Tag Archives: 148

July 14, 2008 – 3:46 am

The in”side” Dish on side-dishes

Sides, sides everywhere!

The customer feedback has come in loud and clear. Sugar Snap Peas, Sweet Potato Fries, Exotic Grains and Fire Roasted Vegetables. You love our sides, and you want more of them.

We hear you.   And we’ve responded by including more sides as part of the regular Let’s Dish! menu.   We’ve added Sugar Snap Peas to our Marinated Flank Steak, Sweet Potato Fries to our Parmesan Crusted Pork Chops,  Jasmine Rice to our Savory Apricot Crusted Salmon, and more!

Plus: We’ve extended our special sides offer through the fall, meaning you can choose 4 family-sized sides for $20!

So sign up for a session today, and you’ll see we are filling your family’s plates with more deliciousness than ever before!

About Jeremy

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RECOMMENDED LINKS
> 1 Dish? 6 Dishes? 11 Dishes? We’re Flexible.
> Wow the crowds at home and on vacation!

Click to continue reading “The in”side” Dish on side-dishes”

By Jeremy Kugel | Posted in Most Popular Posts, The Dish On | Also tagged , , , , , | Comments (2)
June 30, 2008 – 5:00 am

Now More Ways to Get a FREE Dish!

Introducing DishPointsYou know about DishRewards. That’s the program we launched this spring, where you earn DishPoints (good as cash on www.letsdish.com) for doing all the things you love: dishing, recommending Let’s Dish! to friends, hosting parties, dishing some more, etc. DishPoints stack up quickly (we’ve already given away well over a million of them!). Real customers like yourself are earning $40, $50, even $60 OFF their sessions. In fact, you probably already have some DishPoints. Log in to letsdish.com and check your balance today!*

But what about our Ready Made customers? If you shop the convenience of our retail freezer, you probably want in on the action too. That’s why we created the Ready Made Rewards Card. For every purchase of $25 or more, you get a dish stamp. 10 stamps and you get a FREE dish. Essentially, it’s a Buy 10, Get 1 FREE offer! You can even see a menu sampler of dishes available in the ReadyMade freezer online. Check out the details in store and grab your card today!

Ready Made Rewards CardAbout Jeremy

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*You do need your own Let’s Dish! account to have your qualify for DishPoints and the DishRewards program. An account will automatically be created for you when you place an order under your own name and email. If you don’t have one, you can sign up in less than a minute, click here to get started!

RELATED LINKS:
> Learn more about DishRewards
> Log in and check your DishPoints balance
> Visit the Ready Made menu sampler to see the delicious Let’s Dish! meals available right now!

By Jeremy Kugel | Posted in Bright Ideas, The Dish On | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)
June 28, 2008 – 5:00 am

Enter Our Recipe Contest and Win $100

Recipe ContestShare favorite recipe and your next Let’s Dish! session could be FREE. Raid your family’s cookbook and send us your best - entrĂ©e, side or dessert. You could win a $100 Let’s Dish! gift card, and may even see your dish on our menu. Entries must be sent to recipes@letsdish.net by July 31st, 2008. The winner will be contacted by August 31st, 2008.*

We’d love to use your submission on a future Let’s Dish! menu, so please remember:

  • All ingredients must be freezable
  • Recipe must contain specific amounts and methods
  • Recipe must be executable with no additional equipment (e.g: food processor, mixer, etc.)
  • Recipe must be nutritionally sound and within Let’s Dish! guidelines. (one serving = 5000 calories, sorry… no can do!.)
  • All recipes must be original and created by the submitter (not copied from a cookbook)
  • Recipe must serve 6
  • Heating or cooking should be relatively simple
  • Recipe may be changed at Let’s Dish! discretion to utilize in store
  • It needs to be delicious! (at least according to our expert panel)

About Holly W

*All submissions become property of Let’s Dish! and may be used or altered without further permission from, credit to, or compensations for, the submitter. All rights reserved. Entries that arrive after July 31st, 2008 will not be considered.

LINKS TO BLOG POSTS THAT MAY GIVE YOU INSPIRATION:
 > Check your top-rated dishes and then find and submit similar recipes. Click here to read more about rating your dishes.

> Kid-friendly meals are always popular, especially during the school year. Watch the WUSA9 feature on Let’s Dish! family-friendly meals.

> We strive for healthy and delicious meals on our menu. Here’s a page showing you how to download the nutrition facts and ingredients of our current menu.

> Read all the Culinary Inspiration posts for more ideas!

