Shop and Chop

This month our family is trying out Dream Dinners. What is that? Well it is a business where the owners do all the chopping and shopping for your dinners and then you show up, assembly them and take them home as frozen meals. Now most people when I tell this jump right to this question - Is it expensive? Well it depends. It depends on how much you currently spend on food and how much you are willing to buy at Dream Dinners. The more you buy the cheaper it is (to a point). We went all out and got 72 meals which basically comes out to be 24 dinners for our family. (3 meals or servings per dinner) Our cost was around 3.60 per serving. Now could we eat cheaper than that? Most likey. Do we normally eat cheaper than that? No because while I can cook, my limit to sticking to a menu is 30 days. This means that about 4 times a year, I get myself organized, plan a menu, make a grocery list, buy the food and stick to my menu. The other 8 months I wing it and winging often leads to eating out and the guilt feeling that come along with that. If I were a good mother, I would be better at this meal planning thing but I am not. So in comes Dream Dinners. Now for your 3.60 per serving you normally get a serving of meat (fish, pork, chicken or beef) done up in some nice sauce, usually low cal, low fat and a side dish of some sort of starchy food. Like potatoes, rice or noodles. So to fill out the menu you do need to get yourself some veggies. Enter steamed veggies in the bag. (thank you Carla) I had used these previously but was recently reintroduced to them and they are a great thing for my family. I think all the major veggie brands have them now. There are frozen veggies that you can steam right in the bag. From Freezer to Microwave, eat and then throw away the bag.
So far the dinners have been very good. My kids have eaten most of them and the wonderful thing is the extra time. OH MY WORD!!! The most I had to plan was what meals to buy (you only have 14 meals to choose from) and when to eat them. There is no more rushing to the store to get some ingredient I don’t have. No large grocery shopping trips. No complaining from my kids about what we are having for dinner (this is mostly due to the quick meal preparation time which does not allow the time for them to notice I am actually cooking dinner) I come home from work, pull a dinner out of the fridge, prepare it on the stove and still have time to help Olivia with her home work and play Star Wars with Jack. I love it. And I am hoping that the prices do not go up or that the food quality goes down so that we can continue to enjoy.


Now you may see this as a shameless plug for Dream Dinners (don’t forget to mention my name if you go because I get a free meal) but I see it as just one more chapter in my meal preparation dysfunction. And since I have discussed this dysfunction here before, I figured it was ok to update you on my latest scheme.

Next chapter: The Cook We Hired Also Does Dishes

Oh and did I mention that Eric was actually the one that went to assemble our dinners? OH MY WORD!