Recap: Miss Fresh #10

And we are back with another recap for Miss Fresh! Can you believe its been ten boxes?  Thinking about it. I guess we’re pretty casual meal subscribers, right? Either way, these things do average more than how I’d do groceries but the convenient and hassle-free  feeling sometimes is well worth it. Miss Fresh hasn’t let me down a lot. Only a few disappointing recipes and some issues in the earlier recaps but so far, they’ve been pretty solid.

The recipes lately haven’t quite been to our taste so it was hard to really settle on one. This one seemed to be the answer but it turned out that two of them were just suitable for my husband. That’s okay as well. As long as they are tasty. 🙂

Moving right along!

Polish Sausage Penne with Kale and White Beans

Possibly one of the meals that peaked my interest and was hopefully a win and it definitely was. We’ve never had polish sausage before and they tasted great. Penne was good along with the kale added in along with the white beans for added texture. It tasted very good. I did have a minor issue with the original cook time they gave for the sausages not working out too well but I ended up cooking them through in the pan in the final bit so everything worked out in the end. 🙂

One Pot Chicken Burrito Bowl with Black Beans and Cheddar Cheese

We’re fairly unfamiliar with the whole Mexican scene of foods (or what I suppose a Burrito bowl originated from). The husband had both of these servings  because of the whole  raw foods thing but it was a breeze to put together and the chicken was marinated with mexican spices and that tasted really good. My only comment on this, which my husband confirmed was that there was way too much onions in this recipe.

Crispy Stir Fry Pork, Rice Noodles and Red Cabbage

I’m a little on the fence with this one. On one hand, I do like the taste of the dish except it never got the crispy part for myself. I did end up making two versions. This is the intended version and my version is with cooked red cabbage. I do have to say that I’d marinate the pork like they did here because it tastes pretty good. Not exactly my favorite but it was good enough.

Mini Spinach Quiches with Swiss and Sumac

My husband was the one who had both portions of this one because there is cheese in the egg mixture for the quiche and also cheese as the topping. Quiches are usually a fallback when things are hard to put together in the kitchen. Enough to say that this one was super easy to put together. This one did have an additional step of making spinach in the pan before putting it in the oven with the egg mixture. He did enjoy this a lot. There was a good balance and he liked the spice which I assume is sumac. I’ve never used sumac before and not exactly sure what it tastes like.

Overall, this box was a bit of a gamble but I think we ended up winning since while it was pretty experimental for some dishes, we did try out some new simple recipes and flavors and it all worked out pretty good. My favorite dish personally had to be the Polish Sausage Penne.

What do you think of these meals?

Recap: Miss Fresh #9

As I’ve been talking about recently, its been a busy time so what better week than to order another Miss Fresh box. The last one was just two weeks ago. However, this menu fit what we liked so why not, right?

Let’s get cooking! 🙂

Miss Fresh #9

Shrimp Rolls with Peanut Sauce

Shrimp Rolls with Peanut Sauce

This box was quite the adventure since I found my cooking motivation early in the morning as I scrambled to get this together and prepare for heading out to work. Particularly the first two recipes were made in the early hours however, they did turn out pretty good. The first was this shrimp rolls. I used to my shrimp rolls with my best friend however, she always took point and I just had to put it together so learning how to make this felt great because I’m a huge fan of this plus Miss Fresh’s recipe avocado which is a really nice twist since I don’t eat raw veggies so my husband made them with the cabbage while I had a simple one with vermicelli, shrimps and avocado along with the peanut sauce. The peanut sauce was really awesome and really made this dish delicious.

Asian Tofu Stir-Fry

 The first two meals are very easy to make. In fact, they are delicious as well. I’m a huge fan of stir-fry and its not only because I’m Chinese and grew up with it. The idea of tossing a bunch of stuff together in a wok and it turning into a meal is efficient. Of course, it is never as simple as tossing it together but how to cook what and when. We don’t get a lot of tofu and my husband’s not a huge fan of mushroom although he does tolerate shitake mushrooms. This dish made the house smell so nice and it is incredibly easy to do. Maybe one of my faves Miss Fresh recipe.

Shepherd’s Pie with Cauliflower Topping

Shepherd’s Pie

My husband loves Shepherd’s Pie. I just never make it because its a bit of a hassle. I hate meals where I need to cook and then bake. As you see, I’m all about efficiency. Shepherd’s Pie also has that mashed potato aspect which only is good with a decent amount of milk or butter. While I digest butter, I know my husband prefers milk and then there’s the whole corn issue. My health is ridiculous, I know. The price for not taking better care when I was studying in university. Now I’m getting preachy, so I’ll stop and get back on track. However, this one does a nice twist with a mix of mashed potatoes and cauliflowers. I do like the texture of it even though it only uses butter. The minced meat is seasoned well and its all very tasty. Definitely one worth giving a go a second time.

