Less Hustle More Coffee

Ok, so the Hello Fresh came in! I know some of you were interested in what this was like. We ordered three meals a week for 2 people. I think it’s reasonably priced. I loved it! So George could have used some seconds and we could up the meal number if we wanted but I think we’ll just add a side and it will hopefully it will be enough for him. He said he would try to get by though.

It was wrapped well and with two large ice packs that we can use again and again.

The recipe cards are so easy and they are huge. You can save them and make the meal again on your own if you wish. Our first meal was a chili pork cabbage dish. It was a sweet and sour kind of dish and was atop rice. It was very good. I think I’ll be learning how to cook better with this.

The best part was that all your ingredients, just what you need, was right there. There are some items though that you need to have on hand and when you go in to your app or on-line account, you can see what items you need to have. Usually it’s things you would already have like sugar or vegetable oil, salt, pepper, etc. We really enjoyed our meal. And most meals are 30 to 45 min. It was a quick “come together” and it was fun!

The meat was packed right next to the ice packs and the ingredients for each meal were packed in a brown bag and labeled, so you don’t have to separate or figure out what goes with what meal.

I snapped a pic as I emptied out our meal for the evening.

Some Things to Remember About Hello Fresh

• If you know someone with it, ask them for a code to get a discount on your first box.
• Even after you start, you get rewards down the line here and there.
• You can increase your meals if you want seconds or are having company
• If you are busy or gone you can halt your meal a week or two – up to several weeks at a time if needed. (We stopped ours for next week as we have company coming to town. If they don’t come we’ll just eat out of the freezer.)
• You can add on to your meals – like salad or deserts
• You can change the style of eating if you want a lower fat version, vegetarian version or pescatarian version. I believe you can change it for each order.
• Why waste food by buying a whole thing of cabbage or a whole thing of scallions if you only use a portion for one meal. Less waste and it’s all gathered together and ready to go.
• A great option for busy people (or lazy or let’s say otherwise focused folks, lol, who don’t want to have to worry what to throw together for dinner)
• There are other products you can add in like oatmeal cups, granola bars, chocolate, and a few breakfast and lunch options. I threw in some things on the next order (week after our company comes – if they do) just to keep from having to go to the store.
• Your length of time in a grocery store will diminish. You’ll still have to go to the store periodically (or order it delivered) but probably pop in for your fresh produce – apples and berries and such for other meals, but your recipe search and ingredients list will diminish along with the boring repeats you end up cooking every week. (I take Mom grocery shopping and so I often don’t have time anymore to study and think and search for my own items and study labels and take my time, so this is going to help us.)
• The more meals you choose for each week, the lower price per meal is. We opted for three as it seemed a better price and give us almost half of our meals for the week. The other half of the week we’ll still get to be normal cooks being creative and eating from our freezer.
• Keep in mind what you normally spend at the grocery for your meals and you will see the price is fairly reasonable in comparison.
• I use Target and Amazon for offsetting the household items and eliminating those from the grocery list. Keeping my store runs even quicker.
• Get ready to enjoy cooking. 😉
• You can download their app!
• You can go in and modify and change, or suspend your order for the upcoming weeks
• You can cancel at any time.

That is all I can think of for now. I’m just thrilled over it honestly. And the menus change each week. And you can peek weeks ahead and modify several weeks at once. I love it! This is NOT a paid advertisement. It’s just me sharing and enjoying it.

Peanut Butter Recall

Well darn it, after talking about not having to go to the store again….there’s a peanut butter recall. I had just bought mine and eaten a 1/4 of it. The product code is on the back where the date is. Go to the JIF site. I’ve attached it here —> JIF RECALL INFO. If you need to get a coupon for another, they will send you a free one. You can file your “quick” claim here, but you have to provide the product code to prove along with your name and address. Both Mom and I had bad ones.

