Hello Fresh Review

Sarah and I bit.  We have seen and heard enough advertisements and radio commercials for Blue Apron and Hello Fresh and other meal service providers, that we finally decided to give it a try.  After doing extensive research (about 30 minutes of internet searches) on several options available, we decided to go with Hello Fresh.  It ultimately came down between Hello Fresh and Blue Apron.  You can choose between a 2 person plan or a 4 person "family plan."  Obviously I am not in the 2 person boat, so I won't even discuss these options, as I honestly know nothing about them.  With Blue Apron's family plan, you can choose either 2, 3, or 4 meals a week.  For 2 meals a week, it cost roughly $75 per week and that includes shipping costs.  Blue Apron gives you a total of 4 recipes per week to choose from.  With Hello Fresh's family plan, you can choose either 2 or 3 meals a week.  For 2 meals a week it cost roughly $70 per week.  Hello Fresh offers a total of 5 recipes per week to choose from.  As I mentioned before, we chose Hello Fresh.  We chose them because they offer one more meal per week to choose from (4 versus 5), they are slightly cheaper, and they had a better initial starting offer.  Blue Apron offered $30 off your initial order, while Hello Fresh offered $25 off your first order and then a $25 credit off your second order for a total of $50 versus Blue Apron's $30.

So now you know why we chose Hello Fresh, here's why we decided to give this whole, "meals delivered to your door," thing.  First off, I love to cook.  I love making new recipes, I love the challenge of trying new things.  Plus, we used to always schedule out our family meals more than a week out.  And when we could, I would always scour the internet for some new tasty recipes.  Whenever we did this, I would do our grocery shopping and I would buy all the ingredients, come home, store them, cook them, then undoubtedly, throw out the unused portions of the ingredients.  I have no idea how much I would spend on any specific meal, and there is no doubt in my mind that, overall, doing this is cheaper per serving, than Hello Fresh.  But, when you consider the cost of the unused food I was throwing away in the end, it was probably more than $35 per meal.  Plus, when you consider that, and the fact that they take all the work out of meal planning, it was worth a try, especially when you consider how much more busier our lives have gotten over the past couple years, on top of the fact that we not only want, but truly enjoy eating healthy, natural foods and meals.

Now on to the fun stuff...our first order!  The first two meals we chose were Honey Sesame Chicken Tenders and Cherry Balsamic Pork Chops.  We scheduled them to be delivered on Wednesday the 3rd.  We had planned on cooking our first meal that night, but unfortunately, the box didn't arrive until shortly after 7pm.  Now, this wasn't necessarily Hello Fresh's fault, but bummer!  The box was just like any other package ordered from Amazon or Target.  Inside the box was an insulated liner containing two grocery style paper bags containing the ingredients for each meal.  Outside the bags were the meats, which were seated directly on top of a huge reusable, disposable, ice pack.  The ice pack and meats were all still frozen, but it was delivered during a polar vortex and the outdoor temperatures were below zero.  But the package was still on heated truck for who knows how long.  I then tossed our bags and meat into the fridge and we continued eating our replacement meal....frozen pizzas!

The first meal we cooked was the Honey Sesame Chicken Tenders.  Each recipe comes with a giant recipe card with easy to follow directions and pictures.  Delaney helped me cook up this recipe as she loves to cook with me as much as possible.  Plus, I thought it would be a neat way to include the girls with these "special" dinners.  All of the produce was fresh and honestly probably more fresh than if I were to have bought it a few days ago from the local grocery store and just thrown it into the fridge.

My favorite part of cooking a per-prepared meal was the fact that basically everything was premeasured and just needed to be added.  It was basically just like watching a cooking show.  Plus, that means there was no scraps.  I wasn't throwing away the left over scallions, or the leftover ginger.  I literally used everything that was sent.  It was spectacular. 

The recipe card for the tenders said that it had a 10 minute prep time and a total time to dinner of 30 minutes.  We started cooking around 5:10pm and were eating dinner before 6:00pm.  I thought that wasn't bad considering I was cooking with a 6 year old and I had to dish up 4 dishes before we actually were eating. 

