Just Add Cooking

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The dog days of summer have meant very little cooking in these parts. There’s  been a lot of boat snacking and patio dining at our Dorchester favorites and many nights where some cheese and crackers made the meal. The one saving grace to our wallets and waistlines was our July Just Add Cooking week. As in past blog posts, Just Add Cooking kindly provided me with three meals to blog about. I’ve become a huge fan of the meals and local ingredients and just recently got a friend a gift card for a baby gift.

green gazpacho

It’s been HOT in Boston (and I am loving it), so two of my meal choices were cold meals, Gazpacho and Shrimp Ceviche and a super easy Chicken Caesar Salad.

I love ceviche but had never made it before, so I was a little nervous. As always, with the ingredients and instructions at the ready, Just Add Cooking made it simple. I absolutely loved the ceviche and gazpacho combo. It was well thought out and felt like air conditioning for the whole body. Plus it had a nice kick to it, always a bonus for me!

chicken caesar salad

The Caesar Salad was good, nothing out-of-the-ordinary, but a solid summer dinner that was delicious, made even more so by grilling the chicken. The recipe called for mushrooms, which I found a little odd for a Caesar salad, so I left them out and used them in something else. I like the guidance that Just Add Cooking provides but also the flexibility to make small changes here and there.

Our final meal of the week was the Italian Beef and Vegetable Sauté, which got a ton of flavor from sundried tomatoes. It was definitely more of a fall or winter meal, very comforting and rustic, and something I would definitely make again when it’s a little cooler. 

 

Italian Beef and Vegetable Saute

I am hoping the next few weeks are all out garden and farmers market eating, and then I am looking forward to getting on a cooking schedule that includes a week or two a month of Just Add Cooking. While I am enjoying the many weeks of summer left, I also know that fall will be busy!

Tags: Boston blogger, cooking, Food, food blog, Just Add Cooking, summer

For past Just Add Cooking posts, click here, here, and here!

As part of my affiliate partnership with Just Add Cooking, I receive a portion of the payment for any new orders made using the code TRAVEL. I will be donating any referral fees I receive to Boston’s Forgotten Felines who are doing awesome work taking care of the many, many abandoned cats on the streets of Boston.

It’s no secret that I love Just Add Cooking, and as my three month partnership comes to an end, I know that I will be ordering at least once a month. Having everything portioned out perfectly for recipes and knowing what I am going to make for three dinners each week is the best. And Just Add Cooking sources ingredients locally from right here in New England.

My Just Add Cooking June Meals:

Jambalaya

jambalaya

Our first meal of the week was a delicious Jambalaya. I loved that this recipe was super easy and the rice went right into the pan with everything else to cook, making clean up easy as well. I loved the addition of cloves to the dish and the sour cream topping; the contrast of the two was really interesting and ended up making the meal for me. This made leftovers for two lunches in addition to a filling dinner, which is always a bonus for me. I hate figuring out work day lunches!

 

Chicken and Cauliflower

chicken and cauliflower

I accidentally filled my social calendar last week and was out for dinner a lot, so this second meal ended up being a couple of days of lunch. Working from home allows me the flexibility to sometimes cook during the day, and I love it!

This Chicken and Cauliflower Two Ways was the perfect veggie and protein meal and incorporated cauliflower both seared and mashed. I love mashed cauliflower as a veggie side, and this one included just the perfect amount of cream.  Bacon and chives brought this dish together, offering a lot of flavor without a ton of fat or salt.

 

Grilled Vegetables and Feta Pita

grilling   

The third dish of the week was Grilled Vegetables and Feta Pita which we ended up not being able to make until Friday. Luckily, all of the ingredients held up well, and we may have cheated and added flank steak. Staying home and grilling on a Friday night is my all time favorite way to spend summer Fridays, and this meal was perfect. It was super easy, and the ingredients were so flavorful, especially that feta!

Overall, I would definitely order and make these meals again. Thank you to Just Add Cooking for providing this delicious cooking experience for me!

Tags: cooking, Food, food blogger, Just Add Cooking, recipes

To read about my Just Add Cooking April meals, click here.

As I mentioned last month, Just Add Cooking has generously offered me a week of meals a month for three months to review the service. If you read about my first experience with Just Add Cooking, you’ll know that I was hesitant to try meal delivery services but then completely changed my mind once I tried it.

One thing that keeps standing out to me is how many local ingredients Just Add Cooking uses. It’s my favorite part of getting the box, diving in and seeing what companies I recognize locally and which ones I need to learn more about. I also really love that everything is portioned out and ready to go. Being primarily responsible for meals and having a busy day job means dinner burnout, and having this delivery on a Sunday takes away a lot of the thinking, prep, and urge to just order something over GrubHub! It makes healthy, quick meals easy and also really takes the guesswork out of cooking for novices in the kitchen. Below I have reviewed each recipe we cooked last week, also sharing photos from the Just Add Cooking website, since mine are not as pretty. . . Click on the photo to get the recipe!

Seared Prawns with Salsa - Just Add Cooking

Nola's Fine Foods Salsa shrimp and salsa recipe

Seared Prawns with Salsa – I thought this recipe sounded really interesting, and we love prawns, so we went with it. I was delighted that salsa from local company Nola’s Fine Foods was included. . . I could (and um, did) eat this salsa out of the container with a spoon. It’s SO delicious. Olive Connection in Brookline carries it!

This recipe was super quick and easy and filled us both up while also leaving some of the rice for the next day. I loved the contrast of the tang and spice in the salsa with the raisins. This is a dish I would definitely love to make again. I would probably double my salsa portion. In case you didn’t know, salsa is one of my favorite foods and would be prominent in my last meal if ever I had to design one.

 

 

 

Beef Burger and Green Beans- Just Add Cooking

Beef Burger and Green Beans – I didn’t get any photos of this one because mine turned out really un-pretty. As with the burgers we had last month, I thought these were missing a binder like bread crumbs. The flavor in them, however, was excellent, with a nice bite of earthy oregano. The real stars of this dish were the plentiful veggie sides. Fresh green beans with completely addictive fried onion sprinkles and carrots with caraway seriously filled our plates and made for great additions to lunch salads the next day. After my first experience with the brand, where I wanted more veggies, they have definitely responded by adding them in, which makes the meals even more complete.

 

 

Bondat Foods seasoning

Joe's Kitchen Chickpeas

cauliflower and chickpea tacos    

BBQ Cauliflower Chickpea Tacos

BBQ Cauliflower Chickpea Tacos – I was definitely most excited about this one, because, tacos! The green beans that came with didn’t make it to dinner; we snacked on them raw while we prepped because they were so good. The Massachusetts-made Bondat Foods taco seasoning mix added amazing flavor to chickpeas from Joe’s Kitchen in Vermont and yummy roasted cauliflower. The tacos were stuffed with a creamy coleslaw, which I actually made with purple cabbage we had that was about to go bad. We used the cabbage provided in the box for another coleslaw later in the week though! This was a seriously filling dish, and the mix of cauliflower and chickpeas made it a really hearty vegetarian option that my meat-loving husband could get behind.

All in all, another win for Just Add Cooking in our house! I think ordering the service will be particularly handy for those beach and boat weekends where we just want our meals to be easy and for the ingredients to be delivered to our doorstep.

 

My May Just Add Cooking delivery was provided free of charge in exchange for a blog post. I have been provided with the opportunity to share an affiliate code for new orders, where I receive compensation if the code is used. All opinions are my own.

Place your order using code TRAVEL, and I will donate my affiliate proceeds to Boston’s Forgotten Felines.

Tags: cooking, dinner, Food, Just Add Cooking, meal planning, recipes

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