Pork Tenderloin with Apples, Brussel Sprouts and Rice

After the searing part…

Pork Tenderloin with Apples & Brussel Sprouts

The pork tenderloin is pretty easy to put together and it does taste good with just coating with coriander and a spices blend (cinnamon and something else). The searing part after 10 minutes each side gets about that look up in the top picture. Sorry for the blur. However, we’re not much for seared foods so I decided to cook it through instead in making the veggies portion. It turned out for the better and I really liked this one a lot as well. The apples add a little acidity to it that works well with the dish. I’m not huge on the apple cider vinegar part. I’ve tried it out a few times in some other Miss Fresh recipes and it adds a weird taste to it that takes time to like. Overall though, this one is good. I’d redo it but maybe change out the apples or maybe use something else than vinegar.

Overall…

Miss Fresh doesn’t fail us. I’d venture to say that this is one of the better boxes because all the meals were winners even if I would have tweaked it to match our tastes a little better. Shrimp Rolls definitely take the win for this one. That peanut sauce is to die for and the rolls are good even in its simplest form. I’m actually craving it as I write this up (not only because it is during my lunch break).

Recap: Miss Fresh #8

Another Miss Fresh is here! Having a box arrive after a trip is usually a great way except I forgot how busy I was going to be. Thankfully, my husband helped out to with making a good few of these dishes so excuse the pictures for not being plated exactly as I would however the star of the meals are all there, except for one. We didn’t get a picture of the first meal we made. The next box is coming soon since April is a somewhat busy month and I’ve caught up with a lot of things.

Let’s check out the meals!

Miss Fresh #8

Tandoori Vegetable Naan-Wich

Let’s start with the first meal that was made quite out of place of how I’d make these meals since I usually put the vegetable ones as the later ones. However, its all good since due to the ingredients, my husband was the only one that could eat this one. He made it and had it. I can’t say he’s a fan because I believe a portion of it is still sitting in the fridge. However, he did add his own twist to it by adding some protein in the form of scrambled eggs.

Citrusy Herbed Chicken Legs

The star of this box has to be this meal! Perhaps, I’m a little biased since I soon came to realize there was a lot of adaptation with the other two meals to work around my intolerance so my husband ate most of it. Funny enough, he cooked this one up. Now, I love chicken so this was a winner already. The best part of this meal had to go to learning a new way of making sweet potatoes for dinner using lemon. It had this fantastic sweet and sour sort of element and just tasted so awesome.

Sausage and Vegetable Stuffed Mushrooms

Look at these cute little stuffed mushrooms. Miss Fresh boxes was the first to introduce how to make these stuffed mushrooms and I was excited about it being a part of this box. Of course, I have been so busy and tired that I ended up garnishing all four of the mushrooms with cheese so means, its down to my husband, the mushroom-hating person to take care of it. To my surprise, he liked it a lot. Guess this is how we’re introducing more veggies into our meals from now on. This is paired up with pesto pasta which was made separately afterwards but was not photographed. Sorry about that. A huge thank you to Miss Fresh this time for adding an extra little plastic bag for the pesto so avoid the spillage mess that I had in a previous box. I’m glad to see improvements and thoughts made every single time. 🙂

Coconut Beef Curry

Finally, the last meal is the Coconut Beef Curry with a side of Jasmine Rice. This smelled so good while it was cooking and other than the simmering time being longer and maybe preparation, it was relatively easy to make. Although, we did do this one as a collaborated effort since I’m not too good with cooking beef so my husband took over the duties. Although in the end, because I decided to keep in the Thai chili and it would be spicy that it is also my husband’s dinner.

Overall…probably a lack of judgement on my part for this box but its always nice to still get some good meals out of the box. The meals themselves were pretty good even if I couldn’t taste them. They surprisingly expanded my husband’s liking for certain vegetables which is always a good thing. With the help of this box, we can now make mushrooms for everyone. That’s pretty awesome since I have portobello mushroom cravings every little while.

What meals appeal to you from this box? What do you think?

Unboxing & Recap: Miss Fresh #7

Two months has gone by since I’ve ordered a Miss Fresh box! Wow!

We are working on cooking meals more and totally enjoying it. There’s also the factor of having meals that appealed to us. This box really worked for that. Let’s take a look!

Kung Pao Shrimps
with Calrose Rice

Kung Pao Shrimps

Kung Pao Shrimps was good. I’m not exactly sure about using Calrose Rice. Its okay, not my favorite. However, it is a simple and balanced meal even if it lacked a bit of spice. There is quite a bit of preparation for this one with a lot of cooking. Anything with a lot of chopping usually takes more time for myself just because I’m incredibly clumsy so take much more time to do it.

