Hello Fresh: We’ve got a first timer here

I am now obsessed with Hello Fresh, the weekly food box delivery service. My first order arrived last night, and I couldn’t wait to get cooking. This is the first time I’ve used a service like this, and I was super impressed. The Hello Fresh website was easy to use, and the meal selections were available a few weeks in advance, allowing me to order based on my tastes and my schedule. The giant box showed up on my doorstep on time, full of ice packs and fresh ingredients. Also, props to the the packaging designers, because everything was straight up adorable. (The soy sauce packets were little fish!)

I chose to make the fish meal first, assuming it would not stay fresh in my fridge as long as the others. (You can obviously freeze the ingredients upon receipt if your original cooking plans go awry.) I think I’ve come a long way in my culinary pursuits over the years, and I’ve cranked out some pretty good food (alongside some very sad, traumatic missteps), but the end result of this box was as close to “restaurant” as I’ve come.

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what a crock

Over my handful of years in the kitchen, I have accumulated a lot of appliances — some the greatest ever created (KitchenAid mixer <3), and some that collect dust in the back of my cabinet (I’m looking at you, quesadilla maker). The appliance I always wanted but never had? The Crock Pot. That one time I entered a chili cook off, I had to borrow one from my friend Christina down the street. (Carrying the slow cooker home was a lot less embarrassing than the time I noisily wheeled her vacuum up and down the sidewalk.) I said a Crock Pot would be my housewarming gift to myself, but all those stupid things you have to buy when you move to a new place because my “gift,” and the Crock Pot lust fell by the wayside.

ya make me wanna soup

The temperatures are starting to dip here in the northeast, and it’s only a matter of time before people start getting sick. Not Ebola sick (calm down, everyone), but, like, sniffles sick. The last time I was feeling under the weather, I happened to have some fresh ginger in my fridge and found a recipe for a paleo ginger carrot soup that also utilized the spare pound of baby carrots in my fridge. Didn’t even have to leave the house for ingredients, which was fortunate because I was looking scarier than Twisty the Clown.

pesto change-o!

Quickly snapped substandard lunchtime photo. Didn’t need judgment from co-workers.

Despite being fairly busy in the kitchen, I’ve been lax on the posting. I won’t make excuses; I’ll just shut up and post something good for you to make: pesto tuna-stuffed tomatoes.

quinoa sushi

Whatever the day, whatever the meal, if you ask me where I want to eat, there’s a really good chance the answer involves sushi. I can’t really pinpoint when my love affair with sushi began, but at one point after college, I was eating it two to three times a week. Obviously, that can get quite costly and not all sushi is that good for you, so I’ve had to cut back quite a bit.

BUT THEN! A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon a photo on Instagram where someone had used quinoa (my 2013 obsession) in place of white rice in their homemade sushi, and I had to try. Oh. My. Goodness. This has changed my life.

lemon almond chicken

So… It’s basically summer now. I don’t know where the time went, but I blinked and it was suddenly time for barbecues and bikinis. And because it’s the season for those itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny threads, I’m sharing another clean eating recipe for those of you working on getting that summer bod in effect: Lemon almond chicken — bright, light and tasty. The lemon provides a summery tang and the almonds give it a nice crunch.