Comforting routines and readymade meals – the joys of frozen food

For times when your cooking can't be on the cutting edge, these pre-prepped meals can be lifesavers

As a food writer, people usually expect me to be on the cutting edge of culinary exploration. They imagine me gallivanting around town, discovering hidden gems and writing about them glowingly. But here's a secret: I've been eating the same thing every day for the past six weeks.

It began as a fun grocery trip with my new friend, Lowri. I live in a remote town in England, and when I say remote, I mean so remote that there are no buses after 8 pm. So when Lowri offered to drive me to a new grocery shop, I jumped at the chance. And that's how I discovered Iceland. No, not the country. Iceland is a UK-based grocery store that focuses on frozen food. While they stock other non-perishable items like cereal, chips and carbonated drinks, they're mostly known for their "freezer stuffers". 

I was initially sceptical, but then I saw the prices and the mix-and-match deals. Suddenly, I was loading up my cart with salt and pepper chicken fillets, chicken balls, chicken nuggets, mozzarella sticks, tater tots, and my all-time favourite cereal, Krave.

Since then, I've had the same meals every day. For breakfast, it's Krave and milk. For lunch, it's some form of breaded, deep-fried chicken along with exactly 15 tater tots and 4 mozzarella sticks. And for dinner, it's whatever takeout we can scrounge up as if we were stuck in a season of the Big Bang Theory. 

I know what you're thinking: "But you're a food writer! How could you eat the same thing every day?" 

Well, I'll tell you. It's easy, it's cheap, and it requires no effort. All you have to do is "bung" it in the oven, as the locals say, and wait 15-20 minutes. Plus, it's oddly satisfying to know exactly what you will eat every day. You don't need to come home hungry from lectures and spend 15 minutes thinking about what to make for lunch. A routine can be especially useful when swamped by assignments and exams.

Speaking of, as the semester neared its end, I did what any sensible student does - binge-watch a new series the day before exams. The show, called Why Women Kill, had a scene set in the 1960s. It showed a grocery store where the signs were advertising the new invention of the decade – frozen pizzas. I couldn't help but laugh thinking about how luxurious and novel frozen pizza was then. Then it struck me. Supermarkets in Bangladesh have started carrying regular stocks of frozen chicken nuggets and sausages, but I've never seen many frozen pizzas. This could be a missed opportunity. Many students in Dhaka live alone and must rely on making food from scratch or hiring a cook or housekeeper. But here, I can pop a frozen pizza into the oven and call it a day. 

Now that my semester's ended and I'm heading back to Dhaka, I've started appreciating the effort that goes into cooking things from scratch for every meal. Still, I might miss my daily dose of chicken and tater tots. Variety might be the spice of life, but there is also comfort in routine. 

This article is part of Stripe, bdnews24.com's special publication focusing on culture and society from a youth perspective.