Dream Dinners

I initially tried Dream Dinners starting about 2.5 years ago out of curiosity, and I was pleasantly surprised. Even though I love to cook, and I do a ton of cooking at home, weeknight meal preparation started getting a little stressful when I changed jobs from NW to Lake Oswego. I went from a five minute commute home to anywhere from 40 minutes to an hour.
While hubby enjoys barbecuing, he sometimes gets a little lost in the kitchen. Being «head chef «in our household, I was spending more time commuting than I liked, and was super tired upon getting home, so I decided to see if Dream Dinners could give us a little break as far as planning and preparation of at least a couple of weeknight dinners, and it did.
Not only are the dinners creative, tasty and fun to eat, they are super easy to prepare. Dream Dinners also uses low lean, low-​fat ingredients wherever possible, and if you have allergies or dietary restrictions, such as low sodium, you just omit that particular ingredient when you are assembling your meal.
What you do is sign up for your desired meal choices, quantities and session time. You can select between three or six-​serving dinners, and the menu changes every month, which keeps everything fun and interesting.
On meal assembly day, you head down to the store at your scheduled time and get busy assembling your dinners.
All ingredients are set out for you at various assembly stations, each one of which is dedicated to two or three particular dinners. Everything is straightforward, and easy to follow instructions are posted at each station. Measuring utensils, mixing bowls, etc. are all provided, and they are removed when you are done using them, so no clean-​up is needed.
The assembled dinners are stored in ziplocks or foil oven trays with covers, and easy to follow preparation instructions are provided. Upon arriving home, you put everything in the freezer, and as you need meals, you thaw for a couple days in the fridge before preparing.
Compared to the cost of dining out or getting takeout, Dream Dinners is worth it, especially since you can get a volume discount for purchasing at least 72 servings, or twelve six-​serving dinners. Sometimes they even offer free assembly, where you order your dinners, sign up for a specific pick-​up time, and pick up your fully-​prepared dinners.
Although it is perfect for any busy person, Dream Dinners is especially great for families with kids, where the parents work full-​time.
Before our daughter is born in early August, hubby and I plan to make a trip or two to stock up on dinners to have in the house for the first couple of months or so after the birth, and if I go back to work, we will probably sign up for regular sessions to help us get through the weekdays.