By Holly W | Posted in Culinary Inspiration | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)
June 23, 2008 – 3:45 pm

You Help Make Our Menus So Wonderful

Customer entering ratingsHow do we create such fantastic menus? Well, our talented food team is always cooking up the best recipes months in advance. But did you know our customers play a big role as well?

Through the “My Orders” link once you log in to letsdish.com, customers can rate the meals they’ve dished [1 star (not for me) to 5 stars (love it!)], and can also make comments [”a little salty for my tastes” or “you guys are geniuses”]. Every rating goes into our database, which is a key determinant of which meals return to our menus… and which meals go to “dish heaven”. Even more important, your comments. We read every single one, and tweak our recipes accordingly
So next time you’re asking, “who makes these menus so delicious?”, the answer is you.We Recommend

About Jeremy

p.s. You do need your own Let’s Dish! account to add your ratings online. An account will automatically be created for you when you place an order under your own name and email. If you don’t have one, you can sign up in less than a minute, click here to get started!
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RECOMMENDED LINKS:
 > “Kid-Friendly Let’s Dish! Meals featured on WUSA9”
> “Wow the crowds at home and on vacation!”

By Jeremy Kugel | Posted in Culinary Inspiration, The Dish On | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (1)
June 23, 2008 – 3:13 pm

Diet Pointers for Health-Conscious Dishers

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Weight Watchers - scaleMany customers use Let’s Dish! as part of a plan for attaining (or maintaining!) a healthy weight. And we’re making it easier than ever. Complete nutritional information (including ingredients, calories, fat, etc., as well as Weight Watchers® POINTS®) for an entire menu can now be downloaded on a single document from the Let’s Dish! website. From the letsdish.com homepage, click on See our menus, then look for the line “Click here for a printable menu“, just above each month’s first menu item. You may be surprised to see that many of your favorites dishes have great health benefits too!

Prefer the old-fashioned way?

Click to continue reading “Diet Pointers for Health-Conscious Dishers”

By Emily Blakely | Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)
May 4, 2008 – 4:00 am

Make Your Mom’s Day Even Brighter

The Dish On…Top 5 Ways Let’s Dish! can make your Mom’s Day even brighter:
Buy a Let’s Dish! Gift Card(small space)

5. Cook Mom dinner! With help from Let’s Dish!, anyone can be an expert chef (yes, even your husband)!

4. Get Mom a Gift Card from Let’s Dish!. Guaranteed she’ll eat it up (so to speak).

3. Make your Mother’s Day brunch special (and especially easy). Pick up our popular and delicious French Toast Peach Cobbler (featured on WBAL-TV’s Sunday Brunch) from our Ready Made case. Or, dish up a Florentine Egg BFree Meals for New Moms Iconake, currently on the Let’s Dish! menu.

2. Send your Mom some meals with our new DishDelivery service.

1. If you’re a new mom, stop by our store and get a FREE Ready Made meal! No purchase and no obligation. Offer applies to anyone who became a mom (or became a mom again) in 2008. Click here for more details and be sure to pass it on!

Lisa’s Signature

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Recommended Links:

> FREE Dinner for New Moms: Click to find out more!
> Buy Mom a Let’s Dish! Card
> View the Let’s Dish! menu
> See how you can always save time and money with Let’s Dish!
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Click to become a Let’s Dish! “fan” on Facebook!
Show the world you’re a fan of Let’s Dish! and enjoy exclusive offers through Facebook, the Internet’s most popular social networking site.

By Lisa Hardiman | Posted in Family Matters, The Dish On | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (3)
April 12, 2008 – 5:00 am

We Recommend: Fruits and Veggies

Here’s a different take on “Fresh Ideas” - a great article on that issue of which type of fruits and veggies you should choose. We’ve discussed this before on Food for Thought but it never hurts to get a fresh reminder (sorry - couldn’t help the pun)!

link-post-icon.gifFruits and Veggies: Fresh, Canned, or Frozen?
By Christine McKinney, M.S., R.D., C.D.E

Lisa’s Signature

RELATED POSTS:
> Fruit juice vs. whole fruit: which should I choose?
> Pop Quiz: Test your knowledge of nutrients?

By Lisa Hardiman | Posted in Healthy Living, We Recommend | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)
March 3, 2008 – 7:00 am

Make every day a heart-healthy day.

Dish from the HeartAs American Heart Month draws to a close, we want to encourage everyone to remember that focusing on your heart health should be a year-round, every day effort.

