Make-N-Take....Need help and suggestions!
Moms View Message Board: General Discussion Archive: Archive August 2005:
Make-N-Take....Need help and suggestions!
Moderators...I'm not trying to sell anything, just getting suggestions. If this post isn't okay feel free to delete it. Thanks. 
My friend is trying to start a small business from her home. It's called a Make-N-Take party. Below is the flier we put together for this week. The problem is we can't seem to get a full class each month. Last month we didn't have enough people and this month we just barley have enough. I personally think it's a great idea and I wanted to know what you ladies think and get suggestions from you. Since my family is small I am planning on cutting each of the dishes in half so I will be bringing home 14 meals instead of 7.
That said here is the flier:
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Please join me for a Homemade Gourmet…Make-N-Take Party!
Keep your evenings simple & fun with 7 dinners that are already done!
WHAT’S HAPPENING?
An opportunity to prepare 7 different meals to take home to your family while listening to good music, enjoying a glass of wine and laughing!!
WHEN?
Thursday, August 24th ~ 7:00pm-8:30pm (Sorry, but no children at this class, please.)
Can’t make it, but still want the meals? No problem. For an additional $25.00 we will make the meals for you! Just supply a cooler and we will do the rest. Bring a Friend and receive $10.00 off!
WHERE?
XXXXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXX XXXXXXX
HOW MUCH?
Only $ 110.00!
Did you know that a family of 4 dining at Chili’s 7 times spends around $220?
8 Pizza Deliveries cost about $175………8 trips to McDonalds run about $130!
What I’m offering is a fabulous deal, not to mention, so much healthier!
Plus it’s a great chance to save time, money and have lots of fun!
WHAT TO BRING
A Cooler or large box (to transport everything home)
Your “balance due” payment (cash or check)
I will supply all the rest AND clean up the mess!
This month we are preparing the meals below. Each dish serves 6…..WOW!!
SouthWest Crockpot Chicken, Chicken Fajitas,
Old Fashion Meatloaf, Beef Burgundy Tips,
Western Meal, Garlic Lemon PorkChops,
Lemon Poppyseed White Fish
(Dietary concerns or dislikes??? Let me know and we’ll make it work!)
In order to plan and shop accordingly, I'll need confirmation of your participation and a $50 deposit
by August 18th. Space is limited, so please reply quickly!
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I would love any suggestions you ladies may have. I think it would be great for working moms, Soccer Moms and pregnant ladies or if you have a new born. TIA
Andi, I just got a brochure from a local company (I think---maybe it's a franchise) called The Supper Studio that does the same thing, but it's 6 meals and about the same price. I hate to burst your bubble (you wanted honest opinions), but it really doesn't appeal to me for a lot of reasons, such as:
* It's just one more obligation to go and do something on a specific day/time. My life is busy enough already.
* My kids--or even me---wouldn't eat but maybe 4-5 meals listed just because we don't like them.
* I can do my complete grocery shopping for a week, which includes stuff for lunches, breakfast, snacks, and dinner all cooked at home from scratch for about $80-90 for a family of four.
* My kids enjoy helping me cook and usually help one night a week each. We see it as a family event.
* Most things taste better when freshly cooked, not frozen or refrigerated.
* I don't want someone else picking out meat for me.
The ultimate catch-22 to me is that this would most likely appeal to upper middle class moms and those are the ones who probably don't want to be cooking anyway--either eat out or hire someone else to do it. At least that's how it works where I live. Maybe you can at least take my *cons* and use them to better serve the demographic there.
I think for me it's the fact, like Pam, that someone else is deciding what we would eat and we wouldn't eat all that. I do once a month cooking at home and although I agree that freshly cooked meals taste better, I just don't have the time through the week. I premake meals for Monday-Friday and we cook on the weekends when it's not such a rush.
Andi, I appreciate your sensitivity to the rules about advertising. But, because the business you are talking about is clearly a local business and you posted the information for feedback, I don't see a problem with it. But thanks for your opening comment.
I agree with the comments above about cost, not having full choice, and that it would only appeal to a small group.
And, as some point out, a lot of kids are very set in their food tastes and would make a fuss about some of the food. I would guess the Beef Burgundy tips, the fish, and the porkchops would all raise protests in some families. Having raised my sons with the rule that dinner is on the table and if you don't like it, breakfast is a long way away, I wouldn't have that problem, but I suspect many moms would.
Sounds like a fun idea. I would go if I wasn't so exhausted. I like to learn to cook new things so if that was the deal that would be more interesting to me than getting the meals. 6 meals is too much for my family of pick eaters. My son and husband woudl eat none of it.
Also I am afraid the food doesn't appeal to me.
The beef burgundy tips sounds good. The fajitas sound good...
How about learn to cook something people always wanted to learn to cook. Like
chicken milanese.
Anything italian...
I always want to learn to cook french or italian.
Wouldn't really appeal to me either. For one thing, like the others, the meals don't sound all that appealing to me. Another, it is quite expensive when you break it down. Yes, you can compare it to eating out, but eating at home should be MUCH cheaper than eating out. And like someone else mentioned, I don't want others picking out my meat and other items.