Chicken Marbella
served with couscous and spinach

Chicken Marbella 

Chicken Marbella is an interesting recipe. I mean this in the best way. While I’m not a huge fan of the couscous and I cooked the spinach which was supposed to be a salad, the highlight is the chicken itself being paired with dried prunes and green olives. I’m not exactly a fan of olives but this combination worked together really well. It takes a little longer, and was listed as more than 30 minutes to make and that is because the chicken needs to go into the oven for thirty minutes or something. I can’t remember as I don’t have the recipe in front of me.

Ginger Turkey Meatballs
on a bed of Sesame Noodles

Ginger Turkey Meatballs 

I love sesame noodles. The sauce they make here is very delicious. The meatballs have turmeric and curry spices so it has a spicy taste to it, along with some veggies, this ginger turkey meatballs is really good and quite easy to make. It has sparked a desire to stock up on sesame noodles. Beware for smelling like curry and onions though. I cooked this one morning and I had to change afterwards.

Zucchini and Corn Quesadillas
with Pesto

Zucchini and Corn Quesadillas 

The meal in the box that only my husband could eat, however was quite the blast to make except its crazy with all the chopping. Its chopping up jalapeno and green peppers and then there is an ear of corn to strip off the kernels. Aside from the chopping, its easy to put together and a vegetarian meal solution. Even with that, my husband enjoyed it.

Overall…Ginger Turkey Meatballs and Chicken Marbella are the stars of this box. I loved those two recipes a lot. I’m hoping to see more sesame noodles added into the meals eventually. There’s not much to say because everything was fresh and the box was delivered safely and securely as usual.

Unboxing & Recap: Miss Fresh #6

Remember last Unboxing/Recap of Miss Fresh I said I had another box coming soon? Here it is!

Miss Fresh
(Week of November 29th)
Note: There is as usual 4 recipes but they forgot to include one of the recipe cards. Luckily, the recipe is available online.

GNOCCHIS WITH BRUSSEL SPROUTS
pine nuts, red onions and parmesan

Gnocchis with Brussel Sprouts (without cheese)

I’m going to admit that I’ve only ever had gnocchi maybe once before this time so I wasn’t exactly sure how to cook it and my version was the cheeseless version. My husband had the actual version with cheese sprinkled on top. I can’t say that I’m particularly happy with this recipe. I think the flavors were a bit complex or maybe I just didn’t make it correctly. However, my husband’s actual version tasted good so I think the cheese adds a nice balance to it. If I were to make this again, it might be without apples and more finely chopped onions. Other than that, the brussel sprouts and gnocchi itself was perfect, plus, pine nuts added a really nice touch to it.

The take away from this recipe other than making gnocchi is that brussel sprouts are fantastic made in the simplest way possible: over-roasted seasoned with salt and pepper.

CHICKEN BREAST WITH APRICOT SAUCE
served with Squash Couscous

Chicken Breast with Apricot Sauce

If you all know me well, you know that I love chicken. It is one of those things that determine why I could never be a vegetarian. I have to admit that I chose this box for having this apricot sauce recipe because I just wanted to learn how to make it. I don’t use couscous ever unless its in these boxes. This one uses a Israeli Couscous and actually, much to my surprise, the squash couscous had a bit of heat that matched well with the tarragon and apricot sauce on the chicken. This is really tasty! I love the recipe a lot.

Biggest takeaway from this one: Chicken breast covered in foil baked in oven helps retain a lot of tenderness in the meat. We have always struggled with chicken breast being too dry after its cooked, so this could be a good solution in the future.

SAUSAGE AND POTATO PAN ROAST
with Spinach and Tomatoes

Sausage and Potato Pan Roast

Both my husband and I deem this the favorite recipe in this Miss Fresh box. The sausage tasted great. Its a normal everyday meal but super easy to put together as its just putting everything into a pan, seasoning a little, very little preparation as well and pop into the oven. I love efficient recipes and I ended up actually making this one for lunch one day over the weekend and it was super great. Even better because my Saturdays are always busy running around taking care of stuff so making something that tastes good and is quick and easy is extra plus.

SWEDISH MEATBALLS
on Basmati Rice and Napa Salad

Swedish Meatballs

The highlight of the main reason of why I got this box was for Swedish Meatballs! Sometimes, it is the reason I head out to IKEA. I was hoping that it’d turn out as it should. To be honest, these ones didn’t taste great but I have a feeling it is my own fault. In these recipes, the biggest issues I have are when it explains the simmering and whatnot. I feel like its hard to judge how much sauce is there and the portions and time frames sometimes don’t work well for me. However, this recipe could be just because I chopped the onions a little too big and there was just too much. I’m not an onion fan to begin with and the only way I enjoy a dish is when the onion is chopped really fine but I’m not good with preparation in the kitchen. It is a work in progress. I honestly blame myself if this didn’t turn out as it should.

