EATS - Easy Assembly Transaction Solution - Easy M

Super Suppers - Now powered by EATS

2008-08-01T12:06:00.000-07:00

Super Suppers, North America's second largest Meal Prep chain with over 140 locations officially made the switch to EATS Meal prep software, July 30, 2008!

We've been working with Super Suppers to complete some exciting improvements to EATS and to ensure a smooth and successful launch. We're proud to say that this cooperation and mutual dedication has lead to our best EATS franchise launch to date!

I would like to personally congratulate the EATS Team. You guys and gals did a fantastic job and were getting great feedback already!

Sincerely,

Chris Gravel

Sales & Account Manager
EATS

You are what you eat

2008-07-23T11:16:00.000-07:00

Food Matters

Do you believe you are what you eat? We've been hearing it for years but more of us are taking it to heart. You may just want to check out what top Nutritionists and food Educators are saying in the new film Food Matters.

Food Matters TV

It's worth noting most our clients place nutritional and ingredient quality far above fast food chains. Quality ingredients, organics, local produce are becoming more prominent offerings for Meal Assembly Kitchens. So if food matters to you skip the frozen section and check with your local Meal Assembly Kitchen. They may just be the ticket to the convenience and healthy choice you have been looking for!

EATS thinks that this sounds like a great step toward healthy eating and health care, but before you undertake any new diet regimen be sure to run it by your Doctor.

What's Going on at EATS this Summer!

2008-07-23T10:32:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a busy Spring for us! Working with new customers, adding exciting features to our industry leading meal assembly software, and looking forward to sharing them with our clients!

EATS is swiftly becoming an industry standard known for user experience and functionality, and we don't plan to stop there! Read on to learn more about what's in store this Summer...

Highlights:

- New and Improved POS
- Meal Assembly goes Mobile

New & Improved POS:

A fully integrated, web based POS (Point Of Sale) system is now part of the EATS solution!
Key features and benefits of the EATS POS:

- Ensures integration of all sales, orders and customer data. No more consolidation - headaches
and sales analysis made easy!

- Fully integrated with EATS, our POS seamlessly manages your orders whether they are made
online or in store!

- Designed for your business. Why pay for features you'll never use?

- EATS compatibility with card swipers, receipt printers, and bar code scanners lets you work
more efficiently so you can focus on your customers.

... and more!

Improved online ordering:

The meal assembly industry's reliance on ecommerce means that it's critical to have a solution that works the way customers have come to expect and understand. We've been working hard to add some breakthrough features to EATS to make it that solution.

The EATS shopping experience:

EATS provides customers with a quick and easy ecommerce experience. Customers can simply begin ordering without signing up or logging in by using the 'Get Started' button on the home page or by selecting the Menu. Clearly labeled buttons and accessible instructions guide customers through the ordering process, making online purchasing smooth and intuitive.

Ordering online or in store has never been quicker of easier, which adds up to a better customer experience, more return visits and greater sales!

Featured EATS customer:

Featured client: Cena

Tami and Bruce Badinger founded Cena only four years ago, and have grown to over 25 franchises around the US and Canada. With a unique approach of offering not only delicious meals but a full wine shop, baked goods and sides, Cena is distinguishing itself from the competition.

EATS News:

Prep'n Time takes Meal Prep on the road!

Many Meal Prep businesses are offering delivery these days, but Prep'n Time has taken the concept in a whole new direction by offering mobile services to the community. Well done and good luck Karen and Michael!

Super Suppers Featured on QVC

2008-07-17T11:16:00.000-07:00

Super Suppers was featured on QVC yesterday. Company founder Judie Byrd gave an excellent appearance to promote the new cookbook she has published.

According to the site, the cookbook is

(l)oaded with 180 family-friendly, easy-to-prepare entrees, sides, appetizers, desserts, and more, Super Suppers Cookbook helps you get a delicious meal on the table in minutes. It also includes plan ahead and freeze ahead tips, as well as tricks to trim time, cut steps, and boost flavor.

