August 20, 2020

Hello Fresh (this is *NOT* an ad!)

I'm sure you've all heard of Hello Fresh--a company that delivers the ingredients and recipes for meals. I don't know much about it except for what I've heard on advertisements. This is not a sponsored post or an ad of any kind; my mom just gave me part of a kit, so I thought I'd mention it.

My mom's friend orders Hello Fresh (for a single woman, it actually makes a lot of sense). I've never bought into these meal programs because 1) I'm a stay-at-home mom, so I work the grocery shopping/cooking into my days, and 2) It's crazy expensive. 

Anyway, my mom's friend was able to send a free kit to a friend, so she sent it to my mom. My dad is... well, not the most open-minded person when it comes to trying new foods, so my mom shared with me. First, she made a recipe and brought over the leftovers (a LOT, because my dad didn't want it). She also gave me a four-person meal of beef tostadas.

The recipe that my mom made was AMAZING. As I ate it, I realized just how easy it would be to make on my own, so I'm going to buy the ingredients to do that. (I didn't think to take a picture, but trust me--it was delicious!)

Tonight, I made the tostadas. I actually wasn't impressed with the amount of time (and dishes) it took to make this recipe. With a meal kit, I'd hoped it'd be super fast and easy. It was easy, which is great for people who don't typically know how to cook, but it took a lot of dishes to prepare and the prep work was--well, more than I would typically like.

I made the kids do all the dishes after dinner. Hahaha ;) 

Aside from that, it tasted pretty good! I definitely liked the dish my mom made much better, but this one was good, too. I could recreate it, but it's not at the top of my priority list. Here are the cards that show the recipes, so you can see how the meal delivery system works. The ingredients shown are what are delivered with the recipe.



Here is the one that my mom made. It's called "Pork, Mushroom and Carrot Bibimbap". I've never heard the word "bibimbap" before. But just trust me that it tastes really good!



They send you all the ingredients, but nothing is prepped--so you have to do all the prep work yourself. To me, this wasn't helpful at all. Since I do the meal planning and grocery shopping, I will already have the ingredients on hand. However, for someone who doesn't have the time to meal plan or shop, this wouldn't be super convenient. On the bright side, it made a pretty large amount of food! (I used two kits' worth, so it was four servings.)

Anyway, the family liked it (although it was kind of greasy) but I don't think I'd get the ingredients to make it again. The Asian dish that my mom made, however, was SO GOOD that I'll definitely be buying the ingredients to make that again!



This morning, Little Duck was cracking me up. He insisted on being in my "progress photo" for 75 Hard. He's grown quite a bit over the last month, so apparently, he wanted to show that off ;)





During my morning walk, I took Joey to his favorite place... the access road that goes through the marsh across the street. I like going there because I can let him off of his leash and he LOVES running through the brush and into the marsh and bouncing all over the place. Right now, the path is the most overgrown I've ever seen it, however. I hope that someone mows it soon.

Anyway, here is Joey in all his glory:





I finished up the shelves in the garage today! Yesterday, I finished building them and then I primed them. Today, I painted them. I used the same paint that I did on the walls, so it's not very exciting, but I didn't want to have to buy more paint unless necessary and they are going to be loaded with the junk in the garage, so does it really matter that they are the same gray color as the walls? 

I'm just really excited to have them done! Here is a before and after photo of the wall. The before is a true "before"--when I hadn't even started working on the insulation or drywall. It's taken from the same angle as the one from today. A huge difference, right?!

Tomorrow, I'm going to put things on the shelves and hopefully get the garage back to normal! I promised a couple of people that I'd make squirrel picnic tables for them, and I can't wait to have my tools back :)


7 comments:

  1. Bibimbap is Korean! I love it, though I have to admit I've never made it myself.
    Also the garage looks amazing!

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  2. We tried Hello Fresh and their recipes are so easy. You can go to their website to check out some of their other recipes. I converted the Bibimbap recipe to use tofu instead of meat (we are vegetarians) and we make it all the time - it is so good! The levels of flavor are just amazing!

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  3. Bibimbap is a traditional Korean dish--it's so freaking good. I tried one of those meal prep kits a number of years ago and I agree that it was actually more work than I expected/wanted for something that's supposed to be fast and easy. I also hated the amount of trash waste involved. BUT I think they're good in that they can get a person out of a cooking rut and encourage you to try new things (like bibimbap!), so there's that at least. I was definitely "one and done" on getting it.

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  4. Katie your work on the garage looks sooooo great!!! I love it. You did an EXCELLENT job...

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  5. It surprises me that you think that recipe had a lot of prep work. When you cook whole fresh meals, it requires you to chop a lot of vegetables. I work all day and don't think 1/2 hr is too long to prep for a nutritious dinner. Otherwise, you're just dumping processed soups or other unhealthy things into your family. For 30 years, I decide sometime during the weekend what we're going to eat all week. Sunday I shop so I never have to go back to the grocery store all week. Sometimes I prep the next nights dinner after dinner and store it in the refrigerator.

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I used to publish ALL comments (even the mean ones) but I recently chose not to publish those. I always welcome constructive comments/criticism, but there is no need for unnecessary rudeness/hate. But please--I love reading what you have to say! (This comment form is super finicky, so I apologize if you're unable to comment)

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