With work, home life and sometimes schooling all competing under one family roof, getting a healthy (not to mention sustainable) dinner on the table can be a real chore.
Seattle moms Chef Michaela Skloven and Erin Metzger are tackling that problem with The Speedy Dish meal delivery service. The company provides “almost ready” meals that come with ingredients prepared in advance and portioned to family size. That means healthy, home-cooked meals on the table in 20 minutes or less.
Skloven and Metzger, both veterans of sustainable restauranteering, have four sons between their two households ranging in ages from 2 to 10. Their kids, they say, definitely influence the menu.
“Michaela and I have very different eaters in our families and we’ve used that as a jumping off point to try to understand the full range of ways families enjoy meals together,” says Metgzer. They’ve also been studying the different ways families approach meals.
“We’ve seen that for some families, eating the same meal together is very important,” says Metzger. Skloven’s family fits in this category.
“She has been focused on exposing her boys to a variety of foods from a young age and seeks to have everyone eat the same meal,” Metzger explains. “Her boys certainly won’t eat everything, but they are some of the most adventurous preschool eaters I’ve seen. As she’s experimenting with new recipes for The Speedy Dish, she always lets her boys be extremely honest judges.”
Other families want to offer a main dish to everyone, but offer other options that are more familiar or approachable to kids. Metzger’s family falls into this camp.
“My boys are very selective eaters,” she says. “For our family dinners, we serve a main meal, along with a rotation of more familiar options.”
To meet that family’s needs, The Speedy Dish offers prepared proteins and sides, like grilled, diced, free-range chicken breast or cubed white cheddar ready to serve straight from the container so it’s easy for kids to have choices on the table. Still other families, she adds, simply want a fast way to put a healthy dinner on the table.
“We seek to cater to all of these scenarios,” she says.
Skloven and Metzger met while leading menu development and supply chain management for the sustainability-minded fast-casual Seattle sandwich shop Homegrown. A Ballard resident, Skloven is an accomplished chef who honed her skills in the trenches of top restaurants in New York City, including Per Se, Gramercy Tavern, and Franny’s. Metzger, Queen Anne mom, brings to the business a background in marketing and product development at Starbucks and Microsoft.
They both bring long personal and professional commitments to sustainability to the table as well. For example, The Speedy Dish meal delivery service collects back reusable delivery bags and ice packs and uses advance ordering to reduce food waste. Local and thoughtful sourcing drive the menu.
Did we mention the kid appeal in the names on the menu? Cheesy Chicken Parm Pasta?
Go to thespeedydish.com.
Try Dumplings – delivered or make-your-own for another family meal.
