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This February 2018 Home Chef Review includes 4 complete meals and one smoothie!
I kind of went all out this week with my Home Chef order. Normally, I order 2-3 meals and the smoothie, but everything looked so good to me this week! However, this will likely be my only order for February.
I’m following a low carb diet this month. Low carb as in <100 grams of carbohydrates a day. I love that Home Chef gives the nutritional information for each meal, I just wish they would include the fiber content as well. Needless to say, I *mostly* chose the meals with the lower total carbohydrates.
Home Chef doesn’t necessarily offer meals designated as low carb, but when you fill out your taste profile, you can indicate certain preferences. Carb-conscious is one of those preferences.
If you aren’t familiar with Home Chef, they are a meal kit delivery subscription. You choose the items you want to order and they package it all together and send it on whichever day of the week you choose. You can always skip weeks, or pause your account indefinitely. I find Home Chef’s recipes to straightforward and easy to make. With simple additions, like sauces and fresh herbs, the recipes are taken up a notch!
In addition, they also offer a salad or two, a smoothie, and a fruit basket each week.
If you are ready to order, be sure to use this link so that you can save $30 on your first box (new customers only)! That means your first order could be as low as $15 (depending on which items you choose, of course)!
Okay, let’s get to the food!
February 2018 Home Chef Review
Shipping and Packaging
In my past Home Chef reviews, I haven’t talked too much about shipping and packaging. With Home Chef, shipping is free for orders over $45.00. It’s 7.99 for order less than $45.00.
You choose the day of the week when you would like your order to arrive. There is no need to be home when your box arrives. Everything is well packaged and insulated so it stays cold.
Underneath the insulation you will find the ingredients for all of the recipes. There is usually an ice pack in this section. The ice packs are reusable, or you can drain the contents into the trash and recycle the wrapper. I have found that I am able to recycle just about all of the packaging. The only items I tend to throw away are the little packets (like ketchup packets), but really they could easily be cut open, rinsed, and recycled, as well.
The ingredients for each recipe (minus the proteins) are in individual, labeled bags.
Under the bags is a cardboard divider, another ice pack, and the proteins.
Home Chef does an amazing job with the packaging. The only issue I’ve ever had was due to a 4-day delay because of a snowstorm which was obviously out of their hands, and this box had an orange in it that looked a little banged up, but was totally fine on the inside, thankfully.
Frutti Tutti Smoothie
Of course, I had to order the smoothie! Every one has been so good, that I just can’t say no!
This one is made from an orange, strawberries, Greek yogurt, and pineapple juice. All I had to add was ice. As you can see in the photo, my orange’s peel didn’t look so great. I ended up omitting the orange zest, but was able to use all of the internal part of the orange.
It was as delicious, for sure! I can’t help but wonder if there would have been more orange flavor with the zest, though.
I always divide these smoothies into 3 servings, instead of two. That also helped me keep the carb count down, since I’m being more strict this month.
I really am addicted to smoothies now and have even signed up for GreenBlender so that I can get even more!
Pork Tenderloin with Basil Pecorino Cream Sauce (and seared carrots and green beans)
What I really love about Home Chef is that the recipes are simple, but really flavorful.
Lately, I have kind of been feeling like I’m over pork (with the exception of bacon). I just haven’t cared for it. However, this meal has me singing a different tune. Who knew all I had to do was add a creamy cheese sauce to it? Delicious! And, it only has 27 carbs per serving, so I had plenty to spare!
Chicken Dijonnaise with Zucchini and Sun-dried Tomato Gratin
Two things drew me into this meal. One, it only contains 13 grams of carbohydrates per serving and two, Zucchini and Sun-dried Tomato Gratin. It just sounded so good and like nothing I’ve ever tried before.
Again, this was another amazing meal! The dijonnaise sauce on the chicken was fantastic and the gratin was everything I hoped it would be! Honestly, I thought I might not like the gratin because of the crispy onions on top (I despise onions), but they were so good. I guess I’ve been missing out! I’m definitely going to be recreating this recipe for sure!
Coffee Rubbed Steak with Brown Butter Mashed Potatoes and Carrots
At 39 grams of carbs per serving, this meal was more of a treat for me. I just had to try the Coffee Rubbed Steak!
While I got hints of coffee flavor in the steak, it was more subtle than I would have liked. However, there was also a demi-glace sauce that was delicious! I also really loved the brown butter in the mashed potatoes and the dill on the carrots. Simple additions can make such a big difference! This was a great meat-and-potatoes meal!
Brussels and Brown Butter Risotto with Goat Cheese and Pecan
This meal has so many of my favorite flavors that I got super weak and gave in. At 74 grams of carbs per serving, it was either cut out almost all carbs for the other meals of the day, or split this into smaller servings.
When I love something, it’s hard for me to just eat a little, especially when I know there’s more! I managed to turn this into lunch for 3 days. I loved everything about this, except for the parsley. It was just so overpowering in the risotto. If this meal becomes available again, I will definitely order it, but cut down on the amount of parsley.
Also, a lot of people have heard risotto is tricky to make, and so they get intimidated and don’t even try it. Really, it’s just a lot of stirring and patience. And, totally worth it! The instructions for this recipe made it very simple. I’ve also got a couple risotto recipes here and here that will walk you through the steps.
Conclusion
The recipes this week were all just perfect for me! I loved everything! As of right now, I’m set to skip the next few weeks. That may change, because the more I look at the menu options, the more tempted I become!
Next month, I’ll be reverting back to my days of vegetarianism! I figure if I change up my healthy eating patterns, I’m more likely to stick to it, and discover which I like best. I’ll be ordering the vegetarian options the first month of March. So, if you’re interested in seeing more of the vegetarian meals available, check back in mid-March!
As for now, if you are ready to try Home Chef for yourself, be sure to use this link to save $30 (new customers only) which will make your first box as low as $15!
Want to see more Home Chef reviews before diving in? Check out:
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