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Let's Dish! or
Super Suppers or similar places? There's a Let's Dish! near work and DH and I have been going once a month since the summer. We really like it -- basically the way it works is you order a set number of meals online (we always get 4 at a time), and schedule a time to go in to prepare them. When you get there they have all the ingredients for the stuff you ordered laid out for you, with instructions on how to prepare it. You put everything (raw) into freezer bags or foil containers and label them with cooking instructions; each meal serves 4-6 (so for the two of us we always split them up into two or three bags). Then you take it all home and freeze it, and prepare according to the instructions when you're ready to eat. It's not the cheapest way to eat -- though it's not as pricey as eating out -- but it's really added some variety to our dinners, especially since we often don't feel like cooking anything complicated after work.
Pros: yummy meals, generally pretty quick and easy to cook, good variety, and if you're picky like we are, you can leave out ingredients you don't like; also, you can steal their ideas and pre-prep your own meals without actually going there if you can remember the quantities of ingredients reasonably well. (The ingredient lists are on their website, so you don't have to remember the 'what', only the 'how much'. After our last visit, I jotted the recipe for their molten chocolate cake down so now I can do it myself...should I post it here?
)
Cons: you have to spend the up-front time at the store doing the prep work (though if you pay extra you can get them to make it up for you -- but then you lose the ability to season to your own taste); there can sometimes be a wait at certain stations when there are a lot of people there.
We keep going back so obviously we like it; it's a nice change from the usual few unexciting meals we tend to have during the week.
[Disclaimer: I don't work for any of these companies; just thought I'd mention it for those who've never heard of them and are looking for new meal ideas.]
