another 2 weeks of hellofresh

hi guys! we ordered hellofresh again. this time they sent us a coupon for $50 off two boxes. so we decided to reactivate again, and also give them our new address so they'll stop mailing our apartment which will no longer be ours after this month. anyway, here's what we got this time! ~Lindsay ^.~
for those interested in the recipes below, please visit my google drive folder.

so, as i sit here modifying a copy from my post from earlier this year, i see that i talked about how the packaging changed, well guess who took pictures of all the aforementioned changes this time because a coworker was inquiring about the service...?
🙋

week 1 meal choices:

1. Lemongrass Chicken Legs
2. Crispy Cheddar Frico Cheeseburgers
3. Fig & Rosemary NY Strip Steak

Lemongrass Chicken Legs
paul made this. despite how simple this was, this was a quick and easy recipe. and it was delicious! the chicken had great flavor and it was nice to have bok choy again! we need to figure out where you can buy lemongrass. i'm sure you can get it at like whole foods... maybe one of the local international markets carries it too?

Crispy Cheddar Frico Cheeseburgers
i made this. this is the first time i've ever made burgers. granted, this recipe was literally take the meat and mold it, salt and pepper both sides. so i didn't do too much there... but this was a lot easier to make than it thought it would be! and we'll definitely make this one again!

Fig & Rosemary NY Strip Steak

i made this. i have developed an appreciation for fingerling potatoes. they're so cute and small! the sauce was really good for this, and i somehow managed to cook our steaks perfectly! we normally get thinner cuts, so i'm not used to cooking a thicker cut like this. anyway, this is another that we'll be making again!

week 2 meal choices:

1. Creamy Dill Chicken
2. Saucy Thyme Steak
3. Moo Shu Pork Tacos

Creamy Dill Chicken
paul made this. this was ok. i'm not huge into chicken breast, but the dill sauce made it better. and potatoes and green beans are potatoes and green beans..?

Saucy Thyme Steak

i made this. so i'm not sure i'd almandine my sweet potatoes again... but this dish was otherwise freakin awesome. the only problem with recreating this one is that we don't know what's in the beef demi-glace, maybe you can buy this in the store.. or there's probably recipes for it online somewhere.. anyway, it was really good!

Moo Shu Pork Tacos

i made this. this was super simple and easy to make! the hardest and most annoying part was chopping the mushrooms..which in hindsight, i probably could have put into a food processor.... anyway, this recipe was supposed to be like for 4 tacos, they sent us 6, and there was definitely enough filling to make two more, for a total of 8. no judgement. also, as someone who doesn't like mayo, hoisin mayo is really good, but maybe that's because i love hoisin already! but it was really good and we probably will make this one again too!

overall, these two weeks were pretty awesome. we picked out things that were relatively simple to make and we enjoyed pretty much all of them. so i'm very happy with these and now we've got some new recipes for later!

two more weeks of hellofresh

hi guys! so hellofresh again. they sent us another postcard for like half off a box and we decided to opt-in again! we ended up getting two boxes again, so one full price ($70) and one was $30 i believe..? something like that--i don't get the bill, so i don't know. ^.~ anyway here's what we got and what we thought! ~Lin-chan ^.~
for those interested in the recipes below, please visit my google drive folder.

key differences in packaging this time are the inclusion of a nutrition facts card for all 8 choices for the week, and the ingredients are packaged into brown paper bags instead of boxes. and i think they had this in the past and i didn't mention it.. but they have indications on each seafood meal label to "make first".

week 1 meal choices:

1. Pan-Seared Garlic Chicken
2. Lemony Shrimp Risotto
3. Perfect Penne Pasta

Pan-Seared Garlic Chicken
paul made this. they accidentally sent us corn starch instead of garlic powder, but what true italian louisianian does not have garlic powder in their kitchen?! anyway, i wasn't a huge fan of the chicken. granted, i don't like chicken breast, but that's beside the point. it was pretty salty, not garlic-y, and just whatever. the potatoes with the jalapeno and cream cheese was great! i didn't initially realize the jalapeno was in it because there wasn't any heat. and broccoli is broccoli..?

Lemony Shrimp Risotto
paul made this. this dish was an ok one. maybe i don't like risotto? i love rice. pretty much by the time i finished the grilled zucchini and shrimp, i was kinda meh with the remaining rice and didn't finish it. on another note, why don't we make grilled zucchini more often? so good!

