Frozen food delivery company Eatto could be the answer to your lockdown larder issues, especially if you can’t get out to shop or have family members who need minding. The Dublin-based company makes really good meals from seasonal Irish ingredients and delivers them nationwide. The food arrives frozen, in insulated, recyclable and compostable packing, and can go straight from freezer to oven.
Eatto was set up last year by Jeananne O’Brien, who also runs corporate catering company Artizan Food Co with her husband, Barry McAuliffe. “ If you have a great meal before it’s frozen, made from quality ingredients, it should be a great meal on serving,” O’Brien says.
The dishes are cooked by chefs in their development kitchen and there is a wide variety to choose from. You can build your own order of main courses, sides and desserts, or pick from a range of meal bundles, which are offered in single, double or family-sized portions. Calorie-counted and vegetarian options are available too and there are more than 40 dishes on the menu.
The Freezer Favourites selection includes 10 double portions of cottage pie, meatballs, lasagne, butter chicken curry and chargrilled chicken and wild mushrooms and costs €109.95. Delivery is €5.95, with nationwide deliveries on Tuesdays and Fridays and next-day delivery Monday to Friday in Dublin. eatto.ie
Get pampered with hampers
A burst of colour is just what’s needed these days, and the new hot orange and gold hat boxes and gift bags from The Lismore Food Company will bring a ray of sunshine into the homes they are delivered to.
The Co Waterford company, best known for its sweet and savoury biscuit range, has now added teas, coffees, hot chocolate, jams, marmalades and chutneys, cordial, chocolate, balsamic vinegar, honey and nuts to its range, and launched a selection of hampers just in time to ease lockdown blues, and make Christmas gifting easier.
Everything, apart from the the smoked almonds and the tea, is Irish-made (the coffee is roasted in Waterford). Prices range from €30 to €120. thelismorefoodcompany.com.
Healthy school lunches
Snack Farm, the Dublin-based online healthy snacking company, has introduced its first product dedicated to school lunches. Many schools do not allow products that contain nuts, so Snack Farm has responded with an all-fruit option. The Super Juicy Fruit Mix is a combination of dried mango, cranberries and jumbo raisins. It comes in a 1kg bag, along with six reusable, compostable portion pots and lids, perfect for a lunchbox. Each pot holds the recommended 30g serving, which the company says equates to one of your five-a-day. You'll get 33 portions from the bag, which costs €15, and there is a 20 per cent discount with the code IRISHTIMES. snackfarm.com
