"I put it to you, should we try another service?"

I think it depends on what you want the service for and how much the service is going to cost. You might be better off just doing Door Dash services or travelling to local places to pick up a carry-out if you want to do zero cooking.

Also check out what your local grocer has to offer in the pre-prepared food section, both hot/ready-to-go and refrigerated meals you can pop in the oven or microwave yourself. Where I used to live there was a local market with a terrific selection of this sort of thing. The grocer might even deliver pre-prepared foods nowadays. Just depends what's in your area, I suppose.

Can you afford to hire an aspiring chef/cook to come in a few times a week to prepare a few days' worth of food for you?

Even when employed, such folks don't tend to make much. The expected hourly pay rate could be modest. Are there any culinary schools in your area that could be a source of young grads or even students?

Very creative idea Elmer! I looked at our local CC site to check out their programs. I remembered hearing about their culinary program & lunches offered. They have these programs for public dining opps:

Dining Opportunities:

The McClaskey Culinary Institute offers food to the public through its:

• Full-service retail bakery and barista bar
• Grab-and-go items
• Food court
• Student-run restaurant

I’d try a call to find out if there might be any way to hire a once a week chef or maybe a once a month deal. Might be challenging to handle logistics of menu prep, shopping & maybe the biggest issue would be health dept. food handling licenses. But, worth a shot!

I hear you!

I don't think this is what you're looking for but both my kids use Hello Fresh. They both want to cook the meals but they don't have time to do the shopping and it saves them food wastage.

My sons know how to cook but their wives do not so the easy instructions, with pictures, has helped them.

But yes, food packaging waste is horrible.

One of my DIL's really does not know how to cook but when their daughter was born my DIL figured that she should see her cooking in the kitchen instead of just seeing my son do it.

The instruction cards make it really easy and now that their daughter has just turned 2 she is starting to help in the kitchen with her mom and not just her dad.

I myself do use our local grocery store and bakery for easy to prepare meals.

Our local bakery offers quiche (frozen and ready to eat with warming) chicken/beef pot pies (frozen or ready to eat with warming), sausage rolls and our meat market offers a variety of pies, and a variety of stuffed chicken (eg cordon blue) or pre-marinated chicken or salmon. And Dr. Oeatker makes a great thin crust pizza with a variety of toppings that I will bake instead of mucking around making rice or potatoes. And any one of those with a bag of spinach mixed with ready-to eat bag of salad and I have dinner.

I always have a frozen quiche in the freezer and a couple of pizzas (the spinach and feta one is really good) in the freezer as well.

Good luck on the road to easy dinner prep!

My DH has been put in a nursing home so I startd meals on Wheels. They deliver every week day about noon. The food isn't the greatest but ok. It beats eating out of cans or froaen dinners. I cooked for 66 years but age is changing things for me. It would be worth a try.

We had a bad experience with Factor, too. I had to sign up in order to just browse the meals, and the company took that as my approval to send meals. At least I caught it quickly, and only had a one-week charge. Don't get the service with the oven. Like you really need that? no. We did use and like Fresh Chef, and they have some meals that only require heating. We had very good meals from then, but just got tired of it.

Unfortunately, I think any food shipped like that is going to have a bunch of packaging that is not recyclable, in order to keep things cold and safe to eat. I had one that came packaged in styrofoam, which was recyclable, but then all the recycle places stopped taking it. I think all are going to have ice packs, tho some you can empty of the non toxic liquid and recycle the plastic.

I don't know where you live, but even in my fairly small city, there a few options...there are some private chefs who will come and meal prep meals for eating fresh and during the week, some for the freezer. It's not as expensive as I imagined it would be. There is a local store that delivers a variety of frozen homemade dinners and yummy soups and stews, along with fresh veggies for cooking or salads. Is Meals on Wheels an option? I imagine the quality varies depending on location, but it might be worth a try? If you have a Senior Services center, I might call them to see if they know any other options. Uber eats or Door dash from local restaurants. If you have small appetites and can make the meals into 2 servings, it cuts the cost quite a bit.

I hope you find some options that will work. I, too, am sick of fixing meals!!

I'm sorry your experience with Factor was so negative. I've used them a few times over the years, most notably when I was remodeling my kitchen and only had a refrigerator and microwave available. However, I agree that the packaging waste is sad and the food, while flavorful, doesn't have much texture. Also, I'm not sure Factor's nutritional information is accurate because I gained weight eating their meals and my caloric intake hadn't changed.

Are you wedded to the idea of delivery or are you able to go to the market? If you still are comfortable going to the market, then I would recommend checking out Trader Joe's if you have one in your area.

Trader Joe's packaging waste is sad, but I like that I can buy relatively small portions. For instance, they have cooked chicken breasts in the refrigerated section with a choice of rosemary balsalmic or lemon flavors. One package makes a few meals for me and could easily be split for two people. Their pre-packaged salads make great sides. They have lots of seasonal selections of small-portion, ready-to-cook fresh vegetables that are easy to microwave or cook on the stovetop. I'm sure there are lots of things in their frozen foods section that you would like, but I'm not current on those selections.

There are a couple of chefs around who cook privately, I hear, as well as a couple of local fresh meal preparers. I think.

My son was using Hello Fresh, then after several months he canceled and just used the recipe cards and di his own shopping. It got him started cooking better when he was on his own.

