Home Chef November 2016 Review & Coupon

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This week’s Home Chef had one of our all-time favorites: veggie lasagna! 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 instructions delivered to your door. The basic concept is the same as other weekly meal delivery services, but it has its own unique features and recipes.

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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).


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

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The food is packed in puffy, padded cooler pads, with each meal packed in a separate bag containing nearly everything needed to make a complete meal.  The box is always packed with several ice packs. The meat is packed with ice packs in a giant bag to protect against leaks.

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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. 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 – the even include liquid egg (instead of expecting you to have eggs on hand), and oil for shallow-frying when a recipe calls for more than a few tablespoons worth.

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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.  I love that they include a heads-up for when ingredients are divided and used in different parts of the dish.

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 Clementines & Navel Oranges, Fuji Apples, And Bosc Pears. Their fruit is always top-notch – it’s just ripening, so you can eat it right away or store it in the fridge for quite a while. The Bosc pears were so good this week!

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Beef Meatball Bourguignon With Cremini Mushrooms And Buttered Egg Noodles. 35-45 minutes, easy, 804 calories per serving.

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This dish had a very hearty flavor, with lots of umami from the beef, mushrooms, and demi-based sauce. The noodles held a bit of their bite, too, with a better texture than I expected from egg noodles. Very easy to prepare, but I had to take care pan-frying the delicate meatballs.

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Coffee Rubbed Steak And Brown Butter Mashed Potatoes With Roasted Carrots And Fresh Dill. 35-45 minutes, easy, 882 calories per serving.

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A very simple meal with great flavor. The prep is very simple, and the coffee rub imparts a nice deep flavor to the steak. Brandy is NOT a coffee fan, but she enjoyed this dish! The brown butter sauce is the simplest you can make, but it has a wonderful, nutty and sweet flavor.

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Classic Veggie Lasagna With Zucchini, Mushrooms, And Garlic Bread. 60+minutes, intermediate, 671 calories per serving.

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We get this dish every time it’s offered! It makes such a satisfying meal, that we don’t miss the meat. Like any lasagna, it takes a little bit of effort to put together, but this recipe is one of the more straightforward ones you’ll find. It makes way more than two servings (full recipe is pictured), and it has garlic bread, to boot!

We are always very happy with our Home Chef meals. They have a huge selection of meal options to choose from each week, and each recipe makes plenty of food! In addition to great dinner options, they also offer breakfast selections, smoothies, 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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