You can watch the segment here. While you are there, you should pick up one of the cookbooks while they are available. If it is no longer available through QVC, you can always pick one up at amazon

Check out Judie's other cookbooks available for purchase on Judie' personal website.

Food Photography Tips

2008-04-16T15:34:00.000-07:00

The Ten Tastiest Food Photography Tips

Food has an agenda. It wants you to eat it, and it wants you to eat it now.

If you dilly-dally around Food, trying to photograph it instead of eating it, its defense mechanism kicks in. It immediately looks terrible in pictures, forcing you to give up, put down the camera, and eat the Food. Natural selection at work.

The time has come to subvert Food's Evil Agenda. Read our tips, take up your cameras, and join the glorious food photography revolution!

The Ten Tastiest Food Photography Tips

1: Setting
Choose a setting that enhances, but doesn't distract from your food. Pick a simple, plain background or tablecloth.

Use plates whose color contrasts with or harmonizes with your food, but not ones that are the same color.

Before you start shooting, make sure there isn't any distracting clutter in the background of the shot (stray people, silverware, whatever). Using a wider aperture to blur the background will help.

2: Light
Use natural light whenever you can. The ideal set-up is a next to a large window, with a white curtain to diffuse the light.

If you can't get natural light, don't be tempted to use your flash. Flash photography is too harsh for food's delicate sensibilities. It flattens everything out and makes for unappealing shiny spots.

3: Color Balance
Especially in situations where natural light is unavailable, your photos can have a yellow or blue cast that makes food look terrible (see the blue bacon pictured right). Use the white balance setting on your camera, or adjust the color digitally later on.

4: Don't Move
In low-light situations like restaurants and kitchens, long exposures will register any camera movement as blur. Use a tripod whenever possible. If you don't have one, try resting your camera on a water glass or the back of a chair. Or make yourself a string tripod.

5: Shoot A Lot
Take lots of pictures. Move around the food and see what angle looks best: down low to see the food head-on? Up high to take in the geometry of the presentation?

6: Zoom In
Get in as close as you can. Use the macro setting on your camera if it has one. Fill the frame with the food, so the viewer can almost taste it.

7: Preparation
Don't forget to take pictures of the process. Sometimes making the food (chopping, cooking) can be as interesting as the final product.

8: Be Quick
Work quickly. The faster you take pictures of the food, the fresher it will look. Cold, congealed meat and wilted salads just don't look good.

Use an empty plate to help you set up your shot before the food is ready. At the last minute, slip in the real plate of food.

9: Details
The devil is in the details. Check the edges of your plates and glasses for stray food, and wipe away any smudges. Use sauces and garnishes to add color to drab shots (i.e. adding a lemon wedge to iced tea).

10: Don't Shoot
Some things will just never look delicious, no matter how hard you try.

Meals that are all the same color and brown sauces are best left alone. And tasty though they may be, we defy you to make a haggis look good.

Full article with pictures:

http://photojojo.com/content/tips/food-photography-tips/

Easy Meal Prep Newsletter for March 2008 highlights whats new in Webistes and Softaware for Meal Prep.

2008-03-27T15:16:00.000-07:00

What's New in Websites and Software for Meal Prep Businesses
The capabilities of the software for running meal prep businesses continues to improve. The following are features and innovations for you to know about if you are investigating what's next for your website and software.

• Professional-looking home page. It's important to have a great looking store and it is also important that your web storefront looks professional. This home page needs to be aesthetically pleasing, relevant to your business, informational, and simple. If you get the home page looking correct, then a lot of the rest of your website will fall into place.

• Pricing models and flexibility. An increasing number of meal prep businesses are moving to single item or "a la carte" pricing instead of bundled pricing. This makes it easier to ensure that you can provide both lower cost dishes and ones that require higher-cost ingredients. A la carte pricing is also better for stores that do a lot of retail sales (pick up, grab n go, and take n bake). We have recently been seeing more and more a la carte pricing systems that give customers the choice of ordering multiple sizes of entrees in the same order.

