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| It all started with defrosting the freezer |
This month, I thought it would be fun to write a product review and while not a typical organizing product, I decided to find a explore solutions to the "Dinner Dilemma". So began my quest to solve the age old problem of getting a delicious, nutritious meal on the table in as little time as possible.
One of the key things many of my clients, and I struggle with is finding the time to prepare and serve home cooked meals and avoid stopping at the drive through window on the way home. We all want to eat better and serve our family nutritious meals that do not take forever to make.
In that vein, I put my cash on the table and tried out two dinner solutions companies this month. I wanted to see whether or not the service, the quality and the value were reasonable for the price.
The first company was a franchise dinner preparation company called Supperworks. We visited the location on Hazeldean Road in Kanata. My husband Roy and I actually went there for our 31st wedding anniversary and prepared 12 entrees - I know what you are thinking, "Man, that Jennifer lives a wild and crazy life".
Anyway, I digress, Supperworks was very clean and the staff were friendly and helpful. They signed us in, handed us our menu and offered us a glass of wine - (they had me at the wine).
If you have never used a service like Supperworks, it basically works like this:
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| Meatloaf - simply remove the lid and cook |
- Visit www.supperworks.com, choose your city
- Select your dinners for that month’s menu items (they change each month)
- Choose your date and time to go prepare the meals from the available booking schedule
- Show up to your appointment and assemble the menu items. All directions and serving containers are provided. If you do not want to assemble them yourself, they will do it for you for an additional fee.
- Take your meals home and put in the freezer –they have all been assembled and you simply need to thaw and cook.
- All cooking instructions are adhered to the packaging.
Take a cooler or two with you to transport your items home.
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Quiche!
Crust with eggs and filling in one baggies and the shredded cheese in another.
Freeze, thaw, pour into crust and bake. It was really yummy. |
It took my Roy and I about 1 ½ hours to prepare the 12 entrees but you could likely do it quicker alone – we were in no hurry - it was our Anniversary after all.
Likewise, you could pay a $40.00 fee and have Supperworks prepare everything for you and simply pick it up at the store and take it home.
While not inexpensive, it was much less expensive than if we were all to eat out at a restaurant 12 times. The per serving price is approximately $5.00 based on a family of 6.
The thing that impressed me is that we are a family of 5 + my daughter’s hungry 26 year old Fiancé who eats with us most of the time. Each entrée was plenty big enough for everyone.
The pork chops came in a package of 6 which surprised me; I expected there would only be 4. The pork tenderloin dish included 2 full tenderloins so again, they do not skimp on the protein.
The most surprising to me was that the roast beef, while not a cut I would normally buy, was not only large enough to feed us all it was extremely tender which I was not expecting. I had visions of a chain saw being needed and happily, we did not need to drag it out of the shed.
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| Roast Beef! Tasty and no chain saw required. |
Below are the menu items that were part of the experiment and I included the price as well
Aunt Bea's Beef Stew (3-4 quart
crockpot or stovetop)
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1
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Cheddar-Jack's Black Bean & Brown
Rice Wraps (oven or freezer-to-microwave)
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1
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Cheesy-Chile Quiche (oven)
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1
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Dads Favourite Meatloaf (oven)
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1
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Panko Crusted Chicken Tenders (oven)
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2
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Peachy Pork Chops (stovetop)
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1
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Roast Beef with Sun Dried Tomato
Gravy (oven AND stovetop)
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2
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Shrimp Rotini (stovetop)
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1
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Sonoma Pork Tenderloin (oven)
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2
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Subtotal
for 12 meal package:
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$345.00
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Side Dish: Creamy Peas & Orzo (Freezer to Microwave)
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1
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$6.00
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Side Dish: Curried Cranberry-Raisin Rice (Shelf to Stovetop)
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1
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$6.00
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Side Dish: Rosemary Focaccia with Herbed Olive Oil &
Balsamic Dip (freezer-to-oven)
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1
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$7.00
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Food
Subtotal:
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15
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$364.00
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The second company that was part of my experiment was a local Ottawa company called Scratch Kitchen. I saw their truck drive by a month or so ago and thought I would check out their website www.scratchkitchen.com
Here is what I discovered…
Scratch Kitchen is a family run business that uses as much as is possible, given our climate locally sourced and organic ingredients. Along all the regular menu items, they include some gluten-free dishes as well as vegetarian offerings.
The food is prepared in a commercial, health inspected kitchen then is packaged and frozen ready for delivery. They deliver within most of the Ottawa area each Friday.
This company works like this:
· Visit their website at scratchkitchen.com
· Click on the online ordering tab to ensure you are within their delivery zone
· Start an account
· Click on the menu tab and review your options – you can buy as much or as little as you like (I bought pre-planned bulk orders under the Meal Ideas Tab and then clicked Stock-Up)
· Once you have made your selections you go to the shopping cart and check out.
· Your cooked and frozen food will be delivered Friday – leave a cooler on your porch if you are not home but if paying by cash you have to be there.
With Scratch Kitchen, I ordered two of their food packages. The two packages were roughly $30.00 more expensive than my adventure at Supperworks + another $5.00 for delivery which I considered a bargain at today’s fuel prices. While I say it is more expensive than Supperworks, keep in mind that if I had them prepare the food and picked it up, they would have come in more expensive – it’s all in the preparation.
