About Restaurant Dropout
As an ex-restaurant cook (*ahem* a restaurant dropout), I am here to help you tackle your kitchen like a pro—efficiently and promptly while never compromising quality.
Think of your home kitchen as a restaurant; you are the line cook. In your “restaurant,” you have 5 dishes on the menu that change (almost) weekly—one grocery haul will result in 5 different dishes for the week. Several ingredients get used more than once, and if you’re up for it, these ingredients can be prepped ahead of time so that when it comes time to make the dish…well, all you have to do is toss it together, maybe heat something up, and voila: dinner is served in a matter of minutes.
Restaurant Dropout simplifies dinnertime by providing dinner plans, grocery lists, and prep lists to save you time.
By subscribing, you'll have full access to the following:
Subscription Types
Free
What you get:
Access to some menus
Paying ($6 monthly or $65 annually)
What you get:
Access to all menus
Categorized shopping lists
Prep lists designed for efficiency
Recommended ingredient substitutions
Video demonstrations
Recipes for dish elements and full meals
Tips on prepping, storing, cooking, and more!
FAQs
Question: How many people do your recipes serve?
Answer: 2 people! I cook for my husband, Tate, and myself 90% of the time—we’re 2 people with decent appetites come dinner time!
Question: How should I multiply the ingredient quantities if I am serving more than 2 people?
Answer: It will vary depending on the specific ingredient, as well as the types of people you’re cooking for. For instance, if you have kids under 10 years old, they’re likely not eating as much food, so you probably don’t need to triple the amount of ingredients you buy.
At the end of the day, you know your family’s appetite more than I do, so there will probably be some trial and error to get it down to an exact science. Thankfully, I will be repeating ingredients, so by weeks 6-8, you’ll know exactly how much you need based on previous weeks.
In terms of specific ingredients, if you have 6 people, you should probably buy 6 individual salmon fillet portions (or 1 half of a salmon, then portion it yourself). Whereas something like asparagus, you’d probably be fine with only buying 2 bunches instead of 3.
However, here is what some of the Restaurant Dropout community recommends:
Question: Do you get access to old menus when you subscribe?
Answer: Yes! You’ll have access to all Restaurant Dropout menus here.
Question: Do you cook with a lot of specialty ingredients?
Answer: All of the ingredients I have on hand and use consistently, what we refer to as Essentials, can be found here.
Keep in mind that you can substitute certain ingredients as needed. I embrace all creativity in the kitchen with wide-open arms!
Question: Do I have to cook all of the recipes for the week, or can I just pick a few?
Answer: You don’t have to cook anything you don’t want to! Understanding that life gets busy and 5 meals a week might feel overwhelming, our grocery lists and prep lists include a key to indicate which ingredient is used in which dish. This way, you can shop or prep according to the dishes you intend to cook (see example below).
Question: Will I have leftover ingredients?
Answer: I aim to have zero leftover ingredients by the end of the week! Everything listed will hopefully be used throughout the week; however, we might have weeks where ingredients with longer shelf lives, like cabbage, will get utilized the following week.
One of my personal goals this year was to reduce food waste, so we’re working towards that each week we do this ingredient prep!
Question: Will you ever expand to include breakfast, lunch, and/or dessert?
Answer: That’s the dream!! With more support for this newsletter, I hope to grow Restaurant Dropout into an all-encompassing source of inspiration for breakfast, lunch, and, of course, dinner and desserts!
Question: Do I have to prep? I just can’t muster up the energy to prep for more than one hour a week…
Answer: Of course not! While prepping ingredients, like sauces and grains, ahead of time is efficient and will help you succeed throughout the week, it’s not mandatory. You can forgo the prep list and just cook all of the recipes daily as needed.
