Tag Archives: #FreshFans

Butternut Squash Agnolotti

Carbohydrates, cooking, Dietitian, Food, Greens, health coach, Healthy Diet, HelloFresh, home cooked meal, kale, meal delivery, Recipe, Vegetarian, , , , , , , , ,

This is a #HelloFresh meal delivery review of the Butternut Squash Agnolotti with Kale in a Sage Brown Butter Sauce. HelloFresh provided a Meal Delivery Box containing three meals to me free of charge. This post is therefore #sponsored. As always, all opinions in my reviews are mine and I if love it or hate it, I’ll let you know.

Okay, first, do you love every single word in the recipe name? OMG yes! Butternut is a good friend of mine and a long-time Thanksgiving meal staple growing up. If you don’t know agnolotti, it is a type of ravioli – ravioli and I also go way back thanks to Chef Boyardee and this great restaurant in Brooklyn that I believe was called Cinzino’s (or something like that…). Then add kale (yes, how cliché, an RD who loves kale, I know), and brown butter sauce – heaven!!! Yes, please, get in my belly! Um, so it is safe to say I was just a bit excited going into this recipe.

The flavors of the pine nuts and butternut squash is what took this dish over the top for me. I love pine nuts but they are so expensive, even when bought in bulk so you can just get a small portion! All the pine nuts were used in the recipe but there was a fair amount of leftover kale, which was sliced into thin strips making it quick to cook and got rid of the thicker stems that can be so fibrous and chewy. I’m a fan of leftover ingredients and this kale was an addition to the next day’s salad.

Butternut-Agnolotti-2-HelloFresh-October-2017

I did make one mistake (as usual!) since I was multi-tasking with filming and taking pictures while I cooked. I added the whole 1-cup of reserved pasta water to the sauce when the recipe clearly says to start by adding 1/4 cup and add more as needed. Whoops! No harm, no foul as I just cooked the sauce down longer to evaporate some of the extra water (and left some liquid behind in the pan when serving…).

Nutritionally, one serving has 640 calories, 15 grams of saturated fats, 59 carbs, 9 grams of fiber, and 24 grams of protein.

What would I change? 

Since I’m currently typically eating five times a day (yep!), this dish is simply too much food/calories for one meal for me. This meal would fit nicely into many people’s meal plans with a satisfying number of calories and fairly balanced nutrition – or it could be split into two servings (bonus – no cooking the second night!) and served with a veggie side to get more bites per meal.

What did I love? 

This is one of HelloFresh’s 20-Minute Meals and it is such an easy recipe to make! The only chopping is to slice a shallot and mince garlic. That’s it! Chopping and prep work is the worst part of cooking to me so this is a big check in the win column for this recipe.

Lessons Learned?

Read the directions. Then read the directions. Then read them again.

HelloFresh provided a Meal Delivery Box containing three meals to me free of charge. This post is therefore #sponsored. As always, all opinions in my reviews are mine and I if love it or hate it, I’ll let you know.

 

Pork Tenderloin

Honey-Glazed Pork Tenderloin

cooking, Dietitian, Food, health, Healthy Diet, HelloFresh, home cooked meal, meal delivery, pork, Recipe, , , , , , , ,

This is a #HelloFresh meal delivery review of the Honey-Glazed Pork Tenderloin with Sweet Potatoes and Green Beans. HelloFresh provided a Meal Delivery Box containing three meals to me free of charge. This post is therefore #sponsored. As always, all opinions in my reviews are mine and I if love it or hate it, I’ll let you know.

This is such a simple, classic meal – meat, starch, veg – and it reminds me of the meals I would have growing up so this plate brought big flavor and down-home comfort.

Now, I had never cooked a pork loin prior to making this dish and while it was oh-so-gross (I’m one of those “ewwww raw meat don’t make me touch it” people) it was also oh-so-delicious and the final verdict was: the gross-factor of handling raw proteins is sometimes worth it!

But it will always be better when I can get hubs to do this part!

If you’ve seen my previous reviews, you may have noticed I have an issue with timing these meals and sometimes mess up the measuring.  I’m not only making the meal but also trying to video and take some photos as I go which throws the proverbial wrench into the timing-and-measuring machine. But this one is the first one that I mastered the timing with and didn’t mess up a single measure! I was so excited!!

