30/01/18 – Meal 2: Hungarian Pork with Mushrooms and Peppers

Ingredients

Packet of pork looks small for four adults, will be fine for 2 adults and 2 kids. Lots of veg; two peppers, big bag of rice. 2x 200g packets of rice, only saw one to start with, added the second to the pot after 5 mins, oops. Mushrooms come pre-cut; they look to be turning, I don’t think they would have lasted another day in the fridge. Packet of spices looks small (more on this later).

Ease of Preparation

Dead simple, but it’s basically a pork stir fry with boiled rice. Recipe card only really needed to see what quantity of water to add with the stock cube.

Am starting to get the idea of MS here; use lots of veggies, chop them into big chunky pieces and reduce the need for large amount of protein; (definitely worth remembering for own cooking in future).

Doctoring

Pork goes on first. Before I open the spice packet, I see it is too small for much flavour; I look for some paprika around the kitchen, can only find a Mexican spice mix, but this smells about right; I throw a bit in to give the pork some colour; later would find out I could have used (lots) more.

Sauce looked a bit watery. Considered jazzing it up somehow, but the kids were getting antsy.

Served some broccoli on the side, as the kids are never too keen on peppers.

Had a few poppadums left from earlier in the week – I know Alex isn’t going to like the look of this; at least he will eat the rice with a couple of poppadums, and his broccoli of course.

Result

Looks like the picture. Oops did I eat too much rice.

Taste – Kiddie friendly?

Mixed results. Natasha loved it, said one of the best meals for a long time. Alex wouldn’t touch it; doesn’t like any red coloured sauce. Only Nigerian in the world who hates peppay lol. Average of the two 5 + 1 = 3 stars

Taste – Jamie & Overall

2.5 stars.

Fine for a quick mid-week dinner but largely forgettable; the sauce needs to be . Best thing are the big chunks of veg, and plenty of them. The sauce lacked flavour or body; needs a load more paprika and some herbs thrown in, or maybe some heat. Adding cream would give it more richness and body. Today’s lesson; trust your instincts on the amount of spices.

28/01/18 – Meal 1: Baked Honey-Feta with Greek bean tomato stew (translation close enough…)

Ingredients

First impressions are good. Lots of veggies, they look fresh and good quality. I can see MS will be big on lots of veggies, and fair protein sizes. Works in nicely with the New Year resolution diet lol.

Seems like a massive amount of dill, but I use it all anyway. (Actually the dill turns out to be a major competent of the flavour to this dish – very nice. Kids pick it all out)

Ease of Preparation

Chop variety of vegetables and boil, add to a Spanish/Greek type tomato based sauce. Stick some feta cheese under the grill, throw together and serve. Should be easy, the instructions make it more complicated than necessary; they are a bit too detailed; Prepare and Boil Vegetables for Dummies.

I think I under did the feta, my mistake, I put a new kitchen in last year, but never read the instructions for the cooker. So had no idea how to turn on the mixed grill/fan option, and think I set it too low. The feta got warm, but I think it should have had a brown crust on top. Am not sure I taste the honey, or if there is any point of it being there…

The photo shows the feta crumbled over the top of the stew, but the kids are at the table and hungry, so no time to get fingers burnt; chopped into cubes and scattered over.

Lots and lots of veg; maybe even too much for 4 people. Don’t think we’ll eat it all.

Doctoring

Being the first MS meal, and one where the protein is feta but no meat, am concerned the kids won’t eat it. I also have a few chicken breasts in the fridge which need using up; some mixed Italian herbs thrown over (from the Markthal, look it up, a great herb & spice stall there) and pan fried.

Result

Somewhat like the picture, but loads of potato (and I even left one or two to the side).

Taste – Kiddie friendly?

Natasha ate most of what I gave her, but not with great enthusiasm. Liked the feta. Alex refused at first, then picked at the veg, but liked the ‘side dish’ chicken. Oh well.

2 stars

Taste – Jamie & Overall

3.5 stars.

Not attractive to look at, but tasted good. Fresh and hearty. Tastes like a homely winter Mediterranean stew your Spanish granny would make. Nice when the feta melts into the veg and sauce. The big bunch of dill adds a fresh and zingy flavour and was probably the most memorable part of the dish; though it was probably an unfamiliar taste to the kids; they picked it all out.

So much left over, I had left-overs for dinner the following evening (with one piece of chicken left!)

I would eat it again, though the kids weren’t bothered, so will have to see.

27/01/18 – Box 1 arrives!…

About 10 days after signing up, the first MS box arrives! …3 hours later than scheduled. Had no plans to go anywhere during the delivery window, but I wonder how many calls are missed, and how much of the food ends up at the food bank…

Had ensured I had made room in the fridge before the delivery; but the three packages are quite a size. I squeeze them in. Can’t help but thinking I am refrigerating unnecessary items like cans and packets of dry goods… (I verified that this is the case a few days later…). Maybe they should consider a separate fresh goods package (for the fridge) and a dry goods package (for the cupboard) for each meal.

18/01/18 Marley Spoon Website

Signed Up, now the wait…

Nice clean interface, easy to use. Looks classy. In dutch, but no problem for Google translate J

Meals selected for the next four weeks. A mix of meal types, proteins, cuisine types chosen; many of those I selected are stated as kiddie friendly; though I know the kids probably wont like some, but lets use this trial to try and give them some different foods…

I like the fact it shows exactly what is in meal package, the instructions for making the recipe and any additional equipment / ingredients required. Well planned.

May consider a weekly fruit box in future as well. Lets try the regular meals first.

Overall, good job.