Twelve questions people actually ask
Mostly about heat, mostly answerable in a paragraph. Anything that needed more than that became a library page.
Can these glass dishes really go in the oven?
The dishes can, up to normal roasting temperatures, because they are borosilicate rather than ordinary soda lime glass. The lids cannot: they are plastic and stay out of the oven entirely. Avoid the broiler and never put a dish directly on a hob, because both apply heat to one patch rather than evenly.
Why does the lid have to come off in the microwave?
A sealed lid traps steam and builds pressure. The gasket takes a permanent set from being hot and compressed at the same time, and after that it stops sealing properly in a bag. Rest the lid on top rather than clipping it down.
How many containers do I actually need?
More than five, in almost every case. A working week is five portions per person, and without a spare the routine stops the first time something is still in the dishwasher. The kit builder does the arithmetic properly, including the extra week that a freezer rotation needs.
Glass or plastic?
Glass for meals that come home, get washed and get used again. Plastic for meals that leave and do not come back: a portion handed to someone, a box left at a desk, six months in a freezer. Most households end up with both, and the bundles exist for exactly that reason.
Do the divided dishes leak between compartments?
The dividers are moulded into the glass and reach the rim, so a liquid will not cross while the dish sits flat. Tipped on its side in a bag, a thin sauce can find its way over. Keep anything genuinely runny in a separate small container.
Which set should I buy first?
A five pack of divided glass dishes covers a standard working week and is the most useful single purchase in the range. If most of your meals leave the house and do not come back, start with a fifty pack of plastic instead and add glass later.
How long will a prepped meal keep?
Three to four days in a fridge at 40°F or below, and two to three months frozen before quality drops. The library page on storage times breaks that down by what is actually in the dish, because rice, fish and roast vegetables all behave differently.
Are the plastic boxes safe to reheat in?
They are polypropylene, which holds its shape at microwave temperatures and is not made with bisphenol A. Two practical cautions: fat gets much hotter than the rest of a dish, and the lid should be off or loose. If you would rather minimise reheating in plastic altogether, reheat in glass and store in plastic.
Why are some sets shown without a price?
Because they are unpriced in the current update. We leave those sets in the catalogue rather than removing them, since they generally come back, and a range with a visible gap is more useful than one that quietly pretends the product never existed.
Is the price on this site the price I will pay?
It is the figure from our last update, and prices move between updates. The button on each product page opens the current one, which is the only price that counts.
Can I put these in the dishwasher?
Yes. Dishes anywhere, lids and plastic boxes on the top rack only. The heating element sits at the bottom of most machines and the temperature near it is what warps a lid and cooks a gasket.
Where does the order actually happen?
At checkout with our retail partner. This site is the catalogue and the guides behind it; every buy button opens the set at Amazon, where payment, delivery and returns are handled.
What is the chopper doing on a container site?
The twenty minutes of cutting in the middle of a prep session is where most of the mess happens. A chopper with a catch tray means the cutting and the containing are one movement instead of two. It is not essential and the plans work without it.
Still working out what to buy?
The builder turns a week of meals into a number of dishes, and shows its reasoning.