect. She was a retired teacher who had some quality years of cooking under her belt. She loved to cook and looked for other random odd jobs as a way to feed her vacation fund. She cooked in her own kitchen on her own time and liked it best that way. Her food was delicious! Pumpkin Squash Curry, Indian Butter Chicken, Sausage Stew, Amazing Coleslaw and she was good at finding bargains. The biggest problem though was scale. I was willing to pay a premium for the service, but I didn't want it to cost too much more than cooking it myself. That sort of 'chore' is worth no more than about $2-3 per meal. So if cooking a meal myself cost $3 for ingredients the most I'd pay (on a daily basis) is $5-6. She was costing me closer to $7-8 which was more than I wanted to spend. $7-8 is on the low end of the cheap restaurant meal that's still moderately healthy - such as Subway or a burger with a salad. Again, the problem was scale.

Auditions

I decided to try hiring someone to cook for me. Keep in mind, I wasn't making a ton of money and paying down my student loan was a priority. I put an add on Craigslist for a personal cook. I was very clear what my intent was. This person would do my shopping; looking for things on sale and high value things like beans, rice, chicken on sale, cheap vegetables etc. I told them they could cook whatever they like, because I wasn't a picky eater, but once I found some of their favourite recipes I'd stick to those. The person would make big batches once a week at their house or mine and put them into tupperware containers for me to pick up. I froze them and mixed weeks up so I had a variety. The idea was to have pre-made, single serving, healthy meals that were CHEAP and HEALTHY and because this person like to cook and have moderate abilities to follow recipes, the meals would be TASTY. And I would pay them $15 an hour, for about 3-4 hours once a week. I had 30-40 responses and a third of those looked like great options. The first girl was in college and cooked for a week. Her boyfriend escorted her to the first meeting because he thought it was so weird. The problem with her was the food was bland because of the budget and her portions were way too far on the low side. In her defense my pots probably weren't big enough but still she didn't buy much to begin with. I didn't have her back the next week.

Time and Money

I've always wanted to do the right things in terms of the environment, but I'm also quite concerned with time. Unfortunately more so. Time is really precious and if it takes too much time and effort, I'm not interested. For example, I hate taking time to cook. But mostly if its just for myself. Generally I like eating at restaurants because the work is done for me and it tastes good. My biggest issue with it is money. It costs a premium to have food cooked for you. Which means I go for cheaper things when I eat out and that generally equates to unhealthier things. And that has another level (but also important) of concern. When I lived in Victoria I too often found myself opting for convenience because it was affordable and saved time. But unfortunately it was at the expense of my money, my health and the environment. So my decision making priorities lie in money, time, my health, the environment in that order.