Home Chef October 2016 Review & Coupon

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Our latest Home Chef had easy preparation and lots of flavor! Home Chef is a meal in a box subscription – every week, you choose from a variety of recipes and have all the ingredients and preparation instruction delivered to your door. It’s similar in concept to other weekly meal delivery services, but it has its own unique features and perspectives.

Meal selections are suggested automatically according to a profile you fill out noting your family’s preferences, but you can change your selections any time. Home Chef offers an incredible 10 selections available for 2, 4, or 6 people, a breakfast choice, a smoothie choice, and a fruit basket selection. The portions are huge, and this is currently the least expensive and has the most choice out of any similar major subscriptions (for 2 people) – $9.95 per person per selection (they typically have one meal a week that’s a premium meal).

This week, our food was packed within an arrangement of puffy, padded cooler pads. The food is segregated in bags, and each bag has nearly everything needed to make a complete meal. You have to have a basic kitchen set-up (stove/oven, cookware, etc.), but a couple tablespoons of cooking oil and salt and pepper are usually the only ingredients you have to have at home. Unlike other boxes, Home Chef includes liquid egg when needed rather than expecting you to have eggs on hand, and they even include a bottle of oil for shallow-frying when a recipe calls for more than a few tablespoons worth.

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DEAL: Get $30 of free food when you sign up – just use this link to get the deal!

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The box is always packed with a sufficient number of ice packs – the meat is placed in the bottom of the box with several of them. I like that they now put all the meat in a giant bag to protect against leakage and to let you get the meat out without fishing around. They now stamp the inside of the box with inspection stamps, so we know that no fewer than two people have inspected our box before it ships! Though there is a lot of packaging, it is put together with the environment in mind.

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The recipe cards display prep time, difficulty, a “best cooked by” time frame, and even a spice level. There is also a list of stuff you may need from your own kitchen such as cookware and salt and pepper.

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The back of the card has the actual recipe guidance, complete with pictures and boldfacing of ingredients. The recipes are accompanied by pro-tips and explanations of cooking terminology and techniques. The tips appear in a sidebar so they don’t clutter the actual recipe.

The prep is done is a sensible order, with long lead time items first. This helps everything finish cooking close to the same time. The recipe cards have pre-punched holes so you can store them in a recipe binder – we usually prefer to just wait till the recipe is offered again instead of attempting to gather the ingredients to recreate it ourselves.

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Each recipe was packed separately, and neatly, in its own bag, except for a few larger items. Unless otherwise noted, each of the pictures of prepared food below shows one of two servings made by each recipe.

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Seasonal Fruit Selection With Apples And Pears. 336 calories per serving. We like getting the fruit because it is always in great condition – and it saves us a trip to the produce section!

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 Mojito Pork Chops With Citrus Salad. 30-40 minutes, easy, 408 calories per serving.

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This was a great seasoning for pork!  The mint and citrus were very refreshing, brightening the juicy fattiness of the chop.  The arugula was very peppery by itself, but the dressing completely balanced the flavors and made it really tasty.  It was also very easy to put together.

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Tex-Mex Turkey Taco Salad With Corn, Avocado, Pickled Onions, And Sour Cream. 25-35 minutes, easy, 620 calories per serving.

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This salad was pretty humorous, in that half of it was meat! It was very satisfying, and I loved having a ton of seasoned turkey and avocado in every bite – I didn’t miss the taco chips at all. This dish required some simple knife work.

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 Steak Marsala With Parmesan Mash With Sauteed Cremini Mushrooms. 35-45 minutes, easy, 793 calories per serving.

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This was really delicious. Brandy doesn’t care for mushrooms, but she seems to enjoy the mushroom based sauces, like this marsala, beef demi, and mushroom reduction. The potatoes were a great side, with lots of Parmesan cheese and green onion. Instead of transferring the steak to a sheet pan, I just used an oven-proof skillet and transferred it to the oven after searing. Very easy dish to make, and packed with umami and delicious flavor!

Home Chef tends to be the most mainstream of the meal kit subscriptions, featuring dishes that are familiar and comforting. Home Chef has always had a huge selection of meal options to choose from each week, and it is the undisputed portion king of the meal kit subscriptions!

They have also been adding some more exotic and adventurous offerings to the mix, with Indian, Southeast Asian, and African dishes appearing as choices. I think they do a great job with these dishes, providing both quality and novelty. In addition to great dinner options, they also offer breakfast selections and a fruit basket (which we have been very happy with whenever we’ve gotten it).

Have you tried Home Chef? What did you think of your meals?

Visit Home Chef to subscribe or find out more!

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