Review - The Dinner A'Fare, 2735 Old Winter Garden Rd, Ocoee, FL

It's been a while since I have reviewed a meal preparation place so I thought I'd review the place I have been going lately - The Dinner A'Fare. There has been an explosion of meal preparation places in the area in the past couple of years - Let's Eat, Magical Mealtimes, Super Suppers, Dream Dinners, etc. I checked out all of the ones near me and have been going to The Dinner A'Fare based on pricing, portion sizes, ease of getting an appointment, ease of making the dishes, and, most important, how well my family likes the food. It's really a personal family decision for all of these aspects so a place that works well for someone else may not work well for you.

For those of you not familiar with the meal preparation process, you are basically going to prepare 6 - 12 meals for your family, freezer ready, so that you just need to thaw and cook the meals when you need them. We prefer to use the meals during the week when things are really hectic with work, school, and after-school activities. Plus, it eliminates the "what are we having for dinner" discussion between Hubby and me. I also like that you can leave out ingredients that your family doesn't like. We are not big onion fans so I don't put those in and I also leave out any ingredients that might be spicy such as chili sauce or red pepper flakes.

Step one for most places is to reserve a date and time slot on the kitchen's website. For The Dinner A'Fare you can click here. I always chose Package #2 which is 12 meals that feed 2-3 people for $150. BB and LB generally split a meal so with a side dish or two, we have enough food to feed everyone. You can also chose a "Stand-in Chef" for an extra fee - that means that they will make everything for you and you just show up and cart away your meals already bagged and ready to go in the freezer. If you are doing the meals yourself, The Dinner A'Fare has some great times for working moms like me - I typically pick one of the 7 pm weekday times or one of the Saturday times. Then, you chose the meals you would like to make. I always make sure to check the cooking times when I am choosing the meals as I don't want to come home on a weekday and then realize it is going to take 60 minutes to make dinner. So, I will generally pick only the meals that take 30 minutes or less to make. But again, that is personal preference. Also, the menus change every month so you always have a bunch of new selections to choose from.

Make sure to bring a laundry basket or cooler to your session so you have a way to transport home all of your meals. I have a rolling cooler that I use that I find very handy. You can also bring one helper with you, although if you want to bring your child, they have to be at least 12 years old for health and safety regulations.

As soon as you enter the store, you will be given an apron and hat to wear, and then will get a demonstration on how to put together the meals. You'll usually get offered a drink of soda, water, or wine, and sometimes they will have samples of some of their side dishes (that you can purchase and take home to go with your meals). The stainless steel stations all around are set up to facilitate 2 -3 different meals with recipes and dry ingredients at the top, cold items in the bins, and then usually the meats in the fridge underneath. You will get a list with the meals you chose so you can check off the meals as you go to each station. Most of the meals are pretty easy, generally you grab a ziploc bag with the meat from the fridge and then add ingredients as indicated on the recipe. Sometimes you'll make a couple of other bags full of ingredients as well. There's usually at least one meal at every session that is the "hard" one to do. For me, last time I went, it was the Italian Style Stuffed Turkey Burgers - I didn't do a very good job keeping the stuffing inside each burger. But, I'm sure it's still going to taste good.

A few tips that I've learned along the way: Make sure to really mix up the contents of the bags while you are making them while everything is still thawed. The instructions will just say add the list of ingredients to the ziploc bag but if you don't mix it up right there and then, you may have clumps of ingredients when you try to make it. This is especially true if you don't allow the meals enough time to defrost the night before (trust me, it happens).

In the end, we end up with meals that last about a month since we trade off Dinner A'Fare meals with pizza, pasta, or just eat out. And the best part is that my kids are trying new foods that are more creative than anything I can come up with, especially after working all day.

Restaurant Alternative Review: Let's Eat! at The Marketplace at Dr. Phillips, Orlando, FL

I recently went to my second session at Let's Eat! in Dr. Phillips, where you get to be your own personal chef. For a fee between $150 and $220, you get to put together 8 or 12 entrees for your family, following the provided recipes. Yes, you do the work putting the ingredients together but Let's Eat! has done all the prep work - cut the veggies, portioned the meat, assembled the condiments - and everything has the right size measuring cup for the recipe. Places like Let's Eat! and Super Suppers are popping up all over Florida so I decided to give it a try. Hey, it's better than the old, "I dunno, what do YOU want for dinner?" that Hubby and I banter about almost every night. To start, I headed to their website (www.letseatdinner.com) and checked out the process and the menus. Typically, each location will offer 14 entrees (including a few soups and desserts tossed in) that you can choose from. Yes, it's just the entree so you still have to come up with a side dish. What I liked is that you can also split entrees. Each one is supposed to serve six and with my kids, they really can only eat one portion between the two of them. So, by choosing 8 split entrees, I really had 16 dinners, and at $160 it worked out to only $10 per entree. That's a lot better than any Personal Chef service and probably better than I could do myself with some of the recipes they offer. I booked my session online and paid upfront with a credit card. When you arrive for your session, you are given an apron to put on and are given a tour of the place. There are seven food prep stations, each with the ingredients and recipes for two of that month's entrees. Usually, a session will hold 10 people, and you just rotate from station to station making the entrees that you have chosen. For most of the entrees, you simply scoop the ingredients into a ziploc bag, shake it up, put a heating instruction sticker on it, and you're done. Then just place it onto your shelf in their cooler (I liked that they had my name on my shelf - nice touch) and go to the next one. Some get a little bit more complicated, such as the Chicken Roulades with Asparagus I made. Following the simply written recipe, I pounded 6 chicken breasts flat with the provide mallet, then placed swiss cheese and asparagus spears on top, rolled close with toothpicks, and topped with breadcrumbs. The hard part was getting the chicken to stay closed with the toothpicks. But, darn it, when it was done, it looked like a gourmet dish! I was very proud of myself! Another great thing is that you can leave out ingredients that you don't like. Our family is not a big fan of onions so I left that out of most of the recipes. When you are all done, you put your self-created entrees into a cooler that you brought and pop them into your freezer at home. Then, the night before, you take out an entree and thaw it in the refrigerator and it's ready to cook when you get home. Most of the time, it just requires heating it up in the oven or in a skillet. And the kids have really loved the food! I was surprised but they actually ate every bit of the Rosemary Pork Loin Chops I made. Okay, I didn't score well with the Curry Chicken - nobody ate it but me but I should have known better (I personally thought it was very good). So far, I've done two sessions in three months and I'll probably go back again in another two months. It just makes dinnertime a lot easier, especially on weeknights.