Time for Dinner....

Since I have been back to work this school year I have been trying to prepare meals in advance and have a semi-plan for the week. So there is no question about what is for dinner, and it does not take an hour + of my time rummaging through the cabinets trying to figure out a plan.

This past week was kind of a bust.. We were super busy, and I'm not sure we all had dinner together any night. However on Thursday me and a good friend went to try out this store called "Time for Dinner". It is a meal prep store where they have stations set up and you prepare meals to take home and freeze/cook. You choose 6 or more meals and there are directions at each station telling you how to prepare the food. You place each dish in a foil container or a freezer bag. Each container is labeled with cooking directions and nutrition content (including WW points- very helpful if you are tracking your diet).

One meal is 6 servings and costs about $20. You can split a meal into 2 meals of 3 servings each, or even smaller servings if you are a single person or a couple. The staff is very helpful and let's you create and modify the recipes depending on your taste and what you do/do not like.

The August special was buy 6 meals get 1 free!! I had to take advantage of that deal, I've been wanting to go for about a year.

The meals I made include:
1) Bangkok BBQ pork tenderloin
2) Barclays brisket
3) Cafe burgers- burgers stuffed with Swiss cheese and Dijon brandy aioli
4) Caribbean salsa chicken
5) Fiji Fish Packets
6) Pork tenderloin with confetti corn
7) Sonoma steak

I walked out of the store with 13 meals ready to be frozen/cooked (the brisket could not be split in 2). I paid a total of $120 and it took me about 1 hour and 30 min to prepare them all. I got some great tips for preparing food at my house, and the best part.... NO CLEAN UP! The staff at Time for Dinner does all the clean up... It was the best!

So far we have had the brisket and it made the whole house smell yummy all day!! The meat shredded very easily and even the baby enjoyed it! The suggested serving instructions say to put on dollar rolls with horseradish sauce and serve with cole slaw and kettle chips. However we had bread, corn on the cob, and kettle chips. The horseradish sauce would have made it even better- but we used a spicy mustard one time and BBQ sauce the next and both were good.

I'm not sure how any of the other meals turned out, but I should know more by the end of this week!! All I have to figure out is side dishes and I am set! It is a nice break from my weekly menu planning.

Hope you all enjoy your Labor Day weekend!!

Until next time...