August 2006
Spend Less Time in the Kitchen
Three Ways to Get Help Preparing Healthy Meals
By Janice Lovelace
Like most working mothers, I have less time than I would
like for preparing home cooked meals. I admit that there are days that
find me in the store at 6 p.m., after a day at work, looking for something
to fill my family’s growling stomachs. Sometimes I even make the
pizza or burgers and fries run. What I really want is healthy meals waiting
at home, ready to pop in the oven or microwave.
I have attempted various ways to get on top of the meal issue. I tried
to carve out a weekend or two a month to cook several meals, but couldn’t
consistently find the time to shop, prep and cook every other weekend.
When I did manage it, I was in the kitchen for hours cooking and was exhausted
for the rest of the day. No one wanted to talk to me that night!
I tried buying prepared meals from the market – the rotisserie chicken, spaghetti, enchiladas and ready-cooked vegetables were our favorites. However, I ended up going to the store two to three times a week because those meals couldn’t be kept for longer than a few days in the refrigerator.
Recently I have discovered three ways to provide healthy meals for my family without spending hours in the kitchen or making frequent runs to the store.
Hire a Personal Chef
The Cadillac of meal preparation services is to let someone else do it by hiring a personal chef. Not just for wealthy celebrities anymore, the personal chef business has come to your neighborhood. The first step is to look for the right chef.
I heard about Chef Cindy Dean (425-478-2023, www.nwdinnerdesign.com) from a friend. Before deciding, I also checked out menus and pricing for other chefs in my area. Then Dean and I met and reviewed our family’s likes, dislikes and allergies before she proposed our first menu.
On cooking day, she shops and arrives at my house in the morning with all the fresh food. She brings everything – from her own cookware and utensils to ice for cooling food, dish soap for cleaning up and her own garbage can. When she leaves, she takes the trash out, too. In fact, my kitchen is usually a bit cleaner from her scrub-down before leaving.
Personal chefs prepare the meals for freezing in family-sized serving containers, which they provide. You can be home while they work or just leave a key. It will take the chef about four to five hours to prepare 10 meals. On cooking day, the chef needs a shelf in the refrigerator to keep products cool before using them and a shelf in the freezer big enough for 10 meals. When your chef is at the house, her focus is on cooking several different meals, so there’s no time for socializing. If you are home, the fragrant smells will make you even hungrier for the finished meal.
She leaves a meal of your choice in the refrigerator for that night so that you can come home to a freshly cooked dinner in a house filled with the lingering aromas. On other days, you can defrost a meal in your refrigerator overnight and put it in the oven for an average of 30 minutes. Each meal comes with detailed cooking instructions that even a noncooking partner or teen can figure out. Because the containers go from freezer to oven, there is little to clean up.
Most chefs charge between $300 and $400 for 10 meals for three people (about $10-13 per serving).
Check these three organizations that list personal chefs in the Greater Seattle area:
- Personalized Chef Network, Inc. – lists personal chefs around the world, including ones on Bainbridge Island and in Bothell, Monroe and Kent. 1-877-905-CHEF (2433). www.Personalchefsnetwork.com;
- American Personal Chef Association – lists chefs around the country, including 16 in King County and seven in Snohomish County. 1-800-644-8389. www.Personalchef.com; and
- Washington Personal Chefs Listing – lists 25 Washington members of the American Personal Chef Association, along with areas they serve. 1-800-644-8389. www.washington.personalchef.com.
Use a Meal Delivery Service
Not as personalized as the services of a personal chef, but still timesaving and tasty are companies that prepare meals in a commercial kitchen and deliver them to your house on a chosen day. Most services have you order and pay online several days ahead, and then remind you to leave a cooler on the porch on delivery day if you won’t be home. The rest of the week, all you have to do is come home, reach in the refrigerator and heat up a meal in the oven or microwave. Families may also enjoy ordering desserts as extras.
We were attracted to the healthy, mostly vegetarian, whole
food menus of Dancing Women (425-787-2821 or 206-940-6721,
www.dancingwomen.com). They
even offer a “detox” menu for adults. Four to five different
meals are offered each week and are delivered fresh (not frozen) to your
home in containers ready to stock your refrigerator. Order a minimum of
$40 by Saturday for free delivery on Tuesday or Wednesday, primarily in
the Greater Seattle area and South Snohomish County. A meal for one is
$9.50-$10.50, but ala carte items are $5-$7. They also offer extra side
dishes.
