Food, Folks, and Fun

Food, Folks, and Fun

March 3rd, 2007 @ 5:46 pm by Mrs. Pearl
Share

Have you ever been so tired after work, you’ve resorted to a meal of fast food?

Do you wish you were a better cook?

Do you want to eat delicious, well-balanced meals without the huge mess?

A friend of mine told me about a great service called Dream Dinners. It’s a service where you can assemble all the ingredients for a delicious, balanced meal into containers. You take the food home and freeze it, then when you’re ready to eat, just cook it and enjoy!

The first step is going to their website and viewing their menus for the month. The menus change monthly and can accomodate a variety of tastes.

Meals for the March are:

1. Seafood cioppino
2. Herb-Dijon Chicken Breasts
3. Apricot Glazed Pork Chops
4. Santa Fe Shredded Pork Burritos
5. Homestyle Chicken and Dumplings
6. Baked Chicken Tetrazzini
7. Mexican Meatballs
8. Honey Spiced Pork Roast
9. “Sunday Morning” Skillet with Biscuits and Gravy
10. Shrimp and Sausage Jambalaya
11. Chicken with Lemon and Artichoke Sauce
12. Steak Gorgonzola
13. Sesame Marinated Flank Steak
14. Apple Crisp

They offer a couple different sessions you can do if you wanted to have a bridal shower or other smaller event with your friends.

The first is something called a Sneak Peek. If you are familiar with Dream Dinners or have a friend who is, they host from 8-20 people who are new to Dream Dinners. The guests all get to assemble one FREE Dream Dinners meal to take home (each meal provides 6 servings, though I’ve been told the serving sizes are a bit small and to bank on possibly 3 or 4 adult servings from one meal). At the Sneak Peek, if you sign up for a future Dream Dinners session, you get another session free. You can also have a private session at a Dream Dinners facility. Groups of 10-12 can hold a private session at no extra charge.

As for the cost…meals are priced anywhere from about $3-$7 per serving, depending on what you select. I did a sample purchase for myself on the website to see how much it would cost me and, for seven 6-serving dinners (42 servings total, or about 21 days of dinner for 2 people), I would pay about $206. Not too bad for those who are busy or simply do not want to cook!

Tags: diet, los-angeles |

Share |

Latest Gallery Pics

Hot Pink and White with Zebra 36" Lighted Spandex Ostrich Feather Centerpiece

11 Responses to “Food, Folks, and Fun”

Guest

WeezerMonkey

Dream Dinners’ pot roasts are especially good!

3/3/07 @ 7:39 pm (reply)

Guest

leigh miller

ive been wanting to give this a try. id love to hear what others think. the hardest part for me is picking the menu and getting to the grocery.

3/3/07 @ 10:18 pm (reply)

Guest

Jessica

I’ve done Dream Dinners a few times…hubby and I really like the food! So easy and good!

3/3/07 @ 10:39 pm (reply)

Guest

Laura

We’ve done Dream Dinners several times and it has been fantastic. We get the six serving sizes and then hubby takes the leftovers for lunches. The sauces are all excellent. Unfortunately, the March menu looked disappointing compared to past months (but April looks really good).

3/4/07 @ 12:22 am (reply)

Guest

my sister (busy working mom of 2) & her hubby (busy & doesn’t cook) swear by this. correct me if i’m wrong, but i think you can also do half meals (3 servings) so you can have even more variety.

3/4/07 @ 4:39 am (reply)

Guest

wsukarebear

I’ve heard mixed reviews about those kinds of places so I have yet to try one, but I DO want to be a better cook. We work out as soon as FI gets home from work and when we get home, the best we can do is throw some kind of meat on the grill–we’re so exhausted! Pre-prepping or pre-cooking like this WOULD be ideal!

3/4/07 @ 2:23 pm (reply)

Guest

Miss Pearl

JP: You are correct — you can do “half meals” if you’d like to get more variety. I think one reason why I wouldn’t do that is because we have limited freezer space

WSU: You should give it a shot one time and see how you like it. Or even better, maybe let people know you’re interested in it…perhaps you’ll get lucky and get a gift certificate during your bridal shower!

3/4/07 @ 4:04 pm (reply)

Guest

Isabelle

Veginout.com does vegan home delivery meals for soCal.

3/4/07 @ 6:07 pm (reply)

Guest

Our_Special_Day

We did this once. While the concept is brilliant and economical, we found the entrees to be like cafeteria food with no fresh vegetables.

3/4/07 @ 9:42 pm (reply)

10.

Guest

Liene

Oh my word, there is one right down the street from me!! I will have to check this out. You may very well have just saved my life!

3/4/07 @ 9:49 pm (reply)

11.

Guest

Rebecca

Cooking Accomplished! has been a great find for myself and several of my friends. The concept is simple; you go online, pick the entrees you want and the date you want to assemble them. The difference between Cooking Accomplished! and several other businesses like this in Portland, is quality! The owner is a trained chef. They have a commercial kitchen where all the ingredients are prepped by Shelley and her staff. Many of my friends, prior to joining me for meal assembly sessions at Cooking Accomplished!, admitted to serving and eating frozen or pre-cooked meals several times a week and to dining out two or three times a week. We decided since we are worried about nutritional value and using quality local ingredients we would research meal assembly as a solution to reducing time spent shopping and preparing dinners with the goal of eating healthier. The only assemble-your-own meal company that we found in Portland, that had great selections, high quality local ingredients and prepped all their food in-house is CookingAccomplished! in Lake Oswego. Since I started preparing meals at CookingAccomplished! I’ve also signed up for a couple of great cooking classes. My son attended a kids class as well and he can’t wait until the next one. Shelley has done a fantastic job of creating a quality experience!

10/21/07 @ 3:57 pm (reply)