Home Chef

8:34:00 PM cc 0 Comments

 I wanted to try Home Chef first out of all the meal kit subscriptions because they have smoothies. Each week you have a choice of 15 different meals and 3 add ons. 3 of the meals are labeled as 5 minute lunches. Some meals had customization that you can choose more meat or a different kind of meat like antibiotic free and such. The add ons are a smoothie, seasonal fruit bowl, and a premium meal that is more expensive than the regular meals. Each meal has the option of 2 servings or 4 servings. I have the 2 serving 3 meals a week plan. I can choose to get one or two meals, but they will charge shipping so you'd have to get 3 or more meals to get free shipping. Like with most subscription box services you can skip a week or two and cancel anytime.

 For my first box I got two pasta meals, one 5 minute no cooking required meal, and a smoothie. Each meal came in these plastic bags that same shape as rotisserie chicken and grapes comes in from the super market. So they were really easy to handle, and they are labeled on the bag what meal its for. The box also included printed and hole punched recipe cards. And since this is my first box they also included a recipe binder to put the recipes in. The box is packed in plastic wrapped cotton and a ice pack. They included instructions on how to recycle and dispose the packaging. All the plastic is recyclable or reusable, and everything else are non toxic and can go into the trash.




 First thing I made was a 5 minute meal which is called Chicken and Creamy Corn Rice Bowl. The rice and chicken are both precooked and just needs to microwaved warm. Then I mix it with the taco seasoning and top it off with cotija cheese, crispy jalapenos, and sour cream. This tasted really delicious! I don't know what they put in the taco seasoning, but it really made this flavorful. Not sure if the taco seasoning at the super market will be as good. Sadly the recipe card doesn't tell you in detail so making it from scratch maybe a little difficult.




 Second meal I made is the Italian Wedding pasta. This one included ground pork so I wanted to use the meat soon. The meat was packed at the bottom of the box, and it bagged in a large ziplock bag. This bag did end up broken open during shipment and some juice did slip outside. So I had to wash the bag and packaging. This meal required only oil and salt and pepper from my pantry. I underestimated the amount this meal would yield so the medium sized pot I used was quite full while cooking this. This came out pretty good as well! I do feel there's a bit too much meat and wished there were more vegetables. The bag gave me one lemon sized tomato and a handful of swiss chard. Some of the swiss chard had more stem than leaves. This is another meal I'd like to make from scratch.




 The third meal is the Umami Miso Mushroom Cream Pasta. Despite some of the asian ingredients, this dish has a very western taste to it. The butter and sour cream kind of hides the miso taste. So this isn't an asian dish to me, but its still very good. Like with the above pasta dish, this yields a lot for me. Though this one there's more pasta than the other ingredients. I would've liked another type of vegetable with this. Other than the mushrooms there are scallions and garlic but theres very little of it in comparison. This dish is the lightest one in terms of taste.



 Last one in my first box is the add on smoothie which is the Blue Hawaii smoothie. This one has frozen blueberries, frozen pineapples, pineapple juice, and yogurt. Only thing it needed from me was ice. This smoothie is pretty good! The yogurt gave it some zing which I like. Its refreshing tasting!

 So my first box impression is pretty good. Home Chef exceeded my expectations! Honestly at first I wasn't that into the meal choices so it really was the smoothie option that got me. I did pick all carb meals which were all delicious, but I should get at least one meal that has less or less carbs. So far I do recommend Home Chef. These meal kits are convenient and are helping people to cook more at home. Price wise its slightly cheaper than eating at a restaurant. You're definitely not wasting food with meal kits, but there is quite a bit of plastic packaging. Please recycle the plastics!! I may buy more boxes so I will continue to write more posts.

UPDATE!!! 
 So I got another box since I still get emails from them and saw they were offering a $20 off next order deal. I noticed they have an option to just buy once without having to unpause/renew your subscription so that was neat! Unfortunately when my order arrived I saw that one of the meals was missing an ingredient in the bag. I filled out the customer support form which was simple and easy to fill out. I got a response almost immediately on a Sunday and they gave me a $10 refund for the cilantro that was missing which I find generous. So far I do like this service and my experience with their customer service is better than I expected!