Dinner Solutions, have you tried it?

[Mickey02]

Has anyone ever gone to one of those places that you make several meals and freeze them? If so did you like it and would you recommend it?

 

[debbi801]

oooh, good question. There is a similar place near me called Let's Dish. DH and I keep tossing the idea around of trying it out. But it isn't cheap.

 

[Mickey02]

We have 3 different ones where I live all very close. I have been really tempted to try it out.

 

[laurajetter]

Yes, DH and I went to Let's Dish! in Timonium, MD over the summer. We liked the meals and the website had a section to breakdown the cost to show it's actually a little cheaper than buying the ingredients yourself and making the dishes.

It was a fun activity too! It's not something we would do all the time, but we are definitely planning on going back sometime. It is convenient to have meals ready to cook up. Some are ready to cook as is, others you need to defrost first.

I noticed some of the dishes could have been a little more seasoned but I heard that they don't overly season it so people can make it to their liking. And the neat thing is you can omit or add items too. If you don't like mushrooms, just don't put them in. If you like more cumin, just add it! You probably have be careful with the larger ingredients though (like chicken, etc.) because I think they only have a certain amout available based on the selections people submitted for their session.

Overall, I thought it was a fun experience that gives you a bunch of yummy food in the end!

FYI to anyone in the Baltimore area wanting to try Let's Dish!, I have seen $10 off coupons several times in 'Baltimore's Child' magazine...

 

[debbi801]

Yes, DH and I went to Let's Dish! in Timonium, MD over the summer. We liked the meals and the website had a section to breakdown the cost to show it's actually a little cheaper than buying the ingredients yourself and making the dishes.

It was a fun activity too! It's not something we would do all the time, but we are definitely planning on going back sometime. It is convenient to have meals ready to cook up. Some are ready to cook as is, others you need to defrost first.

I noticed some of the dishes could have been a little more seasoned but I heard that they don't overly season it so people can make it to their liking. And the neat thing is you can omit or add items too. If you don't like mushrooms, just don't put them in. If you like more cumin, just add it! You probably have be careful with the larger ingredients though (like chicken, etc.) because I think they only have a certain amout available based on the selections people submitted for their session.

Overall, I thought it was a fun experience that gives you a bunch of yummy food in the end!

FYI to anyone in the Baltimore area wanting to try Let's Dish!, I have seen $10 off coupons several times in 'Baltimore's Child' magazine...

We actually got a post card in the mail, which is why we were thinking about trying them. DH and I figure, if we do it, we'd do it together as a date night thing.

OT, have you made it to California Pizza Kitchen yet? The few times we've tried, the wait was too long.

 

[Sonya]

I think we are going to do this so we will be stocked up for when the twins get here.

 

[Mickey02]

I think we are going to do this so we will be stocked up for when the twins get here.

Congratulations on the twins! do you know what they are yet?

 

[Minnesota!]

I have done Let's Dish. LOOOOOOOOVED it! It was so fun to do, had a great time with my best friend. The food was wonderful, as well. The thing I really liked, is you can break down any entree into as many servings as you need.

For instance, instead of making a huge 9 x 13 of lasagna (for the 3 of us), I took it and broke it into two 8 x 8 pans. For the egg dish I did, I made enough for 3 pie plates, rather than the 9 x 13. For the steak meals, you get 6 big steaks. For us, we could make that 3 meals. So, while you are paying for 8, 10 or 12 meals, you can really stretch it. In our case, we paid for 12 meals, but actually got food enough for 20 - 30 meals. It was fantastic.

That being said, DH and I are going back and stocking the freezer for arrival of baby boy #2. Haven't decided between the Feb or March menu yet, both look fantastic!

 

[hydster]

DH and I do My Girlfriends Kitchen twice a month and love it! I broke it down and we actually save almost $300 a month doing this instead of going to the store to buy all the ingredients or eating out. It's nice to keep us out of an eating rut because the menu changes each month. It is also nice for weight loss as they have all of the WW points or the caloric breakdown if you want to watch what you eat. You can put in or take out any ingredient you don't like and then you freeze what you want to and pull something out the night before, put it in the fridge and then cook it.

It's a nice home cooked meal without a ton of extras. We buy the 12 meal package but we split a lot of them into 2 meals so we can usually get 16-20 depending.

 

[DMickey28]

We don't have a Let's Dish but I think there are others around. We are thinking about trying ... I can't remember the names though.

Any one remember the other companies that do this???