Overall…This box turned out okay. I mean, we had two really great recipes and two that were decent but could be better because I pinpointed where my flaws were and I honestly think it is my approach that needs to change than anything else. However, if the lovely team at Miss Fresh do read this. Please remember to triple check that all recipe cards are enclosed. I was cooking the chicken via my phone. Its a bit more hectic because my phone’s screen will shut off after a certain amount of time and I don’t have the best memory so I like to triple check before doing anything. Just a minor detail, you know, but improves the experience when it isn’t overlooked.

Unboxing & Recap: Miss Fresh #5

*Technically, it should be #4 but I did get a box in October but was so busy that I didn’t end up putting up a post or taking pictures of any of the meals.*

 Its been a while since I’ve posted a Miss Fresh recap. I usually do about one of these per month. Mostly when it has a meal that appeals to us. The experience so far is pretty good. I’ve had a few little things but then I’m adjusting myself to the experience and making better choices. Box #5 (aka this one) has to be one of my favorites. One of the best parts about Miss Fresh is learning all the different recipes and a lot of them are pretty multicultural. This box in particular has that perk and its probably why I loved it so much. Meals are shown in the order that I prepared them.

Miss Fresh
(Week of November 14)

Recipes

RUN DOWN CODFISH
poached in a spicy coconut sauce with orzo salad

Run Down Codfish, Spicy Cocnonut Sauce, Orzo Salad

Run Down Codfish is a Jamaican dish. I’ve never made any Jamaican and I’ve only ever eaten Jamaican food once before. I have no idea what this is supposed to taste like but this meal was so good. I personally can’t spicy food but that time that they gave was so good for the codfish that it was perfectly cooked and the spicy coconut sauce had just the right amount of heat and delicious blend with tomatoes and jalapenos and coconut milk that I just loved it. It was burning my  mouth but I just kept eating. I try to avoid gluten and raw foods but I did eat a bit of the orzo salad which they have the recipe to make the dressing as well. The coolness of the salad contrasts well with the heat from the codfish. I liked this one a lot.

CHICKEN KORMA CURRY
with Basmati Rice

Chicken Korma Curry, Basmati Rice, Green Beans

Indian food! Personally, I don’t go to eat indian food for the sheer fact that curry usually is made with yogourt and being lactose-intolerant that kind of makes it hard to enjoy an actual meal at an Indian restaurant. With that said, my husband had this entire meal to himself. He isn’t a fan of tomatos but he liked it alright. The curry definitely has a good kick and was a tiny bit spicy. I didn’t eat it but my kitchen was smelling like curry for at least twelve hours later.

MAMA YU’S WONTON NOODLE SOUP
with Broccolinis

Mama Yu’s Wonton Noodle Soup

Possibly the quickest Miss Fresh meal I’ve put together. Generally, the meals take about an hour to put together but I guess seeing as this is a Chinese dish, I was already a tad more familiar with it and had a lot more confidence with it so it took less than an hour. I love wonton noodles. Sadly, I never have time to make it anymore and I don’t eat at Montreal restaurants that serve this in fear of MSG since I’m a tad sensitive to it. This one gives you the broth and the veggies and the egg noodles and the recipe for making the wonton from scratch. They give you the wrappers. It makes 12 wontons so six per portion. Yet again, I liked it a lot. Its easy to make something like this more on the salty side but this one worked really well. It gave us the liberty of seasoning the shrimp and minced pork mixture for the wontons with pepper and I might have put just a dash too much, but it tasted really good. On top of that, the portions are really generous. One portion wontons and with the egg noodles and the broccolini was a filling meal.

CAULIFLOWER TACOS
with lime crema

Cauliflower Tacos

The last recipe was put together by my husband. He left me the pieces to compile to show. He did add in some tuna to have some protein in his version and had the lima crema. Unfortunately, no photo of that. This is the version with the lima crema but generally the same. The bottom portion is something of a makeshift coleslaw which was pretty good. The cauliflower uses indian spices which I think is what made me not like it so much. It had a weird flavor that I’m not accustomed to and didn’t quite acquire the taste of. However, it does seem to be a relatively quick recipe to put together.

