They’re popping up all over the place! Meal preparation franchises are quite the rage these days. You may recognize names like Dream Dinners®, or Let’s Dish®. The concept isn’t unlike ours—pre-assemble and freeze entrées among a group of friends.

We’ve repeatedly been asked what we thinking of the concept. In a nutshell, we love the results. After hanging out with friends, you’re prepared in advance to launch great family and company mealtimes with minimal on-the-spot effort. If your budget covers the expense, and your food preferences are matched by the menu offerings, you’ll be blessed by the experience.

You know a “but” is coming, and we’re a little hesitant to get going there. If a meal-assembly purveyor is making your life great, celebrate! Too many voices clamor for us to do more when we’re pretty much stretched to the limit as it is. Frankly, we don’t want to sing in that choir. Be free. You’ve made a great choice to be able to consistently provide a mealtime for the ones you love.

Here’s our no-guilt-allowed input. If you’re looking for a more cost-effective way to get great results, consider forming your own freezer meal food swap cooking club. We think it offers some noteworthy advantages—lower cost, better quality, and increased flexibility.


You'll win on cost.

Meal assembly purveyors ring in at $15.00 per six-serving entrée in the mid-west and $18.75 per six-serving entrée on the west coast. Let’s just say you can dramatically reduce this figure by managing your own cooking club experience. And with a little extra effort you can really widen the margin. Watch grocery store fliers for rock-bottom pricing. If boneless, skinless chicken breasts are a favorite among your group members, and at their lowest cost, buy in bulk for a future exchange. Purchase jumbo containers of perishable items and use them up in a single recipe preparation. Adopt a co-op strategy and purchase non-perishables like spices, grains, and pastas in bulk and divide among group members.

You’ll one-up-’em on quality.

Few meal assembly purveyors are using the types of ingredients you may prefer—fresh vegetables, locally produced ingredients, whole grains, certain cuts of meat, certain varieties of cheeses, sauces free from additives and preservatives, etc. Whatever your thing might be that makes your meals the quality product you prefer, ensure it by doing it yourself.

You’ll flip over the flexibility.

Make your monthly menu options wide open, limited only by the culinary imagination of your cooking group (and any restrictions that have been established). Supplement entrée preparation with a myriad of other food items. Consider dry mixes, cookie dough, appetizers, baked goods, sides, desserts, and more. Commit as a group to preparing 12 entrées per month, or 6, or 18. Package meals in the portion sizes you prefer.

The downside—more time spent.

Yes, managing your own cooking co-op experience is going to require more of your time. You will do your own planning, ingredient shopping, prep, and clean-up. Do consider that if your meal assembly purveyor is providing you prepped ingredients from a restaurant supply store, you can purchase them, drop them into containers, and launch your own assembly line pretty quickly. Give it a close look and see if they’re saving you as much time as you think.

I’ve been using the meal assembly places for about a year and a half now.  I like the ease of not having to shop, chop, and clean up.  We hardly ever stop for fast food anymore.  Our diet is varied.  It does cost more than if you do it yourself, but if you’re lazy like me, it’s not too bad.  Actually, we spent more on our dinners and fast food than we spend there. 

Someday I’m planning on doing my own meals at home and freezing them.  I love your concept of getting friends together to swap meals.  It would certainly be a lot easier than doing everything yourself.

Thanks for a great newsletter.

I’ve done both, cooked at home and used http://www.mixitupmeals.com.  Both have their advantages, but after doing both for 2 years, this year I’m only doing Mix It Up.  Their ingredients are top notch, better than I’ve been able to find in the grocery store.  The recipes are superb and my family benefits because they are tested before they show up on the menu.  I’ve had a few clinkers when I’ve cooked for my own freezer.  I’m finding that it cuts down on our grocery bill and our eating out bill. I’ve tried all the meal prep businesses in our area, and I gotta say that Mix It Up beats them hands down.  We’ve had dishes from other places that went into the garbage because no one would eat it. 

I think you have to find that good one in your area—and if it isn’t good, then find some friends for a co-op.

I have to agree with Beth - it’s easier to use a service AND you must shop around for the service that is best in your area. Generally, franchises are just that… franchises. I use Caroline’s Kitchens (http://www.carolineskitchens.com) because she is local, uses local meats and like Mix It Up, I set my price. As the customer I want to be in the driver seat - I’m not paying for steak and shrimp if my family won’t eat it. I can purchase as many of any given item for my family and I love it. Occasionally, I do still have friends over for cooking gatherings at home.

I live in California and we have many of those places.  They are very costly and none of them offer times that work with my schedule. 
While I don’t have a cooking group, I do cut down the cooking among friends portion sizes and do my own meals.

I am 3 months into starting a Cooking Among Friends group within my MOMS group at church and we are loving it! We have found the cost savings is great! We have each spent around $40-50 swapping 10 meals. We have all enjoyed being thrifty together. We just aren’t in the place to spend $15 per meal, and honestly if I was, I would rather spend it on something else!

The other awesome thing is how our group has bonded. We have really gotten to know one another with our once a month get-togethers and then all the email chat in between about menu selection, etc.

We have even made it work with food allergies in the bunch. We are wheat and dairy free. Quite a challenge.

I love the idea of making the mundane fun. Anything I can do to make those things fun and social, I am all over!

Thanks!

To Michelle: I’m thinking of starting up a group with some friends from church, and my hsband has dairy allergy. Can you suggest some good recipes that have worked for your group?
Thanks!

This is a great article in response to those businesses.  I agree that it is way more fun and economical to do a swap with friends at home.  I am so honored that you read my article about my meal swap group, and I am thrilled to have found this blog!  Thanks for your amazing inspiration!

You are right on about the pros and cons of cooking in a co-op.  Here is a link to a video I made about a cooking co-op at our church. http://www.dinnercoach.com/site/cpage.asp?sec_id=180000466&cpage_id=180004448.
Connie
at http://www.dinnercoach.com

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The easy meal preparation is not just a great concept but it is now becoming a leading trend in metropolitan cities for regular day workers especially working women who are now getting more work hours than ever before. This situation leaves them with a limited time to prepare for home-cooked meals.

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Its been very informative posting indeed. Thanks for sharing.

I have read your whole post.This is really very nice.I think i am not the only person who have say this.Cooking with our friends is memorable….

Your article is really good and informative. Thanks for sharing.

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