The three older kids each got to cook two meals for us this summer.
Melty Monterey Jack Burgers by Jonathan
Elizabeth enlisted her friend to help her make Orange Cauliflower and Fried Rice. It's similar to Orange Chicken, but with cauliflower. Adelynn likes to make vegetarian dishes. I've had several - her food is restaurant quality! She made a Zucchini Basil soup one time..... mhm, mhm. This was a winner for me. I tried later to make some more with leftover cauliflower, and it just didn't cut it. She's got a gift.
Liz' next meal was trying out her Cafe's Toasted Avocado Chicken and Cheese sandwich. Phillip likes to order this when we visit for lunch. Elizabeth hit it just right! Shredded chicken, Monterey Jack cheese, avocado, & mayo on Wheatberry bread and grilled like a grilled cheese sandwich. Liz did find out from this meal that she can't eat Avocado (ironic, since she loves her cafe and wouldn't have dreamed of trying an Avocado until she worked there). They hurt her stomach pretty badly.
Jonathan wanted to try out Hello Fresh. He hears it advertised on a podcast he listens to. This was our first time trying out a meal delivery service. We got a good amount of savings using the podcast coupon code; otherwise we wouldn't have tried it.
I have to say it was kind of pampering to get this box in the mail with everything you need for a meal and clear instructions on how to fix it. It was all very fresh and packaged so cutely (tiny little jars, ya'll!). Jonathan is not an experienced chef, so it took him longer to cook the meals (it was supposed to take half an hour and it took him about 50 minutes). But it was cooked well: he didn't over-cook or under-cook the meat. The flavors were well-mixed and developed, especially if you ate it as they recommended (I think I was the only one who ate the balsamic onions on the hamburger).
You get to choose your meals from Hello Fresh and Jon chose Melty Monterey Jack Burgers with Red Onion Jam and Crispy Zucchini (top picture), and Parmesan-Crusted Chicken with Creamy Lemon Tomato Linguine. We kept the recipe cards so we could make these again because we enjoyed all of it. I think the linguine was my favorite.
I'm not getting paid to talk about Hello Fresh or anything, but we did get a good coupon with our meals. It's for a friend, so if anyone wants it, message me and I'll give you the code. It's $69.95 value (which covers the two meals per week option, I believe). They didn't offer meals for a family of 6, but the Family of 4 meals was plenty for us. We even had leftovers. Of course, my kids don't eat a ton.... Also, it's a weekly subscription, so if you don't want to pay for the next set of meals, you'll need to cancel your subscription, like, the day after you order your coupon-ed meals. You'll get the meals you just ordered at the reduced price, but won't get charged again until you un-pause your account. Just heads-up....
It's a lot of fun to try it out. It wouldn't at all be worth it for us to join this type of meal service ~ I can make meals a lot cheaper for our family. But it's super fun to try.
And Phoebe found her meals through a Taste of Home cookbook that my mom gave us a while back. She was hungry when she looked through it, so she had all kinds of pages dog-eared. It's a really simple book to cook from. The recipes aren't hard and the pictures are good; there's only one recipe per page. Perfect for beginners. Today she made Bacon and Egg Croissants (the recipe called for Bagels, but we all like croissants better) with peaches on the side.
Last week she made Colorful Pasta Salad and Barbecue Jack Chicken.
Huhh. I just noticed that all the kids chose one meal that included Monterey Jack Cheese.
Anyway, on the day of this meal, she was supposed to make lunch. I was stuck for 4 hours getting a vehicle taken care of and she was legitimately freaking out about how to cook these recipes. After some stilted communication (phones dying in the midst of texts and tears of frustration and Dad calling me so she would talk to me....), we finally settled that she could save that meal for supper and I could help her with whatever she needed help with. She had already made the pasta salad on her own though, so that was very good work.
Charlize came over to test Phoebe's cooking skills.
I don't often recommend cookbooks because there are usually only 2 recipes I ever want to use in any one cookbook..... But this one is really great for kids or beginner cooks. (Again, no affiliate links or anything.) I looked on Amazon and noticed there are several in this "series": crockpot meals and such. I often find new recipes through facebook or online, but I think handing a kid a book is helpful in this case. They have a limited, perceptible scope to choose from.
The summer cook-off was a success!
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