Overall…one of my favorite ones to put together. The meals here are delicious, especially the first three caught our attention. What is really nice is that in the last month, it feels like they have changed the food packing style and I like it better especially placing the ice pack and cardboard at the bottom to separate the meat ingredients to the fresh ingredients. The recipe sheets always were improved and I like the design of it more. Its been rather multicultural which also is something I enjoy to try new flavors and also experiment with new spices and new ingredients that I personally wouldn’t use in my cooking. A great experience!

November is a pretty busy month so we’ll be having another box coming in soon to ease on the dinner cooking duties, plus, it looked like a nice meals for the next one as well. Probably will be up in two weeks or so!

Unboxing & Recap: Miss Fresh #3

This time’s order seems a little closer than normal. However, we have been incredibly busy of late and the last week’s meals also looked pretty interesting. Miss Fresh has some decent meal ideas and honestly, it is helping to learn something new.

Lets check it out!

Miss Fresh #3

As usual, the package once opened! This time it looked amazingly simple. The packaging itself was done well also. It could do with less leafy salads. It took a pretty Asianesque cuisine turn.

The meals in this week’s box was:

Mahi Mahi with Thai Coconut Curry Sauce with Snap Peas and Ginger Salad

I don’t eat a lot of assortment of fishes usually except salmon. But mahi mahi was what caught my attention. The dish itself was easy to make. It just takes time to heat up the coconut milk. Also, note to self that the sauce itself was really spicy. I ended up having to rinse off the sauce for my own sake and still it still maintained some of the spiciness. However, it was tasty.

Crispy Chicken Wings with Chili-Lime Butter and Roasted Brussel Sprouts

This may very well be the highlight attraction of this box. In my mind, chicken and brussel sprouts cannot go wrong. And I wasn’t wrong. It was easy to make. The wings were crispy. Apparently the trick is the 5 minute broil at the end. I also learned how to make chili sauce (well, chili-lime butter), even if I didn’t end up using it . My stomach just doesn’t do well with. Although my husband did give it a shot and I believe he enjoyed it.

Pork Chops Saute with Peaches and Couscous

As we slowly trim out beef from our diet, pork chops have been a more frequent meat we eat. We make pork chops in many ways here and we actually have a few good recipes. A peach sauce of sorts is interesting and for the most part, it works well with the entire meal. I skipped out on couscous since I’m trying to live a gluten-free lifestyle. This meal is not bad.  The couscous is a bit bland and I think it makes for the pork chop and peach sauce which is pretty flavorful already.

Garlic Portobello and Kale Pizza

The last meal we put together is this pizza. Note that we had to use my lactose-free cheese to replace it and they only had the marble type at the grocery store that was priced relatively good. We are keeping the actually mozzarella cheese that came with it for my husband’s tortellini that he will make soon. I was a little iffy about how this would turn out. I actually didn’t even use all the kale leaves they gave us but it looks perfect. When I pulled it out of the oven, this was the dish that wowed me the most.

Impressions:

This week’s box was really good. Everything was at par with what I’d expect. There was less ingredients as a whole but the balance of having fish, chicken and pork was good along with a vegetarian meal thrown into the mix. It still has some issues with repeating certain vegetables but I feel like it isn’t a huge deal mostly because they are probably going with the seasonal vegetables and I can understand that. The recipes itself were pretty easy to put together. The key is to find what works for you. I cooked every meal in this box except for the pork chops which my husband helped me with and I think I’m getting better at it. Its nice also that some of the skills like making certain sauces or whatnot is skills that can be used even outside of these meals. Its not only a convenient service but an educational one as well.

Which meal do you like the most? Do you have any meal subscription service near you? Have you ever tried one?

Unboxing + Recap: Miss Fresh Subscription #2

I know we’re a little behind on this. I got this box for the last week of July and it was well suitable because it was right before the crazy Fantasia schedule went crazy and I wasn’t home much. I thought it would be a good idea to get one of these boxes and at least make sure that things would be under control the week before. And it definitely was. Surprisingly, unlike last time, I made half of these recipes and it all turned out relatively well…except for one (which was not exactly under my supervision). But we have learned from our mistakes. You will see.

This is kind of an unboxing but its also a recap of the recipes and how they turned out. Maybe along with some impressions. This is a long term thing we’re planning to keep as a once a month little something for ourselves. It keeps things fresh and gives us new ideas. We’re really enjoying the experience as a whole.

Miss Fresh #2

Opening the Box

Everything unloaded

Recipes

This week’s menu had:

Fish (Turbot) with Pancetta and Sage

The fish is Turbot which I’ve never cooked before. It was served with fennel and white rice (not in the picture).  The fennel made my house smell like licorice for the next 24 hours but that is nothing to complain about. The best part about this meal and recipe other than it tasting really good was that it was perfectly made so that it was easy dividing into two portions. One filet each and the fennel was already chopped so just half on each plate.

