Let's Dish - Yay or Nay?

[Anonymous]

I'm terrible at meal planning. We started Blue Apron and love it, but it's a bit more work than I can do four nights a week (I cook alone, with small kids, and it's active cooking for at least 45 min after a long day at work). So, I'm trying to find something else that will quicker and easier on busy weeknights. Has anyone tried "Let's Dish"?

[Anonymous]

I've done Dream Dinners, similar or same concept but they're only in Silver Spring. My parents would have starved to death for the last 10+ years if not for them, my mother is a fanatic. I've found some meals better than others but it's certainly handy. Not cheap, though. My mom got us probably 8-9 meals when our baby was born and that was helpful. All in all I would recommend if you have the money.

[Anonymous]

What I didn't like about Let's Dish is the meals took anywhere from 45 minutest to an hour to cook. Make sure to check the cooking times.

[Anonymous]

Hmmm...any picky eaters? I have three picky eaters, all with individual likes/dislikes and food allergies. So that discouraged me ears ago.

I'd do it in a heartbeat otherwise and now I'm off to research/revisit this idea.

ThanksOP

[Anonymous]

I just started doing cook smarts - it's a budget version of blu apron (you do the shopping and cooking). It takes all the thinking out of it, and is easy and pretty quick to prepare. Love it!

[Anonymous]

I did a bunch of reading on dinner prep businesses recently (love the idea), and I hadn't thought of this, but one of the articles mentioned they source their supplies and food from Sysco or similar food vendors. So their vegetables all come pre chopped (which frequently means additives to keep them in good shape while frozen), it isn't the same quality you would necessarily buy depending on your personal preferences, etc.

That really turned me off. Part of the point of Home cooked meals is me knowing all the ingredients are fresh and minimal additives/preservatives. According to this article, they aren't prepping the most of the stuff, they are buying prepared ingredients and you are combining them. I also wondered about the freeze/thaw/freeze thing. Usually quality goes down the more times you thaw and freeze.

I ended up doing Once a month meals at home (using the website by the same name) and love it. It obviously is a ton more work because you have to buy the groceries (Peapod?), do all the prep, clean the dishes, deal with kids at home, etc. But I like that they are truly home cooked meals that I know the source of the ingredients, I can buy my preferred quality level, and I have thousands of recipes to pick from. I have been doing it about 7 months now. The first month was brutal because I didn't follow instructions well (key is to make two of each item, you really get double the meals in not much more time). Last month though I got 31 meals in about 8 hours (not including grocery shopping but everything else such as prep and dishes was included). I break it over 2 days and it isn't bad.

[Anonymous]

I think it's a neat concept. You basically go to the Let's Dish place, select some recipes that you want to try and put the prechopped/preprepped ingredients together based on the recipe. You then have fresh meals ready to cook throughout the week. Easy and keeps dinner interesting.

I'm a SAHM and I found that the costs were more than I could budget at the time. But if I had been working - oh, heck yes. It's a nice way to get creative homemade meals without the prep, planning, shopping for ingredients. Much better than frozen/prepared foods.

[Anonymous]

We did Let's dish when my kids were really young. It was great for us for a few years. But now DH is on a very restricted diet so the foods from there won't work. Too bad - I just looked at the Sept menu and there were several things that sounded good!

[Anonymous]

Let's Dish was too far away to work for us. Any Blue Apron people out there? I thought I would try. Should I get the "for two" (different recipes?) or the "for four" and refrigerate the leftovers. Are they different. The ad makes them sound different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let's Dish was too far away to work for us. Any Blue Apron people out there? I thought I would try. Should I get the "for two" (different recipes?) or the "for four" and refrigerate the leftovers. Are they different. The ad makes them sound different.

I'm the OP. I have been doing Blue Apron for about three months and am pretty pleased with it. The "for two" meals really are only for two people. The "for four" really are for four people. I have been impressed with the recipes and the quality of the ingredients. The downside is the amount of packaging - they claim everything is recyclable but it depends on your area. Also, the "for four" meals require a lot of active cooking/chopping/etc. I'd plan at least 45 minutes if you're doing it all by yourself. I can't really say how long the "for two" meals take to make. The menus are different for the "for two" and "for four" meals, but I think they are of similar quality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I did a bunch of reading on dinner prep businesses recently (love the idea), and I hadn't thought of this, but one of the articles mentioned they source their supplies and food from Sysco or similar food vendors. So their vegetables all come pre chopped (which frequently means additives to keep them in good shape while frozen), it isn't the same quality you would necessarily buy depending on your personal preferences, etc.

That really turned me off. Part of the point of Home cooked meals is me knowing all the ingredients are fresh and minimal additives/preservatives. According to this article, they aren't prepping the most of the stuff, they are buying prepared ingredients and you are combining them. I also wondered about the freeze/thaw/freeze thing. Usually quality goes down the more times you thaw and freeze.

I ended up doing Once a month meals at home (using the website by the same name) and love it. It obviously is a ton more work because you have to buy the groceries (Peapod?), do all the prep, clean the dishes, deal with kids at home, etc. But I like that they are truly home cooked meals that I know the source of the ingredients, I can buy my preferred quality level, and I have thousands of recipes to pick from. I have been doing it about 7 months now. The first month was brutal because I didn't follow instructions well (key is to make two of each item, you really get double the meals in not much more time). Last month though I got 31 meals in about 8 hours (not including grocery shopping but everything else such as prep and dishes was included). I break it over 2 days and it isn't bad.

