Imagine dinner with your family. How do you feel? Stressed about getting it done in time? Worried about making something everyone will actually eat?
Now imagine chatting with friends, drinking wine, snacking, and assembling a week’s worth of healthy, nutritious, freezer-ready meals in about an hour. Feel better?
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See also: Meal Prepping: How Planning Ahead Helps Me Eat Healthy on a Tight Schedule
St. Louis native Katie Wilson, professionally trained chef and owner of Katie Cooks, offers just such a service. She holds monthly meal prep parties at Southwest Diner. The system is simple: choose your entrees from the menu, bring a cooler or roomy grocery bag, and leave with everything packaged, labeled with directions, and ready for the freezer.
“It’s like fun, well-organized chaos, lots of moving pieces to get 30 people to make ten meals,” Wilson tells SLM.
Inspiration for the parties came straight from real life.
“As a chef, I always found meal prep enjoyable,” Wilson says. “Once I had kids, it became a chaotic, baby-wearing, toddler-crying, never-ending event.”
She broke meal prep into ten-minute sessions throughout the day so she could put dinner together quickly. And she realized she couldn’t be the only one facing the challenge of assembling nutritious meals.
Menu items are always changing and being improved, as Wilson finds inspiration for new recipes in seasonal produce, ethnic markets, food trends, cravings, and requests. Her kids inspire menu development, too.
“I have a preschooler that will eat almost anything and a toddler that will eat almost nothing,” she says. “That pushes me to create meals I know will be liked by the masses.”
In May, meal prep partiers will make citrus herb salmon burgers, slow cooker veggie fried rice, and one-pot chicken teriyaki quinoa bowls. Many entrees are customizable for vegetarians, celiacs, and the weight-conscious. Meals that will be enjoyed within a few days of the event can be stored in the fridge.
Preparing for a party takes weeks, and though she does the bulk of the work at nap time and after the kids are asleep, she also involves her children. “The kids and I spend a lot of time recipe testing in my home kitchen. They enjoy measuring, stirring, using a kitchen scale, scissors, and of course counting and tasting. We do grocery shopping ‘treasure hunts’ too.”
Despite all the work, she’s gratified by knowing she’s easing the stress of dinnertime.
“It’s incredible to hear from so many people in our community that the meals I help them prepare are enjoyed by their entire family. Sharing meals is a beautiful and important thing, and I’ve been so grateful to hear that I can help make that happen in hundreds of St. Louis homes.”
Each entree serves four people. Six-meal packages are $95, while ten meals cost $145. Parties at Southwest Diner are limited to 35 guests and routinely sell out.
Wilson is planning her next meal prep party for June, and she’ll share details on her Facebook page. You can contact Wilson directly at 314-486-9246 or [email protected].
Heidi Dean is a writer and stay-at-home mom to a preschooler. You can read more of her work on her blog Mama-Come-Lately.