Sausage and Vegetable Stuffed Mushrooms

A heaping mess is what I’d call this BUT appearances aside, it tasted great. This recipe is served with radicchio salad and well, we ended up cooking that separately with balsamic vinegar and it turned out decent as well. So this is where I started thinking that we should have videos to teach us how to make these recipes because somewhere along the way, I did something wrong. My guess is the mushrooms. Fact is, some recipes do have video instructions but this one didn’t. However, it probably is my inexperience with stuffing anything that caused the issues.

Rosemary Chicken Skewers

Add on more zucchini! Starting at the end of July till now, we’ve been harvesting zucchini like crazy so this was just another meal to add onto the immense amounts of zucchini I’ve been eating. But I love this veggie the most so its all good! This was another great recipe. We had to modify it a little, I believe, because I don’t do well with spicy foods. However, the spices used and just the balance of this dish was really great. I loved it. This meal is served with grilled zucchini and green salad.

Black Bean and Zucchini Cheeseburger

And finally…our fail. We never make veggie burgers before so this is a completely new concept. We did learn that we needed to remove the water better before adding in the egg that held together the patty. However, we did end up eating this with veggies and whatnot and it tasted pretty good.

A few thoughts after this box 

I’m not sponsored or anything so I guess as a consumer, I get to have some thoughts about this. This box and the one before gave me some little things that came to my mind as I was cooking.

• Leafy vegetables: We had Boston lettuce for the veggie burger but salads are almost always green salad consisting of arugula. One thing is freshness. Our Boston lettuce either wasn’t fresh enough or it was frostbitten from the cryo ice packs. That is fine. I can understand it. However, it would be nice to not see arugula as the green salad. On a personal level, I have to cook it and it tastes like bitter leaves. Even my husband is hesitant to eat it. You know, once in a while is fine but we get this once a month and we land right on the arugula salad. Minor criticisms. We still ate it just not exactly sure if there is more variety of veggies presented eventually. We can always modify as we see fit.
• Recommended cooking order for the meals: When we get the boxes, we get a little instruction card that tells us how long each item should be good for. An example would be meat is good for 1 to 2 days. Deal is we had to use the guidelines to figure out which is the best order to make sure none of it went bad. We used our better judgement but it would be a nice guideline to recommend which should be done in what order. Like this time, the majority was fish and minced meat and chicken and all these things have rather short shelf lives in the fridge before going bad so we had to cook it and put it aside to eat later since cooked food lasts three to four days.

I’d add in instructional videos for all the recipes but I think most of the recipes are rather straight-forward. It doesn’t mean that I am disappointed with any of the meals. I just think these are ways to improve on a pretty great service to improve efficiency for its users. Another thing would be to have allergen-free options. I believe I mentioned this in the previous unboxing so I won’t go further into that. As someone with allergens, I just find that a constant frustration.

Overall, some really decent meals in this Miss Fresh box. We’ll be getting another one soon and it will be much more timely with the overview of it.

My Weekly Adventures: Festival Season is Here!

I did it again! There was supposed to be vlog but then I got a little intimidated of putting it up. Anyways, it was not so great since I recorded super late at night and was all rambling and stuff.

Summer festivals are here and its just the start of a lot of fun stuff here. The weather is hot and humid and while I did recap a lot of the stuff in actual full posts. I’ll talk a little a them here and I’ll have a little update of little life stuff.

Before we start, I guess the most important is that I want to address the crazy weird schedule here. I usually do have a schedule but I’m seriously thinking of going back to a five posts week and leave a break as optional days on the weekends. Especially during festival season as I need to find some time to work on some other projects. Nothing changes here but rather I think I feel a little burnt out. It could be because of the heat that kills a bit of the motivation for everything. However, I feel the energy coming back now that it isn’t 40 degrees Celsius outside. What I’m saying is that 5-7 posts from now on. I’m still working on some backlog for my upcoming vacation in a good few weeks so it’ll be fun! 🙂

I’m skipping the rambling so I’m going to just get going! 🙂

Trying Out Miss Fresh

I’m huge about being efficient as mentioned in my post unboxing the Miss Fresh meal service subscription. You can find that HERE. I think this is such a great idea. Obviously, its still a little expensive to have every week but its a nice treat when its a busy week. I won’t be unboxing my later ones since I don’t think it’ll have anything new to offer except different recipes. However, I did manage to make one of the recipes and still mix up the ingredients a little. It was a Tuna Bake. In the end, here’s how it turned out.

For a good idea of what it is, the ingredients are on the top pre-portioned for what your plan is set at. This makes for two people. However, my husband was the only one that could eat this meal and it served three meals for him.

