So What Can You Eat?
Nosh on the Latest Nutrition News

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Is your schedule already overbooked? Do you find yourself eating more treats and less healthy meals? As an alternate to fast food or take out, I decided to check out one of the trendy meal assembly kitchens. I went to Magical Mealtime to experience how this concept works. First I went online at magicalmealtime.com and looked at the month’s menu selections. Then I placed my entrée order and the date for my session where I would assemble the meals.

At first I was a little skeptical. Being a nutritionist, I wondered if the facility would be clean and follow proper food service protocol when it comes to food temperatures and sanitation. Then I thought about whether the food would be processed and high in preservatives and salt. Or would the recipes have a nutritional analysis available and use more fresh ingredients.

You might be thinking that you don’t cook so why would this option work for you? Here’s how it worked at Magical Mealtime. After placing my order online and signing up for my segment, I went to their facility at my appointed time. The facility was clean and bright and set up for easy meal assembly. You don’t need to know how to cook at all. In fact, you don’t cook. You assemble.

The meal assembly stations have the recipe and all the ingredients right in front of you. The prep work has all been done. All you do is put the ingredients into a freezer bag or container, wrap it for the freezer and place a sticker with the written cooking instructions on the outside. For example, I chose a mustard-dill meatloaf. My station had the ground beef portioned out and ready to go into the bowl. All the other ingredients were right in front of me along with the appropriate measuring tool. I followed their steps, such as add one tablespoon mustard and one teaspoon dill to the bowl along with the meat, the rest of the ingredients, and mix. It’s that easy. You can assemble a meal in about six minutes and it’s ready to go home with you to eat that day or freeze for later.

Most facilities will even assembly your meals for you for an extra charge. When your schedule is overwhelmed or you just don’t have time or want to cook every night, you now have access to great meals. Maybe you have friends or family members who live alone and don’t cook or who are ill and could use meals. This is a cost effective way to provide someone with easy to cook meals. Facilities do vary in the type of ingredients they use and thus their prices, how clean they are and how nutritious the food is so check out several before you decide on one.