The Frozen Food Aisle

The perception I always had of the food eaten by those living in “the bush” always made me cringe. On top of that, my experience in PNG helped confirm the simplicity of the meal plan that was required. Dinner’s menu alternated between canned mackerel and rice or what was affectionately called de-ja-stew (just-add-water dried soup packets).Neither of the dishes were bad tasting, but after just a few weeks, the repetition alone makes one desperate for change. Well, thanks to Andrea’s good planning and access to a portion of the deep-freezer in a nearby house, I can assure you that you won’t have to listen to our sob stories of eating poorly. In fact, I don’t feel like we are sacrificing at all in the food department.

 

In the final days before coming out here, while I was busy fixing the car and shopping all around town, Andrea and Micah were busy at home planning, pre-cooking and stuffing portioned amounts into small zip lock bags, which were then labeled appropriately and stuffed in our freezer. Several coolers were the last to be filled the morning of the move and, upon our arrival, the first to be unpacked into the solar powered deep freezer. So, basically, we have our own frozen food section! Now, we’re not talking about TV dinners here, we’re eatin’ good – tacos, fajitas, beef hash, “chicken stuff,” potato soup, salmon chowder, stir fry, chili and corn bread, etc… Not all of it is frozen, as we would not have enough freezer space for that. But anything that is not canned, dry or accessible here is then frozen. That is the meat from two whole chickens, over 10 lbs of beef, a couple pounds of fish, dairy products, and many different types of fruits and veggies. No, I’m still not gaining any weight, but I don’t think I will be losing any either (like other down-country workers often do).

 

So, with most of the hard work behind her (in the planning and preparations done in Addis), Andrea has her routine down pat. Every morning, Andrea and Micah (as pictured above) take a walk over to the house with the freezer (a short 2 minute walk). They then grab the ingredients she has planned to use in our meals that day while at the same time exchanging the “cold packs” that we use in a small cooler at our house (by circulating cold packs in our cooler, we kinda have a refrigerator. Thus far, it has worked very well. So kudos to my wife! (Where did that “kudos” saying come from, anyway? Do they still make Kudos bars? Hmmm…writing this blog must have made me hungry.)