Handpick Smart Groceries Meal Box Review – August 7, 2015

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handpick subscription box august 2015 box

Handpick is a new dinner kit box available on the Apple App Store.  You’ll pick one of the available bundles – Asian ($32), Meat Lovers ($37), Vegetarian ($45), Gluten-Free ($44), or Seafood ($41). Every bundle contains 12-15 ingredients along with 3 paired recipes. This box is a little different than the normal meal subscription boxes, as it’s intended that you use up all the full-size ingredients by working your way through the box. The ingredients are shipped directly from grocery stores – when we checked out the app, we noticed it said the groceries would be from Safeway (and ours were!). Shipping is $8.

Note that this box is currently available only in California and was overnighted to us for our review. Handpick hopes to expand to more states soon. You can check out all the meal and dinner kit subscription boxes in the directory if it doesn’t deliver to your area!

handpick subscription box august 2015 insulation

Our Handpick arrived packed nicely.  I could tell that the box was going to be nice right off the bat — the cooler bag was neatly  folded and sealed.

handpick subscription box august 2015 unboxing

And the meat was packed with the ice packs and kept separate from (and colder than) the fresh veggies. We don’t think they would have a problem expanding this subscription to the western half of the US immediately if this is how they are packing their items. They would probably need East Coast distribution for the other half.

handpick subscription box august 2015 all ingredients

All the ingredients that came in the box! This feels more like grocery shopping with paired recipes than the normal meal subscriptions do.  All the items looked really good!  The veggies were bright green and crisp, and the meat was very fresh.  Because most of the seasonings are used for multiple recipes, they sent big bottles of the oyster sauce and sesame oil.

handpick subscription box august 2015 recipe cards

The recipe cards are clear and easy to follow, showing how to make the meals step by step, as well as the finished product. The card includes the prep and cook time, and the difficulty level, but no estimated calories or nutritional information. That would be a nice thing to add!

handpick subscription box august 2015 Garlic Ginger Chicken & Sesame Noodles ingredients

Garlic Ginger Chicken & Sesame Noodles. Easy.

handpick subscription box august 2015 Garlic Ginger Chicken & Sesame Noodles

We made this with the included chicken thighs instead of the drumsticks shown in the photo — no complaints here.  The marinade really imparted a great flavor to the chicken.  The noodles were tasty and a great accompaniment.

Chicken Chow Mein ingredients

Chicken Chow Mein. Medium.

Chicken Chow Mein

The plentiful bok choy really stretched this dish.  It was pretty incredible to experience the difference in the flavor profile versus the previous dish.  The seasonings are the same, but in different proportion — to great effect.

Asian Lettuce Cups. Easy.Asian Lettuce Cups ingredients Asian Lettuce Cups

The variety of lettuce wasn’t the best suited to this application (great quality, but narrow leaves instead of round).  The dish was still great — I was once again impressed at the different flavor profiles achievable with the same set of ingredients.  A little messy, but very tasty.

chowing on chow mein

The quality of ingredients was great, and the resulting dishes were fantastic.  The only difficulty was portioning some of the items across the various recipes — a bottle of soy sauce would have been preferable, as the recipes (including marinades and sauces) called for a tad bit more than was provided.  The cards listed 6 Tbsp as being needed, but the recipes actually called for 6 1/2, and the four 8 ml fish provided contained only 2 and 1/6 Tbsp (we think it’s likely someone got tablespoons and teaspoons confused).  The recipes also called for a combined 13 oz of noodles, and the package provided was 10 oz.  Its possible they were calling for cooked weight (?).  I just checked all the recipes ahead of time and apportioned the ingredients so the shortfall was spread between the two.  Each still made a sizable dish.  Aside from the minor oversights, the food was great and we expect this minor sauce issue to be correct.  I was amazed at the different flavor profiles achieved with the same set of ingredients.  The three dishes were all distinct and memorable.

The SubscriptionHandpick
The Description:Handpick Smart Groceries are affordable meal kits (starting at $5.50 per meal) that don’t require a subscription. Each box contains 10+ ingredients designed to be used up by 3 recipes which are available in themes like Meat Lovers, Vegetarian, Asian, Seafood and Gluten-free. The recipes are easy-to-make and gleaned from trending recipes on Instagram and cooking blogs. For every box sold, we donate a meal to a food bank in the U.S.
The Price: Asian ($32), Meat Lovers ($37), Vegetarian ($45), Gluten-Free ($44), or Seafood ($41) + $8 delivery
The Coupon: Check the Handpick app for any current offers!

Handpick Smart Groceries

Handpick Smart Groceries are affordable meal kits (starting at $5.50 per meal) that don't require a subscription. Each box contains 10+ ingredients designed to be used up by 3 recipes which are available in themes like Meat Lovers, Vegetarian, Asian, Seafood and Gluten-free. The recipes are easy-to-make and gleaned from trending recipes on Instagram and cooking blogs. For every box sold, we donate a meal to a food bank in the U.S.

Asian ($32), Meat Lovers ($37), Vegetarian ($45), Gluten-Free ($44), or Seafood ($41) + $8 delivery.

$40
00 per box

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  • Ks
    08.14.15

    Intrigued by this one. I’m subscribed to plated right now but at $12/plate…it’s a bit too steep.