• Images of the food. The adage in the restaurant industry is that if you have photo of a dish, it will sell better. An increasing number of meal prep stores are adding images to their website for the same reason. In some cases, the the only image is of the featured dish of the month on the home page. Others have images of some, but not all of the dishes. An increasing number of stores provide a picture of each dish as part of their system. Professional looking food photos have the most impact. If your budget is constrained and plan to take the photos yourself, we recommend that you look at the sites that have high quality photos and see what you can learn from these images to get the right lighting and composition for your food to look as enticing as possible.

• POS (Point of Sales systems). This is currently a big area of development in the meal prep industry. POS + internet integration is a complex problem with many possible solutions. The meal prep industry started with software that was optimized for web-based transactions. The pizza and other parts of the restaurant industry started with systems that were designed for phone-in and in-store orders. There is now a major move afoot to integrate these capabilities.

• Customer order analysis, communication, and loyalty. Well designed software for a meal prep business includes tools for understanding customer buying patterns, measuring marketing campaign effectiveness, linking to your email marketing and direct mail programs, and tracking and managing your loyalty and referral programs.

• Search engine optimization. It is important that your store and signage are visible. Similarly, it is important that that your website can be found by your target customers. Making sure that you have the right tags and content on your web pages can make a big difference. Many software suppliers can help you with this or can recommend someone that can provide this service.

Not all of these capabilities need to be in one software product that you purchase. Many meal prep businesses have implemented successful systems with separate suppliers for the front end website, the ordering system, the POS, and the email marketing function. The key is to ensure that there is one central party (typically your ordering system software supplier) that takes responsibility for ensuring that each piece of the system works well with the others.

EATS Appointed to IAMPB Intelligence Committee

2007-09-14T11:39:00.000-07:00

The International Association of Meal Prep Businesses (IAMPB) has appointed Naveed Hajee - EATS Business Development Manager - to their Competitive Intelligence Analysis Committee. The goal of the committee is to help and inform members of the association with their business and to inform the general public about the growing meal prep industry. EATS has no doubt that Naveed will be an asset to the committee with his intimate knowledge of the industry.

The IAMPB was formed in 2005 to help bring together members of the emerging meal prep industry and create an encompassing knowledge base to help both new entrants and industry veterans. Since its inception, the association has been an invaluable asset by bringing together all of the players in the industry. To find out more information about the association, visit the IAMPB website.

EATS Welcomes Magnificent Meals

2007-06-30T15:20:00.000-07:00

EATS is pleased to announce the website launch of the newest member of the EATS family - Magnificent Meals. Magnificent Meals needed a complete online solution on which to run their meal prep business. EATS designed a website meeting the specifications that Magnificent Meals laid out and integrated it into our EATS meal prep software. The Magnificent Meals website was launched on June 30, 2007.

Magnificent Meals is located in Cary Illinois and is run by Vicki Clawson. Magnificent Meals boasts an in-house registered dietician, Monica Michalski, who offers Nutrition Coaching and Consulting. Monica also authors a blog for the company with current meal preparation industry trends and hot topics in nutrition. Along with superior nutritional guidance, Magnificent Meals is also focused on complete consumer satisfaction and offers 3 methods of assembly: the traditional assemble yourself; they also boast a pick-up option where everything is assembled for you and ready to go; and when your schedule does not permit stopping by the store, they will assemble your food and drop it off at your house – the ultimate in convenience.

The EATS team wishes Magnificent Meals all the best on the launch of their new meal prep business.

IAMPB Meal Prep Conference Wrap Up

2007-06-20T13:23:00.000-07:00

The annual meal prep association (IAMPB) conference in Florida was a great success again this year. We saw many familiar faces amongst the crowd as well as some new faces to the meal prep industry. It was great catching up with people from last year and having the chance to meet the new entrants into the industry. We wish everyone in attendance another successful year in their meal prep ventures.