It sounds great to me, Andi! I would love to do this. I heard about this a while ago, but haven't seen or heard of anything in our area.
What about vegetarian options? Like a vegetable lasagna or a chicken lasagna? Or stir fry. I guess the sky is the limit with recipes. I hope your friend does well! I know lots of Mom's who would be interested. Plus, a night out! Sounds good....
110.00
for seven meals for six people.
Lets see.. 7 times 6 is.... 42
110/42 is... something.. sort of three dollars a dinner. If everyone ate everything up.
Just trying to think if this is expensive.... Do most people have 4 kids?
Also if you could list each meal seperate on a line.
I was trying to count how many meals it was and it was too hard. And tell me how many dinners it is too. I thought it was five at one point. Moms are too tired to count...
Also it looked like 3 of the 7 dinners were western. Do people like western food where you live?
I think one or two vegetarian dish would be great. Also cheaper to make for you. (I think)
Okay well I am considering going to one of these places. We have two in our area. The biggest factor is cost. I think ours is 180 for 12 meals. I also think maybe you bring your own containers. What I like is they have 15 meals, you choose your 12 ahead of time. The menu changes monthly. Also a big advertising key for me is you get to customize, like in chicken spaghetti you can add or not add onions. Also I would agree that seperating out the items and describing better:
Chicken Fajitas
Chciken slowly cooked with mexican spices, not too spicy. This dish comes with tortillas, homemade salsa and cheese.
Serving suggestions: add guacamole and sour cream and have a mexican fiesta.
Thank you ladies, I think all those suggestions will help!
I also have a business in the neighborhood that is doing this, I think that is where her idea came from. But it does cost about $40 more and your portions are smaller.
My friend sets up 7 stations in her house and each person is assigned a different station. You prepare the meal you are assigned to and package it. Everyone wears gloves and it's very organized. At the end of the night you get the packaged items and then put them in your freezer at home.
Like I said earlier, since there are only 4 of us in our family I will be splitting most of these meals in half and freezing them in smaller amounts. These are going to be dinners I put in the freezer for those days when I have nothing to cook or it was such a crazy day I forgot to plan for dinner.
I also agree that fresh will taste better than frozen, I am the queen of not eating leftovers! LOL. But I figure since eating a frozen meal will be a once a week or once every couple weeks occurrence there shouldn't be a problem.
Vegetarian meals are a great idea, I will have to suggest that to her.
Feona: It's 7 dinners. It is all listed separately on the flier but when I cut and pasted it to this post it all got put together.
When my friend told me about it I had all the same concerns most of you did. but her friend who originally thought of the idea does this a few times a month at ther house and always has at least 9 ladies at the party. So the demand is out there I guess it's just finding the people that would be interested. I liked it because 3 of those items are Crockpot meals and I use my Crockpot once a week.
Well keep the suggestions coming, they are very interesting.
I think it sounds like a really neat idea and a fun way to get together with friends and spend and evening. I would consider going to something like this, however, I do share some of the concerns listed above such as not being able to pick my own meat and produce (I'm extremely picky about those items), meals not fitting my family, and the cost.
I think
lemon garlic chicken sounds better than garlic lemon chicken.
Alot of people hate garlic
Poppyseeds and fish? Doesn't sound good....
Also is it main courses or meals?
Sounds like just main courses? like the fish or pork chops.
I have ZERO kitchen skills so I would loooove to just go and bag stuff up. However, I would also be very leery of germs and other people licking their fingers and touching raw meat and then other things, etc. I think it should state what sanitation procedures are in place and personally, I would prefer to make each of my own meals. In other words, let the customers rotate stations, instead of one person doing just one meal and then everyone sharing. I also think it should be a more varied menu, say, give 12 choices and people must choose however many they want, then shop for all that and let those people come and prepare their number 2, 4, 5, 8, and 11, or whatever.
I would do it if the meals were 2 or 3, instead of 6. And, the meals were something new yet most people liked them. Or, if you learned something new about cooking. I love to learn new things!
I would love something like this and I even think that couples with no kids would think this is fun.
In the cooking glut I am in right now, I would hop on this if it was in my area. I hate everything I cook and the chance to get meals into the freezer that arent the same ol same ol really appeals to me. I dont think I would use this service ALL the time but I think that I would use it some of the time.
There is a dream dinners at the top of the thread that does the same thing.
http://www.dreamdinners.com/
Don't recreate the wheel. For example if you are opening a diner you don't have to figure it all out yourself. You can go look at other diners and see what they are doing.
Go to other Make and Creates and see what their menus are and how they do stuff.
Well last night was the Make-N-Take and it was great! We made 52 dinners in 45 minutes!!! I have a freezer full of food that looks really yummy and I think everyone who attended last night had a great time. I split a couple of my items in half and froze them so they
Would not go to waste.
I think this is something I would do again down the road and I think it was well worth the money. I would have to budget for it but the amount of food you get is amazing.
Thank you for taking the time to post your suggestions.
That's awesome, Andi! I'm glad to hear it went well. Ok, why do you have to live so far away? I want to come!!
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