Tastes Like Homemade

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Originally uploaded by FoxyCropper.

Making dinner after work for working families used to require a lot of effort. You'd get home around six, settle down for a couple of minutes, change, and then start cooking. For many families, getting a home cooked dinner meant eating at 8 o'clock in the evening with the television on, rather than at 6:30 when most families sit down. The time families had to spend together was dwindling - what to do?

The 30 Minute Meal revolution began, with the ever-perky Rachael Ray showing us how we could have great meals including prep and cook time in a half hour. But what happens on those nights when it's just easier to heat up some prepackaged meal or when the takeout menus are calling your name? Enter the advent of prep kitchen chains.

The concept goes like this - you go to a prep kitchen center where you can prepare anywhere between a week to a month's worth of food that you freeze and reheat. Sometimes, reheating can take up to an hour, but most people (mostly working moms) who have been to the centers feel that it is a big time and moneysaver and has also become a community center of sorts for the women. There are events held at the centers, and you can host a prepping party onsite. You can choose your menu ahead of time and when you get there, some chains like Dream Dinners feed you to as you are assembling your meals.

This trend is likely to spread like wildfire - ever since I first read about this in the New York Times in March, press attention has been getting louder and louder. Working moms have always been looking for ways to save time in the kitchen and bring their families together at the dinner table. It'll be no time before major brands court these centers providing their products exclusively.