We found that this year's sessions were very informative and useful for both individual entrepreneurs and franchises alike. The sessions were quite varied, ranging from Branding to Insurance, ensuring that there was something geared towards all of the attendees. We would like to extend our thanks to all of the presenters for their informative sessions, helping to make the conference the huge success that it was.

EATS was ecstatic with the turn out for Naveed Hajee's presentation on website design and software build out for meal prep businesses. Naveed received a great response from the attendees and the question and answer period session saw many great questions regarding the presentation and the applications for software in the meal preparation industry.

EATS Attending IAMPB's Annual Meeting

2007-06-07T12:46:00.000-07:00

The International Association of Meal Preparation Businesses (IAMPB) is holding their annual meeting in Orlando Florida from June 8-10, 2007. EATS Easy Meal Prep Software will be in attendance at this event. Representing EATS Easy Meal Prep Software will be Dario Meli and Naveed Hajee. Last years' event was a resounding success and EATS anticipates that this years meeting will be so as well.

Business Development Manager Naveed Hajee will be a guest speaker at the conference on June 9. His presentation will focus on Website Design and Functionality. Naveed will touch on some of the key points Web design and the build out process of software to facilitate meal prep business. With over 10 years experience in web based software, he will share with attendees useful tips that will assist creating an impressive website and the necessary software to complement it to help run Meal Prep Kitchens. To find out more information about Naveeds' presentation and the annual conference, visit the IAMPB website http://www.iampb.org.

Healthy Creations Launch their New Website

2007-05-25T15:57:00.000-07:00

EATS is happy to announce the launch of another meal prep business powered by EATS - Healthy Creations. Healthy Creations had a website design, but needed a powerful complete e-commerce solution to run their meal prep business. EATS' integrated our meal prep software with Healthy Creations website design to create a fully functional online solution that fulfilled all of Healthy Creations online business needs. The Healthy Creations website powered by EATS launched May 25, 2007.

Healthy Creations is located in Encinitas California and is run by Rhiana Glor. Rhiana has a chef's certificate from Bauman College of Natural Foods. Rhiana's focus with Healthy Creations is to make organic eating as easy and convenient as possible. Healthy Creations supports local farmers by using organic locally grown produce and always uses organic grains and free-range, hormone free meats. Healthy Creations never uses added preservatives and they always have your health in mind when designing their meals.

The team here at EATS wishes Rhiana and Healthy Creations much success in their meal prep venture.

My Hill Country Kitchen Joins the EATS Family!

2007-04-30T14:33:00.000-07:00

We would like to welcome the newest member of the EATS family, My Hill Country Kitchen. My Hill Country Kitchen came to EATS with a website design and needed a robust web based turn key e-commerce solution on which to run their business. EATS' integrated our meal prep software into their existing website design to deliver a solution that fulfilled all of My Hill Country Kitchens business requirements. The new My Hill Country Kitchen website was launched on April 30, 2007.

My Hill Country Kitchen is located in Boerne, Texas and is operated by Stacey Auxier and focuses on family oriented business model as well as parties and fundraising events. Check out My Hill Country Kitchen's YouTube commercial that they have produced to help spread the word about their new business.

My Hill Country Kitchen is a welcome new addition to the EATS family and we wish them the best of success with their meal prep business.

Make N' Take Meals

2007-04-24T16:08:00.001-07:00

Easy Meal Prep made it on MSNBC's "Today's Kitchen" with a story on the ease, value and fun of the meal prep center idea. Watch the video for yourself at MSNBC's website.

The story spotlights make-and-take meal prep franchises like MealMakers, Super Suppers, Dream Dinners and My Girlfriend's Kitchen; Phil Lempert and Al Roker talk to customers of the big make-and-take dinner companies and try out some of the meals for themselves.

Check out the clip at MSNBC and then find an EATS meal prep center in your area!

