Just Add Cooking + Chef Jeremy Sewall

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No matter the season, sometimes there are days when you just don’t want to cook. Whether it’s rainy or you’ve been too busy with life, we all have those days where you’d rather hide under the blanket all day, than meal plan and grocery shop. If you’ve ever had one of those days or weeks (or months) you should check out Just Add Cooking, a Boston-based meal delivery service.

Just Add Cooking prepares and hand delivers delicious meals to your door—all you add is the cooking! My first experience with Just Add Cooking was back in March and from the get-go I was hooked and excited for my next order.  Partnering with local Boston chef Jeremy Sewall of Island Creek Oyster Bar, Lineage, and Row 34, the latest Just Add Cooking box I received showcased recipes from Chef Sewall’s new cookbook.

Roasted Cauliflower Soup

A recipe from Chef Sewall’s new cookbook, The New England Kitchen, the Roasted Cauliflower Soup was the perfect compliment to a rainy or snowy New England week. Not the biggest cauliflower eater, I was apprehensive about this soup when I saw it on the meal plan. That quickly changed as I cooked the complex blend of cauliflower, leeks, potato, and cream. Sautéing the leeks alone filled the house with a fresh aroma!

sauteing leeks

Although a multi-step recipe, making the soup was fairly easy. It was my first time cooking with leeks, but the recipe directions told me exactly what to do. The result? Healthy, hearty, and full of flavor—Chef Sewall’s Roasted Cauliflower Soup was a win!

roasted cauliflower soup

The toast came as bruschetta but I got hungry and ate it while the soup cooked!

Sliders and Gorgonzola Dressed Salad

My fiancé and I are both meat eaters but have been trying to eat healthy, which made this this pre-portioned beef recipe appealing to us. The sliders offered the taste and flavors we love in a well-balanced protein and veggie-packed dish. The beef for the sliders was fresh and beautiful, if you’re comfortable saying that about meat.

While the recipe was relatively easy to make, it presented a bit of a challenge because the shredder and/or grater it called for had recently and had yet to be replaced. Thankfully I had a food processor to use which allowed the recipe to be cooked in full and thoroughly enjoyed! My fiancé LOVED this meal and quickly gobbled up seconds!

sliders with gorgonzola just add cooking

Cod with Broccoli and Orange

I usually don’t make fish at home, since our city apartment doesn’t have room for fancy kitchen contraptions like a meat thermometer that fish recipes often call for, so this cod dish was new for me. I was half excited to make fish and half nervous that I was going to make myself sick. Thankfully, the recipe directions provided by Just Add Cooking made this dish a success, even without an internal temperature reader. Hearing customer feedback, Just Add Cooking made some recent modifications to their recipes to make them less complicated so new recipes won’t require as many kitchen gadgets.

The cod was delicious and a great complement to the pearl couscous and fresh broccoli. The panko sprinkle added the perfect touch of crunch and color to this healthy meal! Best of all, this dish gave me confidence in my fish-cooking skills!

just add cooking orange cod and broccoli

The convenience that Just Add Cooking offers is a great compliment to busy lives and unpredictable New England weather and the upcoming 2017 collaborations with more Boston chefs make it even easier to get your favorite professional recipes right at home! Looking for an easier way to meal plan? Just Add Cooking is offering a deal for new customers. Sign up here and you can get your first no-commitment Just Add Cooking box for just $39 (that’s $30 off of your first box)!

Note: I received this box free of charge in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Just Add Cooking Review

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March is one of those months that’s full of busy things. No matter the year, despite a lack of major holidays, March is always a jam-packed month. This March I found myself in the midst of searching for a new apartment, signing a lease, and moving within two weeks! Needless to say it was a stressful month which made it the perfect time for Just Add Cooking, a Boston-based meal prep delivery service that I had been invited to try.

For those who don’t know about it, Just Add Cooking is a no-commitment Boston-based subscription service that lets you pick your weekly meals for 2 or 4 people and delivers the ingredients to your home. A big fan of meal prep, Just Add Cooking takes the tedious tasks of planning, shopping, and schlepping your groceries home and delivers it right on your doorstep!

