Hey vegans... you know how to eat!

You know how you get to the end of a busy day, only to open the fridge and wonder what you're going to make for dinner? Can you salvage a meal out of last night's leftover pad Thai and that morsel of meat that's been hanging out in your fridge since last Thursday? Or how about the pantry where a half finished bag of lentils is resting behind that (possibly ancient) can of lima beans? If you are anything like me, you have good intentions of meal planning for the week on Sundays, but end up watching Downton Abbey instead, after an exhausting weekend of activities, functions and catching up on laundry (hydro's cheaper on weekends and evenings, people).  This leads me to my never-ending dinner-pondering.  What to make, what to make.... I should make this my mantra.

So I write all this as a precursor to my actual blog post, which is about the amazing invention known as: The Meal Kit.   A whole kit consisting of everything you need to make one type of meal.  Produce, spices, condiments, fresh produce. Everything is all there in a lovely package for you to make a fresh, and flavourful dinner. Can I just say this is one of the best things I've seen on the market since, well, the proverbial sliced bread? Yes. It is that great. It allows me to cook (which I love to do) and also to stop wasting time drumming my fingers on the fridge door (see first paragraph).

After writing about how much I love their business and their products, Globally Local (see blog post here) was awesome enough to send me a treat in the form of a meal kit to try out for myself.  I received the package on Monday, delivered straight to my door (no physical shopping needed folks, just some online clicks and wholesome food gets sent to your house...which is also why I LOVE this business). When I opened the box, there inside were two bags filled with yummy produce just waiting to be made into four meals (two meal kits come in one box but the portions are large enough for one dinner for two plus a next day lunch or dinner). One was a meal kit for Teriyaki Rice Noodle Stir Fry and the other was Vegan Enchiladas. I put the bags straight into the fridge.  I didn't make the first meal until the following day, however, due to a hectic start to the week.

The next day, I pulled out the "Stir Fry with Rice Noodles" meal kit.  Inside was everything I needed.
The produce was fresh, the spices were pre-measured and divided into packets. Everything was labelled and the recipe came on one sheet.  The front of the sheet had tidbits about the meal I was going to make, a picture of all the ingredients and cooking utensils I would need, plus approximate prep and cook time.  The back had step by step directions plus pictures of how to make the meal.  This was excellent!  No flipping pages in my bulky cookbook or recipe binder, no clicking my phone/ipad to refresh the page... one simple leaflet to follow. I got to work.  And sure enough, within the time frame given, I presented proudly to my husband and 5 year old (the one year old didn't care, he was busy eating the rice noodles already) a delicious-smelling dinner. It took me about 40 minutes from start to finish, and this was amidst two sick kids, people coming in and out of my house, as well as interruptions from those pesky telemarketers that decide 5:30pm is a great time to call about getting your ducts cleaned. One tip: Read the recipe and prep beforehand so you know what steps to take and when - there is some multi-tasking involved, but it works out as long as you read the leaflet ahead of time (5 mins max). We all enjoyed the meal immensely.  It was satisfying, fresh and there were plenty of leftovers for the next day.  Another perk to the meal kit is that because everything is pre-measured there was ZERO waste.  I love this.  I always end up with a "tiny" bit of some ingredient or other from meals that I make.  Sure, they go into other recipes, but it was nice to be able to use something all up for a change in one go.  Ingredients that I would never buy due to the fact that I would only use them once, were also nice to have premeasured.  Fresh ginger, for instance, is something that I don't often have on hand, and was given in the meal kit. I diced up the ginger - just enough for the stir fry alone, and voila! I got the kick of ginger with no leftover piece to sit forlornly in my fridge (next to last Thursday's meat). The meal kit also allows for flexibility.  There were sesame seeds given to sprinkle on the stir fry at the end of the recipe, which I did but I had purposefully saved some for another recipe that I'm going to make later on this week.  Bonus! Organic sesame seeds for me!

I won't go into as much detail about the second meal I made from this meal kit (amazing Vegan Enchiladas!! Mmmm!) But I can tell you that it was timely, delicious and extremely filling. My kiddo even helped me make dinner, and this NEVER happens, lest I interrupt the only TV viewing of the day. Gasp.  I was, yet again, delighted with the pre-measured packets, the fresh produce and how easily everything came together.  Spices that I wouldn't normally use came to life in my kitchen and, I swear, the whole neighbourhood smelled like a Mexican restaurant, it was that good.  Leftovers were plentiful and we gladly ate the rest the next day. 

I am a vegan part of the time during the year (my religion observes lent and fasting two times a week plus for certain lengths of time throughout the year, like now!) and I will be ordering meal kits in the future regardless of lent, because frankly, the food is just that good.  Thanks, Globally Local, for letting me have a go at your delicious meal kits. It was a treat and you will be seeing me online purchasing a few more of these goodies in the very near future. 

Have a great day, London .

The opinions expressed in this blog post are solely those of the Locally Urban Mom.  A big thank you to Globally Local for providing the meal kit and putting smiles on my family members' faces.