Exciting New Things for Easy Meal Prep - Version 1.6 Launches

2007-04-18T17:46:00.000-07:00

Spring always means new things, and for EATS the onset of spring means a brand new version with many new features. April showers will see our clients adjusting to the new system and May flowers will bring all of the changes live to each EATS site. EATS Version 1.6 contains many of the features we've been most excited about over the last period of development, including:

Ingredient management

EATS clients can choose to use our extensive ingredient database (provided with the 1.6 update) or they can import their own supplier and ingredient information.

Product categorization

By far one of our most-requested features, product categorization is here. The EATS administrator can set up your menu to be split into several different categories. Regular/Lite? Regular/Vegetarian? Beef/Chicken/Pork/Fish? Fullsize/Halfsize? The sky's the limit with this feature. We've also built in non-categorized full size and half size pricing.

Franchise and employee permissions

Franchises can now have price modifiers set based on store. Franchises and employees can be given different permissions; now, different levels of users can edit things that are only relevant to them or their duties.

Prep/assembly/cooking list reports

All EATS clients now have access to attractive, concise list reports. Prep and assembly lists can be generated for each session with prep and assembly instructions, for staff or to be placed at workstations. Cooking instruction reports can be sent home with the customer with a handy "schedule your next session" checkbox after all meals have been prepared.

We are very excited to show our EATS family these changes we've been working on. Enjoy version 1.6 and happy spring!

Sensational Suppers Opening New Franchise Locations

2007-04-10T12:00:00.000-07:00

Our very first EATS easy meal prep software client, Sensational Suppers, is currently expanding. Sensational Suppers' unique, stylish design concept, healthy meals, vegetarian-friendly options and upscale boutique look have rapidly made them a big contender in the easy meal prep industry. As one of Vancouver's - and, in fact, Canada's - first easy meal prep businesses, Sensational Suppers has wowed a difficult crowd.

Sensational Suppers has developed an attractive franchise offering plan and is currently accepting applications for franchise territories. Their detailed, well-developed franchise plan makes opening a Sensational Suppers franchise a snap. With a 21-day in-store training package, team discounts, competitive franchise benefits and much more, Sensational Suppers is shaping up to be one of the best easy meal prep franchising operations we've heard of.

Think you've got a great idea for a Sensational Suppers location? Check out their franchise information page and get cooking!

30+ Franchise MealMakers Goes Live on EATS

2007-04-07T11:45:00.000-07:00

With over 30 locations, 9 more to open in the near future, and plenty more to come, MealMakers is one of the fastest-growing Easy Meal Prep businesses in the United States. We're honoured that MealMakers chose EATS' easy meal prep software to execute their nationwide online ordering system.

MealMakers is our newest client launch and, we must admit, our current pride and joy. All 31 MealMakers locations are fully operational on the MealMakers website. First, customers select their local franchise by state and city, and then they select from the available sessions for that particular location. Each franchise's ordering system is outfitted with MealMakers' three separate menus: Regular, Classic and Lite.

MealMakers' ordering system supports full size and half size pricing, and each franchise system contains a price multiplier which allows them to adjust the meal prices based on region.

The EATS easy meal prep software system was seamlessly integrated into the existing MealMakers website. Design coherency, ease of use and adherence to the MealMakers corporate style were our number one priorities in the website integration.

If there's not a MealMakers in your area, there is sure to be one soon! For the first multi-franchise nationwide EATS project, check out MealMakers. Looking for a franchise opportunity? MealMakers' coherent online system will make operation easy for you and your team. Use MealMakers' Franchise Contact Form for more information.

Dinners in Thyme Profiled in Fairfield CBJ

2007-02-20T15:29:00.000-08:00

The Fairfield County Business Journal out of Fairfield County, Connecticut, ran a story profiling EATS client Dinners in Thyme. Dawn Keenan and Liza Melendez, the moms and entrepreneurs behind Dinners in Thyme, speak of the success they've found in the Easy Meal Prep industry. Dawn talks about her choice to open an independent Easy Meal Assembly store rather than a franchise.

