Why I Buy What I Buy -- Part III -- Convenience Food

Last night I bought a frozen pizza. Actually, it was a "fresh" pizza made by the store, which I doctored up with my own toppings at home, but nonetheless.... bad GradGreen, bad!

It's made me think about the need for convenience food. Some people seem to live off of frozen dinners. Other people make frozen pizzas a part of their week -- every week. I prefer to make my own pizza, but last night was a desperate situation. We were on the way home with 3 very hungry little people after 2 hours at the pool. One of them was crying because she was so hungry. :(

Why didn't I have anything ready at home? Because we already ate it all. I normally have some cooked pasta, some rice, some cooked beans... and all I have to do is heat it up and add something else. But all that was gone. So, I cut up a pear, fed it to the howling masses, and popped in a frozen pizza. I could have made something else, but I was exhausted.

This is all the result of bad planning. Bad timing for the swimming lessons. Could have started pizza dough in the breadmaker before I left, etc. But, at the same time, I don't think a frozen pizza is the end of the world. Actually, there were a couple of pluses:

• I like to put my toppings on at home. That way, everybody can have the kind of pizza that they want. We don't have to "pick" topping off, pay for stuff that somebody doesn't want, etc.
• Our other exhausted option was to go to a restaurant. We didn't. Thus, we saved money (I estimate about $20), gas, and sanity. 3 hungry kids in a restaurant is not a pretty sight.

Because I did such a bad job of planning swim lessons, I have been serving appetizers this week. (Why did I think going to the pool from 5:30 to 7:30 every day was a good idea?) We come home, everybody changes their clothes, and I cut up some fruit so that the kids can start eating while I whip up dinner. Whipping up dinner has consisted of cooking one thing (broccoli, for example) and heating up leftovers from the fridge. Last night we ran out of leftovers. Carrots weren't really going to fly as a dinner option (at least not solo.)

What is your desperation meal?