Dream Dinners Review: Homemade Meals Made Easy

Take the stress out of dinnertime with Dream Dinners, the original meal kit that does all the prep and planning for you.

This post is in partnership with Dream Dinners Lancaster. All opinions are my own. You can read my full Disclosure Policy here.

I meal plan every weekend, go get the groceries I need, and then do my best to follow through on what I have on the menu. The amount of time I spend planning, prepping, and making dinner is crazy.

Can you relate? A good portion of my life is spent dealing with dinner! And with two kids playing sports, we are running to practices and games most evenings. Dinnertime is just stressful.

What is Dream Dinners?

Enter Dream Dinners to save the day. Dream Dinners is a franchise system, so there are a total of 50 locations throughout the US.

My local Dream Dinners Lancaster has been female-owned and operated right here in Lancaster, PA for the last 17 years!

So what is Dream Dinners? It’s the original meal kit, and it’s better than anything delivered on your doorstep in a box. They do all the shopping, prepping, and chopping for you, giving you back your time (and perhaps sanity!).

How Does Dream Dinners Work?

Dream Dinners provides ready-made meals to go. Each month there is a new menu to choose delicious meals from, and the easiest way to make your selections is online. With 24-hours notice, your meals will be packed up and ready to pick up on-site. (Delivery is available for a small fee, too!)

You can also stop in and shop out of the Grab-And-Go freezer. The month’s complete selection of meals is available online, and the Grab-And-Go freezer has a more limited selection but still plenty to choose from to pick up quick dinners.

Bonus: There is a Sides and Sweets freezer for side dishes, breakfasts, and desserts, too!

Is There a Minimum Order for Dream Dinners?

Customers order a minimum of 3 meals per calendar month, and that’s it! After that you, you can pop in and grab one meal, one side, one dessert – whatever! – out of the freezer whenever you’d like.

You can also place orders online for just one meal once the 3-meal minimum is met.

Here’s what makes this a no-brainer: Dream Dinners meals are frozen, so you can keep them on hand for months. I’ve done the delivery meal kits before, and one major drawback for me as a busy mom is that that food is all fresh. If I don’t cook it up and use it that week, I have to throw it out.

This doesn’t happen with Dream Dinners. Use their meals when YOU want to, no rush required to get your money’s worth.

Can You Assemble Your Own Dream Dinners?

You can assemble your own Dream Dinners. I did a little party with some friends and we did this, and it was so much fun! If you enjoy that and can make time for it, go for it.

One of the major perks for me is the time savings, so I prefer to order online or just stop in and grab a couple of bags of meals, but the option is there to DIY if you’d like. (And it’s easy!)

Dream Dinners Saves Time

Meal planning, shopping, prepping…making dinner is so time consuming. Dream Dinners gives you all of this time back!

Now, let me be honest: We don’t eat these meals every night. I still like to make my own recipes and cook for the family (and thankfully have a husband that’s a better cook than I am!). But the 1-2 nights per week when I’m really pressed for time and just need something easy? This is a huge help.

Meals are pre-packaged in bags and come with clear instructions. It says right on the bag how much time it takes to get the meal cooked and on the table, and this is usually right around 30 minutes (sometimes more like 15-20).

And there is no prep required. If meat needs to be marinated, it’s already marinating. If you need to add butter to the corn, it’s already in the bag. The only thing you need to remember to do is defrost it.

Dream Dinners Saves Money

These meals come in 2 sizes: medium and large. A medium meal is meant to feed 2-3 people, and a large serving is just two medium servings, intended to feed 4-6 people.

New customers can order a Meal Prep Starter Pack at a discount, which includes 4 medium or 2 large meals for just $79. This is a great way to dip your toes into Dream Dinners and get a sample of menu items to try.

I have a family of 4 and in many cases, I’ve found that the medium feeds all of us. I might supplement the meal with a bagged salad, a side, throw some extra pasta in the pot, etc. but the main course is a pretty generous portion.

Meals range in price, but are generally right around $20-$25 for a medium. I said I can typically feed 4 for that amount, but even if you are getting 3 meals out of a medium, that’s about $8 per meal. Have you been to a fast food restaurant lately? You can’t even eat there for less than $8 per person.

Having a quick and easy dinner ready to go keeps you out of the drive through, so that’s one way to save money – and definitely eat healthier. But the other way is on the meal itself.

You don’t have to buy an entire jar of tarragon to be able to use one teaspoon your recipe. With Dream Dinners, you get all of those ingredients with no waste, no leftover half-used container of anything.

Even the Sweets and Sides make life easy. These frozen chocolate chip cookies are AMAZING!

Bake them from frozen, no thawing required, and you can make as many as you’d like at a time. Need a quick treat for the kids? Bake up 5 of them and keep the rest for later. So smart!

Dream Dinners Takes the Stress Out of Dinnertime

We’re a busy family – who isn’t? Making time to prep your meal, make it, and get everyone fed before they need to get out the door is stressful.

Knowing I’ve got a Dream Dinner ready, everything is already chopped up and ready to put in the pan, takes a weight off of my mind.

Dream Dinners Meals are Delicious

But Lindsay, are they any good? YES! The meals are delicious, and with about 17 new menu items to choose from each month, there is a great variety for every taste.

To give you a taste, this month’s (April 2023) menu included these options:

Mexican Beef Tortilla Bake
Surf and Turf Yakisoba Noodles
Chateau Chicken with Almond Butter Sauce
Layered Ravioli Bake
Chicken and Cheddar Empanadas
Classic French Dip with Homemade Au Jus

So many great choices! We have really loved every meal we’ve made, and it’s so nice for me to be able to make something new for the family without having to dig up a recipe, buy the ingredients, etc. It’s EASY!

Dream Dinners Coupon Code

Dream Dinners is perfect for busy families, empty-nesters, new parents, and so many others that just don’t have the time to deal with planning dinner every single night. You can even take some of these in a cooler with you on vacation if you have access to a kitchen. Think of the money saved not eating out every single night!

Use it as a supplement to your own menu. Just 1-2 nights a week for me to mentally have the night off from dealing with dinner is the biggest relief.

Dream Dinners Lancaster has given me a coupon code to share. This code is valid for guests in Lancaster, PA and Flemington, NJ who are placing their first order in 2023.

Use code CLICK to save $10 on your order of 3 or more dinners. Offer expires 6/30/23.