Super Suppers or Dream Dinners

[jjsooner73]

Has anyone tried or wanted to try either of these places? It's sort of an assemblyline type place where you can go and buy 12 meals for a set price, take them home, freeze them, and thus you don't have to spend as much time cooking.

I haven't had the urge to try them. After reading the following article, that definitely won't be changing anytime soon!

http://www.dmagazine.com//article.asp?articleid=878

[gertdog]

Interesting article- thanks for sharing it! I haven't tried one of these places and wouldn't be likely to- they don't offer much for vegetarians, and now that I've read the article, I see that they don't offer much for those who like fresh ingredients!

One of the members of my supper club has tried Dream Dinners- a friend of hers bought a franchise. She liked the easy assembly, and she and her husband liked the two meals they'd tried when I last asked about it. I guess it's all a matter of personal taste, balanced with how important saving time is to you.

[Cookin4Love]

I've been to Dream Dinners twice, and have plans to go again next week. I'm selective about what I order, and yes--I'd prefer that there be no use of prepackaged foods. And certainly, if we were doing full-time vegetarian, it wouldn't work at all. But, you know what? My life is so hectic and I have so little time that this is the difference in sitting down to a decent meal every night or ordering takeout. And I find that, because I don't have to spend time on the entree (not to mention getting a bunch of additional dishes dirty), I prepare a much larger selection of whole grain and vegetable side dishes. So, instead of maybe grabbing a burger, we're eating grilled flank steak with carmelized onions, a salad with multiple ingredients and homemade dressing, a broiled tomato, some sauteed spinach, and a bulgur and mushroom pilaf. We'd be doing good to get the steak and salad if I was doing it on my own.

Plus, my biggest stress right now is having time to plan menus and just figure the whole thing out. I don't have to with this. Also, while lots of the products do come in bulk, it doesn't mean that they're all preprocessed. Vinegar, soy sauce, spices...lots of the ingredients aren't that different from what I'd use in my own kitchen. And the ones that aren't couldn't be any worse than what I'd grab at Whataburger or Taco Bell if I didn't cook at home. It ain't pretty to admit that, but that's just how it is in our world right now. And frankly, we've found many of the dinners to be very good, and we aren't all that easy to please. :)

Do I see Dream Dinners as something I'll do forever? No. But will I keep doing it for now? You betcha. FWIW, I'm making lots of mental notes about the kinds of things that work well for this. I can see the time when I do this myself in my own kitchen. But...not until I'm done with grad school, interning, and finishing up our house.

[Savage]

Personally, I don't really care what that article has to say. My wife and I have been using Dream Dinners for a few months now. We have six kids, I work and she works her "home business".
What Dream Dinners offers is a no hassle meal. i.e. It's 5:30, I come home, she has been with kids all day and working her business. I'm tired, she's tired. Whats for dinner? I dunno? The whole process of deciding what to have for dinner, looking through cupboards, fridge, freezer figuring what to make. Then, once decided, going through the motions of cooking it all.

With Dream Dinners, all we keep stocked in the house are frozen or canned veggies, Salt, Pepper, Canned fruit, Salads, french fries etc. The guess work is done for us. Each morning, we pull out from the freezer what we plan on having for dinner that evening. (it thaws durring the day) At 5:30pm we put the tray in the oven, microwave some veggies and walla, we have a healthy meal waiting for the family.
It cuts down on pots and pans used, measuring untensils used etc. More importantly, it takes out the guess work of what to have. It allows you more time to be with family or finish up evening projects. There are a few meals we as a family didn't like. But thats ok.We now know and won't assemble that meal next time. Almost all the dinner are very good.

I recomend Dream Dinners or the like to anyone. Oh, yes, we do save money versus buying the needed groceries.