Montreal Comiccon

 Montreal Comiccon was last weekend. I only made it to the Friday but it was a ton of fun. I did a general coverage earlier this week HERE! I chatted with some cool indie game developers and tried out games, saw the Outlast 2 live demo and more. I didn’t get an autograph but walked past the autograph booths and saw a ton of celebrities from afar. I’m not sure if I mentioned in Comiccon recap post but I specifically wanted to see Bob Morley, unfortunately I had to skip Saturday so I didn’t get to his Q&A but I did walk past his autograph spot which was at the side so I got a really close look at what he looked like in real life. I was pretty happy about that.

Overall a very cool time there. I’m going to try to get a media pass for next year or simply get a 3 day pass and check it all out. Something to think and plan for in the coming year! 🙂

Song of the Deep!

With Game Warp comes great responsibility! Song of the Deep is one of my most anticipated for this year. I ended up preordering this one even if I kind of knew there really wasn’t a point but I was just so excited for it. Plus, its the first time I pre-ordered a game! Kickstarter projects don’t count. I’m still waiting for most of those to see the light of day. You know I love shameless plugs for Game Warp so maybe you’d be as excited as I am that Song of the Deep is August’s featured game!

We have a new episode for Game Warp coming up next week and we’re getting ready for the episode of the featured review for this month’s game, Oxenfree! 🙂

Garden & Harvest!

We had our first harvest! The crazy rain grew my zucchini plants so much that after two days of intense rain, my plant was like 40% larger and the zucchinis were ready for harvest. Well, two of ’em. Look at it! They are huge!

We even had some delicious lettuce to cook with it, all from the garden. It just makes me so proud that I didn’t manage to kill anything else and that the fence reinforcements have been fantastic. I’m going to probably be harvesting more lettuce and kale this week. I don’t have pictures yet but raspberries and some strawberry harvests are happening also! 🙂

Fantasia Festival!!

Fantasia Festival is here! It started on July 14th and runs till August 3rd. Unlike most years, I actually have it really easy for the first week so so far, only one movie! This was from the first film that I attended on Friday night. It started in delay so I guess its cool I was standing in line next to some cool people that I striked up an interesting conversation about everything. If some of you don’t know, Fantasia Festival usually means at least 45 minutes to an hour of line-up, at least if you want decent seats. Since I go to this alone a lot, its really nice to meet people at least for line-up company. Regardless, this was also the first time I’ve ever experienced delay at Fantasia Festival but the movie ended up starting half an hour late but I think its alright even if it meant that I couldn’t stay for all the Q&A since I needed to catch the last bus home. Thank goodness, my schedule doesn’t usually hinge on these crazy moments this year mostly.

I’m pretty excited about the rest of the movies. You can see my line-up HERE! And usually expect the review about two days later to give some time to think about what I’ve seen and gather my thoughts. Which means that my first one I saw, Rupture’s review will go up tomorrow (Monday!).

Calypso Water Park

While the heat is getting me super tired and just not want to do anything in general, I’m also loving it because it means that I can go in the pool and cool down. Last week, I actually did and enjoyed some outside reading time and Netflix time and even got in a pool workout session which was really great.

However, the thing I looked forward a lot was going to the water park with my girl friends. We’ve been trying to plan it for two summers and we’re finally going. The weather threatened us a little but we decided to give it a go. It turned out to be the perfect weather. We ended up going to Calypso Water Park near Ottawa.

Great company, nice weather, and a ton of fun! We weren’t all about doing the super adrenaline rush stuff but we ended up doing the wave pool which was definitely a winner since we went back four times. We also did two times of the Kongo Expedition (which is something like a lazy river concept). There was a part in there in a dark cave that kind of tapped into my fear of the dark but still it was really fun even if I got capsized by some stupid kids on purpose. It was more unexpected than that I got angry or scared. We also went for two rounds of the Jungle Run which is like balancing on a paddleboard and letting the current push you through the course and it was done really well. There was also the Canyon Rafting that was a ton of fun to get drifted along the sides of the tubes and then we had the fancy idea of going up one of the tallest rides thinking it wouldn’t be intense and it freaked me out. It was a ton of fun actually. Its the double-edged sword of amusement parks in general for me.

After that, we headed back home and had dinner….

Trying Out a New Restaurant Jerry Ferrer

What’s a perfect day without having a great meal at the end as well. I told you all about Jerry Ferrer on opening day and just trying a few things but we went to try it out.

We ended up sharing a fried calamari.

Fried Calamari

I loved the texture of this so much! It was super delicious!

While all the girls got burgers, I was really craving a pulled pork sandwich so I got exactly that!