The two entrepreneurs were convinced about the concept and decided to open their own meal-prep store rather than go the franchise route. "I'm pretty much a control freak," Keenan said. "There were some things I didn't like about a franchise. One was food quality. Everything is frozen. Everything we bring in is fresh. The franchise sodium content is very high. I'm a healthy eater and I cook healthy for my family."

Dawn also mentions the money she saved by using her own creative muscle to come up with a truly unique Easy Meal Prep business: "Our total startup cost was $180,000... A franchise would be about $250,000."

Dinners in Thyme has seen a large variety of customers and some true appreciation for their hard work already - and they've only been open since December 15th.

"We've had everyone in here from singles who don't have time to cook to young couples who both work to stay-at-home moms to two-income families to retirees," Liza says. "We've actually had people come to us before we even opened who liked our concept and the way we've structured our business and are interested in opening a store with our name."

Touch of Gourmet Goes Live!

2007-01-23T17:59:00.000-08:00

Another EATS Family member has gone live: Hilliard, OH's Touch of Gourmet.

Lisa Weaver's innovative Easy Meal Assembly Kitchen has made their place in the industry as the destination for good value, quality gourmet meals. Their fundraising initiatives make them a star member of the Hilliard business community; they place great emphasis on the role of the family and the importance of community. They will quickly be known for their customizable and nutritious meals as well as the warm gourmet atmosphere they provide.

This amazing, classic site was designed by the EATS team.

To check out the rest of the EATS family, take a look at our clients page. Once your EATS site has gone live, you'll see your company there too. Contact us at sales@eatsolution.com for more information.

Slashfood Reports on Easy Meal Prep Going International

2007-01-09T13:22:00.000-08:00

Online food blog Slashfood posted an article on the 7th January talking about the popularity of Easy Meal Prep businesses in the USA - and, says Slashfood writer Nicole Weston, "the trend is so popular that it is starting to spread out of the US."

Slashfood singles out DinnersMade, a UK-based Easy Meal Prep company with a unique approach to the industry. The first of its kind in England, DinnersMade's Richmond location features an attached bar and grill.

DinnersMade was opened by mogul David Lloyd, a man who was made his name building successful businesses from the ground up. Always quick to utilise a good idea, the brilliance of Easy Meal Prep was not lost on him.

Lloyd's DinnersMade is a great example of a new angle to take in an industry that some are calling saturated. Creative ideas, good service and great food will always do well.

DinnersMade has recently expanded to the USA. EATS powers the software that runs the USA DinnersMade operation.

Best Wishes for the New Year from EATS.

2007-01-05T15:11:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year from all of us at EATS. We hope your holidays were full of cheer, family and great food, and we're looking forward to a great year. Interested in starting off 2007 by finally getting your Easy Meal Prep business website rolling? Contact sales@eatsolution.com for more information on how we can build a beautiful, streamlined website for your Easy Meal Prep business.

Over the holidays we launched a new EATS family member: Afoodeasyac! Burnie and Jennifer run Afoodeasyac out of Houston, TX. Their fun, friendly approach to Easy Meal Prep is destined to do well in the Houston market. Afoodeasyac was designed by the EATS team.

We've also launched Brookfield, CT-based Dinners In Thyme. Family-oriented, time-saving ideas and philosophies give Dinners In Thyme their edge.

Stay tuned for more EATS releases and news!

EATS Version 1.5 - December 8th

2006-12-01T11:55:00.000-08:00

The brand-new EATS 1.5 is in testing for all of our EATS clients. It combines a sleek, polished new interface with a few great new features that were requested by some of our EATS family members. While there's still lots more to come, we're all really excited to unveil these great features for our members.

EATS 1.5 will be fully up and running live on Friday December 8th, and for the time being it's in testing mode for all of the EATS systems to check it out and give us some feedback. Here's a summary of what we've changed.

The new interface was designed with beauty in mind, but it also promotes ease of use; error messages will now be more obvious to users, and the menus are a bit more intuitive. There's still more to come; once EATS puts on its tux you'll really be blown away. It cleans up real nice.

