I don’t know how other people do things but in our house we have a tough time deciding what’s for dinner. In all actuality, we have never been a regular eat dinner together type family. Part of that stems from the fact that during the first 15 years or so of our married life my husband had stomach issues in the form of ulcers that would wax and wane and finally he had to have two surgeries to help alleviate the problem. It meant that I would make dinner but then his stomach would be bothering him so he wouldn’t be hungry. I would end up with food that never got eaten or have to eat alone since he would be lying down. Slowly but surely I got out of the habit of cooking dinners and would fix easy meals for the kids and I.
Fast forward to the present. The kids are grown and out of the house so it is just my husband and I. I am trying to lose weight and eat healthier so I am doing more planning, usually cooking four dinner meals at a time so I have them ready to go in the fridge. I will make two chicken and two fish dinners for example.
Unfortunately, these don’t exactly appeal to my husband so he will make his own dinners like ranch beans or chili, things that I don’t really like. Sometimes we’ll get pizza or Chinese food delivered.
Still, there is the “What’s for dinner” question many nights. Recently, I got an email from the Hungry Girl where she talked about Home Chef, the home delivery service, and if I used the link in her email I’d get $30 off the first order. I figured we should give it a try. Since it was endorsed by Hungry Girl, perhaps the meals would be healthier and by picking the meals in advance we could chose things we both might like. We decided to try four meals. I picked two and my husband picked two.
We got the first delivery yesterday.
The box was well insulated and inside were the ingredients neatly packaged and labeled for the four meals we had chosen. There was also recipe cards for each of the meals and a binder to keep them in.
We tried the first one tonight. French Onion Shrimp and Grits. This is what the packages looked like with the recipe card.
Inside the baggie were these ingredients. The tiny bottle is the white wine for the sauce, butter, shallot, sour cream and in the baggies are the grits and parmesan cheese. The green stems are chives for garnish. Wow, I’m not used to garnishing my meals – fancy!
The only things needed to make the meal that were not included were water, olive oil, salt and pepper. The recipe card had simple to follow, step-by-step instructions. No fancy pans or cooking utensils were required. Here is what my result was and the picture from the recipe card behind it.
It’s not exactly the same but pretty close. It was delicious! We had never had grits before and were pleasantly surprised at the taste. We both like shrimp and the caramelized shallots were yummy. The recipe said it made two meals but I bet we could have stretched it to three as I had some grits leftover and I could have saved some shrimp and topping to go with it, but it was so good we didn’t!
All the nutritional info is given for each of the options so you could really tailor the menus you pick to your preferences as far as low fat or low cholesterol, etc. They even have vegetarian meals so you could do that too. Obviously, since you are cooking them yourself, you could change any part of it to suit your taste. I followed the directions exactly for this meal so that I could give the company a fair chance.
I really like the flexibility of this program. When you sign up you are asked about your taste preferences, whether you like meat or fish, vegetarian, low carb or low fat, etc. They also ask if you would like to try advanced meals. I chose simple! They pre-pick the meals for you but you can swap them to others that are being offered for that week. The choices are set up five weeks in advance so you can schedule a month of meals and forget it if you want. You can choose some lunch type meals instead of dinners. The dinner meals are $9.95 per serving and the lunch meals are $7.99. Some of the meals can be increased to serve four instead of two. You also have the option of adding a smoothie or a fruit basket with your order for $4.95 per serving. We wanted more time to be able to try the ones we got so we decided to skip next week’s delivery. It was really easy for me to go online to my account and do that.
If you think you might like to try this service, use my link to save $30 off your first order:
Have you tried any of the home delivery meal services? Did you like them? Share!
from Blogger http://asmile4ufromjanet.blogspot.com/2018/05/making-memories-in-may-2018-home-chef.html
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About scr4pl80
I'm a 60-ish, married, mom to 3, creative soul looking to make the world a better place one smile at a time.
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How neat! We’ve never tried such a service, either, but this does look really cool. Would be a great way to learn how to cook some new meals!
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These have all been relatively simple to make too. They do have “advanced” meals if you are experimental that way.
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That was an interesting read. I have never tried one of these. We barely ever even eat out! But this does look delicious.
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Thanks Jacqui. We had the second meal last night and it was very good too.
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We tried Blue Apron for a while but stopped due to travel, etc. We thought the food was good and gave us a chance to try new things (it’s easy to get in a rut after many years of making dinner). What I didn’t like was the wasteful packaging. Lots of non-recyclable packing and little jars of small amounts of specific ingredients (often things that I already had in my pantry). We may try again at some point but I’d be happier if they could be more environmentally friendly.
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Interesting. The packaging ours has come in has been very recyclable. There have been some small containers but sometimes I can reuse those in my craft room to hold tiny treasures 🙂
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I’m glad you liked it! 🙂
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The burgers we had tonight were great too.
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Worth a try! If you like it, it’s easy.
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The first one was. We’re trying the second one tonight.
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I’ve heard mixed review of meal services like the one you tried. From what I can tell if you’re at home when the box is delivered, then you like them. But if you’re not at home, porch pirates and roaming pets are a problem. I don’t think I’d try one, but if it answers that “what’s for dinner” question, then go for it. Grits are great, imho.
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I thought about that porch pirates thing. I didn’t actually hear it being delivered this time but I figured that since I work from home and hubby is retired, usually someone is home all day. The $30 off was a great incentive to at least try it. We’ll see how long it lasts. I may have to get some grits to have around.
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Grits are good. And inexpensive, I might add.
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I love the idea of the meal service, but it’s more that I like the novelty of things that come in boxes!! Looks great though!.,
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Yes, I was hesitant at first, especially since we need to actually cook the food ourselves. It was the $30 off that got me. I love a deal.
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😀
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