If you follow me through my social media channels you'll know that not only do I like to check out new restaurants, I love cooking at home too. But cooking at home isn't always easy for me after a twelve hour shift - especially if it's my third in a row.

Back in November I tried out the weekly meal subscription service by Chefs Plate and was impressed by their business model and quality of ingredients. Their weekly delivery of ingredients and easy recipes made healthy eating and meal planning so much easier. At the start of 2017 Hello Fresh emerged on the Canadian market as an alternative to Chefs Plate, so I had to find out if there were any differences between the two!

Hello Fresh was actually founded in 2011 in Berlin and operates in several locations in Western Europe and North America. Similar to Chefs Plate, Hello Fresh is a subscription-based meal delivery service that promises to deliver local, farm-fresh ingredients to your door with chef-curated recipes.

Hello Fresh offers three different types of boxes: the pronto plan, family plan, and veggie plan. The price changes according to the type of box and the number of people you're ordering for (2 or 4 people), so you're looking at spending anywhere from $10.83 to $12.33 per person per meal depending on your preferences. As it is a flexible subscription service there is also the option to skip deliveries if you're planning to be away for the week or have different dining plans.

So how exactly does it work? It's super simple:

1. The week prior to your delivery, pick and choose the meals you want according to your meal plan (pronto box, family box, veggie box), and specify your delivery date (Tuesday or Wednesday). 
2. Hello Fresh will purchase, portion, and package all of your ingredients and ship it right to your door. 
3. Receive your box and get cooking! 

Hello Fresh currently offers delivery via Purolator to Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, Newfoundland, and the Maritimes. The company is quickly expanding to meet demand and will hopefully make it to your province soon if you're outside of these areas. Deliveries arrive at your door in a fully insulated box with ice packs to keep all the ingredients fresh, so you don't even need to be home at the time of delivery. That's what I call convenience!

Hello Fresh set me up with a two person pronto box and a two person veggie box to try and I was very impressed with both plans. All the dry ingredients and vegetables arrived fresh while the proteins were packed separately at the bottom of the box with the ice packs.


Shrimp Banh Mi Burger
The recipe cards were visually appealing and easy to follow with pictures accompanying each step in the recipe. Like Chefs Plate, the ingredients and amounts were listed out in case you wanted to recreate the dish in the future, and nutritional information was available. But what I was really impressed with was that each recipe listed out kitchen tools required and potential allergens in each ingredient. This is wonderful for people with food allergies as it isn't always apparent when you're cooking something new.

When it comes down to packaging, everything was recyclable, from the box, to insulation, to ice packs. What I appreciate about Hello Fresh is that the ice packs can actually be sent back to the company through their recycling program to be reused. It feels much better to be able to give the ice packs a second life than to open and drain them down the sink as instructed by Chefs Plate!

While comparing the two companies I also noticed some other subtle differences:

• in the Chefs Plate ingredient boxes there is no branding other than with the Chefs Plate logo, meaning that you don't know what brand of ingredients you are using, and additional packaging was used in sending the ingredients to you. With Hello Fresh, small items like broth concentrates, sour cream, vinegars and hot sauces are branded, so there's less packaging wasted. 
• Hello Fresh does not include items like oil or butter in their boxes while Chefs Plate does, so you need to ensure you have some on hand prior to cooking 

After giving the two boxes a try, I have to say I really loved the Hello Fresh experience. All of the recipes were easy to follow and the meals were on the table ready to eat in 35 minutes or less. I felt that although you were restricted to choosing from 4 recipes (Chefs Plate allows you to choose from 7 recipes), there was still a variety of different choices. I cook a lot of Asian (Thai, Vietnamese, Korean) and Italian food at home and yet I felt that a lot of the recipes I cooked in the two week period pushed me out of my comfort zone. I found myself making dishes with Egyptian and Mediterranean spices, and I even followed a Tunisian recipe. I found new recipes I loved and will definitely use again in the future.


Greek ragu
A lot of people have asked me whether Chefs Plate or Hello Fresh is a better option, and I honestly enjoyed the Hello Fresh experience more. Hello Fresh is a bit more expensive ($80 per week versus $66), but I enjoyed the Hello Fresh recipes more and being able to return the ice packs for recycling is a big plus as it is important to me.

