Home Chef

Have you ever heard of the meal delivery service called Home Chef?
You can read all about it here.

It was brand new to me until a couple of weeks ago.

Kevin surprised me with it for Christmas.  He found a coupon code online and paid for the rest.

He picked out three meals he knew we'd enjoy and had it delivered to our house.

It was such a fun surprise and the meals were tasty.

These services are fun, but they're definitely still work.

I would not recommend sending these to someone who just had surgery or had a new baby.  They're too labor intensive.  They're more fun for people who enjoy cooking and want to learn new recipes/ingredients/cooking techniques.  We'd like to continue to order them throughout the year for a fun change and a cheaper date night option for home.

PROS:
I learned new techniques that I wasn't familiar with.
I got to cook with new ingredients that I had never seen before (Chinese Broccoli = amazing!!)
The recipes were very detailed and well thought out.
Cheaper than eating a fancy meal out and paying for a babysitter.
You can add sides, desserts, smoothies, etc to your meal plans.
The recipes come in a binder so you can keep them all organized.
The website is really user friendly and you can scope out the recipes for the whole month.

CONS:
TONS of dishes required to cook the meals.
Small portion sizes (we had to add a side to each meal to fill us up)
All recipes took longer than the recipes suggested.
It's a pricey service when you're already used to cooking and shopping for yourself.

Now let's get to the good stuff... the MEALS!!
We selected 2 person meals and fixed the kids other things.

MEAL #1
CLASSIC CASHEW CHICKEN
AMAZING!!  Must replicate this recipe at home on a regular basis.
We loved trying the Chinese broccoli, toasting the cashews and fixing jasmine rice at home.
This felt very fancy and tasted just like you were eating at a nice restaurant.
Our favorite meal of the week!

MEAL #2
SHERRY WINE DEMI-GLACE SIRLOIN STEAK
SO GOOD!
Everything was delicious and easy to prepare.
I'd definitely make this again.

We traded duties... I spent extra effort preparing the meals and Kevin did the dishes.  Win :)

MEAL #3
SOUTHERN FRIED PORK CHOP
Pretty good, but our least favorite of the three.
One of the pork chops was pretty fatty so we ended up sharing one.
The mac & cheese was delicious.
I was happy I learned more about how to bread and fry meat since it's something I rarely do.
Wouldn't get again because we don't love pork chops.
Kevin picked it because I love mac & cheese.

If you'd like to give Home Chef a try, email me at polkadottyplace@hotmail.com
and I can send you a coupon code for $30 off.

I'm guessing you're curious to know how it compared to
Hello Fresh that I reviewed back in October.

I'd say the services are pretty similar.  Home Chef meals seemed to be more unique and interesting to us, but we'd use both Home Chef and Hello Fresh again if we had a great coupon code.