Menu planning sure helps me feel relaxed throughout the week. Knowing we have the ingredients for the meals helps the chaos in the evening and in turn helps our overall budget.
My last Hello Fresh box arrived on Saturday, February 4th. The menu included the following:
- Mustard-Breaded Chicken Thighs with Brussels Sprouts and Sweet Potatoes
- Sugar-Sweet Pork Chops with Mixed Root Veggies
- When Steak Met Potatoes with Peppercorn Sauce
We cooked the Mustard-Breaded Chicken Thighs last Monday and it all turned out well. The meal was quite simple to prepare. The chicken breaded in a traditional way. I was unaware with the brussels sprouts to place them cut side down on my baking stone which helped dramatically on roasting them. After the fact I realized I probably kept the brussels sprouts in longer than I needed with ensuring the chicken was cooked all the way through. The sweet potatoes cooked in a way I have never done before. The last recipe which required sweet potatoes, Jeff started early in the toaster oven. This method mentioned to wet a paper towel, wrap around the sweet potatoes, and microwave for ten minutes. After the ten minutes, the sweet potatoes appeared done. Since the chicken was still cooking, the recipe steps mentioned to place the sweet potatoes in the oven to keep warm.
This upcoming week we will cook the other two recipes from my kit. We had an odd week on last week's menu. Jakob celebrated his 12th birthday last Saturday, February 4th. Grandparents came to visit and we went to Babe's Chicken for lunch before a few of Jakob's friends came over to the house. Friends arrived around 2PM and for dinner I ordered pizza. I had a buy one get one codes and used points and purchased four pizzas and cheese bread for Ashlyn for about $33. Since I had four preteen boys at the house I was expecting them to be hungry. Right when the pizza arrived, one of the boys was picked up. Long story short, we had right at three full pizzas remaining and chicken leftover from Saturday. Talk about rearranging the refrigerator to make all the food fit! We are also finishing up the cake from last week!
On Saturday, February 18th, my next Hello Fresh kit will arrive! The menu includes the following recipes:
- Balsamic Chicken Rustico with Provencal Roasted Roots Veggies
- Ginger Beef Stir-Fry with Snappy Asparagus
- Melty Monterey Jack Burger with Red Onion Jam and Zucchini Fries
Hello Fresh has sure simplified creating our menu and added variety to our dinner plates. I also take advantage of Wal-Mart's online grocery shopping by adding additional produce to select menus without the hassle! It is also such a time-saver for me.
Menu Plan Monday:
Week of February 13, 2017
Monday, 2/13: Overnight Lasagna
Tuesday, 2/14: Sausage with Rice and Green Beans
Wednesday, 2/15: Sugar-Sweet Pork Chops with Mixed Root Veggies
Thursday, 2/16: Leftover Buffet
Friday, 2/17: Dining Out
Saturday, 2/18: Sandwiches
Sunday, 2/19: Hello Fresh Menu
I am looking into one of these meal delivery services as I have gone back to school 2 nights a week and my guys are struggling with dinners. Is the food good? Is it worth the money? what else can you tell me please and thank you Julie @ mom2priceboys@yahoo.com
ReplyDeleteJulie, I absolutely am loving Hello Fresh. The food is delicious and extremely fresh! I have found it helpful with planning our menus as for some weeks it might be primarily the Hello Fresh meals and other weeks it is our normal random items (spaghetti, tacos, etc). We have 4 in our family. Two adults and two kids. Jakob is 12 and Ashlyn is 5. So I have Hello Fresh set for 2 to make it a little easier on cost. I normally get additional of the veggies using Wal-Mart's online grocery service and make additional of the sides since half the plate should be non-starchy type veggies anyways. It has helped my weekends calm down where I can spend it more either at home or doing activities with the kids instead of running all the errands. I also love that my 5 year old, loves to help make the meals. My 12 year old's comment was "You know how you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, same for Hello Fresh meals!" I sent you a link via Hello Fresh for $40 off of your first box. They are awesome where if you choose not to do it, you can cancel. My mom had to because it was too much protein for my dad and they were super nice about all of it. You can also adjust when you get your deliveries. I average about every other week.
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