JIF CLAIM FORM. <——Here’s the online claim form. It is truly a quick process. I didn’t get sick or anything with mine. I started not to throw it away but I went ahead just in case salmonella appeared at the bottom, lol.

Updates

So Monday was Mom’s eye injection appointment, the one I go in early for on Tuesday’s every week to make the time up so I don’t have to use PTO time. That seems to work out well. I got to work and had to rush to get everything done because I had been off on Thursday and Friday for my colonoscopy. So it took a while to get it all under control and everything ready for Tuesday. I was prepared to work a bit over until about 6 p.m because I was really behind in non-payroll related duties but George called and said that he could not start his car. So at some point in the 4 p.m. hour I had to leave and go to Gordonsville, TN and get him. My journey on this day was this:

From Mount Juliet to Lebanon to get Mom, to Hendersonville for eye appt, to Lebanon to drop Mom back off, to Antioch to work, to Gordonsville to get George, to Mount Juliet to open the Hello Fresh Box and cook dinner while George went to buy a car battery.

Search for a Fur Baby

I was notified that Monkey was still available and they checked our references on Monday and I’ve not heard anything yesterday. ::sigh:: I emailed and thanked them for checking our references and considering us for Monkey and asked what the timeline might be for our meeting her. Maybe I’ll get a response today. It was late in the day when I sent the email. Monkey had several applicants. I’ve prayed for her. This way of trying to get a fur baby is breaking my heart each time. I want to do the right thing to adopt one from these shelters, but it is so hard to get through the system. I feel like an applicant looking for a job, or trying to adopt a child. I know it’s an important system but I feel like a number and it’s impersonal and there is not much control and we are at their mercy with not much choice. So I don’t know. I’m starting to question the routes we are taking to try and find our forever pet. I have a family member that circumvented all this –but paid a large sum– for a puppy. I never dreamed it would be this difficult or that my heart would break over and over. I’ve been told no because we work, no because we don’t have a fence. Everyone is shocked at our experience with this so far. I just thought if you wanted a dog you went and got one. I have asked God numerous times. I know He is in control but of all the things I get sentimental about – my fur babies are up there on the charts. I miss ours. We’ve always had one for the last 20 years or so and I miss having them. Who knows why God says no or allows our hearts to break over and over. I’m sure He has a reason.

So last I came back from Antioch to home in Mount Juliet and George wanted to go get his car so we headed out to Gordonsville. Then we ate Greek out at a new place in town. It was wonderful and also they “deliver”! It was really good. Sometime we are going to order the meal for 4 and eat for 2 to 3 days, lol.

Also here is an iPhone wallpaper if you want to save it for your own. I made it for a “pool background” for my iPhone backdrop. Also you can’t really notice the “seams” when it’s underneath all your apps. Just thought it would be fun for summer. I make these on Canva.

Puzzle. Did I show my puzzle the other day? If I did sorry. Here it is again. I made a lot of progress while taking it easy with the Colonoscopy prep and recovery. This is the Christmas puzzle I wanted to work at the end of the year last year. Yes, my whole life is behind it seems. But this has been fun and when it’s over I will set out another to work.

Exercise program.

Got up and did a 13 minute program of lite cardio this morning. Yay! So I’m working into it. And I still had time to do this blog! Woooooo Hooooo!

I’ll be back on Friday with updates. I’ll share the YouTube lady I’m using for free exercising and also will tell you some Alexa tricks I set up this week that are amusing. I have these written on an index card so I won’t forget. I’m out of time and need to head to work. A lot of extra things to do this week to make up for last week and also it’s “month end” which means I pay all the states that we pay payroll withholding taxes for monthly.

I am curious if you have ever tried Hello Fresh or any other meal prep delivery service? Do you think you would like something like this? Anyway, I’m over and out. Ya’ll have a good rest of the week. We are sliding into the weekend from here. And guess what! We don’t have any plans and want to keep it that way. It’s been many weekends ago since we have not had plans. So shhhhh don’t tell anyone!