Easy Weeknight Meals with HelloFresh

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Now that we have been in school for the last month or so, I have to say the schedule of having one in high school, one still homeschooling, early morning seminary, after school activities and still trying to balance taking care of a home and running a business is all throwing me for a bit of a loop.  Whoa! When did life get so crazy?!  Having to be out the door every morning at 5:50am is really the kicker.  By the time the dinner hour rolls around, the last thing I have the energy for is deciding what to cook, making sure I have all of the ingredients, cooking it, and then cleaning up. Not to mention the meal planning and shopping that has to be done to prepare for dinner all week!  Who has time for that?  Needless to say, when I was given the opportunity to try out HelloFresh, having fresh ingredients, delivered to my door for meals that all sounded amazing and would be ready in 30 minutes…I JUMPED at the chance to give it a try…and now I’m not sure I can ever go back!

We hopped online and in just a few minutes selected three meals that we all agreed sounded delicious and like they would fit our personal tastes.  I loved the fact that some of the ingredients were a little less familiar to the kids, but that they didn’t shy away from them because the descriptions of the meals were mouth-watering and the pictures of each meal were too delicious looking to pass up.  They were excited to try new things.  A few short days after we ordered a beautiful box arrived on our doorstep full of everything we needed to make our meals for the week.  Each of our chosen meals were portioned to serve two adults and two children, perfect for our family.

Both of the kids are addicted to the Food Network and watch cooking shows like they are going out of style.  They have taken cooking classes at Sur La Table and a local cooking school here in town and genuinely love to cook, so they were excited to get in on the process of actually making dinner too.  They were especially excited to see a name they recognized when checking out all of the meal offerings.  Earlier this year, HelloFresh teamed up with celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, so the kids were very excited to add Jamie’s Oozy Zucchini Risotto to our weekly box.

Ash asked if we could make the meal she chose first…a yummy sounding Asian inspired Honey and Ginger Glazed Chicken.  These are complete meals, so it also included Snap Peas and a Jasmine Rice.  SO good!  With all of the ingredients literally at our fingertips in the box, prep and whipping up this amazing meal was seamless.  Easy enough that Ash literally did 90% of it.  If a 10 year old can do it…anyone can!  I only helped out to speed things up a bit because Andy was chomping at the bit to eat once the smell of ginger and garlic started filling the kitchen.  Teenage boys I tell ya…they will eat you out of house and home!

In just 30 minutes we had an incredibly flavorful and beautiful meal on the table that I was able to feel SO good about feeding my family.  I love that it was balanced with a protein, starch and veggie, looked like a million bucks and tasted even better.  And, clean up was a breeze!

Each of the weekly packages comes with a great booklet of recipe cards for all of the meal offerings for the week…even the ones you may have opted not to order.  After seeing how easy it was to make these meals, and how yummy they tasted, I know I will want to try more of them, and with gorgeous pictures, ingredient lists and detailed instructions on all of these cards I won’t be afraid to whip them up myself on occasion too.  It will also be great to keep a record of everything we ordered so we know our favorites and can re-order when they come around again.  I created a little cookbook cover and tabbed pages so that I can easily keep my favorites by category all in one place over time.  Here’s this simple DIY and free download so you can whip up your own too.

You’ll need:

-Hello Fresh recipe Cards

-3 binder rings

-free printable cook book pages (download with these links)

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I wrote the following on my tabs:

beef/chicken

poultry/fish

pastas

salads

Then, I organized each of my recipe cards under the correct tabbed divider page.

Finally, I lined up all of the pages and using a hole punch, punched three holes in the pages.  I hooked them on the binder rings, and, because I can’t let anything go without making it at least a little bit cute, I tied a little ribbon on the top ring. 😉

This is a super easy way to keep your favorite recipes for cooking or re-ordering organized, and it is easy to add to and expandable to hold a ton of recipe cards.

I loved that instead of our usual rushed and stressful school night, we were able to spend a few minutes cooking together and sharing a delicious, healthy meal.  Ashley felt a great sense of accomplishment having completed so much of it herself, and we had something on the table in less time than it would have taken me to run and grab take-out.

Ready to give HelloFresh a try?  You can use the coupon code TAMMYM35 designed specially for Pink Peppermint Design readers, and get $35 off your first box.  I’m excited to hear all about how much you love HelloFresh too!

Happy cooking!

Tammy