Home Chef Review (Box #1)

Well, after consideration I decided to go ahead and give another meal kit service a try.  Why?  Hell, I don't know-I figured I might as well try a few of them before I give up all together and either stick with one or stop doing them all together.  But Home Chef seemed a bit more up my alley because they offer a six person meal service, which would work better for when all the kids are home & having plenty for everyone.  It's a bit more expensive though-but so is food that you buy at the grocery store.  I am trying to make my life easier-so we shall see if this works out for me.  The first box will come when it's just me, Billy and Olivia at home (meal box for four/only two meals).

Okay, so let's talk about what's in the box:  Blue Cheese, Butter, Fingerling Potatoes, Garlic Cloves, Green Beans, Green Onions, Sirloin Steak, Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts, Canola Oil, Chicken Breading, Corn Kernels, Light Cream, Mayonnaise, Russet Potatoes

Meal 1 - Sirloin Steak with Blue Cheese Compound Butter with Green Beans and Roasted Fingerling Potatoes

Would we make this again?  Well, let's face it-it is beef and it is sirloin.  So sure, why not.  I mean, I don't eat a lot of red meat or steak for that matter.  But when I do, I prefer a nice cut.  And Home Chef did give us four really beautiful cuts of beef.  There were plenty of potatoes & green beans-in fact we didn't even use all of the veggies or the blue cheese & butter (as I was the only one interested in the blue cheese).  So there is left overs.  I did have to cook the potatoes longer then they suggested-and they still didn't brown up but were cooked through and soft.  I think cooking at a higher temperature maybe would have helped with this.  The garlic was already pealed and ready to go, that was fantastic so I just chopped it up and cooked it into my green beans.  The recipe is easy to follow, and the food was fresh and delicious-so yes....yes we would make this again!

Meal 2 - Farmhouse Fried Chicken with Mashed Potatoes, Green Onion Gravy and Corn

Would we make this again?  Oh yes, this was a big hit at our house.  I didn't take any photos of my own-these are the photos from the website as it was to late to take pictures (Olivia had baseball practice).  It was quick to make and really yummy.  The only thing I would say that wasn't great was the gravy, it wasn't really a hit since it turned out to really be just steamed milk with onions in it.  There was plenty of food, had some left over for lunch the next day - minus the corn, they really didn't send a lot of corn at all.

Finally, let's talk about the cost.  I got $20 off each box ($80 off total).  The shipping is free, which I like-since Every Box does charge you $8.99 for shipping.  My total for 2 4 people meals was $59.60 which is $7.45 a plate.  Not to bad right?  I like that this meal box comes with the oil and butter-that is something you have to use of your own with Every Plate.

Want to try it yourself?  Here is $30 off ---->Click Here<----

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Weekly Meal Plan - 09/23/2019

This weeks meal plan has all been planned out.  LOL!  I maybe should try to phrase that better.  This week, our meals will be:

Sunday: Chicken Pita's (Thanks to Every Plate)
Using the Every Plate recipe (and supplies) for this delicious meal.  Now we are short four potatoes, so we'll see how we can make it work-we all seem to fight over potatoes around here.  We all love them so.

Monday:  Pasta Night with french bread
I have not decided what type of pasta we will be having on Monday.  Once I get to the grocery store-I'll know more.  I want to look at the pasta and get my inspiration at the grocery store.  I'll also bake a homemade french loaf of bread for those wanting to enjoy a warm slice.

Tuesday:  Taco's (of course)We'll be making our traditional taco dinner (beef/turkey mixture) served with warm flour tortillas, hard corn shells, lettuce, tomatoes, beans, cilantro rice, sour cream & cheese.

Wednesday: Chicken and Sour Cream RiceThis is a classic in our family, and really easy!  It consists of boneless skinless chicken breasts (or a rotisserie chicken), and chicken flavored Rice a Roni.  We will cook the chicken (boil) until cooked through and then follow the instructions on the RaR package, after it's all cooked we put in sour cream for an added creamy element-and that's it.