Chef to Go (206-229-3676, www.mychefdelivers.com)
offers similar services on the Eastside, again with a focus on healthy,
whole foods, many of which are organic, for $12-$14 per meal. Order meals
by Sunday to be delivered later in the week. At press time, delivery was
included in the price.
Month of Meals (425-867-1516, www.monthofmeals.com) offers a pick-up service for their commercially prepared meals (there is a slight charge for delivery). The Web site describes each entrée, including ingredients, serving size and nutritional information, as well as allergy alerts to warn those who may have problems with certain ingredients. Meals that are low fat are identified. Choose a minimum of twelve entrees for a family, pay for the order online, and decide on a day to pick up in Redmond. Bring a cooler because the meals are already frozen. These “made from scratch” meals, with fresh ingredients and hormone-free meats or poultry, meet the needs of even the most discriminating families. At the end of the month, they have an open house day where you can purchase favorites from the month. Meals run $4-$7 per serving for entrees. Order extra side dishes for about $1-$1.50. Plan on $15-$20 per meal for a family of three.
Assemble Your Own Meals
Would you prefer to be more involved in the food preparation? Although it entails a bit more work, the meal assembly business is a less costly option than personal chefs or meal delivery companies.
I tried Dinner’s Ready (425-493-0780, www.dinnersready.com), a local business that started in Mukilteo. They are nationally franchised now and have 15 locations in King and Snohomish Counties, with kitchens opening in Federal Way and Renton this month.
Go online to choose at least eight of the 16 meals offered each month, and then schedule a day to go to the store to prepare them. Menus change each month, with only a few repeats of family favorites, such as calzones. Block out about two hours to prepare your meals. Several people are there at the same time, so it can be a social outing as well. Young children need to stay home, but your teen can come with you.
Your first time, the staff shows you around the store and introduces you to food preparation safety techniques. All of the shopping and preparation has been done. Assembly stations are set up for each meal, with all the food and utensils, so all you have to do is put the ingredients together and place the meals in freezer bags, adding a label with cooking instructions. After each meal is prepared, you place it in a commercial cooler until you are ready to pack up. Each person has her own spot, so you don’t end up with someone else’s meal.
Don’t like olives or want to decrease the amount of salt you use? It is up to you whether you choose to leave out or reduce an ingredient. Each meal serves four to six people, depending on appetites, but you can make two half-meals for smaller families. The servings are generous enough to have leftovers the next day for lunch.
There is more home cooking time with this choice. Several of the meals entailed browning meat before placing it in the oven, and then preparing a rice or pasta dish. The stir-fry involved cooking the meat and prepared vegetables on the stovetop for 10 to 15 minutes. There is more kitchen clean up as well because meals are not frozen in oven-ready containers and must be transferred to pans for cooking. Full-size meals are $21 each ($3.50 per serving) if you prepare eight to 11 meals at a time. If you prepare 12 or more meals at once, the cost goes down to $18 per meal.
Here are other meal assembly companies operating in the Greater Seattle area.
Designed Dinners has six Greater Seattle
locations. Twelve entrees that serve four are $199; eight entrees are
$145. www.designeddinners.com.
Check online for phone numbers for individual stores.
Dinners Done Right has two local locations, in Federal
Way and Port Orchard, with stores opening soon in Kent and Monroe. Twelve
meals serving six people run $169. They can also prepare meals for you
to pick up. 253-941-TIME (8463). www.dinnersdoneright.com.
Dream Dinners has nine locations in King and Snohomish
Counties. Dinners for six are $15 to $30 each. www.DreamDinners.com.
Check online for phone numbers of individual stores.
Let’s Dish is located in Marysville. Meals run
$160 for eight dinners and $198 for twelve, and each serves four to six
people. 360-658-9903. www.letsdish.com.
Since the food shopping is done for you with all of these services, I find that my trips to the market are fewer, quicker and less expensive. Once a week, I pop in to pick up fresh milk and fruit for breakfast or salad ingredients to add to dinner. We are eating healthier and best of all, there is less stress in my life around dinnertime!
Janice Lovelace is a Bothell writer, psychologist, teacher and mother.
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