We hope you found the articles posted this month on Food for Thought helpful towards your own personal heart health. It’s been educational and inspirational for us as well. You can always reread this month’s posts and find new articles to read by visiting our Heart Health and Healthy Living categories.

We will continue this discussion on our blog as we believe one of the core benefits of Let’s Dish! is that you can always have a freezer full of healthy, convenient meals.

Click to continue reading “Make every day a heart-healthy day.”

By Alexa Corcoran | Posted in Healthy Living, Heart Health | Also tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)
March 1, 2008 – 6:00 am

The Family Dinner Deconstructed on NPR

In a recent Morning Edition segment on NPR, reporter Alix Spiegal explores the research that seeks to expand on the issue of family dinner and its benefits in a story called, “The Family Dinner Deconstructed.” According to Spiegal, researchers are now pushing further to ask: “Is it the mere act of eating together that counts, or is it that strong families are already more likely to have a family dinner?” And, “what is it in family dinner that can make it an antidote to bad grades and bad habits in kids?”

Family MattersYour Health: The Family Dinner Deconstructed
(by Alix Spiegal, Morning Edition on NPR: February 7, 2008)

I think the segment is important to listen to for all of us who struggle to pull dinner together each night - and especially important for me to recommend as a co-owner of Let’s Dish!.

Click to continue reading “The Family Dinner Deconstructed on NPR”

By Alexa Corcoran | Posted in Family Matters | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)
February 29, 2008 – 6:00 am

“Good” Fat, “Bad” Fat: What’s the Difference?

Heart HealthThe idea of ”good” and “bad” fats in food is quite confusing.  At Let’s Dish!, our commitment to our customers is that our monthly menu of dinners will always be trans fat free and contain at least four heart-healthy meals. (During American Heart Month, we had thirteen!)  We can offer such heathful choices because of work by our menu development team as well the fact you prepare your meals in our store using many fresh and unprocessed ingredients.  But there is so much more to understand on the different types of fats - and how to identify them.  We turn to Catherine Joiner, our AHA nutritionist, for a tutorial:

There are three main types of fat in our diet - saturated fat, trans fat, and unsaturated fat.

When you hear someone talking about “bad” fat, they are referring to saturated or trans fat.

Click to continue reading ““Good” Fat, “Bad” Fat: What’s the Difference?”

By Catherine Joiner | Posted in Heart Health | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)
February 28, 2008 – 8:00 am

Lisa breaks the dinner routine in The Baltimore Sun

Lisa Hardiman suggests new recipes to Ruth Rhymaun (Sun photo by Kenneth K. Lam - February 5, 2008)This month, Lisa (co-owner of Let’s Dish! stores in MD and Northern VA) had her skills as the “woman behind the Let’s Dish! menu” put to the test by The Baltimore Sun. Though she has been putting dinner on the table for tens of thousands of families in the mid-Atlantic as our head of menu devlopment, this was a serious challenge: in just one afternoon, could she break the dinner routine for a family of four?

Yes, Lisa decided, heading up to Bel Air, MD, for a wintry afternoon with Sun reporter, Meredith Cohn, and local family, the Rhymauns.

Click to continue reading “Lisa breaks the dinner routine in The Baltimore Sun”

By Alexa Corcoran | Posted in Culinary Inspiration, Healthy Living | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (1)
February 27, 2008 – 6:00 am

Tackling the Grocery Store

Tips on tackling the grocery storeWhen you’re not eating meals from Let’s Dish!, choosing healthy foods from the grocery store is important for maintaining good heart health. Here are some helpful hints for tackling your grocery shopping…

Make a list! Before you head to the store, take time to make a list. It will save you time and money.

  • List out meal ideas for the week and determine what ingredients you will need to pick up. Make sure your menu includes all of the My Pyramid food groups to ensure that you are eating a wide variety of foods.
  • Organize the ingredients according to the section in which they are located in the grocery store.

Click to continue reading “Tackling the Grocery Store”

By Catherine Joiner | Posted in Healthy Living, Heart Health, Most Popular Posts | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)
February 26, 2008 – 6:00 am

We Recommend: Best and Worst Choices at Restaurant Chains

While studies have shown that a healthier choice is to eat wholesome, home-cooked meals, preferably ones prepared at Let’s Dish!, the reality is that every once in a while, you go out to eat. And, sometimes it’s even fun to go out with your family. But that plaguing guilt, confusion and paralysis that takes over when you look at the giant menu with more options than you even have time to read before the waiter asks for your order - gasp, deep breath - is not fun.