I decided to order the first of four offered Just Add Cooking boxes for the week my boyfriend and I moved into our  new apartment. I knew with the hectic move that the last thing we’d want to do is shop for food. I placed my order online on a Wednesday, choosing from 7 delicious looking options. The website ordering was easy to do and I appreciated how the user is shown all of the ingredients, cooking instructions, and nutritional information before ordering—a huge perk for those watching their weight or looking out for allergies. I chose three Asian-inspired meals: Pad Thai, Beef Teriyaki, and Thai Larb (a pork lettuce wrap recipe).

just add cooking box

Just Add Cooking hand-delivered the box of meals to our new apartment on Sunday, giving us the courtesy of a telephone call to let us know the order was delivered and a text message because I ignored the unknown number! Unlike other services that use FedEx or UPS to deliver their boxes, Just Add Cooking is able to hand-deliver theirs because they’re based locally, which provided a unique personal touch.  I’m sensitive about waste and was pleased to discover that in addition to a recyclable box, the minimal packaging was all reusable and/or recyclable, including the compostable cooling bag that kept the meats and veggies cool.

Thrilled to eat something other than takeout, my boyfriend and I dove into the box, pulling out the ingredients like it was Christmas morning. Everything was so fresh and because the company is based in Boston, all of the ingredients are locally sourced from farms in New England. I’m a big supporter of small businesses and it felt good making meals with ingredients from local farms.

chopping scallions

Shrimp Pad Thai

Pad Thai is one of those meals that I always order when I’m out at a restaurant but never make at home because it look too complicated. I was surprised when I realized how easy Pad Thai was to make, thanks to Just Add Cooking’s easy to follow recipe. In what felt like no time at all, the recipe was complete and my boyfriend and I were gulping down the delicious Shrimp Pad Thai. Unlike restaurants that are often stingy on the shrimp, we found ourselves getting shrimp in every tasty bite. This meal was a definite win!

just add cooking pad thai

Beef Teriyaki

I’m not usually big on pre-made teriyaki because of the high sugar and sodium content and was pleased to discover that this Beef Teriyaki recipe included the ingredients to make the teriyaki sauce yourself, rather than provided a packaged sauce. The rice made this recipe a bit of a longer one to make, but it was well worth the wait. The high quality beef was easy to cook and had great flavor. Paired with white rice and fresh cucumbers, this recipe was a healthy spin on a usually calorie-laden dish.

beef teriyaki

Thai Larb

I have minimal experience cooking pork so I was nervous at first for the Thai Larb pork lettuce wrap dinner. Pork has a reputation of being bland but this tangy and spicy dish was anything but. Like the other two recipes, Thai Larb was easy to make and provided the added benefit of modifications if you’re sensitive to spicy foods or cilantro. My favorite thing about this recipe was the crunch. I love a good crunch and between the bean sprouts and fresh lettuce leaves, I was in heaven with this lip-smacking dish.

thai larb

Courtesy of Just Add Cooking

I loved the convenience that Just Add Cooking offers to busy professionals and it seems like I’m not the only one—the company was recently voted Boston’s Best by the Improper Bostonian! If you’re looking for a way to simplify your busy life, I highly recommend Just Add Cooking.

To add to the awesomeness,  Just Add Cooking is offering a great deal for new customers. Sign up with code SASSY and you can get your first no-commitment Just Add Cooking box for just $39. Click here to sign up for a free account and pick your recipes!

