Goodfood Recap #34

And we’re almost back to normal on the Goodfood meals. Its pretty much back to every other week for this next little while until we hit April where it just wouldn’t work out for our schedule most probably. Either way, this box had a lot of recipes that we were trying for the first time both just by ourselves or even as a meal.

Cod Cakes
with Potato Wedges, Roasted Garlic Aioli & Green Salad

If we talk about fish, we eat cod so very little. I can’t say that this meal turned out very close to what the meal looked like on the recipe card. I always have issues with their instructions on making those oven-baked potatoes. The cod cakes didn’t really cook to what it looked it. The taste however was alright. I just can’t say that it reached exactly what I’d normally like to eat frequently. Plus, I have to say that cod cakes are really my thing.

Brazilian Chicken Stew
with Toasted Coconut Rice, Fresh Tomatoes & Wilted Spinach

My husband loved this meal so much. I can see why because it is a very comforting meal especially when we made this during some colder days. We don’t normally make stews especially when its Brazilian, its close to zero chance. The spices here along with the whole recipe itself was easy to cook and also tasted wonderful.

Chicken Breasts
with Roasted Purple Brussel Sprouts, Crispy Shallots & Spiced Jasmine Rice

Both of us loved this one equally a lot. Everything jived so well here plus the taste was delectable. We have those crispy shallots which gave it this lovely texture. We had purple brussel sprouts which suffered a little in the over due to those instructions they give.  I need to adjust it next time. I say that every time but I just keep forgetting.

Steaks with Charred Cipollini Onion Petals,
Sauteed Green Beans, Snap Peas & Pearl Couscous

This meal was pretty good also. I get the onions and they are quite unique but I personally don’t eat onions that are such huge pieces. Its the only thing I’m picky about so I don’t think its a bad thing. Everything else here is great. I got this because it uses pearl couscous which is the type of couscous that I like the most but is not in a lot of the recipes here. I should seriously go and get some at the supermarket. The beef is pretty tasty as well and it has to do with the spices being very nice.

That’s it for this recap!
Our faves were the two chicken meals. They just worked out in the whole balance.
Plus they are on the easier and more efficient side to put together which also gets extra points.

Goodfood Smoothie Recap

Goodfood launched their smoothies add-ons for the boxes a few weeks ago (maybe a month or so). For their current clients, they gave a little discount to have the incentive to give it a go. Of course, being the wanna-be health nuts that we are, we wanted to give a go out of curiosity mostly. I’m not sure the smoothie lifestyle is for me but it sure helps in getting in the fruits and veggies count as well as the hydration and milk count although we do use almond milk.

With that said, they launched with 6 flavors. It comes with the 12 smoothies pack so we decided to grab 2 of each flavor so that my husband and I could each try it out.

Let’s take a look at it.

I know I’m missing one but I took this afterwards and the Mean Greens cups both were broken in the process of transport so we had to make those quickly. With that said, it should have more organization and whatnot to keep the containers in an upright position or just a way that it doesn’t break so easily since it is put into an insulated box with dry ice. Other than that, the packaging with the cups and lids makes it very convenient and saves my own cups from having to wash and whatnot and it should all be recyclable or if you please, reused since its fairly sturdy.

For each of the smoothies though, I decided to just take the images from Goodfoods site since smoothies aren’t exactly the most appealing thing to look at. This is in the order that we tasted it. I have put aside that our blender is not at par to make smoothies but we will be hopefully hunting for some boxing day deals to get a ninja blender or something along those lines because we do want to start having more smoothies and such.

Let’s see what we thought.

Mean Green

Nothing like drinking a salad, right? That is pretty much what I thought about this one. It felt like I was drinking a salad. I prefer to eat my salads so this worked for its purpose and tasted exactly as I’d expected. Actually, I take that back because it smelled pretty acidic but when I drank it, it actually didn’t taste acidic, just very green, if you know what I mean. Which is a good thing. It was a pleasant surprise in a way. The husband however, wasn’t a big fan of this one.

Mango Goji

I’m a huge fan of mango and goji. This sounds like something really healthy and perfect. Somehow though, this one didn’t work too well for me and I blame it on papaya because I’ve always found it really heavy and sweet that it just doesn’t appeal to my taste buds. However, its not such a bad flavor just in shorter doses for myself. However, my husband did approve with this one.

