A Vancouver-based company called Fresh Prep asked me if I would try out a couple of their meals for free and write a blog post about it. The concept sounded intriguing, so I gave it a go. Basically, they send the prepared ingredients to your door, along with instructions on how to cook the meal. The meals take no longer than 30 minutes to make. I think it’s a great idea for busy people who want to make healthy and tasty home-cooked meals but don’t have a lot of time or energy to plan meals, grocery shop, and prepare ingredients for dinner every day. Fresh Prep does a lot of the work for you – no meal planning, grocery shopping, or food prep.
I like that you still get to cook the meal yourself, because I still really enjoy the cooking part. My eldest son, Cole, was very interested in this idea as well, and was eager to help me cook the meals that Fresh Prep sent us. We chose Chipotle Adobo Beef with Crispy Quinoa Tacos, and Fragrant Lemongrass Pork Bowl.
This is how the Tacos ingredients came:
Everything was nicely prepped and ready to go, and the recipe was easy to follow. The meat ended up being a little too spicy for the kids but the grown-ups loved that it had a bit of a kick to it. My parents tried some of the leftover quinoa when they visited us the following day, and my mom raved about it.
The pork bowl ingredients came like this:
Cole wasn’t too sure about using the bird’s eye chili, but I convinced him we should use at least some of it, so I put about half of it into the Nuoc Cham sauce. The sauce turned out just right, not too spicy at all. Cole was surprised how good the Nuoc Cham tasted, because the fish sauce smelled so bad! It was a good lesson for him that you can’t always judge how things taste by the way things smell.
I didn’t end up using the bean sprouts because they were kind of slimy and not that fresh. The meal was delicious even without the sprouts. They had to send the shipment to me via courier because I live outside the delivery area, so I’m sure if you live within the delivery zone the sprouts would have been fresher.
Overall, this was an excellent and fun experience. I would definitely recommend this service to those of you in the Vancouver area who need a little extra help with some meals but who still love to cook. Or maybe you’re not much of a cook but you want to learn and don’t know where to start, then this is a good option for you.
Here’s the link to Fresh Prep, if you’re interested in checking them out:
If you use them, please tell me what you think!
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