As soon as I placed my order I received an email from Scratch Kitchen apologizing and saying two of the sides were not available and was given the choice of a refund or to substitute with soups. Since the purpose of this experiment was to see what the dollar comparisons were, I opted for the soup instead of the refund. I love soup anyway so it was a win in my world.
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The entire Scratch Kitchen Order.
Lunches on top, mains in the middles and sides below. |
Here is what my online order looked like:
One order called Stock My Freezer – the cost for this plan was $195.00 and includes:
Sides
· Quinoa With Mixed Mushrooms and Vegetables
· Risotto with Roasted Butternut Squash
· Creamy Mashed Potatoes
· Chili Lime Rice
Lunches
· Italian Three Cheese and Meat Lasagna
· Traditional Shepherd’s Pie
· Guinness Beef and Mushroom Ragout
· Indian Butter Chicken
· Thai Chicken and Vegetable Green Curry
· Butternut Squash Curry Coconut Soup
Mains
· Braised Lamb Shanks with Rosemary
· Savory Turkey Shepherds Pie
· Beef Bourguignon
· Gourmet Macaroni and Cheese
· Chicken in White Wine Cream Sauce with Leeks and Asparagus
· Madras Chicken Curry
· Indian Butter Chicken
The other order was called The Busy Week and cost for this plan was $200.00 and includes the following:
Lunches
· Chicken in White Wine Cream Sauce with Leeks and Asparagus
· Pasta with Sausage (Pennine)
· Savory Turkey Shepherds Pie
· Indian Butter Chicken
· Thai Chicken and Vegetable Green Curry
Dinner 1:
· Quinoa with Dried Cranberry, Roasted Winter Squash and kale (Side)
· Bourbon Sweet Potato Casserole (Side)
· Braised Lamb Shanks with Rosemary (Main)
Dinner 2:
· Quinoa with Mixed Mushrooms and Vegetables (Side)
· Hungarian Beef Goulash (Main)
· Chicken in a White Wine Cream Sauce with Leeks and Asparagus (Main)
Dinner 3:
· Chili Lime Rice (Side)
· Indian Butter Chicken (Main)
· Madras Chicken Curry (Main)
Dinner 4:
· Creamy Mashed Potatoes (Side)
· Guinness Beef and Mushroom Ragout (Main)
· Boeuf Bourguignon (Main)
The "lunch" meals from Scratch Kitchen impressed me
the most. They come packaged like a
frozen dinner and the tray is sectioned off and contained delicious veggies, a
starch of rice or potato and the protein in a third compartment. This option would make a much healthier
choice than grabbing fast food for lunch each day.
The other thing I really liked about the lunch
packs were that they would work well for a dinner for seniors who often have
much smaller appetites. They just need
to peel back the film and pop it in the microwave.
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| Scratch Kitchen Lunch Serving |
The quality of the food that Scratch Kitchen used to create the meals seemed excellent and everything was tender and well prepared.
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| Scratch Kitchen side serving of Chili Lime Rice |
My goal when I began was to compare dollar value with both companies - basically what would $400.00 get me from both companies. How would portion, quality, service and time to table differ?
$365 at Supperworks got us:
12 mains
and 3 sides
we prepared and packaged the mains and brought them home to freeze, later to be thawed and cooked.
The mains were in portions that worked for our family but if you have a small family, you can prepare 1/2 orders for less money. If we had Supperworks meals prepared for us the cost would have been $405.00. The mains would work well for a family of 4-6. With 6 of us, we had plenty to eat when adding a side salad and extra veg (we like our vegies). The food was extremely flavourful and we would definitely use the service again
$400.00 at Scratch Kitchen got us:
9 sides,
11 lunches,
and 14 mains
all of which were prepared, cooked, packaged and delivered.
The mains really are more suited to a family of 3, which I knew going into this experiment but again, wanted to compare dollar for dollar.
I did receive an email this week from the owner of Scratch Kitchen and they are looking at increasing the portion sizes to serve larger families and the price point they are considering is very reasonable. The food generally was a high sauce to protein ratio, one of my kids found it too “saucy” another loved it just as is.
Scratch Kitchen would be an excellent option for a smaller family who is time crunched and wants a convenient quick and healthy meal. All the dishes were had were mildly seasoned so for those who do not like foods with a lot of seasoning and spice, this would be perfect!
Downside of Supperworks - you still have to remember to thaw it and you still have to put it in the oven or crockpot
Downside of Scratch Kitchen - small portions, only deliver on Fridays
Plus of Supperworks - large portions, flavourful and you can adjust the seasonings to your taste
Plus of Scratch Kitchen - quality food prepared, cooked, packaged and frozen, delivered right to your door!
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Mission Accomplished!
Our very full freezer with
Supperworks,
Scratch Kitchen
and my very own Dinner's by Jenn |
Our family winner - Supperworks for overall taste and portion size.
If you are not in the Ottawa area, I am sure you can find similar companies and small businesses in your area to provide you with the same service.
Most
of you know by now that I do most of my cooking in bulk. For me, I find it works best to spend one
day, with one focus, and get the job done. 