The only difference between the instructions and my reality was that I let the pork cook for an additional five minutes for it to come up to food-safety temp. Unfortunately, the spices were past their prime when I got around to this recipe as it was the last one I made. I simply subbed out the fresh thyme for dried Italian seasoning.

Pork Tenderloin

Nutritionally, this dish comes in at 590 calories, 56 grams carbs, 41 grams protein, and 8 grams of saturated fats. I tend to stick to lower-carb dinners and try to keep my daily saturated fats under 12 grams so this meal was a little much for a dinner for me. But, quick fix was using less oil in the recipe and saving some sweet potato to go with tomorrow’s breakfast omelet (win!). In the plus column is 8 grams of fiber, no trans fat, and more than half the plate is colorful vegetables which is a great, easy way to gauge the nutrition quality of a meal.

What would I change?

I typically reduce the oil and salt in the recipes. In this dish: I did not use oil for roasting the potato or green beans but kept the butter for the glaze (because butter = delicious!). I also did not salt the meat prior to searing and found I had to add some at the table.

What did I love? 

The glaze – oh my goodness – the glaze is divine!

This is not only a gorgeous meal but also a very generous serving and – finally – I got enough vegetables on my dinner plate to satisfy my veggie-lovin appetite!

Things I learned?

I can conquer the ick of working with raw meat!!! And pork loin is something I will be adding into my meal rotation.

Roasted green beans are so good! I have never roasted them before!

HelloFresh provided a Meal Delivery Box containing three meals to me free of charge. This post is therefore #sponsored. As always, all opinions in my reviews are mine and I if love it or hate it, I’ll let you know.

 

Presto Pesto Panko Chicken

chicken, chicken recipe, cooking, Dietitian, Food, health, Healthy Diet, HelloFresh, home cooked meal, meal delivery, Meal Prep, Recipe, , , , , , , , ,

This is a #HelloFresh meal delivery review of the Presto Pesto Panko Chicken with a Green Salad and Roasted Potatoes. HelloFresh provided a Meal Delivery Box containing three meals to me free of charge. This post is therefore #sponsored. As always, all opinions in my reviews are mine and I if love it or hate it, I’ll let you know.

Admit it – you just said, “Presto Pesto Panko Chicken” out loud, didn’t you? No? Well, say it because it’s kind of fun to say! And it is good to eat too! That presto panko crust goes on top of pesto which goes on top of chicken – this layering results in a wonderfully moist chicken with a crispy crust!

Mangia! And mangia you will as this is one big plate of food!

 

Did you realize that chicken recipes are the most googled recipes? While I’ve said this for years and it makes total sense because have you had plain baked chicken? Bland and chewy! But… I actually have no evidence to back up this claim. So… I googled it. Google says “chicken as food” has been in the top 10 for 146 months. That’s a lot of people looking for chicken as food so I stand by this statement.

Google-Chicken
Image from: https://trends.google.com/trends/topcharts

Back to the dish…

Nutritionally, one serving comes in at 630 calories, 6 grams saturated fat, 50 grams carbs, 8 grams fiber, and 52 grams protein.

What would I change?

What I’m finding with HelloFresh meals is that – for how I eat – the calories, oil, and salt are too much for my preferences. It is easy to fix the oil and salt as I cook and I do this with every recipe. Fat and salt makes food delicious so I get it; it’s just not my cooking style and doesn’t fit in with my personal health goals.

Also, I would like more veggies! I’m a mostly-veg-for-my-meals type with a side of meat/protein and a small portion of carbs. This is also a quick fix by eating half the meal one night paired with some extra veg and saving half for the next night.

What did I love?

Easy peasy – the only chopping is the potatoes and the clean up was super fast.

The extras! Leftover ingredients included half the panko, half the pesto, and half a lemon. Score!

The crispy. I mentioned the chicken had a nice crunch but the potatoes were also soooo crispy. I love crunchy food and this dish delivered lots of crispy crunching.

Lessons Learned?

