dinner

Hello Fresh

August 3, 2015 by mollygilbert520 4 Comments

Happy Monday, friends! Ben and I had the chance to try our first Hello Fresh box a few weeks ago, and I’ve been meaning to tell you about it. Have you heard of this meal delivery service phenomenon? You go online to choose your recipes for the week (three, in our case), and then a lovely box, full of fresh, perfectly portioned ingredients, plus recipe instructions, magically appears on your front doorstep. (Wingardium leviosa!?)

It’s pretty neat.

(The box comes with lots of insulated packaging, so the ingredients stay cool, which is definitely great for the ingredients but possibly bad for the environment?)

The recipes we chose (the choices change weekly) were the tortellini kale gratin, Thai beef and carrot noodle salad, and bbq chicken sliders. The ingredients for each recipe were portioned out in their own, clearly-labeled boxes, which took any guesswork out of identifying which ingredients went with which recipe. To be honest, opening the little boxes to find the neat, perfectly labeled packages of carrots, concentrated chicken stock, Parmesan cheese and tabasco really lit up my check-box-oriented brain. Is that sad?

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Quick Asparagus & Artichoke Pizza

June 22, 2015 by mollygilbert520 3 Comments

I feel like I’m always “saving” my good clothes – the cute swingy tops and dry clean only dresses and rompers and jeans that fit perfectly – just for the really right time to wear them. As a result, I often find myself out and about in the world, kicking around in ratty leggings (the ones which are thinning in places, oy) and ugly tee shirts because all of the good clothes I own? I’m saving them. Keepin’ em fresh. For when it really counts!

Am I the only one who does this? It’s insane.

Luckily, I’ve decided that our honeymoon – or, more specifically, PARIS – is the right time for a person to dress like she means it. But now I feel like I’m out of practice! I’m fumbling around with this top and those pants and what about these shoes? What goes together, anyway?

HELP. Everyone here is #chic and my only instinct is to choose stripes. Like, all the time. I’m not sure it’s cutting it here on l’Île de la Cité.

At least I can make pizza?

I made this the other night (stateside), when I was short on time and long on asparagus. I bought a ball of dough from Whole Foods and went to town. Spread with herbed goat cheese, crisp asparagus, and tangy artichoke hearts, it was an unexpected and satisfying weeknight dinner. Ben and I polished off half the thing in one sitting, and the leftovers made an excellent cold lunch.

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Slow Cooked Chicken Tikka Masala

January 13, 2015 by mollygilbert520 5 Comments

I made us dinner!

It’s in a pot and everything! (And #MadeWithChobani.) I feel like that’s a real accomplishment, today. I’ve been feeling a little bit off my cooking game lately — just lazy in the kitchen, mostly. Too often, dinner these past few weeks has consisted of takeout noodles or, better yet (worse yet?), a bunch of crackers with cheese.

…And then a bunch more cheese.

But that happens, right? Even directly after New Years resolutions are firmly resolved? EVEN to people who write cookbooks about easy and delicious home cooking?

(The correct answer here is, apparently, YEP.)

But then! Then you find yourself with some meaty chicken thighs, a scoop of tangy yogurt and a whole lot of spices, and there you are! Back in the kitchen, chopping and mixing and stirring, and before you know it you’re humming happily and catching yourself saying: “this is going to be GOOD.”

And you know what? It really is.

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