Cooking: Meal Kits vs. Scratch-made

My neighbor, Helen was too lazy to cook a meal kit from Hello Fresh of unfried chicken and roasted vegetables, which she gave to me. Patrick and I some years back subscribed to Blue Apron, but we were receiving vegetables he already grew in our garden and so we stopped. But still it was good to change up the rotation and let a chef introduce a new dish. There were fingerling potatoes and carrots which I sliced and tossed in olive oil and ranch herbs.        

Next there were chicken breasts which I had to slather with mayonnaise and then coat with bread crumbs combined with the rest of the ranch herbs and grated Monterey Jack cheese. And both the main and the side went onto a sheet Pan to be baked at 450 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes.

The meal probably took me an hour and a half total to prepare including the baking.

But I felt like we needed greens too, and so a bag of spring greens to the rescue.

Chicken again another night in the same week, but Japanese style or Karagge. And chicken teriyaki meatballs drizzled with Sriracha mayo and miso roasted zucchini. And steamed jasmine rice.

And the next night I had to use up the Naan pizza shells in my freezer as well as the bacon and artichokes in the fridge in a pizza.

And now that leftovers are almost used up, I need to change up the meal rotation again and dig into my big black binder of recipes.