Most, if not all of us, enjoy down, home, all American comfort food. None more so, than the traditional fall fare that people have come to enjoy during the Thanksgiving season. 

This is not about stuffing and turkey, however, we still have plenty of time to think about that…topped with cranberry sauce (chunky or jellied and berry-lump-free) mmmmm.

No, this is about home cooking, rather than eating out.  I was recently invited to join a home based gourmet grocery and menu service. It is called Hello Fresh! Their brand is all about fresh (obviously) and healthy, home cooked meals that are delicious while being low calorie and well-balanced.

We received our first package yesterday but it was supposed to arrive today, and we already had plans for dinner.

I have to admit, I wasn’t sure what it would be like, but it came with a custom made recipe book and individually packaged ingredients that are just enough for the meal (ok, maybe a little extra to save for another time.) 

The recipe book is outlined step by step, folds over and stands up so you can read, chop, cook as you complete the steps to prepare your dinner. (It also explains the way to prepare each ingredient: chopped, diced, sliced, chiffonaded…smashed.) Tonight’s recipe – the first one I attempted was a Level 2 recipe. I am not sure what their scale of difficulty is rated on, but the only reason it wasn’t all done on time was that I was cooking for 7 instead of 4 and we added more raw ingredients to serve everyone. (Those were being purchased while I started prep so there was some delay.) 

I also have quite a lot of cooking experience although I don’t think I would survive in a fast-paced, high-volume, restaurant kitchen. 

Maybe a challenge based cooking show…yea, maybe.

I can’t say (so far) that it is fast…the recipe said it would take about 45 minutes to prepare it actually took about an hour.  Agreed that it certainly isn’t fast food but it was indeed delicious and healthy. I agree that I couldn’t have gone out and purchased this meal for take-home in that amount of time. Plus, I didn’t go shopping (well, technically Mike did, but that was just one ingredient and he was out anyway…)

I would agree that this is my kind of comfort food. Not all American, but all modern… Bok choi, ginger brown rice and pan seared salmon with lime, cilantro and wasabi sauce.  Tomorrow, we will see how the chicken dish turns out and if I can get ALL the kids to eat it, not just my adventurous one.

~ Dawn aka Hat Girl