Perfect Penne Pasta

i made this. the food photo's in the pan still because i knew it wasn't going to plate as pretty, lol! this was really good. i surprisingly really liked the chicken sausage (which, i'm not sure i've had prior..). if i recall correctly, this wasn't terribly complicated to make, but if we were to make it again, i think it'd be annoying to chop the kale myself, lol! sidenote, i bought this herb stripper from amazon on prime day, and it definitely made stripping the sage a loooot easier.

week 2 meal choices:

1. Crispy Fish Tacos
2. Prosciutto-Wrapped Chicken
3. Sriracha Turkey Lemongrass Skewers

Crispy Fish Tacos
i made this. i really enjoyed this. it's very reminiscent of the tacos from the restaurant by my office with a few key differences. they mix the 'pickled' vegetables with a sour cream-like mix and there's no avocado with this recipe. otherwise it's pretty similar. the tilapia fillets they provided were relatively larger and it said to cut it into smaller chunks for frying, then break them apart as needed for the tacos.

Prosciutto-Wrapped Chicken

paul made this. i thought this one was ok, which is sad because i love prosciutto. the risotto was meh, and the chicken and prosciutto were kinda salty, which paul said he didn't add any extra salt to. he was also disappointed that there were like three strips of prosciutto provided, considering the amount of chicken that needed wrapping.

Sriracha Turkey Lemongrass Skewers

i made this. while this was relatively easy to make, i'm not sure we'd make it again. the coconut milk jasmine rice didn't taste like i did much, and we eat plain jasmine rice all the time. and lemongrass.... where do you even buy that?! (i love lemongrass scented things, and having some fresh to smell was awesome!) otherwise, this was essentially turkey meatloaf on a stick with sriracha mixed in (and on top if desired). while it was tasty, it wasn't like wow. and the carrot, onion, cucumber 'slaw' was interesting and refreshing.

last week's hellofresh (no.6)

hi guys! we got another hellofresh box! this is our 6th. a few weeks ago, they sent us a $40 off 1 week coupon (aka $29 for 3 meals for 2), and we couldn't pass that up. anyway, here's how this box's recipes went. the meals we chose this time are:

for recipes of these three dishes, see my HelloFresh recipes folder on my google drive. ~Lin-chan ^.~

so. random side notes before we begin.. i didn't take pictures, but they changed the insulating packaging inside the box. instead of some super thick padded..things... there were thick pieces of cardboard with a silver (space blanket-like?) presumably insulated coating on the inner side. otherwise, the contents were the same as before. they threw in an extra cilantro on top of all the boxes (it wasn't inside a 'meal' box...), and none of these recipes use cilantro...? but that's cool, we'll use it! and on the flip side, they shorted us one jalapeno. which is also ok because i'm not huge into spicy and they're so cheap. we ended up buying one about the size of the one pictured (same jalapeno in both below pictures, lol!) for like 6 cents. come on. and i ended up cooking both recipes with the one jalapeno, and i only ended up using half in each of the recipes. so now we've got a jalapeno to use! also, in our absence of this subscription, they began offering breakfast items and saturday delivery. which was great, so we chose both of these, because i didn't want the package to arrive at my apartment office and then she'd leave and close the office before i get home. and she's only open during the week. and on the breakfast side, it was nice because, we get the box saturday and we can do breakfast sunday. niiice!

dinner 1: bacon quesadilla stacks

i made this. so this is the breakfast choice we ordered. and fun fact, we had crazy tornado warnings and such on sunday morning, so this ended up being sunday dinner. but breakfast for dinner is awesome too. back to the recipe. i really liked the salsa, bacon and avocado on tortilla. i did not like the "hash". like it was edible, butttt... the recipe calls for grating a potato on the large holes of a box grater. ok, we got this! then it says to add it to a pan with oil, salt, and "enough water to cover" and bring to a boil. ok, so i cover it with water but not fully. and of course, it looked nothing like the picture. the middle picture shows like actual hashbrown lookin hashbrowns and they probably used a teeny bit of water. whatever the hell i ended up making was potato slime. tried to remedy it by baking it in the oven... didn't work. but whatever, so i ended up proceeding with the recipe, adding the pepper and other seasonings. then i get to the tortillas..which i was reluctant to do, but 425° for 5 minutes for tortillas...? they were balloons when they came out the oven (as partially seen on the right plate). so i ended up opening them along the seam and deflating them. partially because of this, i diverged from the proposed plating of this dish..so we didn't really have quesadillas.. more like tacos with schtuff on the side... anyway, i'm less inclined to make the 'hash' again, but the tortillas...mmmm!

