This is a sponsored post
I love to cook but there are the days when my love of making healthy and delicious meals is challenged by our family’s schedule. Like most families, there are weekdays where our kids go straight to after school activities and by the time we return home, it’s time for dinner! With the weather warming up, spring sports starting up again, and the number of school activities reaching a high for the year, the struggles of trying to plan, shop for, prep, and cook nourishing meal on the table to feed my hungry family becomes even more real.
I know I could make things easy on myself by having frozen meals on hand or cooking pantry staples but honestly, we’re a farm to table type of family. I take pride in using fresh ingredients like eggs from our backyard chickens, produce from our CSA, and the things we grow in our backyard garden and cooking from scratch. Food is love in our family and the act of meal planning, shopping, and cooking is how I show I care.
I’ve been tempted to try meal delivery services as a way to give myself a break but I was never quite sure that they would live up to the high standards I have for feeding my family until now.
Introducing Terra’s Kitchen
With a food philosophy of “feed others the way you want to be fed,” I already knew that I’d like Terra’s Kitchen. Not only is Terra’s Kitchen committed to providing high quality food through their farm-to-front door delivery of meal kits, but they’re committed to finding sustainable food sources when creating menus that highlight fresh, seasonal ingredients.
But this isn’t fast food. It’s good food you can make fast thanks to meal kits that contain already prepped ingredients that come ready to be used in chef-designed recipes that can be cooked in 30 minutes or less.
When our family was offered a meal delivery kit from Terra’s Kitchen, the first thing I did was take a look at their menu of meals. I was pleased to see plant strong, nutrient dense recipes whose bold flavors and array of fresh ingredients would appeal to my family of adventurous eaters.
Pan seared chicken and crisp haricots verts in a sweet and sour bacon sauce, honey mango grilled salmon and citrus rice, blackened tilapia tacos with mango blueberry salsa, and the southwestern steak and sweet potato brown instantly jumped out at me but honestly, all appealed to my appetite. I was also impressed that many recipes were also gluten free, Paleo, and/or vegetarian.
Unboxing Terra’s Kitchen Meals
While everything comes pre-packaged and the amount of plastic might be a bit alarming, all containers can be recycled. The insulated container that meals are shipped in also gets picked up by FedEx the following day. Having pre-arranged pick up service for the container already scheduled by Terra’s Kitchen gave me one less thing to worry about and one less thing to have in our house!
Making Southwestern Steak and Sweet Potato Bowls
With all the fresh ingredients prepped, I simply had to take out a few pantry staples to follow the instructions on the recipe card to make our Southwestern Steak and Sweet Potato Bowls. The real question was if this meal would be ready to serve in 30 minutes or less.
I started by preheating the oven to cook the sweet potatoes then took the rest of the recipe’s ingredients that were packaged in square and rectangle plastic boxes out of the refrigerator, read the recipe, prepped the sweet potatoes, set a timer, and popped them in the oven.
I went to work chopping the jalapenos and mixing the chopped bits with the garlic that I spread on the skirt steak while I heated a tiny bit of oil in my grill pan. Soon after the jalapeno garlic paste was applied to the steak, the grill pan was ready. Being a thinner cut of beef, the skirt steak cooked to our liking in just 3-4 minutes on each side on high heat and left nice grill marks on the outside. I let the meat rest for a few minutes while the sweet potatoes finished in the oven. Like magic, the sweet potatoes came out of the oven, I sliced the steak, assembled everything in bowls, and our meal was done in just under 30 minutes and declared delicious by each member of the family.
We loved the pairing of the savory tender skirt steak with the jalapeno and garlic crust with the oven roasted sweet potatoes. All are things we love but aren’t ingredients I had thought of pairing together for a meal. It’s definitely a meal we want to have again!
We also received Grilled Chicken Tacos with Avocado Goat Cheese Spread. This meal was just as easy to prepare and flavorful.
Chicken tenders are fast cuts of meat to cook in a grill pan. With ready to serve pico de gallo and tortillas that just needed to be heated, the only other prep involved making the avocado goat cheese spread. While the recipe recommended using the food processor, I threw everything in our blender that made fast work of making a creamy spread that provided great flavor to the tacos. I had this meal on the table in about 20 minutes and it was another dinner my family loved!
If timing is not your thing, then Terra’s Kitchen definitely helps ensure that each part of your meal is finished at the same time thanks to the easy to follow directions that contain plenty of photos!
Why My Family Loved Terra’s Kitchen
I have to admit, I loved having Terra’s Kitchen do my shopping and as my sous chef. It was definitely a time saver to have high quality ingredients like I’m used to cooking with delivered to my door rather than having to shop for them myself. Having them ready to cook made preparing delicious meals fast and easy.
Cost of Meals from Terra’s Kitchen
While Terra’s Kitchen selected the meals that they sent in our meal kit, I looked up the cost of the Southwestern Steak and Sweet Potato Bowls and Grilled Chicken Tacos with Avocado Goat Cheese Spread to try to determine the costs in relation to our food budget and if it was comparable or more to going out.
We received 4 servings of both the Southwestern Steak and Sweet Potato Bowls ($15.99 for a 2 person serving) and Grilled Chicken Tacos with Avocado Goat Cheese Spread ($12.99 for a 2 person serving) that provided dinner on two different nights. Here is the total cost of each of the meals:
- 4 servings of the Southwestern Steak and Sweet Potato Bowls = $31.98
- 4 servings of the Grilled Chicken Tacos with Avocado Goat Cheese Spread = $25.98
*We also received two containers of fruit (one container of mangoes and blueberries and another of mixed fruit) that we served with our dinner but the prices weren’t listed on the website.
We found that the serving size was just right for our family of 4, including two children (Ages 9 and 12) who eat adult portions! I know if we were to go out to eat, our bill would be more expensive even at a fast casual restaurant where we would likely sacrifice the quality of the food in exchange for having our whole meal prepared for us.
I like to think that Terra’s Kitchen is a good deal for our family based on the way we eat. While I’m not going to rely on it all the time, I can see it being helpful from time to time especially during long stretches where me or my husband is traveling and we’re solo parenting and just need a break from the meal planning, shopping, and prep work that goes into in feeding our family. Terra’s Kitchen provides free delivery and pickup service of the refrigerated container so there aren’t any hidden costs to drive up the price.
I can also see giving Terra’s Kitchen meal kit delivery to a new parent who could benefit from hearty meals that are healthy but easy to prepare as they adjust to life as a newborn, as a housewarming gift, or to a family with a sick family member instead of takeout.
Terra’s Kitchen delivers to Washington, D.C., Northern Virginia, and Richmond. Meals for two start at $9.99 and you can get $50 off your first order from Terra’s Kitchen with the code TECHSAVVY.
For more information, visit the Terra’s Kitchen website or follow them on:
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Terra’s Kitchen. The opinions and text are all mine.
