Dinner Darling has food fix for busy families
How great would it be to have your family dinner planned out for you each week?
As someone who wanted to cook at home, needed to, but didn’t know where to start, the simple question “What’s for dinner?” led Lindsey Bell, a mother of two, to create The Dinner Darling.
Feeding her family tasty and affordable meals each night without breaking the bank has her serving up recipes and culinary advice for other moms who are facing similar struggles.
Her husband Ryan, a former chef, made a comment one night about her making the same thing for dinner every night and that is when she realized she needed a change.
That led her on a mission to seek out and create better meals so she started a Facebook group and started asking friends.
Bell cooks up “The Weekly Dish” now and sends emails to subscribers with three family-friendly recipes, an accompanying grocery list describing the correct ingredients for those recipes, and some helpful cooking tips and recommendations.
For example, she recently featured recipes and cooking instructions for Baked Feta Pasta, Easy Ramen, and Chicken Francese.
GiGi O’Neal, a subscriber to The Weekly Dish since 2019, said she saves time preparing meals for her family by subscribing to The Weekly Dish.
“The recipes provide meal ideas that are simple to make and enjoyed by our entire family,” said O’Neal, a lifelong friend of Bell.
O’Neal said her favorite family meals from The Weekly Dish are the Spicy Shrimp Bowl, Baked Chicken Tacos, and all of the Dinner Darling quiches.
She offers three different plans, Regular, Lite and Combo.
Sallie Dier of Madison, a friend of Bell’s since college, was one of the first subscribers. Today she is subscribed to the combo plan.
“Lindsey’s recipes are delicious and super easy,” Dier said. “The built-in grocery list makes life so much easier. It makes dinner time exciting, and you don’t have to spend a lot of time searching the Internet for new recipes.”
Dier said some of her favorite meals she has made from The Weekly Dish are the salsa verde chicken, creamy mushroom chicken skillet, easy ramen, and chicken tostadas. Dier said all of those recipes are delicious, and they take less than 30 minutes to make.
“I would recommend The Dinner Darling,” Dier said. “It will get you out of a dinner rut if you’re ever in one.”
Bell has strong ties to Madison County but lives in Jackson. She attends First Ridgeland Baptist Church and is also a cousin of Ridgeland Mayor Gene McGee. When she is not cooking, she enjoys reading, going to the beach, and attending First Ridgeland with her family.
She described herself as a busy mom of two on a budget and had to learn to meal plan, meal prep, and grocery shop on that budget. Bell attributes the success of her The Weekly Dish to the popularity of her Facebook group, called Dinner Darlings, that she created in 2017.