Family Meal Packs in Roanoke, VA | Chef Spoon's 3112 Meal Prep
Some of the best nights I've had in this business started with somebody else's schedule falling apart.
When my kids were younger and active in sports, there were plenty of nights when we'd get home from a soccer game at 7:30 and I'd walk straight into the kitchen to start figuring out dinner.
I remember one night in particular. It was around 8 o'clock, I was on the phone with a friend while I was cooking, and she asked me, "Who eats dinner at 8 o'clock at night?"
My answer was simple: "People with children in sports do."
Because that was our reality.
Practices, games, school, work, getting everybody where they needed to be and then getting everybody back home again. Dinner didn't stop needing to happen just because the rest of the day ran long. And as a parent, I still wanted my kids to have a real meal, even if that meant I was standing in the kitchen cooking it at eight o'clock at night.
That's an experience I carried with me when I started thinking seriously about meal prep. I knew there were other parents walking through their doors at 7:30 or 8:00 after practice or a game, looking at the kitchen and thinking, now I have to figure out dinner.
I know that feeling because I've been that parent.
What a Family Pack Is
It's one of my dishes, scaled up for a whole table and delivered in a refrigerated casserole dish that goes straight from your fridge into your oven. Five generous portions, already cooked and already seasoned, so all that's left for you is turning the oven on and setting a timer.
No chopping, no seasoning, no standing over anything, and no stack of pans waiting for you afterward. Each one is $54.95, which works out to $10.99 a portion.
I priced it that way on purpose. Feeding a family shouldn't be the thing you have to think hardest about.
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5 Generous Portions |
$54.95 Per Family Pack |
$10.99 Per Portion |
What's on the Family Pack Menu
The Family Packs are built on the same recipes I use for my meal plans, so nothing here is a lesser version of anything.
Most of them are built around chicken, beef or shrimp, with rice bowls, stir fries and a few things on the comfort food side of the line. And some of them are always fully vegan. I keep those there because I know how many families have one person eating differently from everyone else, and I've never thought that person should be handed a side dish while the rest of the table eats dinner.
The line-up shifts, so whatever's available right now is on the Family Packs page.
Every Entrée I Make Is Gluten Free
That includes the Family Packs. If somebody in your house avoids gluten, they eat what everyone else is eating and nobody is standing at the counter reading the back of a label.
I'll be straight with you about the one exception, which is sides. Those aren't guaranteed gluten free. If you're adding them to your order and it matters for your household, message me first and I'll tell you exactly where things stand.
The Hardest Part of Feeding a Family Isn't the Cooking
I've worked in the food industry since I was 15, back in 2002, and I still find that feeding a family has less to do with the cooking than with everything stacked in front of it.
What's thawed. Who's actually going to eat this. Whether there's enough of it. Whether the grocery run happens tonight or gets pushed to tomorrow for the third time. That's the part that wears people down, and it's the part nobody sees.
When you order a Family Pack, all of that got decided on Friday afternoon and you don't have to carry it around for the rest of the week.
When You Need To Order By
I shop fresh for every order that comes in, so my cutoffs are firm and I'd rather tell you that up front than disappoint you later.
Order by Friday at 5 PM for Sunday delivery between 2 PM and 6 PM, or by Saturday at 5 PM for Tuesday delivery between 5:30 PM and 8 PM. If pickup suits you better, that runs Monday and Tuesday from 2:30 to 5 PM at my kitchen in downtown Roanoke.
We deliver across Roanoke, Salem, Vinton, Cave Spring, Hollins, Bonsack, Daleville, Troutville, Cloverdale, Boones Mill, Bedford and Rocky Mount.
Who Orders Family Packs, and Why
Families with school-age kids are the obvious fit, but I've watched people use these for all kinds of weeks.
A weekend with family staying over. A stretch where nobody in the house has anything left for cooking. A night when the person who always cooks has simply had enough of cooking. And because the whole thing bakes in the dish it arrives in, people send them to new parents, to neighbors, and to friends going through a rough month.
That last one means a great deal to me, because that's the oldest use for food there is.
Fresh, Never Frozen
Family Packs are cooked fresh and delivered cold, so keep the dish in your refrigerator and bake it within three to five days.
Frozen would last longer and I know that. But I've built this whole business on cooking from scratch, and I've never been able to convince myself that the right ending for that is a freezer.