HelloFresh Sub Box - Caramelized Onion Burgers with Garlic Aioli and Baked Cauliflower "Frites" (1/3)

This week was kind of an exciting week in my house. The Picky Eater (PE) I live with is actually going to eat all three of these meals! That is a minor miracle, to say the least. That is one of the major problems with these boxes, if you have dietary restrictions or have picky eaters, they can be hard to commit to. (Note you can always skip a week if you don't like the selection.) It's a little bit of an adventure, you are often forced to try something new or settle for certain things. Like I said before I often have the sides to myself because my PE either can't eat it or doesn't like it. I made this recipe on December 2nd, 2019.

This burger was pretty good, again there wasn't much meat. So it made two patties and that was it. The buns they sent were also a little strange, they were more like sandwich buns, and it was kind of a lot of bread for a hamburger. My PE doesn't like Greens, he doesn't like Mayo on his burgers and he doesn't like Onions, so his was pretty plan. And let's face it those are the things that make a burger look bigger than it actually is. The Cauliflower was delicious. It kind of reminded me of Mac and Cheese. Adding the Garlic-Mayo to it really made it creamy and I was very surprised. Again though the garlic was a problem. You don't really cook the Mayo so the garlic in it stayed raw, and as I said before I am not great at mincing by hand and don't have a garlic press, so that was a bit of a turnoff. Overall, a good meal I would say. The only thing I would have changed was maybe some cheese with the Cauliflower, which takes away from it being a healthy option but I think it could really rival Mac and Cheese for someone who maybe doesn't like vegetables all that much. 

(Side Note: I added a salad to this dish. You can see that in the photo. As I said my PE doesn't eat greens so there was a lot left and I had the Tomatoes from the Tomato Jam in one of the recipes in the last box. You can also see that the bun is much larger than the meat, you can't even see the meat in this photo. For reference, there was more cauliflower (285g) than there was meat (250g).  After cooking the meats shank of course and they definitely didn't cover the bun completely. Also, that was all the cauliflower they sent for two people. As you can probably tell since I added my own salad to it, there wasn't too much food here.)

HelloFresh Subscription Box Week 5

This week I really realized that they try and have something for everyone. As you may be able to tell by now they try and have one meal with the basic proteins. So, there always seems to be a Chicken Dish, a Steak Dish, a Pork Dish, a Fish or Seafood Dish, and they usually try to have an ethnic dish or something that is a little outside the box. It is nice that you can always try something different and yet still in your comfort zone also. This week I picked Pan-Seared Steak au Jus with Warm Potato & Green Pea Salad (spoiler alert, this is the same one as last week just without the Peppercorns), Cajun-Spiced Chicken Burgers with DIY Dill Mayo, and Caramelized Onion Burgers with garlic Aioli and Baked Cauliflower "Frites".

HelloFresh Sub Box - Southwestern Style Pork Tacos with Tomato Lime Salsa and Cheddar Cheese (3/3)

I was alone again for this meal, and again that was probably a good thing. The Picky Eater I live with wouldn't have eaten this anyways and again there really wasn't much meat for two people. Like the last Tacos, it was supposed to make three each, this time they look fuller because of the Salsa they have you make. I would compare these in size to Taco Bell Tacos (size-wise not taste-wise). I ate all six by myself. Again there was no side so all you had for two people was six tacos. I have friends that can eat double that alone! I made this recipe on November 29th, 2019. 

There wasn't much cheese for these tacos, which I understand. They probably wanted to stick as close to tradition as they could while giving it a little familiar twist. The salsa tasted nice and fresh, which is a good thing because it was the more dominant item in the whole dish (portion-wise). I think I liked this one a little better than last time, this has ground Pork instead of the Pork Strips so it was a little more of what I am used to. 

