Looking for cook it yourself place (Austin, Sunset Valley: home, buy, organic)

[balor123]

I'm moving from Boston and occasionally buy food from a local place called Healthy Habits. They do everything except for cook the food and provide the instructions for how to do it at a cost of about $5/meal (1 person). Is there anything like this in Austin? I'd be in or around Northwest Hills probably.

[spelrod]

Could check out the meal plan boxes from Greenling. I think it works out to $8/meal but it's local and/or organic.

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by balor123

I'm moving from Boston and occasionally buy food from a local place called Healthy Habits. They do everything except for cook the food and provide the instructions for how to do it at a cost of about $5/meal (1 person). Is there anything like this in Austin? I'd be in or around Northwest Hills probably.

not exactly sure what you mean. Do you mean you get totally raw ingredients? Or the stuff is precooked and you heat it up?

all of these places precook as far as I can tell. We have only used ate foods.


Dream Dinners - Reserve a Meal Assembly Session



thestudiokitchen.com

Snap Kitchen

we use ..:: ATE.FOODS ::.. where they actually cook the meals

Prepared meals Austin

[tfresca]

Chronicle did a review of these type of places with an emphasis on healthy food. I'd search on their web site.

[CSD610]

Originally Posted by balor123

I'm moving from Boston and occasionally buy food from a local place called Healthy Habits. They do everything except for cook the food and provide the instructions for how to do it at a cost of about $5/meal (1 person). Is there anything like this in Austin? I'd be in or around Northwest Hills probably.

The only "cook it yourself" places I know of have been referred to as

"The grocery store" or "The Market" for years. Easy to find, easy to wander through, carts provided, food is not cooked, no directions given, cost is usually less than $5.00 per meal.

[G Grasshopper]

There is a place similar to Dream Dinners in Sunset Valley, next to the Tarka restaurant. I don't remember the name, nor have I ever used it. But this is in SW Austin, and doesn't sound like it would be too useful to the OP.

[jdrtx]

You can't cook your own food?

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by jdrtx

You can't cook your own food?

I think you misunderstood the question. OP is talking about a fairly new concept in food service in which you pick up a package in which the raw ingredients for a dinner have been cleaned, chopped, spiced and assembled, all ready for you to cook at home.

The first wave was "take and bake" pizza places, where you buy a fully built but uncooked pizza, which you bake at home. Several of those have been around Austin for a while.

I've also seen "ready to cook" packs on occasion at upscale markets like Whole Foods and Central Market, but it's not a category that interests me personally so I can't say how well it has caught on here.

The pitch is that you get a fresh cooked dinner without all the prep time, rather a warmed up dinner that was fully prepared.

[balor123]

I've got a toddler at home and another on the way. My wife doesn't do a lot of household chores and I've got some food sensitivities which require me to cook meals separately for myself. I refuse to feed my family junk food and that covers just about everything processed in the supermarket. The result is that 3 different meals need to be prepared and I work full time. I spend 2-3 hours a night preparing 2 meals but for the third I've been utilizing a service like the one linked. They cut, chop, clean, shop, etc and all you have to do is follow the directions. It's like a frozen stir-fry except with 1000mg of sodium and all kinds of ingredients which are questionably food.

[love roses]

Why would you make 3 different meals for everyone? That's too much work Use the food service for everyone and shop the outer aisles of the store. I've got a picky daughter and husband, so I will sometimes tweak ingredients in something because I know they don't like something or are sensitive to it, but I make it one meal. Some friends of mine have used a service before, but I don't remember the name of it. I do know they really were happy with the food. They had to go in and assemble everything, I believe, and then they took it home. It wasn't predone for them.