My mother brought us up as a working single mother and always found time to cook us delicious, nutritious meals. I plan to do the same for my children. The benefits of home cooking -- physiological, emotional, financial, even cultural -- are enormous. I really disapprove of anti-cooking sentiment. Restaurants are nice for treats, but the bulk of a family's food should be cooked at home! I would never use these preparation stations, but they're better than other alternatives. The fast food industry constantly tries to brainwash the American public into believing that cooking is a degrading and difficult activity... but no one truly benefits from this horrible "freedom from cooking" idea except for the industry. In my opinion, the proper focus of feminism when it comes to cooking is to encourage men to take on more of the burden of day-to-day food prep. Some people hate cooking. Some people also hate to balance their checkbooks. These are simply good life skills to have, and yes, you should feel a bit guilty if you don't have them, man or woman.

There's no difference btween this and buying a fully assembled frozen meal from the store. I am totally confused why anyone would want to do this.

Had you visited DreamDinners and SuperSuppers' websites, you would have seen that they offer meal options with lower fat, calories, etc. Even if this type of meal preparation turns you off, it's a good idea to research the company's websites at the very least, before making sport of it and men and women who would use it. (It's NOT just mothers and not ALL of us are into "cheesy casseroles" as you call them) Frankly, I LIKE the idea of someone else shopping, chopping and cleaning up. From what I've seen, you can customize the menus and add extra spices or leave some unpopular vegetable out. The individual cook can exert some control over the food preparation.

No one at either the NY Times or this blog seems to have actually visited one of these companies as a customer, to cook, serve, and eat the food.

Do some real research and field experience before passing judgment on these businesses and the people who use them.

My wife and I have found that having home-made meals every night is not that difficult. It just requires some planning and preparation.

Every Sunday, we cook two large batches of food. One is for dinners on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. If it's not a one-dish meal such as soup or stew, then we might still end up steaming some vegetables each evening, but at least the main dish is taken care of.

On Tuesday, we have a different, yet simple meal for variety (such as a large salad, scrambled eggs and toast, pasta and tomato sauce with cracked pepper, or something equally simple to prepare). On Friday night, we go out to eat at a local diner. That way, we never have the same thing for dinner more than twice in a row.

The other large batch of food we cook on Sundays is for Monday through Thursday's lunch. On Fridays we either bring something simple such as a sandwich or we go out for lunch.

Using the cook-nearly-everything-on-Sunday approach has worked for us for more than a decade now, and it's saved us a bundle versus going out for lunch and/or dinner. You might want to try it out sometime if you feel like you're relying too much on pre-packaged and/or restaurant-prepared food.

My friend gets these meals. She goes and gets about a month's worth of meals in one night (often goes with a friend and there is wine so it's not too chore-like). It has nothing to do with guilt (the article mentioned guilt only at the end - it wasn't really the main issue). She said it's cheaper and easier to have prepared meals in the freezer than running out to the grocery store at the last minute. Also, the food is better and healtheir than most frozen offerings at the supermarket. It makes perfect sense to me if you are short on time. Unfortunately, her alternative as a single working mother is a lot of take-out or not-so-healthy quick meals. And until I try to raise two kids on my own with zero support from their father, I'm not going to criticize.

This post belittles home cooking and those who give it the effort it deserves.

First, you need look no further than the obesity epidemic to see the problems created by a lack of home cooking.

Second, home cooking has been lost because of sexist views that work traditionally done by women must be valueless--how do we know? because women do it! So we don't need a faux-feminist voice piling on.

Third, anyone who does anything worth doing, and puts effort and thought into it, is going to take pride in the result and hope that it is approved of. I'm sure the writer is not happy at people slamming her post. This may not be the most Zen, most evolved, most functional way of dealing with someone not liking your creative output, but it's a human universal. So quit piling on moms who hope their lasagna pleases their families!

Fourth, $3.50 a serving for balanced meals for the family to eat together sounds awesome.

Fifth, putting a hot, balanced, home-cooked meal on the table is a very desirable skill in a spouse or parent, in either sex. Ignore this at your own peril.

Sixth, this business sounds like they have left women the fun part (assembling the food and cooking it) and eliminated the laborious part, like shopping and cleaning up. That sounds pretty women-friendly to me! Friendlier than this post, anyway.

I'm sure this idea is probably healthier than stopping at KFC or McDonalds on the way home, but can people really not plan ahead? I personally like taking chop up my meat and veggies, cook then eat. I get everything to my liking, seasoned or charred to my specs! I can make most meals in about a half an hour. Cutting up veggies on the weekends can be used later for a stir fry, fahitas or a salad. Precooked meat can be used in a variety of ways and rice, pasta or potatoes take very little skill to cook drain and season. It's quite satisfying to know exactly what went into making food, I find the act of cooking and cleaning reaxing and a good way to unwind after a long day at work.

Oh and the joys of a slow cooker! Drop it all in the morning, come home to dinner ready and warm!