Have You Tried Those Meal Places (like Meal Makers)?
This is how one website describes it: "When you arrive for your session all ingredients have been chopped, diced, peeled and prepped. You simply follow the recipe at each station and VOILA! Delicious entrees to place in your freezer and serve as you need them." The one closest to us is Meal Makers but there's also several other names around the country. |
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| Melissa and I went to one of these places in January. It was great!! The one we went to let us divide the meals into smaller portions since there are only two of us, and the dinners usually serve 4 - 6.
I like to cook and usually make dinner. This was nice because it made it easier on busy days. I also found that it gave me ideas for new meals to make on my own. We have added a couple of dishes to our "usuals" list. |
| Oh great! I'm glad I'm not the only one who can't "think" anymore. What is the one called that you went too, Amanda? |
| I've seen the ads for these (Amanda, did you go to the one on Randall just south of Hopps?) and they sound great. I love to cook but hate prep work--the chopping, etc. Stacy if you go, let us know how you like it. |
| The one we have up here (in Gurnee) is called, Dinner by Design. I've been very curious about it too. But since its just Tony and me, I was wondering about the portion sizes. Glad you hear they let you split them up! Stacy, you'll have to go on a fact finding mission, and let us know. |
| I've never seen one of these - but it sounds facinating. Usually if I want to make something new and exciting I start mixing things together all willy-nilly. I keep thinking I'm going to mess something up one day - but it always turns out great. |
| There's a very similar concept (if not the same) here:
http://www.dinnerafare.com/ You make 12 meals at once and bring them home... Fascinating! |
That looks neat. The prep work is the fun part to me though.  I used to do something similar with a friend. We used to get together a couple of times a month, and we'd cook (and chat) all day long. We'd split up the meals we made, freeze them, clean up together, and we'd have enough to do for dinners for a couple of weeks. It was a lot of fun. I wish her husband hadn't got sent to Washington.  |
| I have not myself, but know several people who have and they rave about it.... If you do it, let us know how it was! |
| Paula...the one right off Randall is Dinner by Design. That one wasn't open yet when Melis and I went.
We went to a place up in Algonquin called Come and Dish. I believe it is independently owned and operated...not part of a chain. Not having the clean up is great!! When I cook I usually make extra to freeze or have later in the week. I also keep stuff prepped for soups and stews in the freezer. I think what I liked most about doing the dinner prep place was the opportunity to try things that even if I saw a recipe for it I might not have tried. |
| Now it's almost September and I'm back to this! Both of us are so tired of not having anything to eat and neither one really enjoys cooking. We decided to try one place and then the other once the meals are gone. I'm looking at the calendar tomorrow and I think we'll try Meal Makers first. Dinner by Design also just opened up only 5 minutes away. Both places will be competing for the same clientele as they are so close together. I'll let ya know! |
| I've gone with a friend, and found it to be a lot of fun. It's VERY expensive to do, but I wasn't paying. I forgot what the website was for it, but it's the same thing that Ron posted. |
| Ok, I know this isn't really what you asked, but here is how I solved
my dinner problem. I took 3x5 cards and wrote the dinners we like with all the sides on the front of the cards. Then I flipped them over and wrote what I need to make the dinner. Then I added a few new dinners every week from ideas I saw in mags or cookbooks. You wouldn't believe how many I came up with after my boys pitched in their favorites. In no time I had over 40 meals all sides included, and when it comes time to go to the store I have an easy way to list all my ingredients. I shop only when I need to- usually every other week and sometimes for fresh veggies or meat in between. It has really saved my a lot of time and money because I always know what I need and I am not left at the grocery store wondering what meals to buy for. I find I spend much less this way because I am not buying what I don't need. I have the guys pick out a couple meal cards, and I pick some and I make my list, simple. It does take a bit of time at first, writing the cards, but you can add a new card in just a minute or two. I do make totally new meals sometimes and if they are a hit I add a card. I make at least 3 big meals in a two week period that are planned for leftovers, so that gives me a cooking break. Plus we are rarely have the 'what are we eating tonight' problem where we end up running out for fast food. I think we all have our standards that we use often, and we all get into a rut with dinner ideas. With my stack of cards we can go a month and a half without repeating the same dinner. Sorry, I know I haven't answered the original question. I just thought I'd share something that has been a huge help to me. We are all so busy these days! This idea has really given me back some control over time and money and dealing with what's for dinner. Maybe I should have started a new post.... Shellie |
