Pre-prepared meals in the Orlando area?

[veenstra56]

Hello. My wife and I have been discussing dining options for our upcoming trip to BWV. She doesn't want to cook large meals while on vacation (which is understandable), but I prefer "home cooking" to dining out all week.

In our home town, there is a place where you can pre-prepare a week's worth of interesting meals (and side dishes) and freeze them until you're ready to eat them later in the week, month, etc. This sounds like it might be a good compromise for us, at least for a portion of our stay.

I am wondering if any fellow DISers have tried this while on vacation, and how it worked for you. Also, can anyone recommend a reputable place in the Orlando area?

Thanks in advance!

 

[TriMom]

How funny - I was talking about this with my DH over breakfast this morning. I am deciding between this and getting a whole bunch of Rachael Ray 30 min. meal recipes, and spend about 3 hours at the beginning of our vacation and prepping everything.

Anyway this is what I came up with - I went with national franchises and this is what I found

A Dinner A'fare - located in Winter Park
Dream Dinners - located in Almonte Springs
Super Suppers - Winter Park and St. Cloud

A DInner A'fare and Dream Dinners both take about 2 hours to fix the meals. I think that I am going to go with Super Suppers, you can pre-order your meals, and for an additional fee, they will make them for you. SInce it is my vacation too, I think that I will have them make my meals!

 

[CarolAnnC]

As an alternative, many of the local grocery stores such as Goodings and Publix offer prepared meals ready to go in their stores. I have done this with various sandwiches, hot dinners, etc. If they are ready in our villa fridge, then it is quite easy to put together a quick meal. Just a thought...

 

[Deb & Bill]

There is always Stouffer's Lasagna.

 

[CarrianneB]

You may want to ask if the super suppers are available in local grocery stores. The one in my area makes meals, and then freezes them for sale at the local grocery at basically the same price as making them. Mmmm.

 

[JulieWent]

We were at WDW over Christmas, and my mother and father were at Ft. Wilderness. Instead of trying to cook in the RV, they decided to go to Winn Dixie for Christmas dinner. (Of course, Mom couldn't help making some things on her own!) But the turkey, potatoes, veggies, rolls, etc. were all from Winn Dixie, and they were great. I think even Mom, who is absolutely aghast at the thought of eating a "store bought" meal, was pleased. I would check there for some of their meals. (This is the Winn Dixie on Buena Vista, just down the road.)

Julie

 

[Jeremy&Susan]

There is always Stouffer's Lasagna.

I'll be over at five.

 

[veenstra56]

Thanks for the input, everyone. Thanks especially to TriMom. Looks like we'll be going with Super Suppers, too.

We've done the Dining Plan several times and my wife and I love it if it's just the two of us. But the kids don't really care for it much, and hate being on a reservation schedule. I'm curious to see how this works out for us. Seems like a nice way to add a little "home cooking" to all the dining out.

Thanks again.

 

[UConnJack]

My wife owns a couple Dream Dinners franchises here in CT. We bring a cooler full of meals on our HHI trips (we drive). She has also gone to the Dream Dinners store in Orlando for our WDW trips. We love the concept at home (previously as customers and now as owners), but my wife has always thought if marketed right, it could be very useful and successful in vacation home / timshare destinations (e.g., Orlando, Hilton Head, ski towns, etc.)

 

[Deb & Bill]

We have Dinner Station in our town and I've been tempted to bring a few of these meals with me on vacation.

 

[LIFERBABE]

My wife owns a couple Dream Dinners franchises here in CT. We bring a cooler full of meals on our HHI trips (we drive). She has also gone to the Dream Dinners store in Orlando for our WDW trips. We love the concept at home (previously as customers and now as owners), but my wife has always thought if marketed right, it could be very useful and successful in vacation home / timshare destinations (e.g., Orlando, Hilton Head, ski towns, etc.)

I think this would be really successful. While I wouldnt use this service at home, I would be more inclined to use it at our vacation home.

We also did the Dining Plan last week and while Dh and I can find a little variety, it was much more difficult for my DS's (8 and 10). My 10 year old is past chicken strips, but not ready for pepper crusted tuna. He did like the Prime Rib, but after a few days of eating that he pretty much stopped eating and started snacking.

I thought prepared meals would be a great alternative. I dont mind using the kitchen since all I serve at home is Stouffer's Lasagna Although very good and worth every penny, we didnt want it on vacation too.

 

[llmurphy17]

My wife owns a couple Dream Dinners franchises here in CT. We bring a cooler full of meals on our HHI trips (we drive). She has also gone to the Dream Dinners store in Orlando for our WDW trips. We love the concept at home (previously as customers and now as owners), but my wife has always thought if marketed right, it could be very useful and successful in vacation home / timshare destinations (e.g., Orlando, Hilton Head, ski towns, etc.)

Wow that seems like a great idea for future vacations. I am going to google the name.

 

[UConnJack]

While I wouldnt use this service at home, I would be more inclined to use it at our vacation home......

I dont mind using the kitchen since all I serve at home is Stouffer's Lasagna.

I don't want to sound like I'm pushing or selling the idea, but if you cook a lot of prepackaged meals at home like Stouffers, then one of the meal assembly stores would probably be worth a try for you. We were a customer first, and I was skeptical of the idea initially, thinking it was too expensive and not trusting the food would be any better than something prepackaged. But although it seemed expensive, once I factored in all the spices and ingredients that I have to buy to make meals myself (and often you have to buy more of the ingredients than you need and end up throwing stuff away), it turned out to be comparable.

It also saves a lot of time at the grocery store and in the kitchen since we don't have to assemble the recipes together at home, not to mention the cleanup. But most importantly for me, is it gave us a lot more variety in our dinners. With such little time after work, we so often found ourselves ordering take-out (expensive), making prepackaged meals (not particularly healthy or interesting), or making the same 3 or 4 easy meals (tacos, spaghetti, etc.). Now we have about 3-4 different preassembled meals ready a week which are fast to make and puts a lot more variety into dinner. The meals are made from scratch with individual ingredients, so they aren’t just prepackaged store meals (although don't get me worng, there are several prepackaged things I love myself). The Dream Dinners are very good, usually better and more interesting than I could put together myself (and I consider myself a pretty good cook).

Sorry, I guess it did end up like a marketing spiel, but I really do love the service after being initially skeptical.

 

[veenstra56]

... my wife has always thought if marketed right, it could be very useful and successful in vacation home / timshare destinations (e.g., Orlando, Hilton Head, ski towns, etc.)

I agree. It really makes sense.

 

[BEASLYBOO]

We drive in from West Palm so I bring a few things from home. I also make a trip to Winn Dixie right away. One thing I do bring is frozen meatballs, frozen ground beef for taco's and jarred sauce. Hey, I even bring my crock pot, and after a day at Blizzard Beach, a big pot of sauce will feed 8 to 10 people.

We kind of like to do it 1/2 and 1/2, i don't like to eat out every night.