Hellobee Boards

@swurlygurl: Yes, they give you substitutions for fish - last night was shrimp and they said you could sub for chicken cut into bite-size pieces. I've found I spend so much less money just because we aren't going to the store as often and eating take-out.

@TemperanceBrennan: Lol! I love the phrase "adult toddler". He loved the chicken last night and he ate the peas (which he isn't normally a fan of) so hopefully we are off to a good start.

As for substitutions, instead of chorizo I just got regular pork sausage. Our store only had the spicy chorizo and I don't want to feed that to DS, even though he would love it I don't want to deal with the dirty diapers the next day!

I"m thinking that this might be something that would be good to try. I think summer meals are a little easier since grilled meat and veggies are a standard but this will help us end the "what do you want for dinner" discussion every night and might actually allow us to eat as a family instead of feeding DS when we get home and then not starting our dinner until after we put him to bed.

@swurlygurl: I just bit the bullet and did a 3 mo subscription and eat GF. I have downloaded the 3 weekly menus that were available and I would say that most meals have rice or quinoa on the side or as part of the dish. Or they include a corn tortilla. We are trying to cut down on carbs so I might just make more veggies or a salad instead of some pieces.

I'm happy other people seem to like it as much as I do!

I emailed them a few weeks ago and asked them if they would ever think of an app (I was thinking a grocery list you could check off would be awesome), and they responded and said it was in the works and would likely come out this summer. Just and FYI!

@swurlygurl: Ha! I thought the same thing. I also liked how they also have called for GF bread too. I personally like to go with foods that are naturally GF so I'm sure I'll be making some meal substitution. But on the whole, I think it's a great thing to have! Maybe it'll get me to actually continue to meal plan!

@TemperanceBrennan: An app would be SO nice and convenient.

My favorite part so far, is the leftovers! I can have real food for lunch instead of pbj + pickle + handful of goldfish!

But good grief... I need to give my basil plants some steroids or something because SO MUCH basil. I might have to go buy another plant. No big deal though... I can never have enough basil! Pesto during the winter is the best

@Ash: how did you like it?

@swurlygurl: how are you liking the GF membership? I have to eat GF.

@MrsH: I'm only on week 1, but so far I love it! It looks like they call for some GF options (bread, pasta, canned goods, seasonings, flour, etc), but since I'm not actually GF I just buy the normal stuff. It also looks like a lot of quinoa, which I'm fine with! Someone in a review was complaining about the call for corn tortillas fairly often since they don't like the flavor, but that's not an issue for me. You definitely need all eaters in your household to NOT be picky eaters! A lot of new recipes to mess up

Bumping to see how everyone is likening it now. I'm thinking of doing something like this. How much prep time does it take?

@Mrs. Blue: we are 3 weeks in and having a very positive experience as well! I saw it mentioned on HB in another thread, mentioned it to DH and after looking through the site we signed up for the classic meal plan. Just like @grizz said, there have already been several meals that are some of the best things we've ever cooked. We usually spent 45ish minutes at the grocery store on Sundays. My DH does almost all of the meal prep and cooking because dinner time is usually the start of my LO's witching period. He said the first meal is usually the longest, but he does a lot of chopping for Sunday/Monday meals on Sunday afternoons. It has really been the kick we needed to eat healthier. I lost 5 pounds the first week (I'm breastfeeding so I'm sure that was part of it, but still!). It has also helped use cut down on food waste because you use a lot of the same ingedients and leftovers in all the meals. Overall it's really been great, especially as people that tried meal planning but would fail after a week or two.

I'm so jealous of all of you. I'd love this but my dh is too picky. I'm hoping if/when they run a sale I can pick it up and maybe he'll come around

@swurlygurl: yeah my husband looks at anything slightly green as a foreign object he can't eat I grilled squash last night and he wouldn't touch it

@jetsa: So sad! Grilled squash sounds delicious!
One night we had to make mint green beans - DH just looked at me like 'WTF, mint and green beans?!' Normally I wouldn't have made it, but I'm making myself try everything, and it was surprisingly really good! I would totally make it again

Just had our first Fresh 20 meal - Carnitas Tacos with Lime Roasted Corn, it was SO good! I loved doing the prep on Sunday so today was super easy to prepare when we got home. Hoping the rest of this week is just as good.

I'm really curious about this. My hesitation is with the vegetarian menu. We eat mostly meat-free, but we don't eat soy (so, no tofu). I'm worried that the recipes will include lots of meat-replacements like that. Anyone on the vegetarian plan and can chime in?

Also, will your toddlers also eat the meals? We feed our kid the same foods we eat, but he can't eat things like salad (too hard to chew with no molars). I don't want to have to make him separate food.

My husband really liked the corn and pork fusilli tonight. I switched wed and thurs because I forgot to marinate the chicken last night

@Danizaur: Remember that it's enough for 4 portions, so you can cut the quantities in half if you don't want leftovers and don't have to feed a toddler!