KDKA.com Consumer Web Extras
Jul 9, 2009 6:44 pm US/Eastern
Creative Idea Offers Quick Dinner Solutions
(KDKA)
Between parents working and kids in so many activities, it's hard for many families to sit down and eat together.
Part of the problem is there's just not enough time to make a delicious, home-cooked meal for everyone.
But a local company has now come up with a solution that's a dream for many local families.
"It saves the time and that allows for more family time," says Cathy Sluss, a local mom from North Strabane. "We're probably one of the few families - we enjoy a family meal and dinner together."
And that's what sisters, Eileen Burkhardt and Aimee Schmidt hoped would happen when they started the business, Creative Dinners.
"The key word is convenience. I think a lot of times they want to put nutritious food on the table but they just don't have time," says Burkhardt. "It's just a lot of work to get a recipe together start to finish … buying ingredients from the store, so we've taken that part of out it for them."
The folks at Creative Dinners do all the work for you.
They come up with the recipe, shop for the food and then clean and chop everything in their prep kitchen.
Jenny Barney, a mom from Peters Township, follows the simple instructions and assembles her meal. All six meals packaged separately so you can eat as many or as few as you want at a time.
Barney makes pork tenderloin, while Cathy makes the grilled chicken and vegetables.
"If I had to make this from scratch, I'd have to go to the grocery store, come home … wash the meat, trim the meat. This is already trimmed," says Barney.
Creative Dinners even prints out the labels with cooking instructions.
In addition to the time saved, it also saves money.
Barney says she figured out she saves 15 percent on food.
"I shop at the grocery store less, I buy things less often then that I don't need," she says.
South Fayette mom, Wendy Radinovic, who has a 3-year-old and 6-year-old, says Creative Dinners helps her save because she and her family don't eat out as much.
"It saves us money because those are all the days where if I didn't have something prepared, we'd be going out to dinner and between the four of us [we would] be spending at least $40. So, it's much cheaper."
Six individual meals cost $20 or $3.33 per meal.
And, if you pick them up already made it is $22 or $3.66 per meal.
If you like a bigger portion size and divide it by four people, it's still only $5 a meal for the ones you make yourself or $5.50 for the ones that are already made.
For Barney, Creative Dinners is also about health.
"I've been coming here for five years and the reason I know it's been five years [is] because … five years ago my husband had triple bypass [surgery] and I heard about Creative Dinners and really more than ever wanted to prepare healthy meals," she says.
Creative Dinners main location is on Route 19 in McMurray, Peters Township.
Consumers can make the dinners there as well as pick up them up already prepared.
There are also pick-up locations in Robinson and Wexford.
MORE INFORMATION: 
Creative Dinners & More
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