Our local grocery stores all seem to carry the same thing in prepared foods inthe deli and the prepared cases. I like them but wouldn’t want to rely on them every week, and they aren’t all the interesting. Mariano’s had better choices but I haven’t been there in ages.

Try Pastaficio! They make some wonderful Italian food, yes it is all frozen but it sure is good. My parents used to have a box of dishes sent to them in Arizona in the winter!

I looked into meals on wheels for mother a few years ago. I don't know if anything has changed.

Mother could cook, she mostly just chose not to and her nutrition was suffering. If she shopped, she spent as little as possible on food and wouldn't have begun to make notes of meals where there could be leftovers to be eaten in the next day or two.

Meals on Wheels had a waiting list in her city and it was long. Many weeks before she might actually receive a meal. Not delivered, but they had an assortment of mains and sides frozen that could be available right then, picked up, taken home and heated. Couldn't interest Mom. She continued her terrible diet until moving into senior living where they had imaginative and quite well prepared food.

I know just ONE woman who cooked for herself three times a day. It was surprising how often we might be visiting over the back yard fence and find we were planning the same entree for dinner! She said I like food and deserve to eat well, not eat trash now that my husband has died. I learned a lot from her (she taught me to pressure can) - she was 4 days younger than my mother.

As I recall, you are in the Chicago area. I am not familiar with Chicago or with Illinois, so I don’t know whic other cities are nearby to you. Have youheard of Lazy Dog restaurants?Maybe one shown on the map would be convenient for you. I mention them because they have ”frozen TV dinners to go.” Each one is enough for two meals, or one meal each for you and your husband if you share. They are (in California) $11 each or 6 for $55. From time to time they change what’s available. But it’s real food in old fashioned TV dinner trays that you heat up in the oven. And for folks who have a dog, the dogs are welcome on the patio.

Hi Lindsey - nice to see you.

Here is a little more info on Lazy Dog locations in Illinois:

Ooh, I’ve been to one of those Lazy Dogs, delicous! Iforgot they have take-home. There used to be a restaurant, Biagi’s, that had a ”Pronto Pack”. For $35 you got a meal supposedly for 4, but for my family it was donner for 6 and for the next night as well!

chisue, Fresh Market has dinners ready to cook. But you have to cook it.

Thanks! I'm grateful for all the thought you've put into these good ideas.

We both do grocery shopping. It's just that I'm TIRED of making dinners every night. We're very plain eaters. I doubt a personal chef is in our future!

I've read that restaurants are doing more carry-out than eat-in business, so I know I'm not alone in wanting decent food, just at home -- like as not in my ratty sweats, no makup, and no going out in the cold.

bpath -- I'll check Fresh Market. What the chains have doesn't look appealing. Heinen's has decent lunch fare, but their prepared food is spicier than we like.

@chisue....I'm with you! I like Mexican food & Pizza. We have nearby places that deliver. We have a Lazy Dog. A whole 16" pizza from Walters is enough to feed us for several days. Or $5 Fridays @ Papa Murphys. I'd just get delivery from the places themselves and be in heaven. Like you...I'd rather NOT put makeup on, dress up and brave a snow storm. ⛄ I usually cook from scratch every day....but...we get busy....I keep a dozen Tina's Burritos in the freezer.

Check out the frozen food in your grocery store. Stoffer’s stuffed bell peppers are good. Marie Callendar’s Turkey or Chicken pot pies are good.

sherry, don't products like that tend to be high in sodium and include ingredients that sound like they belong more in a chemistry lab than in food?

Chisue, you have outlined a sit-com episode! I hope you found a way to stop the orders.

Elmer, I suspect your’re right about the sodium levels in frozen dinners like Sherry suggested. Those stuffed peppers sound tempting, however.

I do not find any more salt in frozen grocery dinners than I do in restaurant food, actually less. My favorite Mexican restaurant, which is fantastic, is very salty. In fact, most restaurant food is VERY salty.

Other than drinking a lot of water all night, it does not affect us. If it does you, I am sorry. You, for sure would not want to buy the G Rdinners. He pours salt on everything.

I do not use the delivery from the stores, but I do use the pickup from W and K It takes a bit to get used to, but you order online and pick up at the store. There is a delivery, but I do not use that. After a bit, the stuff you order pops up.

We also like Tony Catheries (sp) Italian stuff and I like a lot of the Chinese. I do not like most of Amy’s, but a lot of that is Indian and well???? not my thing.

My P if you have one, has ready to cook meals. I would not like a through the mail food delivery, because of all the waste. We went through that with Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, and all the other crap.

We're having Marie Callender's chicken pot pies for dinner tonight. Yes, it is a lot of sodium IF you eat the whole thing. When you get old, you don't eat as much. I like stuffed peppers; DH not so much.

Today we received a thank you from the charity, signed by the HS girls who volunteer there. (I'd given a check, along with the meals.)

We have a really great service - Chefs on Wheels. My neighbor used them when she was recovering from a broken hip. You select your meals from their menu. They do all the food shopping at our Wegman's. Then you have the option of having them cook all the meals in their kitchen or yours. All the entrees are packed in containers so that you can freeze them if you want.

I love chicken pot pie. I was eyeing it in the deli at a grocery store, and noticed that, oer serving, it had the fat content FOUR TIMES what I should have. That one stayed in the deli case.

Just today I noticed that Stoufffer's has a good variety of frozen entrees. Yeah, fat and sodium, but probably pretty tasty, too.