Doesn’t that just look scrumptious? It was so awesome! 🙂 I think this place might be a new fave spot for me. At least I’m definitely coming back to try out a few more things. Plus the decor and service was nice and that is always a plus.

A perfect way to end a fantastic day out with friends, even if I got home and realized that I forgot sunscreen on my chest area and super sunburned…haha!

Cute Kitty Pic

Some of you that follow me on Avenue of Daydreams would have seen this pic but this is just so cute I couldn’t let you all miss out on it! 🙂

Upcoming:

• Fantasia Festival Movie Reviews!!

That is the recap of the last two weeks!
What have you been up to? Any festivals, summer heat, activities, etc? 

Unboxing: Miss Fresh – Meal Subscription Service!

As some of you may have noticed, life’s getting a little out of hand. I’m trying to re-establish a new routine that can incorporate everything I want to accomplish. Its pretty much come to a point that there are just days I need to take it slower and then its still packed with incredible amounts of stuff. Fun stuff, for sure, but still, before I know it, its already midnight and I’m wondering where all the time went. Point is, I’m working on making my life as efficient as I can. There’s just not enough time and sometimes, saving time is the goal in many things including our choice for this Miss Fresh meal subscription service.

To my surprise, Miss Fresh had a Groupon deal and my husband and I decided to give it a go. Despite liking to eat and loving baking, cooking is the one thing I’m never enthusiastic to do. I’m a slow cook and while the results are almost always decent, it just takes too much time and I don’t usually feel like doing it after work. In hopes of a more balanced lifestyle, we’re giving Miss Fresh a shot. I gave a quick look to see if I wanted to keep the service after we got the first box and I’m enjoying the flexibility of the service, letting you custom meals for a little more (which we aren’t doing right now, at least not yet) and giving you the choice to skip weeks in between for whatever reason.

This is pretty much the unboxing and impressions of what I see right now.  Between getting the box on Tuesday and this post going up, we managed to get one recipe in so it’ll be at the bottom.

The box at arrival

Insulated box

How it looks when we open it. Left side has these ice cryopacks to keep it extra cool.

Our intro to Miss Fresh

On the other side of intro is the recommended storage time for the ingredients

The recipe cards

Our meals this time are:

• Tuna Bake with Parmesan, Carrots and Peas,
• Bacon and Guacomole Chicken with green salad and corn
• Jerk Pork and Pineapple Skers with black bean rice
• Kale and Mushroom Stragonoff with Egg Pasta

For sure, there will be modifications to the menus for my food allergies. My husband will be able to experience this as it was meant to be. This especially applies to Tuna Bake which he will probably eat both of the portions whereas the most suitable for me is the Bacon Guacomole which as you will see, I ended up actually trying that one out for dinner and lunch meals.

Unloading everything into the fridge

Its really nice that everything is labelled. The ingredients, aside from cans and milk cartons and fresh vegetables are also packed up together for their meals already portioned to what you need to use. Say the milk carton, you can see that on one of them, it only says to use half. Clear instructions are great and its well organized.

Now for the first recipe! Its Bacon and Guacomole Chicken with Green Salad and Corn. I actually skipped the corn just because I don’t digest it well but we will be making it for my husband to eat soon.

This recipe card is awesome. It shows the portions according to what you need. Even though its already portioned for you, they still give you the recipe. On the flip side are the instructions on how to make it with images and descriptions and all the whole nine yards. Its easy and simple, exactly how I like it. I would usually write out the recipe for all of you and be more detailed but Miss Fresh is a business and I feel like that oversteps what they are offering.

Here’s the final outcome. This is the green salad as it should be. Before I ate it, I actually tossed it in the pan a little, just because I also don’t digest raw veggies too well. Just for example purposes, this is the first meal we made. Full credit in putting this together goes to my husband. I only ate it and for one, its healthy and balanced. Obviously, the choices go into whether you like what you have. The chicken was good. Bacon, guacamole, chicken: all things I love. However, the salad was not so good, just because I’m not a fan of arugula but I still ate it to get the full experience. Veggies are veggies in the end. 🙂

Overall, Miss Fresh is a pretty nice experience. They delivered the box earlier than I had anticipated. The ingredients were fresh and well-organized and insulated. The recipes are simple and easy. The meals itself are healthy and balanced. Although we are not going to rely on the service every week, it is something we plan on continuing to try out when the recipes are to our liking and/or we have busier than normal weeks. If there was one criticism, its that meals need to find a balance of allergen free options as well. Lactose-intolerance is the basic one that I’m not afraid to admit most of the time because its rather normal to have. It should at least be an alternative or option available. Of course, it doesn’t bother me too much because I can always make the necessary adjustments on my own.

Have you ever tried out any meal subscription service like this one?