Dream Dinners

by Tina Kuna and Stephanie Allen

Book Overview

"What's for dinner?"

If the sound of those three words sends you reeling or, worse, straight to the nearest fast-food chain or take-out joint, then relax. Dream Dinners will change all that forever.

With their new cookbook, Stephanie Allen and Tina Kuna, founders of Dream Dinners, bring the successful philosophy behind their hundreds of assemble-and-freeze-meal stores across America into home kitchens. Dream Dinners offers up one hundred...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060784229
• ISBN13: 9780060784225
• Release Date: August 2006
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 7.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Life After Death

The author uses philosophy, science and other sources to prove the possibility of life after death rather than the Bible as the sole source. He has and still debates leading agnostics and atheists on the subject and more than holds his own. The book is like new. It is interesting, challenging and thought provoking. I highly recommend it.

Great recipe book for both kid friendly and adult friendly meals

I was patiently awaiting the release of this book and I was definately not disappointed. This book is based on the Dream Dinner Francise concept of preparing meals and then freezing them before cooking. Then defrosting and cooking them when you are ready to eat. However, the book focuses on preparing three meals - one to eat now and two to freeze instead of preparing them in batch. It does mention a few hints for preparing the meals all at once, but the focus is more on making extras for later. The layout of the book is very easy to read and follow. Each recipe is on a two page spread with the left side containing the ingredients and portions for both 1 and 3 meals. The right side of the page contains directions for putting the meal together, directions on how to eat it now, and then directions on how to freeze it. The book also details the type of container (either pan or bag) to use for each recipe. The back of the book contains labels to use with cooking directions for each dish. These are especially helpful if you are giving the meals to neighbors or friends as gifts. Throughout the book there are sidebars with hints and tips on how to enrich family dinner times, such as rituals and conversation starters. I thought that these were a great addition to the book and give you concrete ideas on how to make mealtimes a special time. The book contains a variety of types of recipes and is not too heavy on any type of recipe. It includes recipes for appetizers, salads, soups, side dishes, pasta dishes, dinners, and desserts. The bulk of the book is main entrees (dinners and pastas). It includes a few recipies that cannot be frozen such as a Layered Salad, but I believe that there are only a few and they are either Salads or side dishes. If you aren't a fan of soups or fish, there are only a few of these types of recipes. I am very pleased with the recipes included. I have made several of them at dream dinners and tested a few out at home. I have to disagree with the reviewer who commented that the meals are not kid friendly. I have a 3 and 4 year and felt that they would eat most of the meals in the cookbook. The book contains such kid friendly standbys as Spaghetti Pie, Pot Pie, Chicken Cassarole, Beef Stir Fry and Baked Ziti. It also has food that is more elegant such as an EXCELLENT sesame London Broil and Shrimp Creole. I think that it is a great mix between kid friendly and adult friendly food. The BBQ Beef recipe included in this book is the best BBQ that I have had and I live in NC, so that is a strong statement. My only negative comment about the book is that there are no pictures. However, I highly recommend this book and am pleased that I purchased it.

Great Helper

I attend a Dream Dinners close to my home. This cookbook has many of our favorite recipes and is easy to follow. The tips on helping families to have fun around the dinner table is a great addition!

A Wonderful Addition to this new concept

Oh my! I have been hoping that Dream Dinners would share some of their delicious recipes with us! I have prepared them at their franchise stores but it might be fun, once in a while, to attempt these creations at home! I like that they have given the the additional option of listing the quantities of each recipe so that even three entrees can be made at a time. This book has such a nice personal touch to it, evidencing the genuine care and concern they have for combining healthy eating along with the importance of family! This could be a wonderful Christmas present to just about anyone! Bless Dream Dinners! Grandma Sue

Great cookbook, even better service

I got this cookbook because I'm a Dream Dinners regular and sometimes on the nights I am cooking, I'd like to make one of our favorite Dream Dinners. The recipes are great... easy to follow and I can feel confident that we'll all like them. I don't have a lot of time and certainly don't have time to waste putting together a recipe that we don't end up liking. I've tried a couple of the copycat stores, but we like Dream Dinners recipes better, so I know we'll enjoy this cookbook. I would say you should buy this as a supplement to going to a Dream Dinners store, though, because just having the recipes really doesn't substitute for what their service offers in terms of THEM coming up with the ideas, THEM shopping, THEM getting everything ready and THEM cleaning up my mess.