Let's Dish

Yesterday I spent the early part of my afternoon at Let’s Dish, the place where you assemble meals to take home to your freezer. My friends Susan and Jennifer got me a Let’s Dish gift certificate for my birthday this summer and the three of us went to try it out in August. Since then I’ve been hooked and yesterday was my fourth return visit.

Let’s Dish exists especially for people like me. People who say they like to cook, who perhaps even boast an extensive collection of cookbooks and recipes, who appreciate a home cooked meal and who feel even more strongly about spending family time around the kitchen table, but who, when asked at the end of a long workday, “what’s for dinner?” consistently respond with something like “whatever cereal you can find in the cupboard.”

That’s me.

So Let’s Dish appealed to me from the beginning. Instead of pointing my family to the half empty box of Raisin Bran Crunch, I could open the freezer door, pull out one of the yummy sounding meals I had prepared, pop it in the microwave to defrost, then on to the stove or oven to cook and voila a “home cooked” meal was magically ready to serve.

The whole process is only slightly more complicated that warming up a tv dinner, but to anyone who ends up sitting at the dinner table, it appears that I actually cooked something! Yet there is no trying to figure out what to make, no scrounging through the cabinet for the right spices and no trips to the grocery store for missing ingredients. Who couldn’t love that!

What has surprised me is how much I love the actual experience of “dishing.” For all the benefits of easy meal preparation at home, the actual assembly of the meals, or the “dishing” as they like to call it, is where it’s all at for me.

The experience starts with registration online. You choose either 4, 8 or 12 meals from a list of about 16 and select a date and time to “dish” that best fits your schedule. When you arrive at the store, you are given a list of your menu choices along with an incredibly cute apron and bandana to wear as you prepare your meals.

There are 8 salad bar type stations, each with 2 menu items and exact instructions for “assembling.” If the recipe calls for 1 Tbsp of oil, you’ll find a 1 Tbsp measuring spoon next to a bottle of oil. If it calls for ½ cup of chopped red peppers, you’ll find a ½ cup long handled measuring scoop lying in a container of freshly chopped red peppers. You have permission to vary the recipes to your own tastes, so its perfectly ok to add a little extra garlic powder or to skip the onions altogether. Everything gets mixed inside freezer bags and foil pans and when finished, your bag or pan gets a sticker with a description of the meal and simple instructions for preparing it.


The company suggests that “dishing” is a great activity to share with friends and I’ve seen couples, friends, and mom/daughter pairs there each time I’ve visited. But I like going alone best. I find myself deep in the “zone” almost as soon as I’ve started assembling. There is something about it that really appeals to the way my brain works. Some people get a runner’s high - I get a “dishing” high!

The mood of the place is always relaxed and happy. People are having fun. And they know they are cutting by ¾ the time they would spend making the same meal at home. Who wouldn’t smile about that? And when you’re finished – there are refreshments and desserts you can nibble on while you look at next month’s menu.

So this month this is what we are having for family dinner at our house…

Potato Crusted Tilapia Filets
Barbequed Boneless Short Ribs
Lemon Herb Chicken & Parmesan Green Beans
Herbed Steaks with Blue Cheese Butter
Cheesy Spinach and Black Bean Enchiladas
Mediterranean Shrimp & Pasta

And it will be no trouble at all!