Well, it's pretty clear that I don't use my pressure cooker a lot. I'm kind of stuck with using the same recipes over and over so I haven't been adding hardly anything new here. I have made a goal of trying 1 new pressure cooker recipe a month to expand my recipe choices.
Meanwhile, in Sept I started getting a Hello Fresh box delivered about every 3 weeks. I don't want to receive them any more often than that. Every week is way to much in my opinion. Once a month is a nice break for me. I still have to cook the meals but it's way less planning and shopping than I normally have to do. I will be posting my Hello Fresh reviews and various recipes that I want to save here so I can easily access them later on.
The good - I chose Hello Fresh from all the other meal delivery services because it has pretty normal meals without a lot of unusual ingredients. HF has introduced me to a couple of really great recipes to add to my collection. Their Sizzling Southwest Chicken is a fav because they use sweet potatoes in a savory side dish with no sugar or cinnamon in sight. Their Adobo Sauce and Mushroom Sauce are two easy additions that I love but I haven't found an adobo sauce at the store that's comparable to what they send out. So far I've used the Mushroom Sauce twice since the Hello Fresh box that it came in. See recipes below.
The bad - There are a couple of negatives about Hello Fresh. My main complaint is that the portions are to small. It's mostly ok for me but my husband wants more than a little 4-6 oz serving of meat or just a spoonful of green beans - he wants a pile of green beans and at least 8oz of meat. For example, 2 chicken thighs for a Dinner to Lunch meal for 2 people? It may have been enough for the dinner portion but it was NOT nearly enough for a dinner and lunch.
Because of this I find myself supplementing the meal here and there. For example my next box will include two meals with 6 oz of green beans each. I will be sure to pick up a 1/2 lb of green beans to add to these meals. One has pork chops and I will pull a package of pork chops out of the freezer so my husband can have more than one chop.
The ugly - The next negative is actually a WARNING. Some of the Hello Fresh menu choices are an ADDITIONAL CHARGE!!! There is nothing in any of the HF literature about this extra charge. Nothing on the FAQs, nothing on the meal description, not a word anywhere at all. Even if you search on the Help page, "which meals are an extra charge" nothing comes up. You don't know a thing until you see that you've been charged an extra $10. Watch out for the PREMIUM MEALS and the DINNER TO LUNCH labels. I don't believe they're worth anything extra at all.
To me the fact that they don't disclose this information even in the small print means they are trying to hide it which is dishonest and I just don't understand why they want to do that. Imagine going into a store and getting up to the register to find that some of the items are $10 more than marked. It's just not good business practice. I haven't canceled... yet but I definitely think less of Hello Fresh than I did before.
Sweet Potato, Bell Pepper and Feta Jumble - from the Sizzling Southwest Chicken meal
1 large yam or sweet potato
1 sm red bell pepper
1 sm yellow bell pepper
4 green onions
1/2 cp crumbled feta cheese
Lime juice
Salt and pepper
Preheat oven to 450*. Peel sweet potatoes, then cut into 1-inch cubes. Toss on a baking sheet
with a drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper. Roast in the
oven about 15 minutes. Core and seed red and yellow bell peppers, then cut into 1-inch squares.
Once sweet potatoes have roasted 15 minutes, remove sheet from oven and lower the heat to 350*.
Give sweet potatoes a toss and push toward one side of sheet. Add bell
peppers to other side of sheet. Return sheet to oven and roast until
both are tender, 15 minutes more.
Once sweet potatoes and bell peppers are done, add to medium
bowl along with diced green onion, feta cheese, and a squirt of lime.
Season with salt, pepper, and more lime (to taste).
Hello Fresh Adobo Sauce - from the Adobo Loco Steak meal
1/2 cp diced onion
1 Tbls olive oil - optional
1/2 cp water
2 Tbls Beef Stock Concentrate
2 Tbls Adobo Sauce
1/4 cp sour cream
Ideally you'll start this in a pan where you've just seared off a couple of steaks. In this case you could use less of the olive oil. Add the diced onion to the pan and cook 3-4 min to soften.
Stir in the water, beef stock concentrate and adobo sauce. Stir until well blended and simmer until it's reduced and thickened a bit. Stir in the sour cream and serve. Delicious over a steak.
Hello Fresh Mushroom Sauce - from the Mushroom Gravy Chicken over couscous meal
8 oz mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 Tbls olive oil
3 cloves garlic, sliced
1 Tbls thyme - divided
1 cp chicken stock
½ cp sour cream
2 Tbls Dijon mustard
Put the olive oil in a hot skillet and add
the mushrooms, stir fry over med heat. They will release a bit of water
and as soon as that water is gone, they’re done. Add the garlic and
thyme and cook another 2 min. Add the chicken stock and reduce heat to
med/low. Let it reduce for 5 min, remove from heat. Right before
serving stir the sour cream and mustard into the mushrooms and serve.
Great with chicken and pork chops over couscous, quinoa, rice or potatoes.
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