Note: I received this box free of charge in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

i have nothing to eat, so I made this

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I hate grocery shopping.  Normal grocery shopping is bad enough but grocery shopping when you’re setting up a new place is the absolute suck.  You end up wasting money on things that you threw out/gave away in your old place because they required refrigeration and didn’t travel well.  Butter, pickles, mayo, ketchup and every other condiment that you deem necessary to survive.
Now that I live in the city, grocery shopping is an even bigger pain in the ass because I have to walk or take a taxi back with my haul.  There’s nothing fun about it, especially in this heat.  Even if you take a taxi, you know that as soon as you unload that gigantic package of toilet paper, the hottest guy on Earth will walk by and see the sweaty girl hauling groceries with apparent GI issues.  Nope.  Not happening.  
For the past few days I have been ordering take out and yesterday I finally ordered groceries online.  Butttt, since I procrastinated with the whole grocery delivery thingamagig, I have to wait another full day for my food to come.  
Enter today, when I hit up the gym at 7am and came home ravenous enough to lick gum off of the sidewalk.  I usually make myself some eggs but today called for something more substantial–I present to you my super easy homefries and eggs.
I scoured the box of canned goods that I brought up from New Jersey and found a can of whole new potatoes from whoknowswhen (canned goods don’t go bad right?) and decided to whip myself up a proper breakfast.
Ingredients: 
-Eggs
-Potatoes (canned are super easy)
-Salt, pepper, paprika, etc.
Directions: 
-Cut up potatoes (not shown because I was too hungry)
– Put in pan with Pam or oil and add salt, pepper, paprika, etc.
– Let cook until crispy on the outside or until you’re too hungry and might eat your arm and decide it’s good enough
– Cook eggs to your liking (not pictured because I was busy tasting the potatoes)
Eat!
An easy and filling breakfast in less than 10 minutes!

oh, pinterest, you suck

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I have a love/hate relationship with Pinterest in that it’s both inspiring and frustrating to me.  First, there’s the issue that nothing I ever make will end up looking half as good as something these Martha Stewart wanna-be’s poop out.  It’s true.  Some of us just don’t have the ability to turn everything into something adorable and it sucks (except for my turkey cake, which is freaking awesome).

Yeah I made that, how do you like me now?!

Aside from that, today I had to unfollow someone’s “Sweet Yumminess” board because it was full of delicious looking things made with horribly healthy ingredients.  Avocado chocolate chip cookies and a watermelon cake with whoknowswhat kind of “icing” and almond slivers.  Who does that?!

Why post a pic of something that’s going to make me drool only to reveal that SURPRISE! it’s full of fruit, and not delicious cake like you were expecting! Or SURPRISE! it tastes like chocolate avocado black bean mush instead of delicious gooey brownies.  That’s right, those deceiving avocado brownies taste like crap.  I fell for the hooplah, made them myself, and choked down what looked like dog poop while my family laughed in my face.

Grossness via
No, just no.  Take your vegan leather wearing self and get your fake yummy food recipes off my Pinterest.  Go make some cave paintings like a real cavewoman and leave the interwebz for people who like butter!  I don’t want to know how to make everything on Earth gluten free, sugar free, Paleo-approved (unless you have Celiac disease, in which case I’ve got a good gluten free cookie recipe for ya!).

A cookie once in a while won’t kill you and I’m certainly not going to some overpriced mom and pop grocer to find free trade hemp seed dusted with finely ground unicorn poop.  Give me regular fat yummy foods or give me death!  Ok, that might have been slightly over dramatic but you get my point.  If you’re trying to eat healthy, making cakes and fried chicken out of healthy ingredients isn’t the way to do it.  Eat salad and grill chicken like everyone else.  In the meantime, Pin some real goodies!

Now this is a good Pin–brownie, cookie, ice cream, and chocolate sauce in a crockpot!
Deliciousness via
Does anyone else suffer from this love/hate relationship with Pinterest?

Also, since it’s Thirsty Thursday, don’t forget to enter the Boozy Bloggers Giveaway!  It’s still open!
And I’m linking up #justbecause

happy friday!

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I’m linking up again for High Five for Friday!  This week flew by for me because I was busy every night after work.  I’m looking forward to a bit of down time with family this weekend.
1. I decorated my apothecary jars for Spring
2. It got cold and I made a fire and s’mores
3. The weather laughed at my Spring decorations
4. I went through some old pictures and found this great one from a camel trek with my mother in Israel.
5.  It was NJ Craft Beer week.  Here’s an IPA flight from Flying Dog brewery.  They had taken over the taps at a local bar.  Good night with friends.

How was your week?