Okay. There is a definite trend. I need to read the directions better while multi-tasking with video and pictures! I used and entire HALF of the lemon when the recipe called for A SQUEEZE of juice on the greens! The salad was very puckery-lemony (totally on me, not HelloFresh!

HelloFresh provided a Meal Delivery Box containing three meals to me free of charge. This post is therefore #sponsored. As always, all opinions in my reviews are mine and I if love it or hate it, I’ll let you know.

HelloFresh Meal Review: Sweet and Savory Plum Flatbreads with Ricotta, Charred Onion, and Arugula

cooking, Dietitian, Food, Grains, health, health goals, Healthy Diet, Heart Healthy, HelloFresh, home cooked meal, meal delivery, meal planning, Recipe, Vegetarian, , , , , , , , , ,

I love every single word in the name of this dish! Color me excited to make this one!

If you want a deal, I can offer you this:  Get Cooking Today With HelloFresh And Get 50% Off!

HelloFresh categorizes this meal as a breakfast according to the recipe card. I think this would make a divine breakfast but it is just a little too much work for me to do while on my first cup of coffee. Don’t get me wrong, I love a hot breakfast. In fact, I have a hot breakfast pretty much every day! I can cook a veggie omelet with one eye closed and one hand on that coffee mug; but this recipe was just a bit too involved for that level of attention (or rather that lack of attention…).

As the video shows, there are not that many steps but there is some multi-tasking. Once again, I turned to my non-stick pan so my plums did not get any delicious carmelization action… and my onions did not get charred. I think I was a wee bit heavy-handed with the oil (which you may notice in the video!).

What would I change? Well, per the recipe card, this recipe calls for 5 teaspoons of olive oil for 2 servings. I love me some healthy oils but this was too much for me. Reducing the oil could easily be done by omitting from arugula and not coating the flatbreads and I think the recipe would be just as good without this much oil. I also found this dish to be flavorful enough without the honey drizzle – which was fun to do – but omitting honey would reduce the sugar which comes in at 21 grams. For my taste buds, the extra sweetness is not needed and doesn’t add any extra nutrition.

What did I love? Once again – this is a meal of delicious flavors that I would never have thought to put together. I love that HelloFresh is introducing me to new flavor combinations! I got excited a while back mixing blackberries and blue cheese (uh, yeah, so good!) but plums and red onion? No way! Totally works. I also love the small amounts of leftover ingredients. This time I had some pomegranate balsamic vinegar and almonds that got tossed onto the next days lunch salad… and there was leftover arugula which hubs and I ate on the side with the flatbreads.

Things I learned:

Non-stick pans – once again – are not always the best option

There is a world of flatbreads outside of my stand-by FlatOut wraps

I really have to double-check that my video shots are centered before I film!

Here’s that info again if you want to take advantage of the discount I can offer you to try out HelloFresh! Get Cooking Today With HelloFresh And Get 50% Off!

4-Plum-Flatbreads-Pic

HelloFresh provided a Meal Delivery Box containing three meals to me free of charge. This is #sponsored and I was so impressed that I have joined their #affiliate program. As always, all opinions in my reviews are mine and I if love it or hate it, I’ll let you know.

HelloFresh Meal Review: Emeril Lagasse’s Herby Dijon Chicken Breasts with Zucchini and Red Potatoes

chicken, chicken recipe, cooking, Dietitian, Food, health goals, Healthy Diet, HelloFresh, home cooked meal, meal delivery, meal planning, , , , , , , , ,

HelloFresh provided a Meal Delivery Box containing three meals to me free of charge. I was so impressed that I have joined their #affiliate program. As always, all opinions in my reviews are mine and I if love it or hate it, I’ll let you know.

Take advantage of this discount – Get Cooking Today With HelloFresh And Get 50% Off!

I was so excited to make this meal! The pictures on the recipe card look amazing and I (like many others) am more comfortable cooking chicken than I am with cooking fish, which was my first HelloFresh meal.

This recipe was prepared on a work-night and did not take much time from start to finish. All that was needed from my kitchen was olive oil, pans, a strainer, and a small bowl – oh and a cutting board and knife of course! Prep time didn’t take long as there was very little chopping involved, just half a shallot, a few potatoes, home herbs, and a zucchini. Although, I must chop faster than the average person (thank you Food Lab in undergrad nutrition program!) as I found myself waiting on the chicken to cook. I admit to starting Step 3 (cook chicken) before Step 2 (prep/chopping) and the chicken took a little longer to get to temp than expected.

