{Sponsored Post} HyVee DISH Program

We were invited recently to try out the HyVee DISH Program, and we are so excited to share our experience with you today!  ICMB Cofounders Sara and Kaitlyn, along with 3 of our contributing writers, visited the Waterfront HyVee to see what this DISH thing is all about…

What is DISH?

DISH stands for Dinner Is Served at HyVee.  It is a meal-prep program designed to help busy families plan their meals and get things done quickly, in order to give them more time to spend with their families.  Groups of 5-15 come into the store once or twice a month to prepare their meals and take them home to freeze and eat when they’re ready to eat them.  Each member of the group gets to choose a recipe from the large catalog of available recipes, and that is the recipe they will come to prepare.  At the end of the session, everyone goes around the room and grabs one of each meal that was prepared that evening.  So, in the end, you will go home with between 5 and 15 meals, prepped and ready for your family!

ICMB meets DISH

hyvee2When the five of us walked into the club room at HyVee, we were excited to see that the recipes had actually already been started for us!  All of the meats were cut and prepped specifically for each recipe, and waiting in a dish for us.  The rest of the ingredients were there alongside the meat, as well as printed recipes and Ziploc bags and Sharpies.  Everything ready and waiting for us!

We all got to work on our recipes, and soon enough we were all chatting about our own meal planning strategies (or lack thereof) in our homes, what our kids like/don’t like to eat, and how crazy it is to try and grocery shop with toddlers!  It is always so great to be surrounded by other moms who just “get us”.  Within an hour, we had enjoyed some adult conversation, laughed about our inability to use handheld can openers, and prepped 5 complete meals for 5 entire families!  Here’s what we made that evening:

* Chili

* Quiche

* Lasagna Style Baked Ziti

* Chicken Noodle Casserole

* Corn Chowder

hyvee3These recipes were all really simple (always a plus!), and there weren’t any spicy or “weird” ingredients, so I think it’s safe to say that they would all be family-friendly meals!  Of course, it might be fun to switch it up once in a while and choose some more complicated, or more complex, recipes too.  That’s the great thing about the program–you and your other group members pick the recipes!

Since our visit to DISH, many of us have made the recipes at home for our families, and the feedback has been great.  The chicken noodle casserole was a hit with a lot of our kids (and the parents too!), and I personally made the corn chowder for a family dinner with my in-laws.  Next up on my list is the lasagna style ziti, and I hear from the others that it is a good one!  I must admit, thinking about back-to-school and all of these changes in our schedule next week, I’m pretty happy to see those Ziploc bags full of delicious meals waiting in my freezer!

Our Favorite Things about DISH

No Shopping!  HyVee will have all of your ingredients, plus all of the necessary utensils, ready to go when you arrive.  They will also have all of the meat cut and ready for each recipe, which is a real time-saver.

No Interruptions! We can all relate to the toddler-on-the-leg, older-kids-wrestling, attempt-to-get-dinner-done evenings.  At the DISH program, the only interruptions to your meal-prep are the conversations of the other women in the group, and I’d say that was pretty awesome!  It’s always fun to have a friend in the kitchen, isn’t it?

No. Clean. Up.  That’s right, NO clean up!  When your recipes are complete, you simply carry all of those dirty dishes to the HyVee kitchen sink, and you walk away.  I don’t know about the others, but that may have been my absolute favorite part!!

{P.S. my personal favorite, aside from the no-clean-up, would have to be the cost.  Each meal averages between $10 and $15, and although they say it serves 4, it actually served more than that for our family!}

For these reasons, and many more, we at the Iowa City Moms Blog would HIGHLY recommend the HyVee DISH program for a fun night out with friends, getting some delicious meals ready for your family, and bypassing a few days’ worth of shopping/prepping/cleaning in your busy schedules!

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This is a Sponsored Post.  We were compensated via cash or product in exchange for writing this review.  However, the HONEST opinions found here are all courtesy of Iowa City Moms Blog writers.

Sara
Sara and her husband Matt (sweethearts since they were just 16) got married in 2007, and since then have welcomed four beautiful children (Sam in 2008, Cooper in 2010, Nora in 2012, and Adam James in December 2015). A born-and-raised Iowan, Sara received both her Bachelor's and Master's Degrees (in Spanish Literature) from the University of Iowa. She's still teaching Spanish wherever and whenever she can, but her true passion is owning Iowa City Moms and building this community alongside her amazing team. Sara is also the Community Engagement Coordinator for City Mom Collective, and the owner of Cowork Collective downtown Iowa City. Common denominator in all of these jobs: community, community, community.

4 COMMENTS

  1. Brittany and Jill, they don’t have a section on their website yet. It is a brand new program at the Waterfront HyVee. Feel free to give the store a call and ask for Nicole (the Coffee Manager) or just ask them how to sign up for the DISH program! Sorry there isn’t an easier way at the moment! Hope you love the program!

  2. Hello…do you know if they are still doing this at the Waterfront HyVee?? We have made several attempts to contact them about it, but have either gotten no reply or no one knows what we are talking about. Thanks!

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