First Slice, Dinner by Design, some kind of prepared meals

I'm hoping someone will have had experience with one of these type of places or have an idea for a good alternative. Here's the deal: I'm pregnant, due in about a month, and my husband, wonderful as he is, definitely does not belong in the kitchen. Disasters happen. So, out of self-defense, I'd like to arrange for edible food during the first month after the baby comes.

The Dinner by Design thing seems convenient, in terms of coming packaged with labels explaining heating directions (believe me, my husband needs all the help he can get), but in a way, I'm wondering why bother going that route when I could simply prepare a bunch of stuff over the next couple of weeks and just stick them in the freezer myself? Is there any advantage to doing Dinner by Design?

First Slice sounds intriguing, but at only 3 meals/week, what are the portions like? We're not huge eaters, so might we be able to stretch the meals a bit? And is it a good value for the quality?

Are there any other options that I haven't thought of? I know there are personal chefs out there, but I'd want recommendations. I'm in the city, near Wrigley Field.

Any help or suggestions would be very much appreciated!
Thanks!
-gtgirl

How 'bout the pre-made meals from Costco - quite a range of things you can have with easy to follow heating instructions.

Picking up stuff from the deli at Whole Foods?

Pre-made Korean "deli" goods from H-mart, Chicago Food, etc.

Takeout a "family meal" from any of the Chinatown restaurants which will last a party of 2 for 6-8 meals.

I can't imagine it'd be more expensive than Dinner by Design or have smaller portions.

Update: Wow, I just checked out the website, and noticed you don't even get sides with those "entrees." What a rip.

Have heard ads for "Seattle Sutton" a perpared-meal service that does "heart healthy" meals. Don't know a thing about it except that they do claim to deliver easy-to fix prepared meals.

There's a retail outlet at 63rd and Cass Avenue in Westmont, and I'm sure many others.

Mike

My sister really found peapod to be helpful for her similar situation:

www.peapod.com

you could supplement with first slice (great cause) and costco for some variety.

From what I remember of my wife's first month after having our son, she LOVED to get out of the house with the baby in the stroller
(usually sleeping) and walk to the market to buy stuff. Yes, you will be busy. Yes, you will be tired but, you will have time to cook if you wish.

Many prepared foods are full of junk that you, in your recovering state, do not need to be eating...

Never mind that you might be breast feeding! (totally your call)

Get your guy to do the heavy shopping from a list you prepare.
It should not be too dificult to prepare simple healthy foods that cover all the food group bases while home with the baby.

Another option is to hire a personal chef for the first couple months. The chef will cook to your taste, do all the menu planning, shopping, cooking in your home, and will package the meals for you to heat.

A word to the wise: Like you, I had laid in a store of pre-made frozen meals; mostly pasta, lasagna, and the like - but Sparky was colicky and couldn't tolerate it when I ate dairy, tomatoes, onions or beans of any kind - and believe me, Pavlov's bell has nothing on a baby screaming in pain to make you change your eating habits. So, my advice to you is be flexible!

That being said, if you're reconsidering breastfeeding after reading the above, I should just say that I got through it by eating Popeye's fried chicken two or three times a week and losing weight . I've considered breastfeeding other people's babies so I can do it again. Just remember not to follow my example and quit while you're ahead!

Sparky is now healthy and happy and as demonstrated at the LTH picnic, eats most anything.

Our boy was fine with most foods but he sure started crying after my wife had had blackend catfish....
he's fine now...

mhill95149 wrote:From what I remember of my wife's first month after having our son, she LOVED to get out of the house with the baby in the stroller
(usually sleeping) and walk to the market to buy stuff. Yes, you will be busy. Yes, you will be tired but, you will have time to cook if you wish.

Many prepared foods are full of junk that you, in your recovering state, do not need to be eating...

Never mind that you might be breast feeding! (totally your call)

Get your guy to do the heavy shopping from a list you prepare.
It should not be too dificult to prepare simple healthy foods that cover all the food group bases while home with the baby.