Thursday: Pork stuffed burgers with potato wedgesWe had this one week that the boys were not home, and well-it was that good that we want to share it with the kiddos.  So we'll be making this again just using the Every Plate recipe.  I hope I can make it as good, I've never bought ground pork before-so I don't really know what I am looking for.

Friday: Homemade PizzasThis is pretty self explanatory.  Olivia and I like veggie pizzas-so that will be super easy (mushrooms and onions for us) and pepperoni for the boys.

Saturday: Billy's chicken wings, homemade mac & cheese, roasted green beans
I'll have write out the recipe for Billy's bbq hot wings because they are delish-this will be the third time we've made them-they are certainly going into the rotation.

This meal planning stuff is no joke, it's hard to think ahead like this.  It's hard to commit to the plan and it's hard to go grocery shopping and buy all this crap.  This is week two, please someone tell me it gets easier!?

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Every Plate - Review (box number 2)

{UPDATE}  I am all out of free boxes!  You can still get $20 off your first order by clicking here though....still a great deal!  ----->CLICK HERE<-----

So my family decided to give Every Plate another try-because our first box was such a hit.  So much a hit, that one of the recipes will be made again next week so the entire family can enjoy it (we just are buying all the ingredients on our own).

Okay, so let's talk about what is in our box this week:  four ranch steaks, green beans, shallots, garlic, peppercorns, beef stock, red wine vinegar, demi-baguettes, button mushrooms, linguine pasta, pork sausage, reduced-fat milk, Parmesan cheese, Yukon gold potatoes, roma tomatoes, lemons, Persian cucumbers, sour cream, chicken breast strips, Turkish spices and whole wheat pitas.

Meal 1 - Peppercorn Steak with Garlic Butter Bread sticks and Roasted Green Beans

Would we make it again?  We'd totally make this again, maybe with a pepper grinder & maybe with a better cut of steak (the steak they sent was tasty but not very tender).  The idea of roasting green beans is amazing, love it so much & will totally continue to roast my veggies from now on thanks to EP.

Meal 2 - Pork Sausage and Mushroom Linguine with a Creamy Parmesan Sauce

Would we make it again?  Probably not this version, we all like the version of this that I make better.  I wasn't a fan of the sausage, it had hard bits in it & I cannot stand eating sausage that has hard things in it (bone maybe?), which is why I opted to just have mine with some yummy mushrooms.  It was yummy, and lower calories then my version as it came with low fat milk.  I may use that part of the recipe for the future - as I didn't see much difference in the flavor.  I wish that it would have come with some veggies to go with it, maybe broccoli or zucchini, I don't know-for a chef crafted meal I thought it was missing some freshness or brightness.

Meal 3 - Greek Chicken Pitas with Tzatziki and Lemony Potato Wedges

Would we make it again?  Surprised to say, yes-we would.  Even the picky eater of the house liked it, now mind you he didn't put tomato, cucumbers or the sauce on it but he loved the meat flavor, the ketchup flavor and the lemon potatoes.  Though we didn't have enough potatoes to go around.  They should have sent us 10 potatoes - but we only received 6.  I did contact EP and they gave me almost $10 to use towards my next purchase-which is pretty generous for 4 small potatoes.

Now let's talk about the items once they are prepared:  All the recipes were pretty easy to complete.  The only thing we found difficult was crushing the peppercorns in a ziplock bag as they suggested, it tore the bag & left the peppercorns pretty intact.  I used a meat clever - and pounded the crap out of it too.  I think I prefer a grinder for this.  Loved the shallots as an added bonus with the steak and the garlic bread was amazing as were the roasted green beans (who knew).  Will we continue to get these boxes, yep.....we sure will.....we continue to love them y'all.

And finally, let's talk about the price:  For our first box, I had a coupon for $20 off which brought my total for three meals for four people to $38.90.  Our second box, this box was upgraded so we could have the steak (for our anniversary) for $2.99 more per serving.  So our total was $80.83 (average about $6.74 a person/meal)

We have decided to get a during the week of October 3rd as well, and that will include 1. Spicy Honey Butter Chicken with Zucchini and Roasted Sweet Potatoes 2. Vietnamese Steak Bows with Carrot, Pickled Cucumber and Sriracha Mayo and finally 3. Creamy Penne Gratin with Cheesy Bechamel, Mushrooms and Thyme.

