Why ping meals are really, really bad!

My recent get up and go, zeal for life and all the things I love doing, got up and left the building, so to speak. I've been low, blue, depressed, however you want to put it. Life's struggles got in the way of what's important to me, I've not really put pen to paper in months, blogged, I hadn't even picked up a recipe book, until last week, at least not the way that I used to. Friday and Saturday nights were spent lounging on my couch, with all my books surrounding me while Glen Xboxed. It's been months. Six actually ever since we arrived in this country, and to be honest in the beginning, I did really well on arrival. In the first week, I had unpacked all the boxes, secured work and pottered in the garden. Everything went progressively down hill from there! Glen got a job for the para-olympics in London, it meant he was going to be away for six weeks. I was an emotional wreck, wallowing in self pity and loneliness. As it turned out he was only gone for two weeks, but it may as well have been a year. I burst into tears at the mere mention of my husband. While he was away I got a letter regarding some legal issues, I'm now dealing with. At the time it was a shock and not something I had been expecting. At that moment in time, with my husband away and no one to talk to I had never felt more alone. In retrospect that deep black abyss I had fallen into was probably just a melodramatic hysteria of the moment that lasted several months. I was too tired and there was a lot of new stuff going on, new house, new job, new country, missing husband, no phone, no friends, I was isolated from the world, or at least it felt that way at the time..... Not to mention I was eating microwave meals daily!

Which brings me to my point, since my husband and I have been living together I have cooked, mostly from fresh and frozen ingredients, and from scratch, I'm not a fan of "ready" meals, I can't stand pre-packaged microwave food, I get the convenience of it especially if you are on your own, but my personal opinion is that it's rubbish. Nutritionally I wouldn't like to comment, I suppose you could argue that it's not nutritionally damaging. I don't think they taste nice, I find them incredibly bland and boring! The thing that really gets me though and maybe this is completely and utterly insane, is the psychological impact these "ping" meals had on me. Nothing says LOSER quite like, a rubbery piece of aubergine, or dried out chicken. Every mouthful being the twist of knife, reminding you that the reason you're eating rubbish is because you're alone, nobody to share a meal with! My love affaire with my kitchen is not entirely about my passion for cooking, but also the love I have for Glen. Nothing in this world gives me greater pleasure than cooking him a meal, that will both satisfy his hunger and his tastebuds alike. Microwave meals for one...... SUCK.