Saturday, February 9, 2008

4 Loads of Laundry, 15 Dinner Assemblies, and one 2-hour Beef Roast later...

Plus Sylvia's Saturday school, an hour of searching (fruitlessly) for the DVD remote, cleaning the bathroom, 10 chapters of Eat Pray Love, and 1 argument involving all 3 of us, I'm SO ready to go back to work!!

We have a saying at work: TGIM.

Speaking of work and dinner assemblies, let me take this opportunity to do a little raving about Dream Dinners, a working mother's dream come true. Please note: this is not - in any way - a paid advertisement. Merely a shout-out to a company that actually offers a product for which I am grateful.

My boss told me about Dream Dinners probably 2 years ago, but I didn't become a believer myself until about a year ago. I was fearful that our differences in salary might make this a non-starter for me. However, it's really not that bad. Actually, I think I'm saving money.

Dream Dinners offers a variety of dinners that are nutritious, and usually very easy to get to the table within 30 minutes (tonight's 2-hour roast notwithstanding). What you do is order your dinners online, then at your session, you assemble all the ingredients according to the directions given. Everything goes in the freezer when you get home, and you're also given a cheat sheet which tells you all on one page how long each dinner will take. I usually thaw overnight for the next day's meal. Your label tells you exactly what to do, you add side dishes (either bought by DreamDinners, or at the grocery store), and dinner is done!

Cooks and non-cooks (like, um...me) can do this! Cooks love the chance to try new things, and you're welcome to change up the ingredients according to your own family's preferences. Non-cooks like me can follow this even easier than a recipe, and my only downfall has been broiling, which I now avoid.

While this is especially helpful for working moms, SAHMs can benefit as well (like this one mother of 4 which include 2-year-old twins that I know). I'd say the only thing I'd change is they don't allow anyone under the age of 12, so I can't take the girls (who really want to come, BTW). I'm not sure about vegan/vegetarian options, but I think I've read that those are available.

I usually order a meal for KIPP's potluck school functions - I've never before been able to pass myself off as a domestic goddess! Oh, yeah, and there's the added benefit that this was my ex's biggest complaint about me. I think I especially resisted getting into cooking as a rebellious measure against his...well, let's just call them mistakes. There's a special joy I get when the girls tell him on the phone that I'm making their favorite, pork chops (his fave as well). With Dream Dinners, revenge can taste oh-so-good!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Dream Dinners sounds dreamy! Umm, and I don't work, but my man does and I see him skip to his car on Mondays. I skip too...weekends are supposed to be so great and they're just hectic!

MarĂ­a said...

We have the same thing here called Pass Your Plate and there's another one called My Girlfriend's Kitchen.

I haven't tried it yet but some of my girlfriends swear by it!