i generally don't have time for cooking, but i do prefer to eat well. i've tried just about every vegetarian tv dinner available. periodically i order food from delivery services like lucky palate or delicious planet. i've also eaten at the majority of the restaurants within walking distance. nobody changes their menus regularly, though, and the tv dinners get old after awhile. some people enjoy eating the same thing repeatedly, but i'm easily bored... and when i get bored, i start eating a bunch of unhealthy crap. not because i really want it, but because i've gotten tired of the same healthy meal i've already eaten 500 times.

recently i read this article in the ny times:

'Cook-and-carry companies like Dinners Ready are opening across the country and piggybacking on Americans' growing desire for quick but healthy meals at home. At the kitchens, customers follow posted recipes but can control specific ingredients -- avoiding anything to which they're allergic, or simply don't like. The companies aim to avoid preservatives and artificial ingredients in their recipes.

''We want to buy fresh, but we don't want to deal with it,'' said Harry Balzer, vice president of the NPD Group, a consumer marketing research firm. With the help of these businesses, he said, ''I can make pretty exotic meals, but I don't have to deal with buying ingredients, chopping vegetables and cleaning up.''

The companies aim to make cooking easy and fun. The sessions are held in spacious kitchens where customers put together their meals at work stations arrayed with chopped vegetables, meats, spices, measuring cups, bowls and printed recipes.'

there seem to be several of these places in seattle/the eastside: designed dinners (which has a variety), dream dinners, and dinners ready (the last two seem to be 98% meat, so are therefore out of the question for me.). all of them seem to range in price from ~$3-8/serving.

has anyone tried one? they seem to be more oriented towards families/groups vs. singles/sinners. but i like the concept.

today i ate what is quite possibly the best chocolate i've ever had: xocalatl by dagoba organic chocolate. the ingredients are listed as dark chocolate with chilis, cacoa nibs, maca, vanilla, nutmeg, 'and of course, love'. apparently maca root is alternately referred to as "peru's natural viagra".

the company website says: 'It is clear to us at Dagoba Organic Chocolate that as we step into the 21st century our lives are becoming increasingly influenced by our Peeps on the other side of the planet, and vice versa.'