Dinner By Design - Cheaper than Eating Out?

There is a new trend in food service developing that assists you with much of the work involved in preparing a home cooked meal. I've been keeping an eye on this trend and trying to decide whether or not it provides a financial savings. I'm beginning to think that it does. One franchise that appears to be growing in the mid-west is Dinner By Design.

Here's how it works. Each month Dinner by Design presents about 15 recipes. They do all of the shopping and gather all of the necessary ingredients. Then, you show up and put together all of the necessary ingredients for 12 family size meals (4-6 servings). It takes about two hours to prepare and package 12 meals. The meals are designed to be stored in the freezer. Each week, you take out the meals that you need for the week and put them in the refrigerator. Then when you get home in the evening, your meals are ready to bake and eat.

The average cost per serving is around $3-$5, which is cheaper than fast food, and healthier. And if you have any special requirements you can leave certain ingredients out when you are preparing them. Also, for an additional $50, the staff at dinner by design will even prepare all of the meals for you.

What does this save you.........time, and maybe even some money. It is clearly less expensive than eating out every night. And if you cook at home a lot, you know how much energy it can consume to find recipes, plan a menu, go to the grocery, organize and prepare the ingredients, and prepare the meal. Clearly, Dinner by Design offers a more streamlined and efficient process at a very reasonable cost. And all reports say that the quality of the food is good.

I think I just sold myself on the idea.