Unfortunately, a c-section is medically necessary, so I know that it'll take more than a couple of days to recover. And grocery stores frighten the hubby.

Wait till he gets knee-deep in baby poo! that will tame his fear of the
G-store.....Ah honey, I'll be right back.... gotta run to the store for....

C-sections are a PITA (from what my wife says...) and she did start walking too fast (home 3 days), and had to layoff the walking workout for an extra week or so....

Good luck

Could he grocery-shop online?

For the first couple of months, we used Webvan (now defunct,) but Peapod isn't too bad. You could also do a natural foods delivery like this one or this one - you have to cook it, but the boxes don't involve choosing anything. Also, the Gold Coast Whole Foodsoffers delivery; I assume including their precooked food, which isn't too bad.

I own a small catering company and we provide prepared meals for many of our clients. These meals are not all diet friendly, but they are all prepared fresh with healthy, non-Sysco ingredients (unlike the meals at Dinner by Design). We can deliver them weekly and provide easy heating instructions.

Check out our current selection on our website at http://www.figcatering.com/FIG-Prepared-Meals.html. I would be happy to give you references if you are interested.

Molly Schemper
FIG Catering, For Intimate Gatherings
(773) 793-1035
molly@figcatering.com

Having sampled the food from FIG catering, I can attest to its quality -- good ingredients, skillful preparation, imaginative dishes.

But, depending on the level of expense or convenience that is appropriate for you, I can also attest to Dinner by Design being pretty tasty. I have friends that get it regularly, as they both have jobs -- and they have five teenagers. The advantages to this, or a similar place, are that you can be very flexible (hubby can put together another selection with their easy instructions, should your initial choices prove to disagree with the baby) and that you don't have to do all that work during the last month of your pregnancy.

Of course, all the carry-out and packaged goods ideas mentioned above are good, too. I eat a lot of Indian food out of retort pouches -- and these are available at most local grocery stores, not just at Indian grocers (though they have the larger selections).

In addition, there are some very tasty recipes that take next to no time and little skill to prepare, so if your husband can follow directions at all, he can make a great dinner. For example, lemon chicken, which has three ingredients -- lemon, chicken, and garlic salt. Or just have him pick up a roasted chicken at Boston Market -- I've interviewed chefs who consider this their back-up plan on busy nights -- not only is the chicken good, the sides are tasty, too.

While I have not ordered from Dinner By Design, I have heard from reliable sources that their food is quite good. They also post nutritionals on their web site.

After having two kids (even though it was a while ago), you have to do what works for you. Lay in some supplies from various sources before the baby comes, especially since you know you're having a C-section, and go from there. You might even want to test drive a few things now. Stay with what you like and what works, toss out what doesn't. If you're going to nurse watch the tomato/dairy/onion-y stuff (good advice from Mhays). That's great that you're being realistic about your husband's skill level in the kitchen. You both will most likely be stressed and you will need his help with the baby more than in the kitchen.

My first was a C-section. Recovery is tough because it IS major surgery and you also have a little one to take care of. It may be a while before strolling thruogh the store is either an option or something you even feel like doing.

I use Peapod a lot and love them. They have Chef Express meals which you could try.

I have never heard anything good about Seattle Sutton.

Best wishes to you and remember that it's all about what works for you.

Though we should certainly be your lowest priority at this point, do keep us posted on how it goes! I, for one, appreciate the trip down memory lane. Feel free to PM me if you'd like!

PS. If, later on, you decide to make your own baby food I (and probably many others on this site) have ideas/advice on making that easier on yourself, too - but that's a whole different thread.

Kwe730 wrote:
I have never heard anything good about Seattle Sutton.

Seattle Sutton is a weight-loss program, so not entirely comparable to Dinner by Design. Sure, they deliver meals, but it's diet food. A strict, low-calorie regimen is probably not what you're looking for at this point.

