Goodfood Recap #23

It sure feels like a while since the last time I wrote a Goodfood recap. The only reason is that the recipes weren’t quite to our liking so we decided to just skip 2 weeks. Now its back generally to a schedule that we like. Without further ado, here’s the recap for last week’s meals!

Shrimp Boil
with Summer Corn, Roasted Potatoes and Green Salad

Sorry for the scattered look on this one. We kind of had this one in a scattered manner as well. This was a pretty summer themed meal and I loved the making the shrimps and corns and potatoes together. The spices were delicious. I didn’t get the salad but my husband did. I believe the dressing smelled pretty good.

Grilled Vegetable Bowls
with Ginger-Soy Sauce & Edamame Rice

I’m going to admit right now that last week was hell and we’ve had a whole lot of delays on cooking and just had a ton of leftovers and stuff. Its re-adapting to some things in life that has surfaced. It changed the routine I had and who knew that it would be delayed like this. When we got around to making the vegetable bowl, the zucchini was already done for, making this bowl slightly sad. However, the edamame rice was delicious. The veggies and the spices were really great as well. Its all very lovely along with the ginger-soy sauce also. Maybe we will remake this one day with the yellow zucchini.

Soy-Maple Chicken
with Roasted Sweet Potatoes, Grilled Zucchini & Charred Scallion Salad

The soy-maple sauce was quite tasty here. The oven-roasted sweet potatoes also had a great recipe. Simple and easy. I’m not much for scallion so I didn’t go and eat a whole scallion stalk. Well, surprisingly the zucchini here didn’t go bad so the grilling it turned out great. Of course, the grilled stuff is all my husband’s hard work. This meal does come together quite well.

Herbed Pork Chops
with Pistachio-Mint Salmuera, Grilled Peppers & Roasted Baby Potatoes

The last meal of this box is the herbed pork chops. The spices for the pork chop was absolutely delicious. I’m starting to see a theme in the spice blends and how good they are while all being quite different. My husband handled this meal. The potatoes turned out quite well. The grilled peppers was also quite good. Simple stuff is always the best method in my book. While I liked the idea of the pistachio=mint salmuera, I liked the pork chops without that topping.  I didn’t mind it much but the spices already had enough balance in flavor to make it all work. But then, I refer back to the simple things for myself that always work best that I mentioned before.

Overall…

It was a pretty decent box. Anything that didn’t go well was because of my procrastination. The spice blends in the meals were very good and gave these meals their own distinction. There are some simple elements here that worked very well too.

With that said, we have a new box this week and its already having its delays with all the events happening in town. 
I’ll be back with that recap next week!

Recap: Goodfood #5

We take a tiny break to share a little of the last Goodfood meal box!

This time was a pretty interesting mix. I honestly got it for one of the recipes and then had to take a chance on the other menus. A lot of times that is truly the fun part of these boxes to learn more about how to cook certain ingredients and take away the parts we like from it all. Do note that I couldn’t eat two of the meals and I really only realized that after the meals came and I took a closer look at the menus.

Let’s start!

Okonomiyaki with Edamame, Chinese Broccoli & Sriracha Mayo

First up is the recipe that I got this box for. Its the Okonomiyaki which is a Japanese pancake. It is filled with chopped cabbage. This meal was really good. I skipped on the sriracha mayo since I can’t take spicy foods too well but he also loved it a lot. The standout meal of the box right off the bat. I actually really love the sides of using edamame and chinese broccoli. Its a tasty mix for healthy sides.

Balsamic Glazed Pork with Rice Salad & Roasted Broccoli

We’re big fans of pork chops. For the most part, this meal was pretty good. The acidity of the dish was well-balanced. The roasted broccoli was pretty interesting since I’ve never made broccoli like that and particularly with those spices. The only part that turned out a tad funky was the rice salad and it really had to do with using figs. But that might be my fault because I’m horrible at cutting anything into fine and small pieces. The figs turned out to be just a tad odd for both our tastes. It felt like I had tossed in fig newtons and I like fig newtons, just not in my rice.

Stuffed Sweet Potatoes with Quinoa & Roasted Red Pepper-Tahini Dressing

The next two meals are the ones that I couldn’t eat.

Stuffed sweet potatoes looked really good and I could have done these without the sauce but I felt like it wouldn’t make much sense plus the sweet potatoes were so tiny and they weren’t doing too hot after sitting in the fridge for a few days. Its odd for it to go bad so quickly but I had to toss one of them out. I’ll talk about this issue that I’ve had with even the other box I ordered at the end. However, it was a pretty cool experience making the quinoa blend and especially the roasted pepper tahini dressing which could be useful for future recipes for my husband.

Pappardelle a la Bolognese with Parmesan Chips & Celery Salad

Excuse the messy presentation

Funny how being on vacation turns out to be the hardest time to actually sit down and make a meal. So this meal turned out to be an afterthought particularly in the photographing it part. However, my husband learned that he’s not a fan of pappardelle which I figured since he’s not a fan of thick pastas with the exception of lasagna. The parmesan chips turned out to be overcooked however, the husband said it was good (although I think he’s just being polite). We skipped on the celery but instead used it to make a shrimp and celery stir fry for me since I was pretty much left with nothing much to eat after discovering that the pasta seemed to have cheese all over it, although I’d have to research a little on pappardelle to know if it is but I wanted to be extra safe.

Overall…

This box was half and half. We loved the Okonomiyaki, liked the Glazed Pork, thought the sweet potatoes were decent but didn’t really like the pappardelle. We’ve definitely had better boxes but this one did really fulfill the whole foodie eating experience to learn to cook new things and try new flavors.

**Referring to the thought back in the sweet potatoes section, we’ve had issues with the previous box as to the order to best cook these menus. Obviously, we just stick the bags in the fridge and sometimes, the humidity in the fridge will cause certain veggies to go bad quicker than normal. However, if we split it up then we’re scared that we’ll lose and ingredient or something. Either way, it always baffles me how the companies don’t give a general idea of numbering their menus as to the order they should preferably be cooked to avoid any veggies losing their freshness or going bad. For the most part, its not a huge problem but sometimes, it could be and it sucks to lose out on ingredients especially when its just the fact of being one day later due to life happening. Maybe it sounds like a silly complaint and its great that they already put best before dates on their meat, which I like a lot, however, its how I feel.**

We are still loving Goodfood experience and already have our next box chosen and waiting for it next week. Its been busy so we’re particularly appreciative of having this option.