Almost Home-Cooked Food

04-26-2011-6
Originally uploaded by Inkyhack
These are Hawaiian meatballs prepared by "Dinner My Way," a chain business that specializes in "Take and Bake" foods. It's a lot like Papa Murphys, but instead of pizza, they offer a changing menu each month. Besides the meatballs, this month's menu also includes chicken and artichoke calzones and Chicken Picatta.

The idea behind the business is simple - they chop all the vegatables and meats, mix the sauces for you with all the ingredients, and even package it so you can freeze the meals and cook them later. When you want to make them, they offer simple directions, allowing you to cook it at home. All the ingredients are fresh, so it gives the illusion that you are eating "healthy, home-cooked" food. They even provide calorie and nutrition information for each dish. You also have the choice of choosing all the ingredients yourself. They hand you a recipe and point you to stations with the ingredients for that recipe just waiting. There, you can modify the recipe depending on your tastes (for example, you can leave out onions if you don't like them or put in more tomatoes).

Their target audience is homes where both adults are working and they have children. This is an excuse to not buy burgers and pizza all the time, thus helping give "well-balanced" meals.

I've seen other variations of this lately. My local grocery store now offers full take-and-bake meals. Walk in and get stuffed chicken with potatoes, mixed vegetables and gravy on the side - enough for four people.

I suspect we will see this idea grow. I'm not entirely sold on whether it really is a "healthy alternative" to fast food. It still seems there are some fast-food qualities there, but it does have to be better than McD's any day, right?