We tried Dinner by Design a couple of years ago. We ordered a bunch of half sized meals to be split among 4 households. I wasn't that impressed. Everything was oversaturated with sauce or salt. Yea it's easy, but not especially good. I would go the Costco route. They have tons of prepared options in their freezer and frig.

I did Seattle Sutton's last fall for two months during an insanely busy work period. I was looking for super-convenient and low-calorie. I wish I could come up with a more clever way to put it, but the majority of the food was nasty. Convenient yes, but it didn't taste good and some of the food went bad prior to the expiration dates. If one needs a low-sodium, low-fat, no preservative diet and isn't inclined to/is unable to cook then it may be OK, but other than that I can't recommend it.

Shortest, funniest post about Seattle Sutton ever.

Cynthia...I was responding to MikeLM's mention of Seattle Sutton. Absolutely no way would I ever suggest it or even remotely recommend it. Blech!

As a personal chef, I get a LOT of business from former Seattle Sutton and Dinners By Design clients.

Seattle Sutton's meals are institutional, low-fat, low-sodium, calorie and portion-controlled. A couple of my clients have called it bland diet dorm food.

Dinners By Design uses institutional products from Sysco, including canned vegetables. My clients did not like the food at all. They complained about having to spend a couple hours at their store to amass all the ingredients, and then still having to cook the meals at home.

Is there any advantage to doing Dinner by Design?

My boss has done Dinner by Design twice, in both instances with a group of friends. Here's what she had to say:

If you like cooking, but you don't like cleaning up the mess, Dinner by Design is good. It is probably more fun if you go with a group. The cost (for the Glenview location) is $129.00 for 6 meals that each feed about 4 people, there is also an option for 12 meals for $229. You choose which meals you want to make from a preset menu that changes monthly. There are a variety of chicken, beef, seafood and vegetarian options along with 1 or 2 dessert choices on the menu. The quality of the ingredients is good. Everything needed in the recipe is provided and already chopped, if needed. You control how much (or little) of an ingredient you want in your food. They have stations set up for each of the available meals for the month. You move from station to station, follow the recipe posted, and the staff cleans up your dirty bowls, utensils, etc....

My family enjoyed most of the meals we tried. The best one for us was the Hawaiian Chicken Cordon Bleu. I felt the pizzas (I tried BBQ chicken pizza) were small and didn't taste very good. The pizzas are probably the only item I would not make again. Overall, I think it is a good value for the money considering all the ingredients are provided and prepared for you, and you don't have to clean up anything.

Kwe730 wrote:Cynthia...I was responding to MikeLM's mention of Seattle Sutton. Absolutely no way would I ever suggest it or even remotely recommend it. Blech!

Sorry I brought it up! Actually, all I know about it is the radio commercials. I just mentioned it as a prepared-food service I'd heard of.
Glad those with experience warned gtgirl off.

For those in the city thinking of Dinner by Design there is one location in Lincoln Park and as of mid-June there will be one in the south loop near Halsted and Maxwell Street.

Having tried 2 different Dinner By Designs, and 2 other food prep companies in Chicago land, my family, friends and I swear by Gourmet in a Day for this sort of thing:

Gourmet in a Day
WestLake Plaza
3207 Lake Ave #9A, Wilmette, IL 60091
http://www.gourmetinaday.com/

it is locally owned and operated (Dinner By Design is a national chain, with the same menu across the country), and the owner Mary is swell, usually there herself, and creates all the recipes herself. Compared to the other companies like this, her portions are larger, prices are a bit cheaper, and she gives you side dishes (the other places do not give side dishes), plus in comparing her food to Dinner By Design, 7 of us swear by Mary despite a couple needing to drive long distances to get to Gourmet in a Day. She is very accommodating (you can substitute ingredients as you wish i.e. chicken for beef, etc), much more flexible than Dinner By Design, and will make the meals for you or you can make them yourselves. If a meal prep place is your kind of thing, I strongly encourage you to check out Gourmet in a Day- they have a new Mom special too!