If we're comparing ingredients, both companies offered very fresh, locally sourced products. When it comes to the dishes themselves, more often than not, I found myself saying 'wow' after the first bite of every recipe from Hello Fresh - something that didn't happen for me with Chefs Plate. The recipes are truly delicious and you get near restaurant quality results in your own home with Hello Fresh. I also found that each recipe made enough for three portions, bringing down the cost per meal. So for me, it's a no-brainer to go with Hello Fresh for their meal delivery service, but I do encourage people to try both and compare for themselves. If you're interested in giving Hello Fresh a try, use my code ANDREA50 for 50% off your first box and let me know what you think!

*Disclosure: I was sent two Pronto boxes from Hello Fresh for review. Views expressed in this post are solely mine. This post is 100% my opinion, and as always, my priority is to you, the reader, to present an unbiased, thorough review.

Do you ever have those days when you come home from work and you're just too tired to even think about prepping dinner? Yeah, I have those too. I'm thankful for the evenings that my boyfriend cooks dinner for us and has it ready when I come home, but there's also those days where we both aren't home until late and we just don't have the energy.

While it would be amazing to have a personal chef cook for us on those days, that just isn't attainable. But there's an alternative that's almost as good. Say hello to Chefs Plate, a Toronto-based company that recently made it's way to Alberta.

The concept behind Chefs Plate is simple and is done in three steps:

• You choose the food you want to eat and specify the number of people you need to feed
• Chefs Plate packages up the ingredients in the exact amounts you need and sends it right to your door in a refrigerated box
• Each box comes with the recipes you need, so you can cook and eat in record time

Each week there are a handful of recipes that cater to a variety of diets with land, sea, and veggie options. The dishes are globally-inspired, balanced, nutritious, and feature locally sourced farm fresh ingredients.

Chefs Plate operates as a weekly subscription service that can accommodate meals for two or families of four. Delivery is available Monday thru Friday and you can manage your deliveries easily through their website. What's even better is that you don't need to be home for delivery - ingredients are sent using insulated, refrigerated boxes, and all packaging is 100% recyclable. Pricing is dependent on the number of recipes you require each week.

Chefs Plate set me up with a trial of two meals from their 2-person plan, so I went with the Shrimp Linguine and Korean Steak Stir Fry. The ingredients arrived at my door while I was at work, but the insulated, refrigerated box kept everything cool as it waited for me at my front door. The contents of the box were separated by recipe, and each included a card with step by step instructions illustrated with photos.

Cooking the meals couldn't be easier. With some washing and chopping, we spent about 30 minutes per recipe and enjoyed the results. The ingredients were very fresh and we appreciated that the proteins were locally sourced and Oceanwise certified! The only thing I wasn't a huge fan of was the amount of packaging, but all of it was recyclable which made me feel a little less guilty.

Two meals from the 2-person plan comes out to the price of $50 per week, which is a bit on the pricy side, but you're paying for pre-portioned quality ingredients that are locally sourced and delivered right to your doorstep. We found that each recipe gave us more than enough for two people (roughly 3 portions), so being able to pull an extra portion out of your ingredients can also be considered when it comes to the price.

I appreciated that each recipe listed the amount of ingredients so we could recreate the dish in the future. Another great feature was the nutritional information thlisted with each dish, which is great for those who are health conscious. While we won't be ordering from Chefs Plate on a weekly basis, I'll be keeping them in mind because I think this would be awesome for having a date night at home!

Are you curious and want to give Chefs Plate a try? Chefs Plate has offered to give one of my readers a free trial of Chefs Plate with two meals from their 2-person plan - details listed below! If you can't wait and want to try them out right away, use my referral tag #LITTLEMISSANDREA for 3 free plate credits with your first order. Have fun and enjoy!

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THE GIVEAWAY

Two Meals from Chefs Plate for Two People
($50 Value)

To Enter: Visit the Chefs Plate website and tell me which dish you would like to cook!
Note: leaving a comment is mandatory to enter this giveaway - additional entries will improve your chances of winning, but will not count unless you leave a comment

ADDITIONAL ENTRIES

• Follow me via Twitter (@littlmissandrea) (+1)
• Tweet about the giveaway: "Home cooked meals can be made easy with @ChefsPlateCA - Enter to win two gourmet meals from @littlmissandrea!" and link back to this post (+2)
• Follow me via Instagram (@littlmissandrea) (+1)
• Visit my Facebook page, and share the giveaway post by liking the post and tagging a friend in the comments! (+3)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This giveaway is open to anyone 18+ years of age in Western Canada. You have until November 20th to enter and the winner will be selected by random and be contacted via email. Good luck!

