I've been meaning to write about Icebox Kitchen for a while. It's the place we go when I don't feel like cooking and Mr. Ann doesn't feel like going to a restaurant. We get good food to eat at home. By "good," I mean fresh and tasty.

The meals are not frozen, and they assemble them, not you. They are sealed in plastic containers ready to go into a preheated conventional oven for a short time (usually 20 minutes). They test all their meals at home (although they're prepared in a commercial kitchen), and it's surprising how consistently they turn out cooked just right.

What I intended to write was that the prices have sometimes seemed a little high but I often get two meals out of one. In fact, for one of our holiday meals I bought three meals for four adults and, after baking them,  moved the food from the plastic containers to serving bowls and a platter to serve. We had leftovers.

We picked up dinner there tonight, and things seemed a little different. Maybe I'm imagining it, but the prices seemed a little lower, believe it or not. I tried to see whether the portion sizes were smaller, but they didn't seem to be unless there were fewer sides of potatoes, rice or pasta. We bought chicken cordon bleu, and each dinner contained a large chicken breast with bread stuffing, cream sauce and mixed vegetables. Very good.

I noticed a couple of other changes. One is there was no soup. We've enjoyed their soup in the past; I should have asked whether they've discontinued it permanently. The other is they now include microwave instructions on their meals. Since the quality has been great when using the conventional oven, I intend to keep using it.

If you've been thinking about trying Icebox and are uneasy about trying new things (like me), let me tell you exactly what to expect.

• You don't have to call ahead. If it's convenient, you can check the week's menu on line before you go.
  
• When you walk in, you can either look at a menu (printed or on the wall) or browse through a refrigerator case. (The Double R location has a case; I don't know about the others.)
• There's no choice or substitution on sides; the meals are already assembled.
  
• If what you want isn't in the case, the person behind the counter will get it for you from the refrigerator in back. I suppose they could run out of menu items, but it has never happened to me.
• You pay, and that's it! There's no tip jar.
  

I won't bother providing details on menus, prices or locations because you can find all of that at the link above.

I think the Reno-Sparks area is lucky to have resource like this. (It is a local business, not a chain.) I have absolutely no financial interest in writing about Icebox Kitchen. If anything, I am interested in seeing the business thrive because I really depend on having it there when, as I said above, I don't feel like cooking and Mr. Ann doesn't feel like going to a restaurant.