Dream Dinners Serves Up Fun, Convenience & Healthy Choices

MIDDLEBURY — Fancy a no-mess, no-fuss dinner at home? Wish there was a kitchen fairy who could do all the prep work, leaving only the fun part of cooking to enjoy?

Dream Dinners offers just that. The innovative concept in meal preparation eliminates the drudgery of daily menu planning, shopping, prep work and cleanup by moving the dinner assembly process out of home kitchens and into specially equipped retail outlets.

Dream Dinners, touted in Oprah’s O magazine as one of the top five “solid-gold ways to save money,” is the brainchild of Stephanie Allen, 41, a former caterer from the Seattle area who has been preparing freezer meals for her family for years. In March 2002, Ms Allen bowed to pressure from friends and agreed to teach them how to assemble freezer dinners.

She invited 12 friends to join her for a “girls’ night out” at a rented commercial kitchen. Those friends invited their friends, and Ms Allen ended up teaching 44 people her techniques. A new business was born.

Partners Jennifer Garcia and Mike Tremaglio of Middlebury have now helped to bring this new concept to Connecticut. The grand opening of Middlebury Dream Dinners will take place on Tuesday, April 4, from 5:30 until 7:30 pm. The first 200 guests attending the grand opening will receive a free herb crusted flank steak. The Middlebury location is at 530 Middlebury Road

Ms Garcia and Mr Tremaglio are starting their business with a strong focus on community service. For every 12-meal session attended during the month of April, Middlebury Dream Dinners will donate $20 to the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life in the tri-bury area (Middlebury, Southbury, Woodbury), as well as ACS events in Waterbury-Watertown and Newtown. There is also the opportunity for organizations participating in ACS Relay For Life to earn a bonus donation with a “100 Customer Bonus” program. If, during the fundraising period, 100 or more customers sign up and select their area ACS Relay for Life as their beneficiary, Dream Dinners will give an additional $500 bonus.

Dream Dinners functions on a simple premise: customers preview a monthly menu online at DreamDinners.com and select 12 dinners from a menu featuring 14 entrées such as herb-crusted flank steak, four-cheese and meatball calzones, and citrus ginger salmon. Then they register to attend a meal assembly session at a Dream Dinners retail location.

At the store, customers rotate among refrigerated recipe stations, scooping freshly cut and prepped uncooked ingredients into the provided disposable baking pans or zip-top freezer bags. They take the uncooked dinners home and place them in the freezer.

The whole process takes two hours and costs about $200 (which is the average price; prices vary depending on location), or less than $3 per serving. The result: 12 healthy, homemade dinners — each containing four to six servings — that anyone can quickly remove from the freezer, thaw, and pop into the oven. With the addition a side dish such as a salad, veggies or fruit, dinner is ready.

“You’ll spend less time doing all the activities associated with meal time that aren’t much fun,” says Ms Garcia. “We do the shopping, the chopping and cleanup, yet you’ll get to have fun assembling your meals just the way you like them at a session and you get all the credit.”

Dream Dinners is not just about getting dinner on the table quickly; it’s also about healthy eating. Dinners incorporate lowfat and nonfat ingredients, and many low-carb selections are offered. Also, each month’s menu offers at least one meatless dish, a variety of low-carb options, and the occasional brunch item, soup or dessert.

Ms Garcia, 35, and Mr Tremaglio, 45, bring years of experience to the table. The two worked together for seven years at Scholastic, Inc, a children’s book publisher. Ms Garcia spent most of her 12-year marketing career marketing children’s books to moms and dads with young families — a similar demographic to the Dream Dinners target market.

“I understand the importance of the customer experience and this combined with my avid interest in cooking and eating good food will enable our store to reach its market in a unique way,” says Ms Garcia.

Mr Tremaglio, who was vice president of marketing at Scholastic, believes that a lot of principles he used previously to attract customers can be applied to Dream Dinners.

“I also have a lot of experience in running all aspects of the business as well, especially the financial side,” he says.

Menus change monthly, with most-requested items reappearing periodically. Nutritional information for every menu item is provided online. A national food distributor handles all food orders so that customers in Chesapeake receive the same consistent quality as customers in Seattle.

Sessions will be offered at the Middlebury store on Thursdays at 10 am and 7 pm, Fridays at 10 am (with afternoon and evening times to vary), and Saturdays at 8:30 and 11:30 am.

The Middlebury store represents the third Dream Dinners franchise in Connecticut. A Cheshire store opened on March 28.

Middlebury Dream Dinners can be reached by calling 203-758-1785 or sending an email to MiddleburyCT@DreamDiners.com.