Meal Subscription Boxes

I loved Home Chef so much that I ordered another box from them. Their recipes sound too delicious to pass up.

The first meal I made was: Sherry wine demi-glace flat-iron steak with whipped potatoes and asparagus. Mmm!

The Contents:

Preparation:

 In the other pot, boil the potatoes until tender. Small gripe: The instructions didn't give a suggested time. I had to Google, because I literally had no idea. Once tender, add cream, butter, garlic, salt, and pepper and mash together:



Cook the steaks:


Finally, prepare the sauce by combining the veal demi, sherry wine, and water.

Finished Product:

Final Verdict:

Because I have tried out a few meal delivery boxes using Facebook as my login, Facebook is now advertising all kinds of subscription boxes. I want to hate it, but I love it. I have passed on the makeup and clothing boxes, but I couldn't pass on candy.

So, what is it? Candy Club is "a unique monthly box of up to 3 pounds of sweet surprise - from contemporary candies you've never heard of to nostalgic classics that evoke fond childhood memories!" Unless you're a teacher, have a circus of children, or love to treat your coworkers, this may not be the box for you. This is, dare I say, too much candy!

Pricing: If you commit to a whole year, the boxes are $19.99/month. If you commit to six months, they are $22.99/month. If you can't commit, you're paying $27.99/month, month-to-month. Ouch...

Coupon Code: The only reason I even tried this box was because I found a coupon code TWITTER20 that took $20 off my first box. If that one doesn't work for you, there are lots of $10 off coupons floating around on the internet.

Here's what the box looks like when you open it. The smell was DIVINE! Nice, insulated packaging:


A card welcoming me to the club, plus a card that breaks down the box contents:


3 tins of candy, plus scattered saltwater taffy:

The Contents:

Gimbal's Red Licorice Scottie Dogs. Oh boy... I was excited for these, thinking they'd taste like a big Twizzler. Unfortunately, the licorice taste was too strong for me. I couldn't finish a whole dog.


My last jar was Gimbal's Sour Gourmet Jelly Beans. Another sour? What if I hated sour? And... Jellybeans? I don't know if it's just me, but when I hear the word jellybean, I think of the generic awful jellybeans that are everywhere during Easter. Do you know what I'm talking about? The ones that include a yucky black licorice bean and "fruity" other flavors that still taste like the black one? Yeah?

That being said,  I was apprehensive about this jar. However, these were wonderful! They taste more like Skittles than jellybeans. Plus, the jar includes a wide variety of flavors: blueberry, pomegranate, grapefruit, cherry, apple, mango, strawberry, lime, grape, lemon, tangerine, and watermelon. These were not very sour at all either, another plus.


Finally, the filler item was Sweet's Cotton Candy Salt Water Taffy. Cotton Candy is my favorite sweet treat. This item made the happiest! Yum yum!

The Verdict:

The Contents:

The Final Product:

The Verdict:

The best recipe of my Home Chef box was this recipe, parisian bistro steak with potatoes dauphinoise and green beans. I knew it would be good based on the calorie count alone: 936 calories per serving. MMmmm...

The Contents:

Preparation:

Season the steaks with salt and pepper:



Next, prepare the potatoes. This involved first boiling the potatoes for 8-10 minutes. Next, the cream, half the cheese, shallots, and half the chives were added. This mixture was brought to a boil and then simmered for 5 minutes. After that, the potatoes were put into the oven and baked for another 15-18 minutes.


Next, cook the steaks. Cooking meat still feels like a hit or miss, even with the suggested cook times. At least with Home Chef, the meat portions have matched the pictures.  One steak came out perfect, the other I had to cook a little longer than suggested.


As soon as the steaks were done, I did the last two steps at the same time. These were to cook the beans and prepare the sauce.  The sauce was a wonderful mixtures of beef base (do I even want to know what that is?), remaining shallots, and 1/2 cup water in the steak juice pan.

The green beans were simply sauteed in butter for 7 minutes. These were so tasty!

Final Product:

The Verdict:

The first Home Chef dinner I made was french-cut chicken breast with mozzarella, pesto, and balsamic reduction caprese salad:

The Contents:

Preparation:

Next, coat the chicken with the herb blend and cook in skillet. Transfer to oven to finish cooking.


Saute the spinach:


Make balsamic reduction:


Unexpected step: cut mozzarella ball into balls. The cup says ballS, but there was definitely only one large ball of cheese:


Plate and enjoy!

Final Product:

The Verdict: