Last week, we had the chance to try out a Gousto box.
For anybody who may be unfamiliar (as I was) with Gousto box - here's a quick rundown on who they are and what they do.
Gousto offer a weekly delivery of all the ingrediants you will need to make 3 delicious meals.
Each week, the Gousto website is updated with 10 recipe options - including vegetarian options - for your to select your 3 choices from.
You can choose to have the meals for 2 people or for 4.
There is no set price per week - instead the price will be displayed once you have selected your meal options for the week (you can amend these before ordering if you're not happy with paying over a certain amount).
I have found that on average the box price tends to be between £39.00-£43.00.
I realize that, for 3 meals, this isn't exactly cheap - however you are getting 3 good quality meals for your money, and there are definite plus points to the service which I will be discussing later on.
So after I had selected my 3 meal choices, what happened next?
We were informed that our box would be delivered on Wednesday and it was.
I was impressed with how everything was packaged - everything was kept separate and all chilled goods such as meats were in this very nifty little sealed bag.
Veg, herbs and sundries were separate again.
And dairy produce and meat all nice and cold.
So, what 3 meals did we try out?
The first one we tried was the Pork tenderloin tagliatelle in creamy mushroom sauce.
The ingrediants are all neatly labelled up for each meal so there is no confusing which aspects are meant for which meal.
Each recipe came with its own easy to follow recipe card - each step is carefully explained in detail, so even the most novice of cooks can't go wrong!
This meal was delicious and probably the one we enjoyed the most out of the 3 - although I`m not much of a meat lover and preferred the tagliatelle and sauce without the pork, Jon thoroughly enjoyed his.Tyne also loved the tagliatelle and sauce - I will definitely make a vegetarian version of this again for Tyne & I.
Our next meal was the Crisp chicken escalope with tallegio and leek gratin.
I would say this this was the meal I enjoyed the least, purely because I found the tallegio a little too strong for me and I have a weird thing about using eggs in cooking - so I knew I would struggle to enjoy the chicken after breading it myself!
I put together a quick video showing the process of preparing the meal, just to show how easy it was!
Our final meal was the Roasted vegetable penne with Mozzarella
This meal was absolutely delicious, so colourful and packed full of gorgeous veg bursting with flavor - we all thoroughly enjoyed it, even Tyne couldn't get enough and I loved knowing he was getting such a good intake of veg from it.
As you can see, we cleared the dish!
So, after our 3 nights of Gousto meals, what did I think?
For me there were 2 MAJOR plus points.
1) It encouraged me to be more adventurous with food and try more things - I tend to stick to what I kow when it comes to cooking, and that can mean that our mealtimes are limited to recycling the same old recipes time and time again.As Tyne grows up, I want him to experiment with different flavours and I think its important that I encourage this through offering different meals - using Gousto really encouraged me to try out recipes I otherwise never would have, and out of the 3 meals we tried out - I will 100% use 2 of those recipes again in the future and can see them becoming new favourites!
and 2) There is absolutely NO waste with Gousto.When I go shopping I tend to buy too much of each ingrediant and this results in us throwing away a LOT of fresh produce each week. I can't tell you how much money we must waste on fruit and veg that ends up in the bin because we bought too much of it or didn't use it on time.With Gousto - you are sent exactly what you need for each recipe (perhaps a little bit more, but nothing excessive) - this means you are paying for what you are using and there is no waste.It also means that Gousto can keep their costs down as they're having to charge you for excess food which isn't really required.
I think these boxes are a fantastic idea for busy families looking for an easy way to ensure they are getting at least 3 good home cooked meals each week, I also think they are great for people like me looking to broaden their culinary horizons and abilities the easy way, and they would make a fantastic gift for new parents who don't have time or energy to shop or meal plan too!
For more info and to check out this weeks mouth watering recipes, please visit www.gousto.co.uk
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