a peek inside the fishbowl

Although I post a lot of recipes here at the Fishbowl, I am far from being a kitchen whiz or super supper planner. Sometimes I feel like I’m really on top of my game; cruising around the grocery store with a purposeful spring in my step, meal planning and budgeting like a demon, and cooking like Someone Who Knows What She is Doing. But then there’s all those other times. The times when I can’t pull it together to hit up the grocery store, park a mile away and waste my time waiting in the checkout line… gritting my teeth because I have a million other things to do. This is when we end up having breakfast for dinner or I raid the freezer. (Not that there is anything wrong with that, but it can get tiresome.)

Some people are very organized. They sift through the weekly flyers and plan their weekly dinners accordingly. They batch cook on Sundays and fill their freezers with meals their whole family will enjoy. I have to face facts and admit that I’m not one of these people and I may never be.

Enter Supperworks. It’s basically a large kitchen – or many small ones depending on how you look at it – that gives ordinary folks the chance to come in and do some meal prep. A few months ago they offered me the opportunity to try it out, and I’m so glad I did. I was really impressed with the whole process.

You order your meals online ahead of time, pick a date, and show up. The kitchen is also very organized. Imagine a large warehouse-ish type place with smaller meal prep stations scattered around. Each meal has its own station, with a clearly printed recipe, pre-chopped ingredients, and sets of measuring spoons assigned to it. So if you’re making Crockpot Chicken Curry you just head over to the counter that’s labelled as such.

Here’s a look at one of the stations:

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Sometimes a good haircut can really change things around, don’t you think?

My own hair appointment isn’t until August. I needed a new place to go so I took it to Facebook (crowdsourcing for the win!) where I received many suggestions but Mint Hair Studio won out. Woot!

Other exciting things:

• The girls and I placed a large order of temporary tattoos from Tattly.com and are anxiously awaiting their arrival. Eep!
• Speaking of deliveries, did you know that you can order stamps from Canada Post and have them delivered to your door for free? (That is, if you spend more than $25, which is easy to do.) I have a reason for a big stamp order, but more on that later. The girls and I (Ok, maybe just me) are pretty excited about it.
• We received a lovely Edible Arrangement from a Fishbowl reader yesterday. It was such an unexpected surprise. (Thank you WL! I tried emailing you but I’m not sure if you received my note.) You know what’s interesting… how quickly everyone ate it all up.
• For some reason, lots of folks seem to be reading this archived post about Lusk Falls Trail in Gatineau right now, perhaps looking for more information about it. My advice: you may feel like you want to die halfway up to the fire tower but it’s totally worth it. DO IT. And bring the kids.
• Don’t forget to enter this Saunders Farm giveaway! To summarize: You can win tickets so you can work up and appetite in the mazes and on the jumping pillows and then sit down for a delicious dinner of locally farmed goods. Heaven.On.Earth.