Cocoa Mint Boost

I’m a big fan of mint chocolate flavored anything and think of this as something a lot more natural but with a similar taste profile to that. It works really well. I’m not such a big fan of the addition of the kale but everything else here works really well together.

Acai Bellini

Acai Bellini is definitely our favorite in the Goodfood smoothie selection. It has to do with the normalcy of it if we look at the ingredients but it tasted so delicious. It had such a great balance with fruity and fun. It is how I pictures smoothies would taste and it was absolutely fantastic. Both my husband and I are fans of this one.

Carrot Ginger

Carrot Ginger is really good also. We called this kind of like a carrot cake and gingerbread cookie all mixed together. Plus, it had these little details that taste so great. We are a big fan of this one. Probably our second favorite.

Pina Colada

And the unanimous choice of what didn’t work for us is this one. I think its the fact that wheatgrass and our blender didn’t go too well and it felt like I was eating grass. It was also the idea that it smelled like this beautiful rich coconut smell but the taste was kind of acidic and coconut which was this weird effect on my taste buds. The husband and I didn’t really like this one a lot. I’m sure for experienced smoothies, this might work but its just not for us.

That’s it for this Goodfood Smoothies recap!
This is a special recap segment.

Recap: Goodfood #28

We’re back with last week’s Goodfood meal box. This one has one repeat in it. However, a lot of them looked so promising that we decided to give it a go. Just a note that if you follow this series specifically, we’ve dropped from biweekly to monthly subscriptions of the box. The main reason is that this box was always structured to be a balance for when we were busy with stuff and event coverage season is pretty much done for this year except for one more in November so we are getting back to finding cool recipes to work on. I’ll share some of those here whenever we try something new on our own.

Let’s check out how this Goodfood went!

Fresh Tagliatelle with Chicken & Sundried Tomatoes
Portobello Mushrooms & Baby Spinach

My husband loves to eat pasta. Honestly, I can get pretty picky about it. We have our definite fave recipes. Surprisingly, tagliatelle is never our first choice. My husband isn’t a big fan of the texture. He’s never been one to enjoy the thick noodle variety. As for myself, I actually quite like it but then stick to the more traditional normal stuff. Either way, I chose this recipe because it doesn’t have a cream sauce. Its so rare to find recipes, unless I make it up myself to not have that rose sauce or white creamy sauce. Lactose intolerance definitely doesn’t work with pasta so well so this recipe looked simple and delicious with all its ingredients. It lived pretty much up to its standards. Plus, I multitasked like a beast and even got the chicken perfectly cooked, which is super rare. I’m really not that great of a cook..more a baker at heart. The meal here works really well. Its nice and simple and everything blends so well together and has a decent amount of protein and veggies. Delicious stuff! My husband doesn’t admit it but he ate everything else but the noodles so I think it worked for him also but for us, we’ll probably go with some other type of pasta using the same recipe.

Braised Berbere Chicken
with Green Beans & Tangy Couscous

I’m not sure if you know what Berbere is but we sure didn’t. However, it apparently (if you didn’t already know), is a common Ethiopian spice blend. Its a tad spicy if you look at the spice combination. Matched up with the couscous which this time is made in water rather than just soaking in hot water in a bowl, it was such a difference in fluffiness. I liked it a lot more than usual. Plus, its more neutral flavor compliments well with the strong spices used on the chicken and there’s a decent amount of veggies to also make it a very tasty and balanced meal. This was pretty much our experiment new flavor of the box and it turned delicious.

Peanut Butter Dumplings
with Sesame Green Beans

Our repeat menu of the box! Actually its the third time, that I’ve gotten this recipe. It shows how much we love it. Especially since I’ve been having massive dumpling cravings of late. This was the first time my husband had to help out with this one. It turned out every bit as good as I remember it. I imagine you will see this one again whenever it pops up as a choice. Right now, its just waiting for that veggie banh mi that we love so much to come back.

