Has anyone made meals at a food prep kitchen?

[mumto2]

I've been once to a place near us and overall, enjoyed it. I have been an on again off again once a month cooker in my own kitchen for years, so it was a nice change to have someone else do all the planning, shopping, chopping and cleaning for me!

My one concern is the number of processed foods in many of the recipes. For example, one dish was Grandmas Roast with potatoes, and it was a bottom round roast with a fair amount of cream of mushroom soup and onion soup mix with carrots and potatoes, all in an extra large freezer baggie, to be placed in a crockpot later. It tasted very nice, but when I averaged out my per-meal cost, it was about $17, and I can do a crockpot roast for a whole lot less than that fairly quickly on my own, using fresh/dried herbs and seasonings and beef stock with a thickener. The other meals were big crowd pleasers at my house, as well.

At our place, you have to place your food order before your session so they can ensure enough ingredients. I'll just be more vigilant in the future about not ordering crockpot meals and sticking to ones that seem to use fresh ingredients.

 

[Kimmielee]

Sounds like hassle to me. I have to go to someplace to assemble the dish, take it home, probably freeze it, then thaw it out and cook it later? All so I don't have to chop and measure the ingredients?

I've not tried it yet, but I believe it's more than not having to chop and measure... for me the draw would be not having to PLAN the meal, shop for the ingredients and the ability to try new recipes! I'm going to try it in September when school starts. In my area they are called Super Suppers. You can do 12 or 6 meals. I'm going to start with 6 and see how I like it!

 

[JustHolly]

The other thing that I like, is the variety. We have a hard time thinking up new ideas and have felt like there's only so many ways to do chicken. Boy were we wrong! There are some great looking chicken recipes we are going to do on our next visit.

Plus, just for the two of us, it's expensive to try "elaborate" recipes... it's silly to buy a whole ginger root when you only need 1 tablespoon, or a bottle of sherry, for just one recipe that requires 2 tablespoons. In that sense, it is more cost effective.

We're very excited about it!

 

[holbear]

I'm glad to hear all the good reviews! There is a Dream Diners near us and I've been thinking of trying it.

 

[Poohnatic]

Yes, I've become very spoiled not going to the supermarket every week and not having pans to clean up!

Holly, in answer to your question about storage:

We had a 7cf freezer, so the fridge is a side by side with a dinky freezer. Otherwise, we'd have no room for meals-we barely have room for frozen veggies and a carton of ice cream otherwise.

If space is a concern, you can always get a friend to split the meals with you. That's what I did with my first session, split it with Aeryn. (And promptly wished I had it all to myself, lol)

Thanks for the list, Splash! I've got relatives in NY who are wishing there was someplace nearby-now I can look for one and point them in the right direction.

Suzanne

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

We found it to be nice...we did go out to dinner less and we did save money since we are a small family and meals could be split in half.

Hubby has been away, so I am inclined to try it again once he returns home. But it was nice to go once and prepare 12 meals (that doubled to 24) and for my temp-family of three....we had meals for 1 month.

 

[clh2]

We've done this in the past, and LOVED it. Unfortunately, they moved to a location that is not nearly as convenient to where I live.

I have found the similar type of thing in a cookbook - which really gives me the flexibility to assemble the meals when I have the time, when the meat is on sale etc. I've loved everything we've tried so far.

The Warehouse Gourmet CookBook

This cookbook has given me the flexibility of having the meals, but at a much lower cost than the meal-prep places charge.