Now, I do not typically cook chicken on the stove-top. So, I will warn those of you who also typically bake or grill you chicken: beware the oil splatter! I have a mesh screen to prevent the splatter but by the time I realized I needed it, the splatter had happened so I let it go. You could easily bake the chicken instead and end up with less cleaning (splatter and one less pan) and this also would be nutritionally less fat and calories if that’s important to you. But you would lose the searing which gives the meat some flavor as well as leaves those tasty little brown bits in the pan to get incorporated into sauce – and the sauce makes this meal!

I’m also kind of a food safety and sanitation freak so be sure to sanitize anything that contacts the raw chicken. I cut all that out of the video but make sure to do that at home! Oh, I also cut out a lot of wine sipping. Oh my gosh, so many edits to take out the wine sipping!

Another random tip is don’t use a non-stick pan for potatoes like I did or they won’t get crusty-crispy. I was smart enough to use a regular pan for the chicken because I knew I wanted those brown bits for the sauce; but I did not bring that logic over to the vegetables pan.

This recipe is definitely more cost effective from #HelloFresh than if you had purchased ingredients from the store! All that was leftover was half a lemon, half a shallot, and some tarragon– bonus. My pictures do not do this dish justice… that’s what happens when drinking wine with dinner – I got too excited about the food and didn’t take good pictures!

Final review: This meal is flavorful yet subtle and is made with familiar foods – I will be making this meal again!

Things I learned

A mesh splatter screen is a useful kitchen gadget

Non-stick pans are not always the best choice

Emeril may have some more recipes out there that I need to try!

Here’s that info again if you want to take advantage of the discount I can offer you to try out HelloFresh! Get Cooking Today With HelloFresh And Get 50% Off!

HelloFresh Meal Review: Zesty Crusted Catfish over Cilantro Jasmine Rice and Roasted Broccoli

cooking, Dietitian, Fish, Food, health, health goals, Healthy Diet, HelloFresh, home cooked meal, meal delivery, Recipe, , , , , ,

HelloFresh provided a Meal Delivery Box containing three meals. This is #sponsored and I was so impressed that I have joined their #affiliate program. As always, all opinions in my reviews are mine and I if love it or hate it, I’ll let you know.

If you want to check it out yourself, I can offer you a great deal as an affiliate! Get Cooking Today With HelloFresh And Get 50% Off!

I have to start out by saying I had never had catfish before this meal. I never had it because I didn’t think I liked it… so when I got my HelloFresh box with a catfish meal in it, well, I wasn’t too jazzed – but I was opened minded and hopeful that I would like it. I chose this meal as the first one to make since it is fish and being ever-mindful of food safety, I knew it would spoil the fastest. In fact, the nutrition information card states that this dish is best if made within 2 days after receiving box or the fish should be frozen.

As I mentioned in the first post (opening the box), this was perfect timing. Hubs and I had gotten home late from a quick vacation the day before and both had to go right into a full day of work. No time to even think about dinner – let alone shop or prep – before it was 6:30 p.m. and we found each other in the kitchen with ravenous tummies! I think this is a great set-up for making a HelloFresh meal! Meal delivery is designed to make it easy to get healthy meals on the table quickly and we were putting that to the test for-reals, hungry after a long work day.

The ingredients for each meal are packaged into their own box and are already measured out. There are some ingredients where you end up with leftovers and this will be stated in the instructions so you don’t use too much. For example, the recipe called for 2 teaspoons of the seasoning spice but the packet held more – bonus, leftover spices! I don’t know if you’ve noticed but spices ain’t cheap! And did you see the fish in the video??? Those were gorgeous pieces of fish! Oh my gosh! Thick, beautifully fileted, and a nice bright, light color! The only thing needed out of my pantry was olive oil.

