Done like dinner

A super-big thank you to Just-Eat.ca for sponsoring this post!

You know that feeling of satisfaction you get from coming home after a long week and scraping together a barely passable meal out of the dregs of your refrigerator to feed your family? Or how about the sense of achievement you earn spending an hour catching up on dishes and scouring pots and pans? No? Me neither.

Takeout is never a hard sell around here. As much as I truly and honestly do value home-cooked, nutritious food, I’ve also learned that I can’t always do it all. As a work-from-home mom who has a habit of biting off more work than I maybe should, my workday sometimes spills into the after-school hours and I find myself working on the computer when I should be spending time with the kids. It doesn’t feel fair for me to then continue to ignore them for another 45 minutes on those days while I try to get a meal on the table. So we order takeout and I get to help with homework, read stories and admire craft projects brought home from school. It’s not much, but it’s important.

But, man, do I get sick of the same-old pizza and burgers. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to order something different? Maybe something even a little bit healthy?

Just-Eat.ca to the rescue. This service has been in Toronto for a few years and is now available in many cities across the country including Winnipeg. The truth is that even though I’d been to the site before to poke around, I’d never actually gone through with ordering things. I have new-service phobia sometimes. I think it’d probably be easier to just order the same old.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. Registering for the first time is as easy as entering my name and address (and next time I won’t even have to do that!) Then a postal code search brings up all the restaurants in my area they will deliver from. Hello options! Sushi, Thai, Indian, Greek, falafels, Mexican, fish and chips or pub fare anyone? Just for example. My kids are on a Chinese kick so I was able to narrow my results to only display Chinese food. After I choose my restaurant (holla Lotus Inn!), I click on the items I want and a running tally including tax shows up on the right. You can even tip the driver right from the order form, guys. Choose to have your order ready at a scheduled time or right away, pay with credit or debit and done.

Who’s hungry?

These kids are.

Wow. They are really hungry.

It’s like feeding time at the zoo. They’re gobbling it up faster than we can serve it.

It’s like it’s the only meal she had all day.
It isn’t. I swear.

This post was generously sponsored by Just-Eat.ca, but the opinions and images are my own. For more information, visit www.just-eat.ca.