We have built in the ability to limit the number of any product. This means that if you want your customers to be able to order only 2 of any given entree, or 4 of any given extra, you can set these variables. If you have, for example, a lobster dinner and you want to limit orders of this meal to 1 per customer, you can set that meal individually and have your general limits apply to everything else. You can also set gift certificates, for example, to 0 (unlimited) and leave everything else limited.

Under the Orders section, there is now the ability to print all packing slips, invoices and other lists at once instead of one by one. We will be adding more list options soon.

We have added a new customer report that outputs carious customer details to a CSV file, compatible with Quickbooks and Excel.

The CMS content editor will now display the proper fonts and colours for your website; no more guesswork when it comes to coloured headers.

The support tab has been built out; it contains a Manual and a few more pieces of support information. There's more coming soon.

We are always building more features for EATS. If there's anything in particular that you'd like to see, send us an email at sales@eatsolution.com. We'd love to hear any suggestions you have.

With love,
The EATS Team

Healthy Helpings Goes Live!

2006-11-21T13:41:00.000-08:00

EATS Customer Healthy Helpings went live as of November 17th. Their grand opening was held at their Langley, BC location and featured free meals and entertainment. Healthy Helpings makes their name on healthy, fresh, nutritious meals for families. If you're in the Lower Mainland, check out Healthy Helpings in Langley.

Easy Thanksgiving Specials

2006-11-21T13:12:00.000-08:00

USA Today reported recently that buying a good, almost-home-cooked Thanksgiving meal is becoming more popular year after year. 2005 saw 5% of US households purchasing their pre-made or pre-prepped Thanksgiving meal from an assortment of sources, and market research suggests that this year it will top 6%.

The most popular sources for the Thanksgiving meal are upscale eateries, natural grocers, online food services, fast food, and of course, Easy Meal Assembly stores. More and more Easy Meal Prep businesses are providing a Thanksgiving menu this year, whether for regular assembly sessions, for pre-made pickup, or both. Customers are increasingly looking for a healthier, more organic and better-tasting "homemade" meal, but nobody has the time.

USA Today makes reference to the Google Generation - short on time but looking for tasty, healthy, nutritious food just like Grandma used to make.

Special seasonal items are more popular than ever this year in Easy Meal Prep stores, with Christmas cookies, Thanksgiving sides, New Years Eve appetizer platters and other holiday favourites getting top sales for many businesses and franchises.

Easy Meal Prep on Business Week

2006-11-08T11:29:00.000-08:00

The Easy Meal Assembly business hit nationwide airwaves when this segment was broadcasted on Business Week. The segment profiles two of the largest Easy Meal Prep franchises out there - Super Suppers and Dream Dinners - and discusses the concept with entrepreneurship opportunities in mind.

With Easy Meal Assembly hitting the headlines and business booming, it won't be long until the industry is a household idea.

Health, Easy Meal Prep and You

2006-11-07T14:58:00.000-08:00

Frances Largeman wrote a great article over on Health.Com about Easy Meal Prep places - she visited a large franchise location and shared her experiences. While she, like many of us, was a huge fan of the concept, she was critical of some of the nutritionals and ingredients associated with the dishes.

Many of the larger franchises use canned and frozen ingredients and things like liquid eggs and liquid butter, white rice and white bread, which are nutritionally devoid and high in fat. This saves money and time for the company, but sacrifices customers' health. While these meals are still healthier than a lot of take-out and almost all fast food, Largeman feels that customers should be careful while shopping for Easy Meal Prep meals.

One of our favourite things about many of our clients is that they offer healthier alternatives. Sensational Suppers offers vegetarian options of many of their most popular meals each month. Soon-to-be-opened Healthy Helpings makes their name on providing healthy, quick meals for busy families.

Largeman's points are good. Be careful what you're buying - one of the best things about choosing Easy Meal Prep over take-out is the health and wellness benefits for your family.