The instructions were easy to follow and the pictures helped to keep me on track. I think if I hadn’t been making a video, the timing would have been spot-on as well. However, with the video process, I ended up having to let the rice sit for a little while so the fish could cook to temp. One thing that really impressed me, since some of my clients are newbies in the kitchen and want to work on improving their cooking skills, is that even a novice cook could make this meal beautifully. HelloFresh is a great way to gain experience in the kitchen and build confidence as there was nothing complex or confusing and the result is a beautiful and delicious – and fast – meal!

Nutritionally, this meal comes in at a hunger-satisfying 650 calories with only 5 grams of saturated fat and 150 mg of sodium! For those who are interested, there are 85 grams carbohydrates, 6 grams fiber, and 34 grams protein. The ingredients list is one that clean-eaters would be happy to see and there is information on where the ingredients were produced with most of them coming from the USA.

What would I change?

The only thing that would have improved the meal for me would be more vegetables. (I can hear the collective groan already – yes the dietitian wants us all to eat our veggies…). I realize I probably eat a lot more veggies than the average person so, while this was a nice sized serving of vegetables and would most likely be perfect for many, I tend to have more of them on my plate. Quick fix if you are a veggie-lover like me would be to add a steamer bag to the meal.

What did I love?

While fish, rice, and veg is a common dinner plate in my household, I love that HelloFresh showed me a new way to prepare fish and rice. I don’t typically put oil-based seasonings onto fish before panko – turns out it keeps it moist and adds more flavor. I also would not have thought to flavor rice in this way. I don’t typically zest and making rice exciting for me is adding some salsa – this rice was a-whole-nother level! I love that it was easy and quick to prepare. I love how little food waste there is and, did I mention, I love the bonus spices.

Things I learned:

Catfish is still not my favorite fish (it was good, just not my fav, the seasoned panko was amazing)

Adding some oomph (lemon and cilantro) to rice makes it ridiculously delicious

I need a new zester

If you want to check it out yourself, I can offer you a great deal as an affiliate! Get Cooking Today With HelloFresh And Get 50% Off!

ZestyCatfish-HelloFresh

Well, hello HelloFresh!

Dietitian, Food, health, health goals, Healthy Diet, HelloFresh, meal delivery, , , ,

This meal delivery box could not have arrived at a better time. My hubs and I had just gotten back from an out-of-state trip with an 11-hour travel day the day before this box showed up on my doorstep. Dinner plans? Nope! Time to get to the grocery store yet? Nope! Hungry after working a full-day? Yep! Wanting something healthy to eat after enjoying vacation food? Yep!

I mean, did you see the rhubarb pie!?

It took all the effort I had to shoot the video of opening the box as I just wanted to dig in and get to cooking a meal for dinner; but I wanted you to have the first-timer experience just like I was about to have. So, this. This is what it is like to open up your first meal delivery box. You’re welcome! 


Looks like fun, right?

If you want your own box of delicious food, you can Get Cooking Today With HelloFresh And Get 50% Off! This is a great deal and you won’t find this high of a discount without this affiliate link!

Opening the box, you will see recipe cards that give your eyes a little feast of deliciousness as there is a full page beautiful picture of the plated meal on one side and step-by-step (only 6 steps!) directions with pictures on the back. The cards also tell you what other supplies you will need to make the meal (pans, colander, olive oil, etc.), lists the ingredients in the box, and has a cooking tip. Oh, and they can send wines that pair with the meals. That’s on the to-check-out list! For those of you who do food math, there is also full nutriiton information for each meal.

The next layer contained the ingredient boxes, which were separated from the recipe cards by paper (shopping bag consistency) filled with padding. The three ingredient boxes were nestled together – thank goodness for the holes to help pull them out although I’m sure they were for freshness – and they were clearly labeled with the recipe names. These boxes are compact and I put them right into our counter-depth fridge where they took up surprisingly little room! (Note: It looks like these boxes have been replaced with paper bags – more recycle friendly!).

The last layer was the proteins (meats) which were separated from the ingredient boxes by cardboard and two huge ice packs. Seriously, these ice packs are amaze-balls! Hubs travels by car for work and usually takes a cooler to bring healthy travel/hotel room food and we are keeping these for his cooler! Bonus!!

