Dream Dinners - The Perfect Solution

Dream Dinners – a quaint, family friendly food preparation operation. Located at 1400 Wilbur Cross Highway (the Berlin Turnpike for most local residents,) this secret franchise caught my eye. Hidden within Ridgeway Plaza on the Turnpike, someone with a keen eye will notice Dream Dinners. However, it’s not something most people should pass up, especially if they do not have time to prepare a full meal every evening.

Karen Morton and Pam Foss, owners of the Berlin Dream Dinners, allowed me to take a tour of the franchise. Walking into the operating room, I noticed an extreme cleanliness emanating from the wide open room. Everything had almost a “new” feeling to it and it felt as though no one had used any of the stations before me. Dream Dinners has spread just by word of mouth, according to Ms. Morton.

The goal of Dream Dinners is to prepare about a month’s worth of food within an hour or two, which is called a session. Sessions can be booked online, allowing singles, couples and friends to come by and preparing their food for the weeks to come. However, you’re not cooking your food and freezing it at Dream Dinners – you prepare the food, such as placing spices on the meat and setting other needs up so when you go home, you can throw the food in the oven or cook it on the stove. Every month has a new menu to freshen things up and allows diversity in the menu for everyone as well.

The November menu, for example, has chicken parmigiana with spaghetti, oven baked almond chicken, Greek island shrimp with pasta and mango glazed salmon. There are plenty of other choices to pick from (roughly 13) and they have symbols next to the names as well. For example, circles mean that the food option is to be grilled and the heart means that it’s heart healthy, which meets certain requirements with fat, cholesterol, etc. All foods have their nutritional facts alongside their names on the menu as well. For certain holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas, they have their turkey specials and their side specials for the festive days. Considering those days can be quite hectic, Dream Dinners is smart to help out on holidays as well.

One thing to remember is that purchases must be made in either a three or six serving size. Prices change as follow, but it still beats going to the grocery store every week and spending way more than expected. Grocery shoppers on average spend $30 more per visit to the grocery store, which adds up. If there’s no time to cook between work and extracurricular activities, Dream Dinners is the way to save a life. As Ms. Morton put it, there have been customers who have had their lives change because of Dream Dinners. Altering the way someone eats and how they prepare meals is a great thing that everyone should look into.

"Dinners for Life” is a separate and new section of Dream Dinners – one for diabetics and their needs. Diabetes is a fast growing problem in the world, and Dream Dinners thought it would be beneficial if they could help diabetics find what they could eat as well.

If I ever had time issues with my life, or just couldn’t find enough time to prepare food at home every day, Dream Dinners is something I would look into. They have their regulars, their seasonal customers and their visitors as well. Even with the recession, Dream Dinners can help save more money by eating home effectively both money-wise and health-wise.


A work station promoting their Thanksgiving specials


Another work station


Dinners for Life promotion