The meal was great!  One of my concerns going into this adventure was the fact that we were receiving a meal reportedly for 4 people, when I have 5 super hungry...yet (somehow) super picky... mouths to feed.  Would there be enough food?  I dished up a total of 4 plates (Sarah was sick tonight and not eating).  I was able to dish up one big plate (for me), and 3 other generous plates of my picky little monsters and still had left over tenders, broccoli, and rice.  It would have easily been enough for all 5 of us.  I think I can comfortably say, that if you bought this plan for a true 4 person family, you would have ample serving sizes and still maybe leftovers.  As far as the flavor, the meal was very good.  All kids love it!  Delaney, who claims to "hate meat" even asked for seconds of the chicken!  It was a success, from beginning to end.  We are looking forward to our next meal on Sunday and look forward to regular family meals with new and varying meals!


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Chicken Mofongo

If I haven't posted about it yet, I absolutely LOVE Chow Stalker!  If you haven't checked it out, you should.  It is a blog with constantly updated Paleo, High Fat, Gluten Free, and Real Food recipes.  I have yet to find something on there that doesn't make my mouth water.  Plus, the best part is they are all healthy recipes!  The other day I was scouring Chow Stalker and found a recipe for Chicken Mofongo.  The picture looked delicious, but I had no idea what the hell Mofongo was.  After doing a little research, I learned that traditional Mofongo is a classic fried plantain dish originating from Puerto Rico.  Traditional Mofongo dishes are made from fried green plantains which are then mashed (like mashed potatoes) with olive oil, broth, garlic, and pork cracklings or bacon.  It sounds delicious, so I figured, what the hell, lets give it a try!

Turns out, it was better than delicious, it was fantastic.  It took a while to make and was pretty labor intensive to be honest.  The entire dish took about 1:10-1:20 to complete, start to finish and left me with a sink FULL of dirty pots and pans.  But, in the end, everyone loved it, including our picky kids.  If you're looking for something new to try, or always wanted to try a dish with plantains, here is a great option!

Ingredients

   

Mofongo:

• 4 Green Plantains
• 1/4 Cup Chicken Stock
• 4 Slices of Thick Cut Bacon
• 1 Tbsp Garlic, Minced
• Salt and Black Pepper to Taste

      Chicken Sauce:

• 2-3 Boneless Chicken Breasts, Cubed
• 1 Tbsp Coconut Oil
• Medium-Small Onion, Diced
• Green Bell Pepper, Diced
• 2 Tbsp Cilantro, Chopped
• 2 Garlic Cloves, Chopped
• 15 oz Can Tomato Sauce
• 1 Cup Chicken Stock
• 3 Tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
• 2 Tsp Salt
• 1 1/2 Tsp Garlic Powder
• 1 1/2 Tsp Onion Powder
• 1 1/2 Tsp Cumin
• 1 Tsp Oregano
• 1 Tsp Coriander
• 1/2 Tsp Black Pepper

Directions

1. Peel plantains by cutting the outer peel with a knife and running your thumb between the plantain and the peel.
2. Cut the plantains into 1/2-1" disks and place into a put with water and 1 Tsp salt and allow to soak for about 15 minutes.  After they have soaked for 15 minutes bring water to a boil and boil plantains for 5 minutes, drain from the water and dry using paper towel.
3. Cook bacon in a frying pan, when fully cooked place onto a plate with paper towel to dry off excess grease.
4. Fry plantain disks in the same frying pan using the excess bacon grease.  You may need to add a little extra coconut oil if the bacon grease dries.  Fry until golden brown.
5. Dice the cooled, dried bacon
6. Add all Mofongo ingredients into either a food processor or mortar and pestel to mash to the consistency of traditional mashed potatoes.  Add Chicken Stock a little at a time as you mash the ingredients together, you may need to add more or less Chicken Stock to get the desired consistency.
7. To make the chicken sauce, first heat coconut oil in frying pan and saute the onion, pepper, garlic, and cilantro, for about 4 minutes, or until soft.
8. Add tomato sauce, red wine vinegar, and chicken stock, cook for another 3-4 minutes
9. Add chicken and remaining herbs and spices and cook until chicken is fully cooked.
10. To serve, ladle sauce onto plate and form Mofongo into baseball to softball size balls and place in center of plate.  Garnish with a few sprigs of cilantro. 

Boiling the plantains.

I used a food processor to mash the Mofongo.