Rick recommended RealAge to you in his post last week - and now true to our word, we’ve offering you some more of their expertise.  In their Food Bites feature, RealAge offers the some tips for you when you go to five popular restaraunt chains.  From Chili’s to Cheesecake Factory, read up on what to look for when you pick up that giant menu:

link-post-icon.gifBest and Worst Choices at Five Restaurant Chains
RealAge Food Bites

And, one final reminder - restaurants are required by law to have the nutrition facts for the menu on site, so remember you can always ask for it if you’d like to see the facts before you order.  They are not required to have hand-out copies available for customers, so it’s not always easy but it pays to be persistent in this case.

Click to continue reading “We Recommend: Best and Worst Choices at Restaurant Chains”

By Alexa Corcoran | Posted in Healthy Living, Heart Health | Also tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (1)
February 25, 2008 – 6:00 am

Superfoods: what are they?

Green tea, a “superfood”We have all heard of superfoods. Everyone is talking about them. If they paid me a dollar for every time I saw them on a talk show, I’d be rich! So what are they?

Superfoods range from various types of fruits and vegetables to spices to nuts to herbal supplements. They are believed to have higher amounts of antioxidants as well as phytochemicals that provide more health benefits than the run-of-the-mill food. 

  • Antioxidants are molecules that help remove free radicals (things in our system that cause damage to the cells in our body) from our bodies by binding with them, thus reducing the damage that would have originally taken place.
  • Phytochemicals are found in all plants and do not qualify as vitamins or minerals, yet, they play an essential role in reducing the risk of chronic diseases.

Click to continue reading “Superfoods: what are they?”

By Catherine Joiner | Posted in Healthy Living, Heart Health | Also tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)
February 24, 2008 – 12:30 pm

Fruit juice vs. whole fruit: which should I choose?

When Alexa and I went on WBAL for Sunday Brunch, one of the topics we discussed was fruit vs. fruit juice.  In today’s post, Lisa follows up on the issue with some quick guidance on the difference in healthfulness between fruit and fruit juice:

QuestionsLisa, does fruit juice count as one of your dialy servings of fruit?
And, is drinking fruit juice just as hearth healthy as eating fruit?

AnswersFruit juice is only a serving of fruit IF it is 100% fruit juice.
So, be sure to read the label to make sure the juice is 100% fruit juice, not a fruit “cocktail” or juice “drink” as some of those only contain as little as 2% fruit juice.

Click to continue reading “Fruit juice vs. whole fruit: which should I choose?”

By Lisa Hardiman | Posted in Healthy Living, Heart Health | Also tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (2)
February 22, 2008 – 6:00 am

We Recommend: RealAge

I heard about RealAge from Newt Gingrich. Seriously, I did! Back in 2006, we won a US Chamber of Commerce Award for our Let’s Dish! stores in the mid-Atlantic and were named one of the top small businesses in the country. (We won again in 2007- how’s that for patting ourselves on the back!). Anyway, in 2006, Newt Gingrich was one of two keynote speakers for the event; Hillary Clinton was the other. They were both quite good, and indeed, despite their obviously different politics, they had recently worked together on Access 2006 at the US Chamber of Commercesome interesting health care initiatives and there seemed to be some degree of genuine fondness between them. But I digress…

Click to continue reading “We Recommend: RealAge”

By Rick Corcoran | Posted in Healthy Living, We Recommend | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (1)
February 21, 2008 – 6:00 am

More on Sodium: Dora and Batman get a little healthier!

Here’s a postscript to last week’s post on sodium and heart health.  On Monday, ABC Health News reported that those cute cans of Campbell’s soup - you know, the ones with the kids’ characters on the can - are getting a little healthier:  “Campbell’s Lowering Sodium in Kids Soups” (by Geoff Mulvihill, Feb 18, 2008).

Now these 12 Campbell’s soups will have 480 milligrams of sodium per serving - a reduction of 20% from its current levels.  And, the sodium levels in those same soups were previously reduced by 25% two years ago.  Hard to imagine the amount of sodium in one little Dora can of soup before!  

The company can now officially label the cans as “healthy” - and that can of soup will represent 20% of the recommended daily intake of sodium per day for children (2,400 mg of sodium for adults or children 4 and older, according to FDA daily values.)  It’s a step in the right direction, I suppose!

Click to continue reading “More on Sodium: Dora and Batman get a little healthier!”

By Alexa Corcoran | Posted in Healthy Living, Heart Health | Also tagged