(click here if you want to try it yourself & get $20 off) or if you want to try a free box-send me an email at hello@homewithlela.com and I will send you the information on that.  Happy Cooking!

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Every Plate - Review (is it worth the price)?

So my family decided to give Every Plate a try.  What is Every Plate you ask, well they boasted on Facebook that they were an Affordable Meal Kit program, having meals at just $4.99 per person.  The meal kits can come every week, every other week or once a month-or never again, you have control over that.  They have meal kits for two or four people.  We opted to get the kit for four, since that was as high as it would go and have the kit delivered the week the boys were with their other parent, so it would be just three people enjoying the dinners.

Well first off let's talk about what we got in our box:  Two packages of ground pork, two packages of ground beef, four chicken breasts, two units of pepper jack cheese, one garlic clove, 20 potatoes, two packages of broccoli, two large zucchinis,  a lime, two packages of jasmine rice, four potato buns, two slices of bread, four onions, a halved piece of ginger, BBQ sauce, sour cream, beef concentrate

Meal 1 - Gooey Stuffed Pork Burgers with BBQ Onions and Crispy Potato Wedges

Would we make again?  Absolutely.  This one was a winner, not only did it take no time at all t prepare but it was really tasty.  We think that the boys would love this one.  I couldn't get over the idea of BBQ onions.  I mean, I love onions-I love them so much.  This recipe didn't disappoint in that department.  Once caramelized, we put in the BBQ sauce and those already delicious things were elevated to another level.  We loved the toasted buttery garlic potato buns as well.  The pork burgers had hardly if any shrinkage.  Some of the cheese did ooze out as it cooked, but I love cooked crispy cheese, so who cares right?

Meal 2 - Gravy Lover's Meatballs with Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Broccoli

Would we make again?  Totally.  This was took about ten more minutes for us to prepare and cook, but the end results were great.  The beef was of good quality, hardly any oil left over after baking them, the mashed potatoes were amazing, who knew roasted garlic would elevate a simple dish?  Not this girl, but I know now and I cannot ever forget it.

Meal 3 - Teriyaki Chicken Breasts with Zucchini and Ginger-Lime Rice

Would we make again?  Well to be honest, we never made this per the recipe.  The boys came home, and four chicken breasts just aren't enough-so we put them in the freezer.

Now let's talk about the items once they are prepared:  The recipes were easy to follow, everything was step by step.

And finally, let's talk about the price:  For our first box, I had a coupon for $20 off which brought my total for three meals to $38.90.  But if we continue to get boxes they will run $68.87 a week on the weeks we opt to get them delivered.  All in all not to bad, right?

(click here if you want to try it yourself & get $20 off)

p.s. here are a few more pics of the pork burger (just because I love onions)

Update:  I have three free meals to give away to anyone that would like to try it, just message me your email address :)  

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Meal Planning

I am horrible at wanting to cook when I get home from work, and trying to figure it out stresses me out.  So I am going to try to learn how to meal plan for the week.  I have read a few blogs and decided that it cannot be that hard to meal plan, right?  I mean-why don't I do it already-I have no clue.....but I am about to find out.

I created a little calendar for myself, and learned a few tips.....

1. Pick a day of the week to plan for the following weeks meals
2. Create a grocery list from the planner/calendar
3. Go to the grocery store & purchase items from your list (or use the cool Walmart Grocery pickup app) =====>CLICK HERE<=====
4. Do the grocery shopping on a different day, to save yourself the hassel
5. Cook the dinners that require the most fresh ingredients earlier in the week
6. Starting out, being a beginner only prep for dinners the first couple of weeks.  Keep breakfasts & lunches repetitive.
7. Put a star * on the days that dinner will be the most difficult to cook (and plan for that ahead of time with a freezer meal).
8. Wish me luck.

I have no idea which week I will do this-maybe next week, maybe the week after but I'll figure it out and let you know ;)

oh and on the down low, I did sign up to get THREE meals next week with #everyplate.  I'll blog about that later too, haha......(shsssh)

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