Pork Katsu
with Sticky Rice, Yu Choy & Wafu Sauce

The final meal of the box is Pork Katsu. I’m kept think that we had done this recipe before but I think its because I had almost gotten it once before but change it last minute. Either way, props to the husband for stepping up and getting the pork katsu done on point. Its pretty much the replica of the recipe card except without the sauce, because I just keep forgetting to put it. Its a Wafu sauce that goes on top and it would work great with it. Calrose rice is what’s here so it has that sticky rice texture. We like yu choy quite a bit and the pork katsu turned out pretty good. Its a nice contrast to the heavy flavors in the rest of the box, particularly the Berbere chicken earlier so this ended off the week with something a little more subtle in taste was nice. As good as this was, I might not exactly choose it again unless for a filler when something else I have comes up and its a choice.

Overall, no doubt that the peanut butter dumplings were my faves. But I think the surprisingly good discovery was the Berbere Chicken which was delicious. However, on an everyday cooking idea recipe, the tagliatelle is definitely in for an easy pasta night idea except with something other pasta.

Recap: Goodfood #9

Goodfood is a nice routine for us now. Its actually motivating us to cook more regularly even when we don’t order the box. I do have to say that I’m feeling like our lifestyle is becoming more balanced and healthier.

Last week’s box was a bit of some more experimental choices for us however that is also the charm of this experience.

Squid Ink Pasta Puttanesca with Haddock

Squid Ink Pasta Puttanesca with Haddock

I’ve only had squid ink pasta once before in Hong Kong surprisingly. However, I do like it and this dish is pretty good. Its fairly simple to make plus haddock is one of those fishes that we like to eat but never make enough of since salmon turns out to be our default fish to buy and cook. This is a simple dish and I think perhaps one of the few meals in these boxes that I made very easily and almost on par with the time they said would take on the recipe card.

Fajita Bowl with Refried Beans & Fresh Tomato Salsa

Fajita Bowl

The husband chose this one. Suffice to say that its not my favorite meal by far. It was somewhat of a pain to make as it took a lot of coordinating multiple tasks at the same time. Its not complicated though and the chicken tastes delightful. It does pack a little heat in the spices for both the chicken and the peppers. However, the refried beans did turn out tasting better than I had expected them to which is always a plus.

Black Garlic Ramen with Shiitake Mushrooms & Bok Choy

Black Garlic Ramen

The vegetarian meal of the box is the black garlic ramen. Black garlic is also the highlight ingredient that was highlighted for this box. While I didn’t read a lot into it since its been busy, at first glance, it feels like a soy sauce infused garlic. However, I love to choose the oriental noodle meals here because I’m Chinese and it saves me from having to go to the Chinese supermarket which is almost always full of people whenever I have time to go. Back to the meal, simple to make and put together and packs a lot of lovely flavors and tastes so very good.

Provolone-Stuffed Burgers with Rosemary Oven Fries & Aioli

I know that this was a provolone stuffed burger but I let my husband decide on it and for the fact that I can’t have the stuffed cheese, he just made the patties and added the cheese on top. The aioli sauce is pretty good. I would have liked to know how much lemon juice instead of saying the remainder quarter as all lemons will have different amounts so ours turned out quite sour. The balance was lost although it was easy to  see that if there was less lemon juice, it would have been great. The fries also were really good. I never thought of crisping garlic and rosemary as a topping so it was fun to learn that. My husband is the burger connoisseur and he loved this one a lot.

That’s it for last week’s Goodfood box!
A lot of hidden gems here. Some delivered better than others but overall, efficient and tasty meals.

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.

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?

Unboxing: Meowbox [April 2015]

Many of you have seen my darling little girl.  If you haven’t caught her in any Cute Kitty Pics in My Weekly Adventures, here’s one of her:

I don’t think I’ve introduced her before.  Here’s Flea! She may be sleeping in a lot of pictures but that’s because she is camera shy even if she’s incredibly photogenic. So, we’re going to do a little experiment.  Unboxing will be in a Youtube video below and I’ll try to keep her around.  It shouldn’t be a problem since whenever I do the unboxing, she seems to wander about, but who knows, maybe she likes human stuff more than cat stuff. She’s weird that way. Regardless, this is her 5th birthday so I decided to get a little something special so thats why we’re here doing this unboxing of Meowbox. Her birthday was March 11th and I had wanted to get her the Meowbox earlier but by the time I sat down to order, it had just shipped the last box so I could only get this one.

I’m excited about this! Enough rambling! Here’s the video! Cuteness guaranteed with a little kitty play time! 🙂

Hope you enjoyed it!
Happy Friday! 🙂