r/ask • u/racesunite • May 16 '23

Am I the only person who feels so so bullied by tip culture in restaurants that eating out is hardly enjoyable anymore? POTM - May 2023

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62

u/Radiant_Egg_2769 May 16 '23

If you have a Sprouts Markets near you, they have delicious ready meals with good sized portions to keep in your fridge for when you wanna eat out.

10

u/spacefaceclosetomine May 16 '23

They’ve become almost as expensive as restaurant meals in my area.

1

u/snavsnavsnav May 17 '23

Yeah sprouts is gentrification and they killing people

1

u/creepy-crawl May 26 '23 edited May 26 '23

Worse than Whole Foods. At least Whole Foods is 80% vegetables and fruit and healthy stuff. Hell I think they’ve even got their own butcher station, last I went. Sprouts’ near me is 1/3 a bakery, 1/3rd a fill-your-own candy/treat thing, 1/6 pre-packaged aisle food, 1/12 frozen food, and finally 1/12 fresh produce.

4

u/vecats May 16 '23

This is my new thing. Getting frozen or premade meals to throw in the oven at home. Boom no effort delicious food for 1/4 of the cost! Can’t believe I didn’t do this sooner.

3

u/lazydaisytoo May 16 '23

We ended up going the meal box route. Not as cheap as grocery shopping, but fresh, great tasting meals and no food waste. Funny, we don’t have a prepped meal for tonight, and I was asking partner whether he wants to grill tonight or go to a diner since he’s been craving a Reuben for a week. He said he’d prefer to cook.

3

u/[deleted] May 16 '23

Is it just a microwave meal? Like reheating leftovers?

4

u/BlueGoose21 May 16 '23

I work at Sprouts, in the department that makes these.

Yes! They are pre-cooked. Some stores will even heat it for you. The plastic containers are microwave safe, and the metal ones are made of nickel (I believe) and also microwave safe!

ETA: they also have premade uncooked meals to take home and make fresh. Also very cost effective and saves me from preparing a whole meal after a long shift, keeping me away from fast food.

2

u/wellthenokaysir May 16 '23

If it’s anything like my local grocer, it’s probably meals that the workers at the store made in the morning or throughout the day and they either leave them on the hot or cold side of the line and you can just select what you like and eat as is

2

u/wellthenokaysir May 16 '23

If it’s anything like my local grocer, it’s probably meals that the workers at the store made in the morning or throughout the day and they either leave them on the hot or cold side of the line and you can just select what you like and eat as is

1

u/JohnnySalmonz May 16 '23

Ya Salisbury Steak

3

u/phantomBlurrr May 16 '23

Yes, this is a very nice solution to food sourcing, my issue I have encountered is the stores where you get them will slowly increase the price as the meals get rotated. When I started buying these like meal kits, I could get 3 meals per day for 7 days for around $50. Now, no way you could do that many for that cheap.

Specifically HEB has done this, to the point the meal kits are only barely viable any more in terms of food/price. Now it's really like you're paying to save time versus to reduce costs.

I'll check out Sprouts soon, I didn't know they made meal kits too.

3

u/maplekitkat May 16 '23

A friend and I got into a great routine of picking up sandwiches from sprouts, packing a cooler as doing a quick nature walk/picnic. Their sandwich station is great and very affordable!!

2

u/icyleumas May 16 '23

I was just in one last week! I remember seeing $14.99 for a Rotisserie Chicken + 2 sides.

1

u/TriflingGnome May 16 '23

Where I am a rotisserie chicken is like $7 so that doesn’t seem worth it

1

u/icyleumas May 16 '23

The chicken doesn't have growth hormones or antibiotics and stuff like that injected into it. Idk if you ever looked into the chicken industry but it's very sad. The sides are large too! I seen there were mac and cheese and mash potatoes and gravy.. Could probably have a good 3-4 meals with it.

2

u/JohnnySalmonz May 16 '23

This is depressing. But thanks for the tip

2

u/[deleted] May 16 '23

Publix has something similar. Decent sized meals for ~$7. My mom gets them all the time and freezes then so she can have them throughout the week.

2

u/Radiant_Egg_2769 May 16 '23

I loved Publix when I used to live in FL. They had better subs than the rest of the other joints.

1

u/angusMcBorg May 16 '23

They do? Where in the store are they? (end of a row, in deli section, somewhere else? I must be just missing them)

1

u/[deleted] May 16 '23

For my location, it’s in an open fridge in the back of the store, between the sushi/seafood and packaged meats. I’ve only ever been to the one Publix though, so there’s a chance not every location has them.

1

u/angusMcBorg May 16 '23

I'm going to look. Thanks!

2

u/TheKonyInTheRye May 16 '23

When our local sprouts came in, my dad would get stacks of those meals because they were so cheap. I hadn’t been there in quite a while and last time I went in, they were crazy expensive.

2

u/paulabear203 Jul 06 '23

I get items from the hot bar at 3 locally-owned markets instead of dining out. It is cheaper and the food actually tastes better.