I have a friend who just started working at Sous Kitchen. The concept is pretty interesting and has become rather popular in many major cities. NY Times featured it last week, "Meals That Moms can Almost Call Their Own."(fee)

Basically how it works is that you go to this restaurant quality kitchen and put together your meals. They set up various stations with all the ingredients and the recipe. You can make large or small portions and they are all fresh meats and vegetables. You can make several meals in an hour and just freeze them when you get home. These meals can serve anywhere between 4-6 people depending on the portion sizes. Since it's just me and J at home it would be quite expensive but what is really neat is you can customize the meals based on your family's taste. Also if you are in a super rush you can order certain meals to go and pick it up. And the best idea as well is if you have a family/friend having a baby or some medical surgery that renders family unable to fix meals this could be a great service for them to stock up on homecooked meals without the worry of buying all the ingredients and making it at home.

With most homes with 2 parents working, getting dinner fixed always seems to be one of those things that get pushed off to the side in favor of take-out or prefixed frozen/canned/boxed meals which are usually loaded with preservatives and other additives. Sous Kitchen sounds like an interesting concept and I'm hoping that I can try it sometime.

Sous Kitchen, San Carlos
Grand Opening April 5, 2006
5:30 Ribbon Cutting
5:30-7:30PM Open House
RSVP to grandopening@souskitchen.com

Ok I know this sounds like a ad, but I just thought it was interesting and my friend works there :)