Sassy Mama Tries DinnerTime – Cooking Made Easy (as pie)

In this decade statistics say that more mamas are working than ever before! Whether part time or full time, these dedicated women manage to juggle their busy jobs with their even more hectic home life, and still come up trumps. We salute you mamas!

This year, as a part time working mum, I am determined to find ways to make my life easier (and yours too ladies!). Having always slightly over compensated with my kids for the fact I work, I have continuously found my days so busy that I do not stop. From drop off to work, work to meetings, meetings to play dates, kids tea and bath… not to mention trips to the supermarket and dry cleaners! The list never ends and when the kids are asleep I can barely even stand up straight let alone think about something different and original for our dinner!

So here is where I thought I could use a helping hand… I found out about a company called DinnerTime, which promises to deliver ingredients and easy to follow recipes for four meals a week. They supply the food and instructions and you cook the meal. Four well balanced delicious and healthy home cooked suppers for the family to your door! Sounds amazing, right?

My box, which I had ordered the week before, arrived promptly first thing Sunday morning with fresh fruit and vegetables, meats and cheeses (in a cooler bag) and a range of dry goods, such as pasta, arborio rice, tins and bread. I even got some measuring cups! I was delighted to see a colourful box in front of me with a good variety of food groups; I was only a little disappointed that the avocado was slightly squashed and over ripe…

So here’s how the week panned out mamas:

Evening 1: Cheat’s Chicken and Cherry Tomato Risotto

This was an easy peasy supper to make with no standing over the hob and stirring. Yippee! The dish went straight into the oven and out popped a creamy and tasty risotto. Overall, the flavour was rather bland but I was actually very happy with it, as there were lots of leftovers and my kids devoured it for lunch the next day, which they definitely wouldn’t have done if it were spicy or too fragrant. Meal one down and a very happy and less tired mama!

Evening 2: Pan Grilled White Fish with Orzo Pasta Salad

We had guests over for dinner and I was delighted to find that the 4 person ingredients were indeed sufficient to go round for 2 couples. The fish was soft and the dressing that went on the fish and pasta completed the meal perfectly. I was somewhat disappointed to receive macaroni pasta instead of Orzo (one of my favourites!), but it still worked well. Not only did we have happy and satisfied guinea pigs, mama also got to talk to her guests for once!

Evening 3: Vegetarian Tortilla Casserole

I must say, I usually huff and puff when I have friends who are vegetarian over for dinner (no offense, I’m just a meat and fish lover!) but this dish inspired me to try more veggie options. After looking at the recipe, I was a little apprehensive but was surprised with the result – a very attractive and rather nice casserole, with bags of flavour. Delish!

Evening 4: Easy chilli Con Carne

With the twist of using sliced sirloin steak, rather than minced beef, this dish was scrumptious and so quick. It was a shame not to have the guacamole with it (I scoffed the avocado for lunch the day the box arrived!) but it was a great casual meal that I could see us eating with friends on a chilled night in… Honest homemade good food – just what the doctor ordered!

Dessert

The box and recipe card offers you one dessert to try and this week was Chocolate Nice Cream. DinnerTime provides you with the bananas and you need to have cocoa powder or raw cacao at home and some grated chocolate. I have to admit that we didn’t have those and so we skipped this one as the children had already gobbled the bananas at breakfast (little monkeys!), but the recipe looked straightforward and offered a pud that you could whip up in no time!

The verdict?

DinnerTime is the perfect service for busy mamas who don’t have the energy to think up new meals every week and who lack time for supermarket shopping. They deliver to your door on time and offer new recipes each week (one fish, chicken, meat and veg) and meal plans, which are balanced and healthy, as well as quick and easy. So for those of you looking to ease some of those daily strains look no further mamas. DinnerTime can certainly help you out, and they even send you their menus for the week in advance so you can sneak a peek of the culinary delights on the horizon.

DinnerTime, (+971)(0) 55 790 8733, www.dinnertime.me