As a dietitian, I had some concerns about meal delivery and food safety. The box arrived around 3pm but I waited until 6pm to bring it inside as many of you probably don’t work from home so won’t have the luxury of bringing the box indoors when it arrives. Did I mention I live in Florida? And we are already in the 90-degrees summer temps? So, the box had its fair share of HOT before I grabbed it and pulled it into my air-conditioned house. The food was still cold, the meats were still cold, and the ice-packs were still frozen solid with little condensation because very little melting. Food safety concerns gone.

Follow my blog because I made the first meal the same night I opened the box and will soon be posting a video and blog on the Zesty Crusted Catfish over Cilantro Jasmine Rice and Roasted Broccoli!! 

HelloFresh provided a Meal Delivery Box containing three meals to me free of charge. This is #sponsored and I was so impressed that I have joined their #affiliate program. As always, all opinions in my reviews are mine and I if love it or hate it, I’ll let you know.

Here’s that amazing 50% off deal link again – Get Cooking Today With HelloFresh And Get 50% Off!

HelloFresh Meal Delivery Box Arrives

Meal Delivery? You Betcha!

Dietitian, Food, health, health goals, Healthy Diet, HelloFresh, meal delivery, meal planning, , , , ,

As a practicing dietitian and health coach, I’ve talked to many people over the past six years about how to use food to improve health. People want to eat well and to eat healthy food – but they won’t give up flavor, enjoyment, convenience, or pay too much for that healthy food. I get it. Me too! As I’ve said before (What is This Non-Diet Stuff Anyway?) one of my few food rules is: Never eat something you don’t like! And my professional goal is “Heart Healthy Nutrition Made Easy” as it says in my web site header!

We all know that more meals should be made at home if we want to focus on our health and less meals should come from eating out whether it’s a sit-down, a fast-casual, or a fast-food restaurant. But… after my clients tell me they know this, they follow that up with how they don’t have the time… they don’t know what to make… or they don’t think they have the skills to cook if it involves more than heating something up.

Enter meal delivery services.

HelloFresh Meal Delivery Box Arrives
HelloFresh Meal Delivery Box Arrives

A few clients have told me about some meal services they have used and how it helps them with eating healthy a few times a week. I get so excited for them finding a solution that works in their lives… but I never thought about using a meal delivery service myself. I mean, after all, I’m the “food and nutrition expert,” which means I’m supposed to be able to do it all myself. Sure, in theory, absolutely. (See my ASPIRE strategy for meal planning). But I also work, have a husband I would like to spend more time with, have some hobbies I enjoy, and well, sometimes just don’t have the energy to meal plan, shop, prep, and cook! Sometimes, like you, I just want an evening (or three) to lounge on the couch after a long day, sitting with my hubs and my dogs, and enjoying a nice glass of cold white wine. Why, yes, prosecco would be great, thanks!

So, I went to the Today’s Dietitian Symposium in May and found myself live-tweeting from the education sessions with another dietitian who has the same last name! How cool is this?! I decided we must meet and we did get a chance to say hello and have a quick chat. Turns out the other Lewis RD works with HelloFresh and she gave me information which led to me getting a free HelloFresh delivery box. (Being an RD comes with all kinds of food perks!). I was excited to try it out and, as I’m learning about adding video to my blog, I thought this would be a great way to share my experience with everyone.

Setting up for video - it's a labor of love people!
Setting up for video – it’s a labor of love people!

I was so impressed with the delivery, the ease of making the meals, the convenience, and the level of deliciousness that I became an continue in this relationship. I’ll be posting those blogs/videos very soon and should be posting about one a month going forward. 

You don’t have the time? These recipes take about 30 minutes to make!

You don’t know what to make? Trust me you will be drooling when you look at some of their recipes!

You don’t think you have the skills to make a healthy meal? The step-by-step directions (with pictures yo!) take out all the guess work. In fact, these are a great tool to help you build your cooking skills and confidence that you – yes you – can get a beautiful, healthy, and delicious meal on the table!

Let me know if you have any questions or feel free to comment below!

HelloFresh provided a Meal Delivery Box containing three meals to me free of charge. As always, all opinions in my reviews are mine and I if love it or hate it, I’ll let you know.