Meal Prep/Occasional Chef

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are prepared meals bad? Not the frozen stuff but the fresh stuff like salads meatloaf etc? Does it matter if it’s the ready meals from Whole Foods?

Because its full of preservatives, too much salt, added sugar, MSG, etc. Wegman's and Trader Joe's aint making prepared meals from scratch.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. Buy pre-cooked meals from Trader Joe's and Whole Foods like the rest of us. Save more money for your kids' college instead of spending it on a private chef. For the love of God.

Some of us are already fully funding our children's educations and have additional discretionary funds. I'm always running around - getting the kids ready, getting to work, running home to get the kids to their activities. I feel guilty that we don't usually have a healthy, well balanced dinner. A private chef I think would make a world of difference in our lives. I dream of walking in the door after work at 5:15 to a chef just finishing up cleaning my kitchen before presenting me and my family with something hot, delicious and healthy. So we can all spend a few minutes nourishing our bodies and connecting with each other before we dash off to whatever's in store for that night. Sigh. We make seven figures, so we could conceivably afford this, I guess...I just haven't had the time to really look into it. Again, I'd like to hear from those who actually do it.

No suggestions (sorry!) but we’re in the same position and I’d love to find someone like this too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would love to try this but everyone (but me) in my family hates veggies. https://vegetableandbutcher.com/

Ooooh, not OP but thanks for posting. This looks amazing and worth it.

But I'm confused by the "and butcher" part, because I see only veg on their menu...

[Anonymous]

I thought about starting a company to service this type of need - basically a platform that would connect professional and amateur chefs with families/working professionals to make homemade meals. When I was doing competitive research, I found a company called Shef that might be worth trying!

[Anonymous]

This is a growing market, but there’s not enough talent to fill it. Further, cooks/chefs oftentimes specialize in a type of food or method of cooking, further narrowing the field. You might have to just cook your own food!

[Anonymous]

We did CookUnity. They make the meals in a commercial kitchen on the weekend then ship them to you on Mondays. You can choose the meals, so we'd choose the healthier options. It was good, just got tired of the choices over time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. Buy pre-cooked meals from Trader Joe's and Whole Foods like the rest of us. Save more money for your kids' college instead of spending it on a private chef. For the love of God.

Some of us are already fully funding our children's educations and have additional discretionary funds. I'm always running around - getting the kids ready, getting to work, running home to get the kids to their activities. I feel guilty that we don't usually have a healthy, well balanced dinner. A private chef I think would make a world of difference in our lives. I dream of walking in the door after work at 5:15 to a chef just finishing up cleaning my kitchen before presenting me and my family with something hot, delicious and healthy. So we can all spend a few minutes nourishing our bodies and connecting with each other before we dash off to whatever's in store for that night. Sigh. We make seven figures, so we could conceivably afford this, I guess...I just haven't had the time to really look into it. Again, I'd like to hear from those who actually do it.

+100 to this. I think there's a food/cooking forum on this site. I'll search through there to see if any recommendations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curious about this but I think you could get better bang for your buck by buying prepared meals. Just go to Wegmans and buy the family tray items. They have so many that you just have to heat for 30 minutes.

Or add in no prep meals like open a bag of salad and a rotisserie chicken, or make sandwiches with soup.

I feel like the chef idea is for people who want to appear fancy. If eating healthy and quick is your goal there are better options.

Or for families with allergies. Eating out is so, so hard for our family, and we’re getting sick of the few options we do have. Buffets are hard-down not safe. If we had the cash, I’d do this in a heartbeat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curious about this but I think you could get better bang for your buck by buying prepared meals. Just go to Wegmans and buy the family tray items. They have so many that you just have to heat for 30 minutes.

Or add in no prep meals like open a bag of salad and a rotisserie chicken, or make sandwiches with soup.

I feel like the chef idea is for people who want to appear fancy. If eating healthy and quick is your goal there are better options.

Would like to hear the better options. I've tried prepackaged meals and most have too much salt. I've felt bad throwing some away - just don't taste good. I would love a chef, don't mind doing all the shopping. I just want to eat healthy without too much work. Nothing fancy needed here

[Anonymous]

Where are you located, OP? Is there a local private chef who does meal delivery?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are prepared meals bad? Not the frozen stuff but the fresh stuff like salads meatloaf etc? Does it matter if it’s the ready meals from Whole Foods?

Because its full of preservatives, too much salt, added sugar, MSG, etc. Wegman's and Trader Joe's aint making prepared meals from scratch.

+1

Not trader joes, but I do think the Wegmans and Whole Food meals are equal health as you would hire a chef to make.

[Anonymous]

if you search on instagram city deal delivery (whatever city you are in) you'll probably turn up local chefs that deliver meals to your house a few times a week. I've gone this in chicago and found several - you can also dig more by looking at who they follow b/c they all follow each other

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:if you search on instagram city deal delivery (whatever city you are in) you'll probably turn up local chefs that deliver meals to your house a few times a week. I've gone this in chicago and found several - you can also dig more by looking at who they follow b/c they all follow each other

sorry - city meal delivery

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are prepared meals bad? Not the frozen stuff but the fresh stuff like salads meatloaf etc? Does it matter if it’s the ready meals from Whole Foods?

Because its full of preservatives, too much salt, added sugar, MSG, etc. Wegman's and Trader Joe's aint making prepared meals from scratch.

+1

Not trader joes, but I do think the Wegmans and Whole Food meals are equal health as you would hire a chef to make.

I don't think so- they have a lot of salt,

[Anonymous]

I would ask on a local FB mom's group. I see this question asked a lot.