When Christmas comes along, you will find me in the kitchen, working away and baking goodies to give to friends and family! This year, I chose to make truffles for the very first time, to see how they would turn out.

I made two variations - one was a chocolate chip cheesecake truffle coated in shredded coconut, while the other was a oreo cookie truffle, covered in chocolate. Mmm, they both turned out to be so delicious, or so I thought! What I didn't think, however, was how messy it was to make truffles! My hands were COATED in cream cheese, I don't think I want to make these again for a while.. hah!

Contact me for the recipe if you are interested :)

I always love when the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival comes around because it means that I get to see my relatives and have a nice sit down meal with them.

When I woke up yesterday morning, I was so happy to see blue skies, sunshine, and not a cloud in the sky. To make things even better? 14 degree weather, whoo whoo!! Definitely a big contrast to the cold weather we have been experiencing lately.

This year, my parents invited a couple of our relatives over for dinner at our house. I love when my parents cook because I know that it's not filled with MSG! This year the cooked up a storm, but three dishes really topped them all:

jellyfish, cuttlefish, braised beef slices & BBQ pork


hand pulled chicken topped with sesame seeds, on a bed of sweet&sour cabbage & carrots

And the star of the meal...


shitake mushrooms, sea cucumber & abalone on a bed of lettuce

Family time is the best. Hope you guys were able to spend some time with your family and eat some moon cake! Happy Mid Autumn Festival!

So for today's cooking adveture, I was supposed to meet up with a couple girlfriends to cook some Korean food (our favourite!) but two of the girls bailed out last minute so it was just me & Lisa cooking dinner for the night. She happened to be house sitting for a family that was away on vacation, so we had the house to ourselves! But of course there was a downfall: trying to figure out exactly where all the cooking necessities were stored!

I decided to keep it simple and cook foods with fresh ingredients, so I picked Pad Thai & Tom Yum Soup. However, I cheated and took the easy way out by buying pre-made soup base and Pad Thai sauce.. I promise to cook from scratch next time! It's kind of difficult when you're struggling to prepare yourself for the MCAT at the same time!

PC Pad Thai Sauce!

For the noodles, I went with President's Choice Pad Thai Cooking Sauce. The taste of the sauce is balanced between the tangy and and sweet flavours, and personally, I think this sauce is fantastic if you're looking for a quick fix!! Despite being on the sweet side (I prefer salty), that's easily fixed by adding a dash of salt. I first discovered this sauce when it was in the canned form, and the sauce they made was perfect, I didn't have to change a thing. It was saltier, and generally seemed to have more herbs and spices, creating a more authentic feel. Good thing Vince stocked up and has two cans in his pantry for us to cook! Otherwise, this new bottled version is very well priced at around $4, which is enough to make the noodle dish twice, on separate occasions. If you guys see the canned version, snatch those babies up right away! You won't regret it!


Wait til you see what this turns into :)

The rest of our ingredients for pad thai included: snow peas, egg, tofu balls, onions, and green onion. No meat for today, cause Lisa is a vegetarian! Not that I mind, because I don't really like meat that much.. I'm picky!


Lobo's Tom Yum Paste

As for the tom yum soup, my cheater method required the use of a packaged soup base. It's funny, because I never even meant to buy these, but they came along as a bonus for the konnyaku noodles I buy for hot pot. Anyways, if you are to buy them individually, they are also inexpensive, costing around $1.50 per packet. You can probably pick them up at your local Asian market. Hooray for deals :)


Lisa cookin' our soup!

With the soup base, it's super easy to use because it comes as a paste that sticks together, and is somewhat dry so it's easy to handle. (I don't think it's supposed to be dry, but that might've happened because they're getting pretty old.. oops!) All you do is add it to water, and add in any other ingredients you want to use. In our case, I went with green onion and mushrooms! The soup ends up somewhat dilute when you follow the package directions, so I like to double up and concentrate the soup, and adjust the flavour using freshly squeezed lime juice and my trusty Sriracha chili sauce.


Tom Yum in the making..


Noodles almost ready!

The food turned out great! We are obviously amazing cooks. The cost of the ingredients for the meal came out to $10. Perfect. :)


Yum yum in my tum tum ;)