| Wow Shellie.... that's so.... organized |
Shellie wrote: Ok, I know this isn't really what you asked, but here is how I solved
my dinner problem. I took 3x5 cards and wrote the dinners we like with all the sides on the front of the cards. Then I flipped them over and wrote what I need to make the dinner. Then I added a few new dinners every week from ideas I saw in mags or cookbooks. You wouldn't believe how many I came up with after my boys pitched in their favorites. In no time I had over 40 meals all sides included, and when it comes time to go to the store I have an easy way to list all my ingredients. I shop only when I need to- usually every other week and sometimes for fresh veggies or meat in between. It has really saved my a lot of time and money because I always know what I need and I am not left at the grocery store wondering what meals to buy for. I find I spend much less this way because I am not buying what I don't need. I have the guys pick out a couple meal cards, and I pick some and I make my list, simple. It does take a bit of time at first, writing the cards, but you can add a new card in just a minute or two. I do make totally new meals sometimes and if they are a hit I add a card. I make at least 3 big meals in a two week period that are planned for leftovers, so that gives me a cooking break. Plus we are rarely have the 'what are we eating tonight' problem where we end up running out for fast food. I think we all have our standards that we use often, and we all get into a rut with dinner ideas. With my stack of cards we can go a month and a half without repeating the same dinner. Sorry, I know I haven't answered the original question. I just thought I'd share something that has been a huge help to me. We are all so busy these days! This idea has really given me back some control over time and money and dealing with what's for dinner. Maybe I should have started a new post.... Shellie I have a similar system. My husband gets paid twice a month, so I do my grocery shopping every two weeks. I HAVE to plan a menu for the ingredients shopping that way.  It saves a lot of money. Doing it this way, we only spend about $300/mo on groceries for the 4 of us (and the boys eat A LOT) - where it used to be a good bit more. |
| I do the same exact thing, and I spend $140-170 EACH visit. I go once a week, AND I have at least $20-$32 worth of coupons. I am a coupon queen ...saving about 11-17% each time I go. I also use every ingred. I have and base meals off of what I have. I don't know how I could make it only spending $300 a month. Go you! |
| We went to Meal Makers on Saturday! Boy, it was great! Each entree has it's own station and EVERYTHING is labeled, cleaned, cut, diced....
It was dummy proof! We purchased 7 different half sized entrees (14 servings) and paid just under $100. I thought it was worth it; however, we haven't tried anything yet. That will be Tuesday night. I'll keep you all posted ! |
| I wonder if we have those. Never seen any advertisements. Would it be in the phonebook? Under what would you think? I'm interested to see if it was good. |
| Yummy! We ate the oriental beef stir fry which was very tasty! Tonight is parmesan chicken.
Las Vegas Sheepie, check online at: www.mealmakers.com www.dinnerbydesign.com |
| I'm glad this post came back up. I found out two days ago that we have one ACROSS the street from me!!! I can't believe I never knew since I pass by it every day.
My girl friend said ALL the meals she has tried are SO GOOD. I'm glad to hear you also thought they were delicious. |
| I have tried meal makers in st. peters mo. It was terrible. they advertise that the ingredients are fresh. that was not the case. the staff was not friendly either. I had gone in for the promotion they were having and they upped their prices in order to cover the costs of the promotions.
However, i have tried Dream Dinners in St. peters and it was wonderful! For anyone wanting to do the meal prep, Dream Dinners is the place to go.... not Meal makers |
| Hmmm..we are scheduled for our third visit to Meal Makers this weekend. I have to say that we have been very happy with both the food and the staff. They are so friendly, helpful, patient... I suppose each franchise is owned by different people who get their supplies from different distributors. We don't have Dream Dinners, but we do have Dinner by Design in the Chicago area. It is more costly and they force you to prepare 12 meals even if you don't like what's on the menu. You can't go in and make only 6 meals |
| Tori I'm sorry for your experience with mealmakers. I'm just reading posts and I do manage a mealmakers in a different state, we are independently owned and we do not say we use all fresh ingredients. Our company brochures state we use a COMBINATION of fresh and frozen ingredients, but like I said I'm sorry for your experience as that could have been an employee that should not have been employed there, as for mealmakers the products are better and our portions are bigger. Tori I'm just curious which dream dinners do you own or manage!!!?? |
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