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Remember the great pastime of eating a homemade meal with your family at the dinner table?

With busy schedules of working late hours and dropping off the kids at soccer practices, dance lessons and doctors appointments, America's dinner tables have been feeling a little lonely.

A new approach to family dining is working to counter that trend, allowing busy people to go to a meal assembly franchise business ahead of time and bring home weeks worth of meals to be heated and eaten at a later date. One of the companies offering the service, Dream Dinners, is already in Walpole and coming soon to Plainville.

`` Tell us what meals you want to make, choose what you like, take it home and it's done in your home,'' said Lisa Jessick, a co-owner of Dream Dinners in Plainville, which is set to open on Manmar Drive in May. `` The family is at the house at the kitchen table and the family members are involved.''

Dream Dinners provides all of the ingredients for menu choices including parmesan-crusted tilapia with tomato-garlic aioli or flank steak with garlic, rosemary and orange. There's no grocery shopping, chopping and dicing of ingredients, or mess to clean up. Designed to be used once a month, the service appeals to families who want to get back to the dinner table to spend quality time together at least three times a week.

`` It's a tradition that's been lost in recent years,'' said Jessick.

If studies are to be believed, though, we might be wise to rediscover it.

According to a 2004 study by the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicines, children who eat more frequently with their family at the dinner table were less likely to use cigarettes and marijuana and drink alcohol, and more likely to have better self-esteem and good grades in school.

`` It creates a safe environment where (children) can express something they need to tell somebody,'' said Beth Fies, the other owner of Dream Dinners in Plainville.

Super Suppers and Dinner By Design are two other meal assembly businesses in operation, and all three have been growing steadily. Within the first year that Dream Dinners was launched in Seattle in 2002, the franchise opened 30 locations and plans to have 250 nationwide by the end of this year, said Fies.

According to their Web site, Dinners By Design plans to have about 150 franchise locations either opened or signed for this year.

Dream Dinners in Walpole has seen a steady growth in business since opening in November, with nearly 2,000 guests already registered for the service, co-owner Jennifer Shea said, adding that her location has a strong base of repeat customers.

`` We know their children's names, what town they live in and what time they get off of work,'' she said. `` Here, they're talking to people and meeting new people.''

All three franchise operations have similar set-ups. Customers make an appointment in advance and choose their meals by visiting the franchise location's Web site. They can prepare six or 12 meals on the day of their session, which usually lasts about two hours. Using the ingredients prepared by the franchise operators, the customer assembles meals and puts them in aluminum pans and freezer bags. They then bring them home to be frozen, thawed out for a given day's meal, and cooked according to instruction labels.

There are 14 menu selections that change monthly and each meal makes four to six servings, although smaller sizes are available for smaller families. Nutritional information is available for each meal on their Web sites and in the store's location.

Dream Dinners offers private sessions for large groups or themed sessions, including ones for parents and their children to assemble meals together. Children younger than 12 are not allowed during regular sessions for health reasons, such as handling uncooked meats.

With two children ages 8 and 9, Fies was a customer of Dream Dinners for over a year before teaming up with Jessick, also a Dream Dinners customer. Fies said she feels better knowing she's cooking healthy, homemade meals for her children.

`` I feel great knowing I'm exposing them to tastes and flavors they may not have tried,'' said Fies. `` It's easy for parents to serve what children want and eat. You end up serving the same thing day after day because you know they'll eat it and won't complain.''

Even though children can be fussy about what they eat, Dream Dinners allows customers to substitute ingredients, eliminate the ones they don't want and add more of the ones they love. The company also accommodates health and diet issues that customers may have and will go over the ingredients over the phone. The food is provided by Sysco Foods, a national food distributor, and all ingredients are specifically ordered for each customer's session. All the recipes have been created by an experienced chef and have been taste-tested by panels, said Fies.

With her busy lifestyle, Jessick said she and her husband have appreciated the eclectic mix of meals the service has to offer along with its convenience.

`` It so met our needs and what we were looking for in our lives,'' she said.

Stacey Perlman is an intern for the Sun Chronicle from Northeastern University and can be reached at perlman.s(at)neu.edu.