.green chef review.

This post is not sponsored.  Green Chef, if you’re reading this, feel free to hit me up!  In the meanwhile, you can use this link to get some free food if you want to give Green Chef a try!

We used and loved Hello Fresh services on an on-again//off-again basis for years.  Truly, a meal service is ideal for us, especially in the midst of football season.  When we converted to a no sugar//no grain diet in the Spring of 2017, we ended our Hello Fresh subscription because of all the dang cous cous (which, don’t get me wrong, we love, but it’s totally not keto compliant).

When I heard about a keto meal service called Green Chef, I was cautiously optimistic that it might serve us as well as Hello Fresh did for all those years.  In January of this year, I ordered our first box to give it a go.

Green Chef is great at avoiding grains and sugar, but I’ll warn you up front that it’s a lot more carb-heavy than we tend to be on a daily basis.  Josh tries to stay pretty closely to 20 net carbs a day–I tend to stick closer to 25 or 30.  Most of the Green Chef recipes that we’ve tried have had 17+ net carbs per serving, so if you’re fighting to watch your macros, this might not be the best for you.

On a more positive note, I have loved getting to try new recipes because we have a tendency to get stuck in a rut with our weekly meal rotations.  The box has always been delivered on time and the produce has always been super fresh.  Everything is packaged in kraft-paper bags and the meat is stored in a little compartment at the bottom of the box and is sandwiched between two giant ice packs.  Recipe picture cards accompany each delivery and everything is very easy to follow.

One of the biggest advantages to Green Chef is that Coach feels confident enough to follow the recipes and cook on his own.  That is not a knock on his abilities–he just didn’t grow up cooking or in a home where he did much in the kitchen, so he lacks confidence in the kitchen.  He loves cooking breakfast for us girls on the weekends, firing up the grill in the summer, and he can totally knock our favorite avocado breakfast bowls out of the park, but actually fixing dinner makes him nervous.  Green Chef is helping him find his footing and that makes us both happy.

Would I recommend Green Chef?  Well, yes.  For us, it’s perfect on busy weeks or weeks when we’re getting ready to go out of town and don’t want a lot of leftovers in the fridge.  I don’t see us ordering a box every week, but it’s definitely a cost-effective way to try healthy new options that don’t require the addition of sugar or grains.

Have you ever used a meal service like Green Chef?  If so, did you like it?

XOXO,

Court

PS:  I didn’t mention this above, BUT, Green Chef has tons of options as far as meal plans go:  vegan, vegetarian, Paleo, gluten-free, and even heart-healthy plans!

 

.weeknight meal idea: polish sheetpan bake.

I love roasting vegetables.  When I meet people who say that don’t like to eat their veggies, I assume that they are boiling them (or worse–buying canned vegetables and microwaving them–yuck!).  I don’t know why anyone would boil any vegetable when roasting them in the oven produces such yummy results.

This meal comes together in about thirty minutes and can feed a crowd.  I feel a little guilty calling this a recipe since I usually just toss whatever is about to go out of date into the oven and call it dinner.  I do this one pretty often for our lunch prep, too, and it’s especially good with a little coarse-ground mustard on top.

You’ll need:

• 1-2 packs of Polish Sausage (I try to find it nitrate-free when I can), sliced
• 1 pound of Brussels sprouts, halved
• 3 bell peppers, chopped (I usually use a red, yellow, and orange)
• 1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes
• 1 yellow onion, quartered

Preheat the oven to 425 and put your sheetpans in the oven to heat.  Chop all of the veggies and sausage.  Toss with olive, salt, and pepper.  Sometimes I chop some fresh rosemary and throw it into the mix if I have it on hand.  Throw it all on two sheet pans (so everything roasts instead of steaming) and roast for 20-25 minutes.  This can be served as a stand-alone meal if you’re keto like us or over brown rice or quinoa.

Are you on the keto bus or still eating grains?  We cheat with grains occasionally and always regret it, but they are just so darn convenient!

XOXO,

Court

PS:  Cleaning up the sheetpans after cooking this recipe is kind of a drag.  I like Mrs. Meyer’s detergent because it scrubs up well.  Right now I’m obsessed with the radish scent–it makes me ready for spring!  Get your free five-piece Mrs. Meyer’s set today by following this link!

PSS:  This glasslock storage set we love is on sale!