Beth Fulton used to cringe when she heard, “What’s for dinner?”

“I don’t love to cook, but it’s part of my job description,” the mother of six said. “You slave over this food, and when the kids go ‘ew’ after one bite, you’re ready to send them to their rooms for life.”

In addition to the thankless nature of the nightly task, Fulton found it tough to squeeze in the necessary but time-consuming prep work of combing through recipes, shopping for ingredients and peeling or chopping. Market Day buys helped, but having a packaged side dish or snack didn’t halt the Wheaton resident’s quest for a fresh, nutritious supper for her growing children.

Enter Entree Kitchen, a meal assembly business that opened in Winfield in September 2005. The company provides recipes, ingredients, aprons, pots and pans, packaging and cleanup at its facility. Each month, customers either reserve a session to make their food on the premises or pick up ready-made servings to stockpile in their home freezers. The ready-to-cook items are chosen from an ever-evolving menu and can be modified to taste. Suddenly, Fulton’s problem was solved.

“Now, I just have to thaw and grill, and I’ve got Hawaiian pork. We’re getting chicken pot pies and roasts and steak and braised beef — and we can request no onions or extra carrots,” she said. “I’d never spend my energies on trying out new stuff like that, so I feel spoiled rotten that someone is doing the work for me. Entree Kitchen has been a real blessing.”

With more and more meal-prep kitchens springing up around the suburbs, the growing industry is catering to an increasing number of hungry, time-starved families searching for an alternative to drive-throughs and DiGiornos.

“It’s catching on big time because of the demand for convenient and healthy options,” said Joyce Clarkson, co-founder of The Dinner Club, a meal assembly store that opened its doors in La Grange in November 2005 and added a second location in Homer Glen in June 2007.

“People love it because we’re preserving that family bonding time with everyone congregated around the table while taking the grunt work out of the process,” she added. “We save customers at least 30 hours a month because we’re trimming the meat, doing the sauces — taking care of all the early steps for them.”

The concept has taken off in recent years as families are becoming more willing to contract out work that has traditionally fallen within the scope of domestic household heads — such as mowing the lawn and housecleaning — causing a proliferation of meal preparation storefronts, experts said.

According to the Easy Meal Prep Association, which tracks and compiles data on the service sector, the first meal prep company in the United States opened in 1999. The number of outlets jumped to 46 in 2003 and 173 in 2004. With an increase in press coverage, the total hit 561 in 2005 and more than doubled to 1,123 the next year. With 1,353 meal-prep businesses dotting the country’s culinary landscape in 2007, the organization forecasts the number will rise to 1,935 by 2010.

“The meal kit premise started very rapidly because it filled an unmet need: how to get a quality dinner at home,” said Bert Vermeulen, the association’s founder and an industry consultant. “People used to think of it as a luxury, but now it’s more of a necessity — especially with childhood obesity concerns.”

And with meal-prep-kitchen owners investing more in marketing, Americans slowly are realizing that ready-made meals are affordable and oftentimes less expensive than take-out or restaurant dining, he said. Businesses are averaging about $3 per serving, which is three to four times cheaper than a comparable restaurant meal, about the same as a Big Mac and less than purchasing the same ingredients at the local Dominick’s because the sites are obtaining them at wholesale prices.

“There’s no way I could take $150 to the grocery store and emerge with eight delicious meals, but I can at Entree Kitchen,” Fulton said.

Clarkson agreed crunching numbers shows clients what is most economical.

“We’ve heard this over and over from customers — you buy a whole bunch of parsley and dump it after using your two tablespoons,” she said. “Things spoil or get stale, and it’s a waste if you are paying for stuff you don’t utilize. But we’re providing that for you, so that’s an added savings.”

Amanda Ozinga, general manager at Entree Kitchen, said one of the most important benefits of meal prep dinners is the varied and wholesome options.

“It’s easy to get in a rut and serve the same thing out of a box or can every week, but no one likes defaulting to those shortcuts. You feel guilty about not having whipped up home-cooked meals,” she said. “Moms want the peace of mind of knowing that they’re serving fresh and not processed food.”

Responding to requests from health-conscious customers, Entree Kitchen even will begin to incorporate organic and all-natural meat options from a local supplier starting in the fall. The Winfield company already offers home or workplace delivery.

The Dinner Club has car-side order drop-off, and finished to-go meals for walk-ins to plop on their table as soon as they return home, which recently has seen a surge in popularity.

“Everyone feels the crunch at the end of the day,” Clarkson said. “You’re having a baby, recovering from foot surgery or going out of town and want to leave something for your mom to pop in the oven while she’s watching the kids.

“Time is a commodity,” she added. “If you can look at our menu and pick out some tilapia and sesame asparagus rather than stressing about how you’re going to get something completed in that half-hour window before soccer practice, that’s going to be a big help.”