For shame.

Allow me to disgrace myself in all your baking/cooking/gourmeting eyeballs by telling you that I've been going to those group meal assembly type places and putting together dinners for Bubba and I.

Oh yes. I'm one of *those* people.

I finally gave in after a week of dinners that looked like; popcorn, gin, Taco Bell, nothing and delivery pizza. Actually, that was Monday through Friday, respectively.

I used to wonder about people who went to these places and regard them in not nice ways. Like, come on, is it SO hard to organize one meal per day (assuming the only meal you eat together is dinner, like us. Because, in my mind, everyone is just like us.)?

And then I'd do something as unsavory as borrow the much-hated, "Must be nice" mentality from our sourpuss neighbors and write *those people* off as some such rich spoiled bastards who can actually afford such luxuries as pre-minced ginger and fancy condiments like pomegranate extract (Who knew this existed? Tell me.) which you'd never buy at the store because, like, when am I going to use a whole bottle of it anyway.

But, that was when I had the wherewithal to put together a weekly dinner menu, corresponding shopping list, evenings free of work obligations and Dog Needing Walk and the energy to go to the store after work in my pinchy heels.

Let's just say that time is not so free flowing these days and people started to not smile when presented with the same dinner options every night; "I don't know", "Let's go out" or "I'm going to eat popcorn while I work from the couch."

Not that everyone wasn't understanding, he was, but I was starting to feel guilty about sustaining our household on booze and takeout alone.

Then a brainchild who I endlessly adore from work suggested that all we busy girls go to one of these put-it-together-yourself-from-recipes-that-you-don't-have-to-cook-up-in-your-own-fried-brain places so that we could rest our weary selves at the end of the day while not having to compromise the health of our households to do so.

Genius!

Sorta.

It appears there's some variety in the way these places are organized and the edibility of food you finally end up with. The experiences I've had so far have begun to add a dose of reality to the shiny perfect Stepford-esque candy shells which these places portray.

And I'm prepared to make side-by-side comparisons.

Including all the not-as-great details because, well, I'm not being paid to be anyone's Meal Assembly Spokesbitch, so I can tell you exactly what I think. And I can use bad words. HA!

Interested? Or have I just wandered off into "Hello, we're so sophisticated and we always make gourmet, local, organic, wheat and gluten free meals for our adoring household despite our full-time jobs and long-held posts with Junior League" land?

Your call.