HelloFresh Sub Box - Pan Seared Steak with Peppercorn Pan Sauce and Warm Potato Salad (2/3)

This one was interesting. After making the last Potato Salad cold, I decided to actually try this one hot! SPOILER ALERT: it was DELICIOUS! I think it was the highlight of the meal for me and it really made me think of Warm Salads and how other salads might be perfect this way also. Really a lot of things to think about with this one. I made this recipe on November 28th, 2019. 

I am going to start with the Salad because that was the best part for me. The only thing I would have added would have been pickles. I guess it is just something in my head when I taste dill, I want pickles. But besides that it was great. The Pan Sauce was alright, I think it would have used a little cream though. It was kind of like a gravy more than a sauce, and you have to work with it and eat pretty quickly. 

(Note: I had a cereal bowl on the side of the remaining Potato Salad.)

Open-Faced Mushroom Melt with Tomato-Shallot Jam, Dill-May and Sweet Potato (1/3)

This recipe I have to say was a little odd and confusing to me. I really didn't like the thought of Tomato-Shallot Jame, especially with Mushrooms. I didn't really think that through. They only sent two Portobello Mushrooms. And looking at the photo they send, you realize only four slices of Mushroom should go on each piece of bread. Needless to say, the Jam was a filler to make it look bigger and be more filling. Again I think I was lucky I ate this alone. They did send 2 Bun, so it technically made two each but in reality that one sandwich. You can see from my photo (below), that they didn't really send much cheese either and I tried to average out the number of mushrooms on each. I wouldn't really recommend this recipe (especially for the money) but the flavour was good.  I made this recipe on November 27th, 2019. 

Overall, I would have changed a few things. Instead of the Jam, I would have used Worcestershire Sauce along with the Balsamic Vinegar and made a panini instead. These buns are great but they were a lot of bread for not so much filling. Also, I would have probably used smaller mushrooms. That way you get more surface covered with them and they tend to be cheaper than Portobellos. I also didn't like the Dill Mayo for the sandwich and it didn't really add anything to the Sweet Potato Fries either. I would suggest just plain Mayo for the sandwich and a Spicy Mayo for the Fries. 

HelloFresh Subscription Box Week 4

As I said last week one of the things I liked about HelloFresh is that they would send you little goodies in their boxes. Toward the holidays (Christmas), they would send "gift cards", these were for a free box (up to $120), you could give out to your friends and family. They also had a holiday box around the end of December that was a Turkey Dinner with all the fixing, they sent a lot of papers for that. (You can even see some in the photo below). 

This week I picked Open-Faced Mushroom Melt with Tomato Shallot Jam, Dill Mayo and Sweet Potatoes; also, Pan Seared Steak with Peppercorn Pan Sauce and Warm Potato Salad; and finally, Southwestern Style Pork Tacos with Tomato Lime Salsa and Cheddar Cheese. Two of these the Picky Eater I live with will not eat so I will be alone for those. But he doesn't eat most of the sides anyways. So keep in mind most of the time if you see a side in the photos that is supposed to be for two people (at times it is a lot and at other times it probably wouldn't be much if two people were going to eat it).

Paint By Numbers - Lakeside Cabin (UPDATE)

My amazon addiction is now in overdrive with Christmas coming! The first thing I ordered and received was a paint by numbers kit called Lakeside Cabin.

I have loved Paint by Numbers since I was a child so to find more adult/advanced versions was a great thing for me. Unfortunately, they are really hard to find in stores and hard to find online at a good price. This one was $10.00 (CAN) it was sold by Amazon.ca so it would have shipped for free if my total had been over $25. (It was not so it cost me a little over $6.00 for shipping.)

It's a beautiful picture and hopefully its fun and easy to paint!

This was very fun to paint but not as easy as I thought it would be. It took me a total of 8 days (spread out) to finish and I worked for a couple of hours on it at a time. This one was one that you had to mix colours. That was time-consuming and you really had to play around with it to make sure you got close to the same shade as before if you didn't get all the numbers in one shot. But I do love the way it turned out.

You can find this photo and other Paint by Number Paintings for sale on our website or our Facebook Page.