I signed up and quickly took the option to make my own meal choices rather than leaving it to fate; there were plenty of options (although be aware, there are not a lot of options for people with special dietary considerations - a few vegie selections but not really accomodating anything else like requirements for gluten free diets) and even a "premium" meal that cost a few dollars extra shoud you fancy it.
I was pleasantly surprised with how fresh the ingredients were, we did NOT follow the suggestions in terms of what days we ate things and in fact, our last two meals were recommended as ones to eat earlier in the week. We checked the use by dates on the protein and followed our own preferences.
First impressions...signing up was easy, as was selecting our delivery day. Deliveries are mostly made overnight, some time before 7am. Ours actually arrived around midnight. I was fast asleep but Matt was still up and brought it in. It would have been fine until morning though, it was well packaged with plenty of special insulation to keep it cold. We tested it and the ice bricks were still partially frozen sitting on the kitchen bench even 24 hours later. You can also track your delivery and it culminates with a photo showing where it's been left. We asked for ours to be left at the back door and it was.
The recipes come with a card that you match up with your meat and other bits bag that gives you a good idea of how long it will take to make your meal and what extras you need - mostly staples like butter and olive oil, I was surprised at fish sauce being on one of them. Yes of course we had it - but would you if you didn't regularly cook Thai or Vietnamese food? Maybe everyone in Australia cooks Thai and Vietnamese meals often enough to require a bottle of fish sauce? Or perhaps they were expecting an ancient Roman's pantry?
Menu One was Tahini & Honey-Glazed Chicken with Garlic Rice and a tomato and cucumber salad.
My first comment was that I was disappointed that the chicken is not free range although it was RSPCA approved (in my feedback to the company I suggested they add free range as an option to their chook and pork products even with a surcharge).
The garlic rice was sensational and we will make it again.
The chicken was pretty nice too, thights are my favourite bit of the chook. If we made it agian I'd chope the bits smaller than the illustration so it cooked faster.
The salad was OK, a bit like Tabbouleh without the cracked wheat. Plenty of left over salad too, I had it on my lunch the following day.
Next up was Five Spice Caramel Pork with Ramen Noodles.
Strangely, this recipe was the one with the longest cook and prep time.
It was quite tasty - but we both thought the version Matt regularly makes with pork spare ribs from the AWW Vietnamese recipe book (instead of the loin supplied) is actually better and tastier. We left out the carrot because orange vegetables are vile. Probably because it was so similar to a recipe we do make frequently I thought it the most disappointing. Not BAD, just not great. Meat a bit chewy. Udon noodles were the same brand I which buy as ramen.
On night three we had Greek style fetta and oregano steak with roasted potato cubes and balsamic onions. The steak was actually really really good but the suggested cooking time was way too long - for medium or even well done (shudder). I felt the oven needed to be hotter for the spuds than directed, and we finished them off in the frypan while the steak was resting. One last comment, the balsamic onions were supposed to be cooked after the steak, while it was resting. I looked at the steak (quite thin rump) and decided we would cook the onions first and reheat when ready to serve. More washing up because not recycling one frypan but better than than well done meat!!
The next night was Friday so that was the day we had the fush and chups (and fush it was, imported NZ ling). Friday wasn't fish n chips for any religious reason, it's always the night we have something easy for the end of the week. And tonight it was panko crummbed fish and served with salad and oven fries. Again, we felt the spuds didn't end up crispy enough. Maybe my drizzle of oil is too much or not enough? The fish, I thought was only just cooked on the recommended time. Overall, pretty nice with a good crunch from the panko. Liked the little extras mixed in with the panko for extra flavour.
Our final meal saw chicken again, this time breast (again, RSPCA approved but not free range). Chermoula spiced chicken with veggie risoni. This will probably be my most mixed set of feedback because bits I loved and bits I loathed... The chicken was marinated in yoghurt and chermoula (a Moroccan spice mix which I love), then quickly fried to give it a bit of a crust and finished in the oven. It was really tasty, and while breast can dry out, this was delicious and juicy. Saving this part of the recipe to make again. The veggie risoni I wasn't fussed on at all, it was basically Hot Wet Rice (well, risoni) with onions, zucchini, and capsicum. We halved the amout of capsicum that was suggested because I'm not a fan - actually I HATE capsicum - and it didn't overwhelm the meal but it was my least favourite thing. So I'd do the chook again - but with roasted vegies and cous cous I think. Matt said next time do it without the zucchini, the devils vegetable (clearly he's WRONG, yum yum).
So, to sum up...would I order again and actually pay money? Yes, especially if I knew we had a busy week coming up. I wish that this service had been around when we were both working full time and had much longer days than we do now - the food was tasty and I found the menus were easy to follow (although Matt found some of them a bit more challenging and thought the times specified were for a practiced cook not a beginnner). We cooked together which is alwasy nice, ate an interesting variety of food and found the servings were generous.
Price for five nights of dinner for two people is usually $109. So a bit pricier than buying from scratch - but we didn't have to, we just had to look at the website and pick what we wanted to eat; there was very little wastage, and it came nicely portioned out with the recipes that you can save for another time if you like them.
I now return you to our regular service. Sunday night schnitty and chips. The beans were inspired by one of our Hello Fresh menus with garlic, oregano, and feta cheese :-)
