Designed Dinners is a store/service that allows you to prepare meals in advance and freeze them for later use. It's a 2 hour session at one of their stores, and all the ingredients and cooking utensils are there ready to go. You sign up in advance for a time, and show ready to make meals(Except the Belltown store, which is pickup only). Very little cooking takes place there, since you freeze the entree's and bring them home to put in your freezer. The day before you put the in the fridge to thaw, and then they are ready to cook. Most meals cook in under 30 minutes. Today for instance, I had ginger tiger shrimp with a carrot/dill puree. It was delicious, and only took 10 minutes to cook. You choose 8 or 12 meals that you want from their menu selection (it changes every month) and pick up or prepare the meals for later. Some of my other choices from March were BBQ pork calzones, Chicken and red bean enchiladas, and Honey ham steak with sweet and sour pepper sauce. Every meal I've tried so far has been good, some very good.
So what does it cost? For 8 meals that feed 4 persons each, the total was $170. Thats a total of 32 meals, and a price per meal of $5.32. That just the entree mind you, but a side of rice and vegetables that you prepare wouldn't cost much more. Say $6 per person. Thats about the same as eating out at a fast food restaurant, and defiantly cheaper than a sit down place. So for the price, you get better quality food and time savings in the kitchen. If you order more meals the price goes down, but since I'm only cooking for myself and sometimes Mel, 32 meals is about all I can handle in a month. It would be most economical for 2-4 people. Unfortunately, they only have locaions in WA, CA, and AZ. But I expect them to be growing and also competitors to grow as well. Check them out at www.designeddinners.com
One of their competitors is Dinners Ready. They have locations in a few more states. www.dinnersready.com
there is a similar store named Dinner Station with locations in Dallas, TX and Louisiana.
http://www.thedinnerstation.com/index.aspx
Haven't had the courage to try 'em out yet.
Posted by: joey b. | April 03, 2008 at 06:16 AM