dinner 2: pistachio crusted chicken
i made this. this turned out pretty good. i kind of wish i chopped the pistashios finer, but it said to roughly chop them..so there's big pieces mixed in, because that is a "rough chop"! come on guys! the quinoa turned out a little too vinegary but that was my fault... >.< and the salad was pretty good. i think if you can't find a persian cucumber, you could use part of an english cucumber. and chicken is chicken?

dinner 3: winning pork medallions

paul made this. so aside from the pork not being medallion-y, this came out pretty good. they ended up sending us two flat pieces of tenderloin, so he just left them as patties instead of cutting them.. but i liked it anyway. i do wish the instructions had said to cook the sprouts a bit more as they were very crisp -- and i do like my veggies more on the raw side, but anyway... i'm not sure if we will be doing this one again per se, i wasn't huge into the tarragon, which reminded me of anise and though i'm part italian, i'm not a fan of anise.

5th hellofresh box

hi guys! sorry this post is a few days late. work this week has been awful and i haven't had a chance to breathe. anyway onto the food!

here's our fifth hellofresh box! we ended up getting this 'third' box after this groupon because of the credit we ended up getting from the leaky chicken in the 'first' box we received. this will be our last for a now as we have canceled the subscription. the meals we chose this time are:

1. Warm Shrimp and Farro Salad
2. Turkish Lamb Meatballs
3. Marinated Steak Bibimbap

for recipes of these three dishes, see my HelloFresh recipes folder on my google drive. ~Lin-chan ^.~

dinner 1: shrimp & farro salad

so aside from the fact that teh paul forgot the arugula in the salad spinner until like an hour after we finished eating......... it was really good! haha. we're planning on making this again, once we make a trip to trader joe's to buy more farro. he and i both agreed, to some degree, we liked the farro more than brown rice since it's fluffier.

dinner 2: turkish lamb meatballs
this was teh yumz. the meatballs somehow ended up tasting like gyro (yes, i know lamb is in gyro, but still), and the sauce was sweet and tangy. the only issues we foresee with making this again is obtaining ground lamb and turkish spice blend. maybe whole foods and the internets, respectively? i'm not sure.
-- to anyone interested in making this in the future, the "1 box" of crushed tomatoes is about 13.8oz, and "1 stock concentrate" is about 8oz of stock

dinner 3: steak bibimbap

can i first start off with, why is the soyu in a jar... who puts it into a jar when it can be in a teeny bottle?? didn't one of my previous food subscription boxes have super cute little soy sauce fishies??? and secondly, i don't think i've ever seen sriracha in packettes before. not that i ever use it, but i thought it was..different. anyway, this came out really good! it uses simple, easily obtainable ingredients and it was fairly easy to make! can't wait to do it again!

our 4th hellofresh box!

hi all! today i bring you my review of our fourth hellofresh box! the meals we chose this time are:

1. Shrimp Saganaki with Spicy Marinara, Feta, and Israeli Couscous
2. Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Lemony Potato & Zucchini Hash
3. Spanish Steak Salad with Roasted Red Peppers & Rosemary-Garlic Vinaigrette 

for recipes of these three dishes, see my HelloFresh recipes folder on my google drive. ~Lin-chan ^.~

dinner 1: shrimp saganaki

i'm already a huge fan of couscous, but israeli couscous...so much better! the only major thing i'd change with this recipe is that the onion was huge and the recipe called for the whole thing.. i hate onions, and i spent more time picking them out of this than actually eating the dish. i mean look at that picture...it's all onions! the shrimp (though large) are hiding under the feta! i'm not sure how much of the chili flakes the paul put in, but it was just above my tolerance level and can also be adjusted in the future. also, i think i'd rather the sauce tossed with the couscous before serving. some of the couscous clumped together. this was so super easy to make and we can't wait to make it again!
-- to anyone interested in making this in the future, the "1 box" of crushed tomatoes is about 13.8oz

dinner 2: pork tenderlion
this was also a very easy recipe! i guess i'm not a huge fan of dry meat..and this one is no exception. i like pork, but not if it comes out dry or has no sauce. this one, i did squeeze some of the extra lemon onto it, but i don't think it was quite good enough. i definitely enjoyed the potatoes & zucchini, that was awesome. so i think we will probably make this recipe again, and maybe cook the pork differently or something.

dinner 3: steak salad

this was by far, the most complicated salad ever. who takes an hour to make a salad??? first there was roasting the peppers, then the garlic and rosemary, then cooking the steak and slicing and toasting the bread... such a hassle. the salad was pretty good, but not worth the effort we put into it.