The second Chef’d dinner we tried was shrimp and grits with asparagus. I didn’t realize that it came with “vegetable base” so I swapped that out for some chicken broth, since it didn’t have an ingredient list on it. This was also pretty good. There were 6 very large shrimp per portion, and more than enough grits for the two of us. They were too cheesy for me, but that’s no surprise. The Husband liked everything well enough, including the pan sauteed asparagus. We’d definitely order this again!
Continue reading Dinner in a Box: Chef’d Shrimp and Grits with Asparagus »
Living up in the mountains, sometimes we don’t have a lot of options for different services, things we took for granted whilst living in NJ. One of the things we had a hard time with was finding a seamstress to handle mostly minor alterations. There just wasn’t really anyone around. FINALLY one opened in town. Unfortunately, I recently had the absolute worst customer service experience and will likely not go back to her. She managed to make me feel like her absolutely least important customer, so if I’m that unimportant to her, I’d rather schlep and find someone who values my business a bit more.
That’s the short version. Long version behind the cut….
I’m fascinated by these dinner meal boxes and companies. To me they are a fabulous idea and something I know I could have lived on in my single days. I’m talking about companies like Plated and Chef’d, where you order from their list of options and a few days later a box shows up with just about everything you need to make those meals. But what I did NOT like about them is the subscription part. We are picky eaters, so it’s always a question if I could get the minimum number of meals of things we’d eat in a single week. Plus our lives are so changeable that some weeks we are having dinner at home every night, and some weeks we are out more than in, or have tentative plans which make it hard to plan for perishable meals.
I had tried Plated first, and had a mixed experience, but it was the subscription part that did it in for me. I kept looking and looking until I found Chef’d, which does two things better. First, no subscription, so you buy what you want when you want it. Second, they seem to sell meals from several different companies and plans, so there is a MUCH larger variety to choose from.
I chose 3 meals for our first Chef’d experience- seared ahi poke, shrimp and asparagus with Parmesan grits and weeknight chicken pad thai. The big orange box arrived yesterday. Everything was well packaged and still quite cold when it arrived. As I unpacked I noted to myself that I would need to add more chicken to the pad thai for us but the quality of the protein otherwise looked very good. We made the ahi tuna first (always make your seafood meals first!). There was a bit of fussing and chopping required which I didn’t really mind and then the tuna got seared on the stovetop. The recipe card said it took 45 minutes to make and I think that was about accurate. The meal itself was pretty darn good, good enough that the Husband was looking for more when it was done, and still talking about it this morning. (Noted for next time, add a bit more protein of some kind on the side for him, or order the meal for 4 instead of 2.) It was easy enough for me to make some small changes to accommodate our specific tastes (left out the sriracha, used much less of the agave they provided, and no sesame seed crust on my tuna). This will definitely go on our reorder list.
I meant to take a picture but I never really plated it. We just kind of dumped things in bowls and ate happily. So here’s the official Chef’d picture:
Interested in trying Chef’d out? Here’s a coupon link (http://fbuy.me/ekX7L). Use it to get $10 off, and then I get $10 off too!
“One World Trade fills the hole in the sky successfully, but it does not, I’m afraid, fill the hole in my heart left by Sept. 11.” – Brian Rose
There are some voids that cannot be filled, some things that can never be rebuilt.
Please note: I’ve previously lived in NY and NJ, in areas with decent to very large Jewish communities in the area. Vermont? Not so much Jewish….
I have both a bat and bar mitzvah to go to in September, so I went to my local Rite Aid pharmacy to pick up the cards while I was out running errands. I look up and down one card aisle- no bar/bat mitzvah cards at all. I go down the second aisle and finally find them. There are TWO bar mitzvah cards, and ONE bat mitzvah card. That’s it. In NJ, I’m sure I would have had more choices. In VT, as the Husband said, I should be grateful that they had even one bat mitzvah card, especially since most non-Jews up here may not have ever been to one!
Also, it’s before Labor Day and the leaves have started to change. Not just one or two, but a lot of the maple trees have started to change. It seems the maples are the early turners.
I’m SO not ready for winter yet!