OP here. This is interesting and you raise some valid points.

Question about OAMM - how do you like the recipes? I tried it a few years ago and found the amount of work was really a lot and I wasn't impressed with the meals.

Another option I have tried and liked in the past was Dinner Done - which will deliver frozen meals to you. However, I was never blown away by the quality and variety of their meals. They were ok.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I did a bunch of reading on dinner prep businesses recently (love the idea), and I hadn't thought of this, but one of the articles mentioned they source their supplies and food from Sysco or similar food vendors. So their vegetables all come pre chopped (which frequently means additives to keep them in good shape while frozen), it isn't the same quality you would necessarily buy depending on your personal preferences, etc.

That really turned me off. Part of the point of Home cooked meals is me knowing all the ingredients are fresh and minimal additives/preservatives. According to this article, they aren't prepping the most of the stuff, they are buying prepared ingredients and you are combining them. I also wondered about the freeze/thaw/freeze thing. Usually quality goes down the more times you thaw and freeze.

I ended up doing Once a month meals at home (using the website by the same name) and love it. It obviously is a ton more work because you have to buy the groceries (Peapod?), do all the prep, clean the dishes, deal with kids at home, etc. But I like that they are truly home cooked meals that I know the source of the ingredients, I can buy my preferred quality level, and I have thousands of recipes to pick from. I have been doing it about 7 months now. The first month was brutal because I didn't follow instructions well (key is to make two of each item, you really get double the meals in not much more time). Last month though I got 31 meals in about 8 hours (not including grocery shopping but everything else such as prep and dishes was included). I break it over 2 days and it isn't bad.

I've only done Plated (and only as a trial) but none of the vegetables or other ingredients came prepared/chopped -- even the artichokes needed to be prepped. And all the veggies were in greenbags for freshness. So maybe some of the food services send heavily preserved stuff, but not all do.

[Anonymous]

OP, could you create a war chest of quick recipes and then prep/chop in advance? I cook from scratch every night, but what I make during the week can be made in less than 30 minutes with a baby and preschooler hanging on my legs. I sometimes prep out the ingredients the night before or on the weekends. There are a LOT of recipes that don't require too much active cook time to set up, but then passively simmer or bake while you can play with the kids. E.g., quiche, stew, chili, pasta sauce, etc. And there are also super-fast recipes that only require you have the ingredients prepped and 10 minutes to cook, e.g., stirfry, fried rice, udon and veggies, wraps, salads, quesadilla, frittata, shrimp scampi, etc. I've found ethnic food to be easier to prep and cook quickly than the traditional American meat-starch-veggie dinner.

Once you have an arsenal of recipes like this, you'd be surprised how little effort dinner can take.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, could you create a war chest of quick recipes and then prep/chop in advance? I cook from scratch every night, but what I make during the week can be made in less than 30 minutes with a baby and preschooler hanging on my legs. I sometimes prep out the ingredients the night before or on the weekends. There are a LOT of recipes that don't require too much active cook time to set up, but then passively simmer or bake while you can play with the kids. E.g., quiche, stew, chili, pasta sauce, etc. And there are also super-fast recipes that only require you have the ingredients prepped and 10 minutes to cook, e.g., stirfry, fried rice, udon and veggies, wraps, salads, quesadilla, frittata, shrimp scampi, etc. I've found ethnic food to be easier to prep and cook quickly than the traditional American meat-starch-veggie dinner.

Once you have an arsenal of recipes like this, you'd be surprised how little effort dinner can take.

This would be ideal. I however, seem to have a huge problem with planning! Would you care to share your arsenal of recipes because it sounds amazing!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did a bunch of reading on dinner prep businesses recently (love the idea), and I hadn't thought of this, but one of the articles mentioned they source their supplies and food from Sysco or similar food vendors. So their vegetables all come pre chopped (which frequently means additives to keep them in good shape while frozen), it isn't the same quality you would necessarily buy depending on your personal preferences, etc.

That really turned me off. Part of the point of Home cooked meals is me knowing all the ingredients are fresh and minimal additives/preservatives. According to this article, they aren't prepping the most of the stuff, they are buying prepared ingredients and you are combining them. I also wondered about the freeze/thaw/freeze thing. Usually quality goes down the more times you thaw and freeze.

I ended up doing Once a month meals at home (using the website by the same name) and love it. It obviously is a ton more work because you have to buy the groceries (Peapod?), do all the prep, clean the dishes, deal with kids at home, etc. But I like that they are truly home cooked meals that I know the source of the ingredients, I can buy my preferred quality level, and I have thousands of recipes to pick from. I have been doing it about 7 months now. The first month was brutal because I didn't follow instructions well (key is to make two of each item, you really get double the meals in not much more time). Last month though I got 31 meals in about 8 hours (not including grocery shopping but everything else such as prep and dishes was included). I break it over 2 days and it isn't bad.

I've only done Plated (and only as a trial) but none of the vegetables or other ingredients came prepared/chopped -- even the artichokes needed to be prepped. And all the veggies were in greenbags for freshness. So maybe some of the food services send heavily preserved stuff, but not all do.

I have tried most services (blue apron, hello fresh, marley spoon etc...) NONE of them sent any pre chopped or prepped items. All come as just single veggies as you would purchase in the grocery store. Not sure of any service that sends any pre-prepped ingredients.