INTRODUCING: Family Meal

from my overwhelmed family to yours

Hello, friends!

I’m happy to announce the fruition of a little idea I’ve been noodling on for a while now. Family Meal is finally here.

As the blurb I wrote for the website says, this one came to me in a moment of overwhelm—a feeling I experience daily now that I’m a working parent, especially around meals. I was racing to finish work at Dear Annie and pick my daughter up on time—and I knew I had nothing in the fridge. The thought of standing in front of the dreaded prepared meals section at the grocery store—with its plastic containers full of dubious ingredients–crept in.

At that moment, Dear Annie's Chef, Junior Montiel, brought family meal—the nightly, pre-service supper offered to restaurant teams—out into the dining room. Warm roasted chicken thighs, aromatic rice, and a big bowl of wilted greens—all organically grown and from local farms—waited on the table. "Take some home for your family," he said.

Junior saved dinner (and several leftover lunches) for me that night. In no time, I was bothering him for a few more menu ideas—could we offer the same nourishing, versatile dinners we enjoy as a restaurant team to our busy (and let's be honest, equally overwhelmed) neighbors? Dinners for mom and dad, for picky eaters, for busy professionals and anyone hoping for something better than the prepared food aisle?

Lucky for us, the answer was yes.

If you like the idea of healthy, locally-sourced meals you just have to put in the oven, Family Meal is for you. Enjoy it as a full meal, pack it into lunchboxes, and use our ideas for leftovers to stretch it throughout the week. We're here to help keep it simple, so you can spend your time on what matters most.

And because you’re our beloved newsletter subscribers, you’re getting 10% off for a while. Just use code FAMILY at checkout. We currently only have 25 spots available, so place your orders soon! Ordering will be turned off on Saturday 7/26 at midnight, and pickups will be on 7/30 and 7/31, at your choice of Dear Annie or Wild Child.

TIP: If you select Wild Child as your pickup location, you can purchase a paired bottle of wine at a discount, too!

We’re beta testing this first round, so we’re keeping the rest of the menus offline until we sort out any bugs next week. After that, we’ll be releasing menus a month at a time so you can plan in advance. (But in case you’re curious, we have pulled pork with rice + beans and turnips roasted with scallion butter coming up, along with Camarones al ajillo and bitter greens in apple cider brown butter with sides of quinoa.)

I hope this helps make life a little easier—and a lot more delicious. I’m placing my preorder today, and I hope you’ll join me.

XOXO,

Lauren