A few months ago, near the beginning of my pregnancy, I had the pleasure of visiting our local Dream Dinners for a blogger dining experience. I had a great time at the event, getting to make the meals was super easy and it was a ton of fun seeing blogging friends and catching up while making the meals. The whole time I couldn’t help but think how the event would have been perfect for a baby shower or baby sprinkle.
The Dream Dinners Experience
When you sign up for the Dream Dinners experience you get the opportunity to pick a date to visit the store, a variety of dishes (the menu changes each month) and number of servings. On the date of your visit you get to join others in prepping your meals. At the end of the two hours you’ll go home with your meals ready to go into the freezer for whenever you are ready for a quick and delicious meal with all the instructions ready to go. You can choose to do this experience on any of the open sessions, invite friends along or schedule a private session for just you and your friends.
Okay, okay… so, maybe the idea of prepping dinners doesn’t sound super thrilling to you. I get it. When I have to cook dinner I don’t especially love the process. But, what I do love, is going to a place where everything has been prepped for me and I don’t have to do any of the dishes! Check out the organization skills… gotta love the good use of a label maker.
The cost of the meal includes all of the food items that you can follow to the recipe or decide to customize by leaving out ingredients that picky eaters may not enjoy. It also includes the packaging and cooking instructions. There are additional sides and meals already prepped and ready for purchase in the store as well. I bought a few sides and breakfast meals to throw in our freezer at home in addition to the meals I made at the event.
So, how does it all taste?
It was great! The whole family really loved the meals that we tried and the instructions were super easy to follow. My husband actually made all three meals the days that we ate them and didn’t have any problems following the instructions. He isn’t a novice in the kitchen, but there is no way he’d have been able to whip up the Chateau Chicken with Almond Butter Sauce on his own. In addition to the Chateau Chicken I tried Arroz Con Pollo and Limoncello Shrimp with Coconut Rice.
Note: Dream Dinners does have some availability in customizing a recipe or two by leaving out an ingredient you may or may not like. But, it isn’t super customizable when it comes to items that are gluten, allergy or meat free. Check out the site’s Health and Nutrition FAQs for more info on this. The menus are available on-line as well, so you do get quite a few options in what meals you and your family would like. In addition, the packaging includes lots of plastic bags and aluminum. While much better than a frozen meal at the grocery store, it isn’t the most eco-friendly.
How to throw a Dream Dinners Baby Shower
When I was in my first pregnancy I worked about 25 hours a week and I had maybe a 15 minute commute. I also didn’t have a toddler. I prepped for the baby coming by making a LOT of frozen meals. As a matter of fact, I was prepping large portions of spaghetti and meatballs for freezing the whole beginning stages of labor. The meals were so fantastic the first month of our kiddo’s life.
This pregnancy has been….well, different. I have a full time gig, commute 1 hour each way and a toddler. Not complaining, I love my life. But, the idea of spending my little free time prepping meals for after the baby arrives is not super appealing. A showering of pre-made meals sounds like the perfect baby shower or baby sprinkle for someone who may have most of the baby gear all ready to go.
Read on to find out how to throw a Dream Dinners baby shower!
Non-Host Dream Dinners Baby Shower
Dream Dinners allows for private parties where you can schedule a date and invite friends to join. Approximately 10 to 12 guests can have the store area for a full two hours without any extra charge. The guests will simply choose the meals that they’d like to make and pay for the meals through the Dream Dinners website. On the date of the event your party will get to eat samples and make meals to take home. For a non-host shower, everyone could pay for themselves and choose one meal to donate to the mommy-to-be! The guests would get to enjoy everyone’s company, make meals together, shower the mom-to-be with the gift of after-baby meals AND go home with meals themselves.
Full-Host Dream Dinners Baby Shower
While I think a non-host party sounds like a great option for an affordable baby sprinkle, you may want to take care of the costs of the entire party and make sure the mommy-to-be gets really showered. Call to schedule your party, order the food items yourself and send out the invites. Everyone can help put together the meals and the mommy-to-be can bring them home for the evening. Want a really amazing party favor? Have each guest leave with one meal too!
To schedule a private party visit the private sessions portion of the Dream Dinners website. Dream Dinners has locations in 25 states across the country. Check out their locations page to find a store near you.
Dream Dinners invited me to discover the full Dream Dinners experience at a complimentary bloggers night. The bloggers in attendance were able to make three dishes to try at home. All opinions are my own. Please see my policies for more information.
11 Comments
Having attended this event, I had the same thought – it would be perfect for a shower: baby, wedding, or otherwise. No cooking, no cleaning, no heavy-duty party prep; plus the guest of honor gets something she (or he) really needs. What more could you ask for?
Renée ♥ The Good Hearted Woman recently posted…Pasty in Paradise: How to Avoid Sunburn on Your Tropical Vacation {+ Giveaway}
It was so much fun sharing this event with you and the other ladies!
What a great idea for a baby shower OR a wedding shower! A perfect gift, plus it sounds like a lot of fun!!!
Erin @ Platings and Pairings recently posted…Hawaiian Slaw
It was a lot of fun… and, hey, I’m all for anything that avoids cheesy shower games. 🙂
This is such a great idea! I love baby showers/sprinkles that are functional, too, and pretty much nothing is as functional as feeding the mom of a newborn!
With #2 due in 5 days (ACK!), our freezer is definitely less full this time around, but I’m hoping friends and family will keep us stocked once Kiwi arrives. 🙂
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I agree! Haha… I can’t believe you are due so soon! EEK. So exciting. Please email me if any friends have set up a dinner train. I’d love to bring something over!
Because of my food allergies, this probably wouldn’t work for me (as you said it was not customizable), but I really love the idea. I can see many women and families benefiting from this kind of shower and postpartum provisions!
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I was a little disappointed in their ability to handle food allergies. Obviously if it were one thing like shrimp or onions it could easily be avoided by choice in menus or leaving out one or two ingredients, which makes it more customizable than grabbing frozen meals in a store. But, if there are multiple allergies or something that is in so many items (gluten) then it wouldn’t really work. At some point in my nursing journey I had to give up all dairy for my kiddo… so some of my premade food items weren’t any good for me, but it helped to feed my husband! 🙂
That is a great idea for a baby shower. One meal prep thing I’ve done consistently since pre-first baby is to make double crock pot meals, put one in the crock pot and the other in a freezer bag. It’s next to no extra time and it’s so nice to have that extra meal ready to go.
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That makes so much sense! I need to do that more often. I’m sort of thrilled that my kiddo is due in November because crockpot meals will be VERY welcome in the fall and winter!
I am astounded at how creative people are. I had never heard of Dream Dinners before now, but I am going to be singing its praises everywhere I go from now on! This is such a great idea, I will definitely pin this an tell all my friends about it. Thanks for sharing, cheers!
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