I don’t cook. I have somehow cruised through life without bothering to learn and it’s still not interesting or fun for me. Considering how much I care about proper nutrition and how healthy my lifestyle generally is, it’s almost odd that I just can’t face preparing my own meals. My husband married me knowing I would probably never cook (bless him) and in fairness I was pulling my weight bringing in a six-figure salary. I always thought that as a modern, career woman I could avoid the kitchen. And while I was still working I could! But now I’m at home with two small children while my husband is the sole breadwinner. The kids need to eat, I need to eat, and it would be a bit unfair to rely on my husband for 100% of our meals. And when the lockdown happened, suddenly we were both at home during the day with limited access to healthy take-away lunches and snacks. Preparing all three meals and snacks for two adults every single day is too much for just one person, especially if that person is working long hours (too).
So it’s not that I caved in and am no longer that modern woman, but I simply realised that I need to do my share (babe, in case you’re reading this, this is the biggest token of my love for you there is). But I had no clue where to start…
The idea of subscribing to a recipe box is not new – I had it last autumn when I was exhausted from being a pregnant, working mum of a toddler. Recipe boxes contain recipes for the selected number of meals and the required fresh and pre-measured ingredients. We tried Hello Fresh and to their credit I must say that overall the food was tasty and the recipe boxes got me cooking. However after a few months we stopped because the food was not as healthy as we like to eat and the quality of the produce was not great: lots of cheap meats such as sausage meat and poor quality fish. Also the portion size of the protein was small making the meals carb-heavy.
Fast forward three months and I was at home on maternity leave and was longing for a more varied diet and an easy way to participate in cooking again. So I decided to try Mindful Chef. I should point out here that this is not a sponsored post just my honest opinion (although I would not turn down a sponsorship in this instance 😃). The UK was put under lockdown one week after I subscribed and I was well pleased to have fresh produce delivered to my door when people started stock piling from the supermarkets…
Note: the food has been delicious. It’s just my lack of presentation and photography skills which may suggest otherwise (lol).
I decided to try Mindful Chef on friend’s recommendation. It kept popping up on my social media feed as well but I’d like to think I’m not a victim of clever marketing (as if). Mindful Chef promises sustainably sourced, fresh ingredients and healthy balanced meals which is exactly what I was looking for. To be honest, the only “flaw” I can find is the price point. I’m paying 7-9£ per person per meal which is almost restaurant price for a meal I still have to cook myself. But to be fair, the quality of the ingredients has been excellent and the choices for the weekly menu very good including red meat, poultry, fish, and vegan recipes. Deliveries have also been timely and even during the first weeks of lockdown there were few ingredient substitutions (due to sourcing issues). The price suggests this is a premium recipe box and I do think you get what you pay for with Mindful Chef.
I’ve chosen a weekly box of three meals for two people- going from not cooking at all to more than three dinners every week would have been pushing it (just trying to avoid cooking fatigue here). If I like the fish recipes, I tend to pick two fish and one meat dish because the seafood offering at our nearest shops is a bit lacking and my limited cooking skills don’t really cover fish and hence we don’t eat enough of it. The reason why I don’t usually choose the vegan/vegetarian option is because I find the value for money lower (cheaper ingredients not really reflected in the price) and because the meals are too light for my husband. For the record, the vegetarian dishes I have cooked from the box have been very tasty. I like the fact that every week I receive a recipe booklet with all the recipes for the week and not just the three I selected. I have saved them in case I get inspired to cook beyond the box contents!
The good news is that every meal I’ve prepared has been a success. This was by no means a given but turns out I can follow a recipe. But I must say that either the cooking time mentioned in the recipe doesn’t mean the total time required (prep + cooking) or I’m very slow. The number of steps in the recipes would have scared me off normally and I wouldn’t attempt them for being too complicated but obviously I just get on with them now. I have learned that making that little bit more effort has a huge impact on how tasty the meals turn out!
I’ve also learned it’s actually quite nice to cook for other people. ☺️ And dinner duty after the kids’ bedtime is kind of like “me time”, a chance to be by myself and focus on something else. And of course I get to have a nice healthy meal at the end of it! Scoring some good wife points is a plus too.
I guess many people would agree that it’s not so much the cooking that’s unpleasant but the meal planning and grocery shopping. A recipe box takes away that hassle which is a big part of the appeal and also why I really like it. The downside is I’m not entirely sure I can keep up the cooking if/when I’d stop my subscription… Although considering I will have to start weaning my baby Noah soon and also preparing meals for Maia (after the nanny goes in a month) I won’t have a choice!
I’m happy to be learning more about proper nutrition to support my active lifestyle. The saying “you can’t exercise your way out of a bad diet” is too true! Considering I’m breastfeeding it’s even more important to eat properly.
In case you’re interested in trying it out, they’ve got an offer of -20£ across your first two boxes with the Mindful Chef discount code SOCIAL20. 🤗
xoxoxo,
Sini