Let's Dish, Super Suppers, etc

[JEM]

There's a couple of these places around here now.

www.letsdish.com

www.supersuppers.com

The concept: The have prepared "menus" to choose from. You pick it out the foods you want to assemble. You go to their store and assemble your food (uncooked) at the stations with the recipes posted right at the stations. Ingredients are laid out for you. Kinda looks like a Subway restaurant. You put the "meal" in foil containers with cooking instruction labels on each container lid. You take home, put them in the freezer, then pull out and cook when you're ready.

Sounds like a neat idea. Convenient especially if you have young kids and a busy schedule with after school sports and such and don't want to go out for diner and get crap junk food.

You can also have them assembly everything and you pick up for an extra cost.

Normally you have to by at least $100 worth of food. But you can order a single meal if you have them assemble it. So we decided to try it before we invested our money. We order one of the

Southwestern Chipotle Whitefish

Six individual filets of tilapia are topped with a southwestern chipotle sauce and finished off with a sprinkle of panko bread crumbs.

Total was about $25 with tax. Had I ordered and done an assembly session of a bunch of meals, I could have saved about $3 on the meal.

When I picked up the order, I started to wonder because the pan felt pretty light. But I kept an open mind. I got home and opened the container to see what I had. 6 fillets, about 5-8 ounces each. Maybe 2.5 pounds total. Not a whole lot. You don't get any side dishes or anything. Just ala carte.

Took 50 minutes to cook from frozen. It tasted ok. Granted whitefish (tilapia) isn't exactly fine dining, but I've had better.

For $25 I can go to the grocery store, buy 3 pounds of tilapia, bottle of chipotle sauce, box of bread crumbs, skip the aluminum foil container, and have enough for 6 pack of import beer and have plenty of change left over.

I guess if you have room in your freezer, it's a better deal and far more nutritious than going out to eat. But it still takes time to cook from frozen. I'll probably just frequent their sites for recipe ideas. Maybe we'll do a session and get a bunch of meals if they have a good special some day. Would be nice to have as back up.

 

[Kayak Jack]

Matt, tilapia is NOT whitefish. No more than carp is trout. Whitefish grow in the Great Lakes. The Edmund Fitzgerald went down off Whitefish Point (eastern tip of Michigan's Upper Peninsula). Tilapia is raised on "fish farms" now.

Like you, I can assemble my own meals, sprinkle on spices, and do quite well. Tonight's Eye-tall-yun spaghetti now rests in the refrigerator not as a left over, but as a planned over. Very easy to boil a bit more pasta, nuke the sauce, and enjoy another feast.

Planned over pork chops, chicken breast, meat loaf, rice, etc. go into the menu. Sunday night's shish kebab planned overs were added to freshly steamed brown rice, and became last night's fried rice.

 

[JEM]

It definitely wasn't the catch of the day. But wasn't too bad.

From a business point of view, I see where they want to fit in price wise. Charging enough to make a nice profit but not more than going out to eat for a sit down meal.

I imagine lots of soccer moms with husbands that make a lot of $$ frequent these places and load up the Hummers with these dishes.

I'm grateful my mom taught me how to cook.

 

[bearridge]

I'm grateful my mom taught me how to cook.

Friend Matt,

I used ta watch Julia Child. Now I jest watch the Sparkanator. He cooks a lot like Miz Julia......heavy on the wine. :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

regards
bearridge
bodine culinary institute

Let them that don't want none, have memories of never gittin' any! Brother Dave Gardner

 

[JEM]

I'm grateful my mom taught me how to cook.

Friend Matt,

I used ta watch Julia Child. Now I jest watch the Sparkanator. He cooks a lot like Miz Julia......heavy on the wine. :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

regards
bearridge
bodine culinary institute

Let them that don't want none, have memories of never gittin' any! Brother Dave Gardner

Hard to figure which one is easier to look, though.

 

[bearridge]

Hard to figure which one is easier to look, though.

Well now that jest aint fair. Miz Julia aint been dead more'n a few years, so Ole Sparkler haz an edge. [Opps.....Lord I am sorry I tole that one....'n bless all the little pygmies down ta Rhodesia.] :mrgreen: :roll: :mrgreen:

regards
bearridge

A nation that draws too broad a difference between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking being done by cowards and its fighting by fools. Thucydides

 

[oldsparkey]

Mz Julia weren't no beauty , just like me , but unlike me she had a heart of gold and was one darn good cook. She was a total Lady, that believed in helping friends and family , especially family.

Besides they say the real beauty of a person is on the inside but who cares when they can cook. I'm still working on that and some day might make it. :lol: There is nothing better then a meal made from scratch , all fresh and tasty , you guy's can have the prepackaged stuff.

Thinking about it I have some leaf spinach here at the house so it will be off to the store and have the butcher pound out ( cube) a flank steak for me ( from 1/2 to 3/8ths inches thick) , pick up some Mozzarella cheese and make supper.

Cut the steak into a couple of long strips (about 1 1/2 to 2 inches wide . lay they out , put on a good handful of Mozzarella and some spinach leaves , roll it up and tie it into a roll with some cord. Take a pan lay some spinach leaves on the bottom , a sprinkling of olive oil and then the steak roll , bake it for about 30 minutes in a 360 degree oven and have supper.
Some smashed potatoes on the side with it ....yum , yum.

Chuck.
If you don't like mozzarella cheese then use some stuffing. When done right it should look like a big cinnamon roll

 

[JEM]

So thats spinach inside the rolls and on the bottom of the pan?

Would those long skewer sticks do the job of the string?

 

[oldsparkey]

I don't know why they would not work.
Mom use to make a Flank Steak Roll from the whole steak with dressing inside , all she used to hold it together were some tooth picks. Also used them to hold the fold at the ends to make it into a log. That also helped to keep the juices inside to add a little more moisture to the dressing .

After it was cooked we would cut across it , that is the easy way to make a roll.
We made sure to pull the toothpicks , they can surprise you if you don't.

**************************************************************
For camping I have taken beef or turkey slices from the deli , ( cut at lease 3/16ths thick) added some stove top dressing to them ( all ready cooked and cooled ), rolled them up ( using toothpicks to hold them together) since everything is already cooked , put some gravy in the pan , add the logs , warm everything up and have them with some mashed potatoes or rice.

Chuck.

 

[JEM]

So thats spinach inside the rolls and on the bottom of the pan?

 

[oldsparkey]

Not sure about the stores around your place but down here that is what the butcher uses for the ones he makes at our local grocery store.

That is where or who I got the idea from and since we always have some here at the house for salads , why not use them. Never had the spinach in the ones Mom made so it is something different.

Chuck

 

[JEM]

yes

ok thanks

 

[Kayak Jack]

Rachel Ray (of EVOO fame) likes the frozen spinach, wrung out for several uses. That could work too, I suppose. What spices (other than garlic, obviously) do you use?

 

[oldsparkey]

Rachel Ray (of EVOO fame) likes the frozen spinach, wrung out for several uses. That could work too, I suppose. What spices (other than garlic, obviously) do you use?

Just the meat , cheese and spinach with some salt and pepper ..... sometimes a little Everglades Seasoning. ( Yep there is such a thing and it is good and it has a little garlic in it )

The ones I make when out camping........ Nothing but what I listed , naturally some salt an pepper if a person wants it , or Hot Sauce. I like them just the way they are.
"O"ooop's ... The smashed potatoes have garlic in them and some thing called Herb's , your choice.

Chuck.