 

[DisneyDotty]

Dinner-at-Hand is near my home. I've done it several times, and when my DD comes along to help, we can put together 12 meals in an hour! We have loved every meal but one, and always have leftovers with my family of 4. The nice thing about Dinner-at-Hand is it has a wine/meal tasting once a month where they offer samples of some meals from next month (and provide free wine-tasting, to boot!) You can try before you buy!
I would recommend this kind of service to anyone who has hit a rut with cooking, who has kids in sports/extracurriculars where dinner planning is a nightmare, who works outside the home or hates the thought of cooking after a busy day, who doesn't like to clean up after her/himself, who wants to have meals on hand "just in case," etc. You get the picture.

Oh--Dinner by Design is another name for this kind of business.

 

[Mickey02]

My kids are mostly grown. My youngest is in her first year of college I am suffering empty nest now. I thought it would be good because after so many years of raising kids, I am just tired of cooking!

 

[ImarriedGrumpy]

Several of my friends do Dream Dinners, and they just love it! I went to an "introduction" party where we got to make one of the recipes and freeze it to take home with us for FREE. It was a very yummy cranberry-orange chicken, and we were able to adjust the seasonings to our liking (I cut out most of the sugar and increased some of the other seasonings, for example). DH does most of the cooking for us, and he loves making all kinds of ethnic foods, so the Dream Dinners thing doesn't work for us so much.

One of my friends who does Dream Dinners especially appreciates that they do food substitutions so she can make meals that her husband-of-many-allergies can eat (and cook). Her DH has an extensive list of banned foods, but Dream Dinners does a great job of giving her alternate ingredients to use. She goes once a month or so, stocks up her freezer, and the meals are so easy to heat up that her DH does it when he gets home from work and while he's feeding their 15 mo. old daughter. She gets home later than he does, and by the time she's home, dinner is ready.

If my DH ever decides to stop cooking for me, I'll so be signing up for Dream Dinners!

 

[Mickey02]

If my DH ever decides to stop cooking for me, I'll so be signing up for Dream Dinners!

I need a husband like that one!

 

[laurajetter]

We actually got a post card in the mail, which is why we were thinking about trying them. DH and I figure, if we do it, we'd do it together as a date night thing.

OT, have you made it to California Pizza Kitchen yet? The few times we've tried, the wait was too long.

It's definitely great as a date night; DH and I had so much fun! We started out working together on the dishes, then we realized we were running out of time so we split up to finish the dishes. I guess we must be slow! There were people that came in after us and finished before us.

OT - Yes! We did go the California Pizza Kitchen, and have been there a couple times since. It is really yummy! My favorite so far is the pear and gorganzola pizza -- I'm salivating just thinking about it! We also enjoy the original chop salad. Both were recommendations from the Dis which were right on! I love the Dis!

Laura

 

[ImarriedGrumpy]

I need a husband like that one!

He comes in handy! He is still awfully Grumpy, of course, but cooking cheers him up! I gained so much weight after we got married...and then he got Grumpier when I went on Weight Watchers...never separate a man from his food, he tells me!

 

[Pigeon]

I normally keep a freezer's worth of homemade frozen entrees. I went to one of these places for an introductory offer. The food was decent, but I went home and did the math--I could make the same stuff for less than half of what they charge.

It's cheaper than giving in to temptation and going out all the time. But if you are a reasonably disciplined grocery shopper, it is way cheaper to do it yourself.

 

[Swimnoid]

I have done Dream Dinners for over a year. There were two months I didnt go and I might skip Feb too. I really like it. All of the food has been good. Its fun to go to the shop and put them together. I used to go to one in a neighboring town but they opened up one much closer so I go there now. At both places everybody who worked there was great; friendly and helpful. The city that has the old Dream Dinners now has Let's dish and Super Suppers too. The menus for Let's Dish really look good so I might try them too. It is great to just pull a meal out of the freezer and have something different. Tonight we had beef carnitas in flour tortillas with my own refried beans and rice added. Dream dinners now lets you order meals in a small or large sizes. That makes it nice for us since DD is in college and I dont have to cook giant meals anymore. OR if you really like it you can order more!

 

[Poohnatic]

I used to manage a meal preparation kitchen. I love the concept and I still go to my former employer to do my meals every month. It is SO nice to not stress about what to make for dinner with what's in the fridge. My DH still works there, so he gets a free session each month that gets split into two meals each that easily feed us and our two kids. Sixteen dinners for free, woohoo!

I do one session a month of eight meals that I pay for on top of his free session. Those get split into two or three and I bring them to work. I brought in a toaster oven and now have good food cheaper than anything I could get at the restaurants nearby. It works out to about 3 bucks a serving-you can't get a value meal at McDonalds for that.

Love the concept, love the food and will gladly tell anyone how good a value it is.

Suzanne

 

[Aimeedyan]

We always talk about going to one of these but they are pricey. One of these days we will try it out!

(I think we have a Super Suppers and Dream Dinners really close by)