Brittany Cooper is a busy mother of three young children. Looking for another income for their family, Cooper started a blog, YouTube channel on various topics for moms like herself, but people kept asking her about her meal plans and how her family was able to save so much money shopping for food, so she began sharing her meal plans.
About a year and a half ago, she transferred all her meal plans to her Meal Planner app, and quickly found out that families were looking for more convenient ways in planning meals and looking for alternatives in buying ready to cook meals. Cooper was already pre-preparing meals in freezer bags, then put it in a slow cooker, making it easier for this busy mother.
In December 2023, Cooper decided that this was something that she could offer to San Diego County families.
“No one was doing slow cooker meal kits and I know moms who are under pressure to get a meal on the table. They do not want to go through the drive-thru all the time. Whether you have little toddlers at home, teenagers, or you are an empty nester, life is always super busy, so it is hard to get dinner on the table,” she said.
So, in April, Cooper launched Eat Together Meals. She got a commercial kitchen in El Cajon and sold out quickly in the first month, sold out in May, and is now working for meals for June.
“You can go online, choose what meals you want, what delivery day you want,” she said. “We prepare all the meals and deliver them frozen to the customers.”
Cooper said she has come up with a variety of meals, starting in April with tikka masala, sweet and sour chicken, and pot pies, some of her favorites. Cooper said the food is going as fast as they can make it, and deliver all over San Diego County, and a little in Riverside.
“Our first month in April, we were delivering in East County, North County, and in May started getting orders from Chula Vista, Coronado, and Oceanside. So, all over,” she said. Just starting the business, Cooper said she has many family and friends willing to help her get started.
“Mostly, it is just me. But because we are already tripling our orders, in April my dad, my mother-in-law, and friends helping me,” she said. “It is a lot of work. In the kitchen in April, I was there from 10:30 a.m. to almost 8 p.m. But I was totally by myself. There is a lot of prep going into this. Each order is five dinners, and each dinner has at least two components to it. The main bag that goes into the slow cooker and maybe a dairy that has cheese or fresh vegetables that you add in later. In April, I had to make more than 100 dinners. We vacuum seal each meal, get those meals prepped. So, we are talking about 100s of bags, and labels. Labels can take several hours, even a full day, just to prep them.”
Cooper said for busy families, she believes having systems in place for your business and life is important.
“Having as many systems automated as possible is helpful in starting a business,” she said. “I have two virtual assistants who have helped me with my digital products. They can help me automate things, taking things off my plate, like emails, adding to my website, customer service. We have automated systems in place, and really getting those written down. That way, if you have somebody who needs to move on, if you have that system in place, you have those protocols. Anytime I do training, I record it, so in the future if I have someone new who takes on that role, it is a much quicker process.”
Cooper said it is equally as important to get systems for your home life.
“Home life does not stop when you are starting a business,” she said. “Especially if you have kids. There are so many unexpected things that can come up. For my kids, I want to be there any time that I can. At home, I can automate things that reoccur all the time. That is a huge burden that I can take out of my mind. I do not have to think about it. I can keep those things going on autopilot. That makes room for unpredictable things, the fun things.”
Cooper said some of thing things she has automated at home is meal planning. We have a routine for breakfast and lunches, and as the kids get older, they have a bigger role in prepping and helping with all the meals. Every week we have similar meals on rotation, and for dinner, I use our app. It is really nice to be able to open it up. I realized that dinner every night was a big stress point for me. Nobody wants to talk about dinner until everyone is ‘hangry.’ But I have everything down for that. I have a system for grocery shopping, and routines and systems for kid’s homework. My husband also owns his own business, so we have systems for everything happening around the house.”
