Homemade Dinners, Made Easy from Dream Dinners

When I was growing up, having family dinner together was an important part of our lives. As we grew into busy teenagers with sports and jobs, it didn’t always happen every day, but we did always get that chance at least a few nights a week. I definitely didn’t appreciate it as much at the time, but looking back I realize how important it was to sit down together and actually talk to one another. Sometimes it was about menial details of the day, sometimes it was disagreements, sometimes it was fun and exciting stories, but no matter what the topic, it always gave us a chance to share our lives with one another. And of course, back then there were no cell phones or tablets and the tv was always off, so we did get to actually talk with no distractions.

Now that I’m a mom, I realize how important it is to connect with the family over a meal and take that time to talk to each other without distractions. I also realize just how difficult it is to actually make that happen, especially after working a full day, commuting home through rush hour traffic, picking up my daughter from daycare and actually getting to the house. On many days, she’s hungry before we even walk in the door, so having a hot dinner ready at a reasonable time is not easy. On occasion, we pick up some pizza or order delivery, but I needed a better solution for all the other days. Since COVID hit Richmond mid-March, I’ve been working from home and her daycare has closed, which saves us quite a bit of time in our day, but I still didn’t want to spend hours chopping and preparing food every day and finding new recipes to make was getting more difficult as well.

I’ve tried multiple meal subscription boxes but they all required too much prep and cooking to have dinner ready in a reasonable amount of time. I’ve also tried some of the fully prepared, ready to heat options, but they’re not cheap and don’t often cater to younger children. I was struggling to find a solution that truly fit our family’s needs, didn’t cost a ton of money, and gave us a variety of meals to enjoy together.

That’s how we found Dream Dinners! For us, Dream Dinners has been the perfect solution for our family. They provide easy, home cooked meals that require minimal prep and cooking. It meant I could get dinner on the table in a timely manner without taking time away from my family, so we could sit down and have dinner together. Plus! I didn’t have to think about shopping for all the ingredients, finding new recipes, and then actually putting it all together after a long and often crazy day juggling work and family needs. So far all the recipes we’ve had, the family has loved!

If you haven’t heard of Dream Dinners, they’re a locally owned franchise in Midlothian that provides delicious dinners prepped and ready for your freezer. You choose the recipes you want, how many dinners, what size you need, and either pick up in store or have it delivered. There are 17 different recipes to choose from and they change every month, so you always have a variety to choose from. There are two pick up locations in Richmond too – the store in Midlothian and an additional location in Short Pump. Before COVID, you could assemble the meals yourself in store, so that you could adjust the ingredients if necessary, to fit your family’s dietary needs, but under the current state, you can only get pre-assembled meals. However, you can still customize them to cater to any food allergies or sensitivities!

The dinners can be frozen and easily thawed when time to cook, so you always have a homecooked meal available for your family. Plus, as I mentioned earlier, they’re delicious.

If you’re interested in trying Dream Dinners, you can get $15 off Dream Dinners Starter Pack with code 15OFF until December 31, 2020. If you have any questions, please reach out to Michelle Hendel at

[email protected].