Friday, September 10, 2021

Week 2 of HelloFresh

Happy Saturday! I can't believe this is the second week of us ordering from HelloFresh. I now understand better why people enjoy the service so much. We get to enjoy restaurant-quality recipes for a fraction of a cost. The best part for me is the nutritional information and good portions. I divide all serving into two, which solves lunch and dinner, plus I only eat half of the calories.

Bacon and Mushroom Linguine with Spinach and Thyme
HelloFresh Description: Velvety mushrooms and smoky bacon are a savoury match made in pasta heaven! A cheesy and creamy final touch will take your taste buds to new heights.

Cal Smart Italian Wedding Soup with Turkey and Parmesan
HelloFresh Description: The soup we all know and love has gotten a Cal Smart makeover! All of the classic players are here, with DIY, herbed turkey sausage mix and a deliciously hearty mix of veg and pasta. This is sure to please!

Mediterranean Gnocchi with Bocconcini and Oregano
HelloFresh Description: Gnocchi gets a Grecian makeover! Fluffy pan-fried gnocchi get tossed with salty feta, tomatoes, spinach and fresh bocconcini for a Greek pasta upgrade! All we can say is "Opa!"

All three dishes were surprisingly delicious, and I didn't need an oven for any of them (I don't have an oven). Plus, hubby has been super helpful in preparing all three dishes, and it's such a great bonding time.

We both work from home, and after office hours, we would do a YouTube cardio video for exercise, then prepare our HelloFresh dinner. I save half for lunch the following day and enjoy the rest for dinner that night.

Thank God for allowing us to work and earn to be able to afford this service.

Want to try HelloFresh?

For a limited time (until September 29), save $100 with my code HS-PAL5157JZ!


* This offer entitles you to a total of $100 off HelloFresh: $50 off your first box + free shipping, $20 off second, $20 off third. Upon redemption, you will be enrolled in an auto-renewing subscription which you may cancel at any time, in accordance with our terms & conditions. Delivery fees may apply for subsequent orders. Please check HelloFresh.ca/FAQ for more information.

Saturday, September 4, 2021

Dinner: First time trying Popeyes

Happy Saturday and Labour Day Long Weekend.

We spent most of the day at my parent's place in Richmond, BC, and their apartment is close to a Popeyes and a Church's Chicken. I want to do a fried chicken battle between the two fried chicken fast-food chains, but to get things started, I ordered from Popeyes tonight. We ordered for delivery with UberEats.

Popeyes Feast

As you can see from the picture above, I ordered a lot. I ordered 8 pieces Bonafide Chicken Family Meal (half mild and half spicy), large cajun gravy, three chicken sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, cajun fries, mashed potatoes and gravy, onion rings, and 8 pieces of New Nugget. Plus, they gave us five biscuits.

Bonafide Chicken Family Meal 

Spicy Chicken Sandwiches

8 pieces nuggets

Signature Sides: Cajun Fries, Mashed Potatoes with Cajun Fries, Biscuits, Onion Rings, and Macaroni and Cheese

As I write this blog post, I haven't tried the spicy fried chicken, so I can't comment yet if I like it better than the one from Church's. However, I can tell their biscuits are using salted butter, and the texture is my favourite of all the ones I have tried so far.

The Spicy Chicken Sandwich was delicious. It was spicy, and the chicken was big. Unfortunately, I can't deliver it to our home in Vancouver; otherwise, I will order one chicken sandwich from KFC, Church's, and Popeyes.

My favourite side is Macaroni and Cheese. Unfortunately, the Onion Rings and Cajun Fries didn't arrive crispy, which is unfortunate. However, the Cajun Gravy is the surprise; it was sweeter than I expected.

Overall, a good experience from Popeyes. However, there are many good fried chicken restaurants in Metro Vancouver, so I don't think I'll crave Popeyes anytime soon.


Tuesday, August 31, 2021

Trying HelloFresh Again

Last September 2020, I wrote a post on why HelloFresh doesn't work for my household. This week we gave HelloFresh another shot because I'm on a "diet," and HelloFresh provides nutritional information that helps manage my food intake.

I address each counterpoint below.

1. Hack to make HelloFresh feel less expensive

This time I ordered 3 meals per week for 2 persons. I still think it's expensive, but I found a hack that will make it more tolerable. The serving portion and calories for each meal are big (when you're on a diet), so I divide each meal into four instead of dividing each meal into the recommended two. We eat half for dinner, and the rest I put in the fridge for lunch the following day. This technique allows me to stay under my calorie intake, making spending for HelloFresh more acceptable. 

It solves both lunch and dinner! If you're working from home and have to think about meals and household chores between calls with customers, it's quite stressful and overwhelming, so solving both lunch and dinner definitely helps.

3 meals for 2 people

Price per serving: $11.49
Shipping: $9.99
Total Price: $78.93

When you sign up using this link, you will get $90 off.

2, 3, and 4. Choose better recipes

In the previous post, I said it's too much effort. However, I realized that if I choose dishes that don't need many utensils, the effort is not too bad. Plus, hubby helps with cutting the vegetables and our way to bond in the kitchen.

The recipes we chose this week were delicious. Better than the experience a year ago, so I am excited to try more dishes.

Cantonese-style Noodles with Beyond Meat
I love the sauce and the crunchy vegetables. It's delicious!

Not Nonna's Chicken Cacciatore with Cavatappi and Basil
My favourite part of the dish is the chicken!

Summer Turkey Bolognese
My least favourite of all the three dishes this week.

5. Packaging

They have improved packaging a lot. For some reason, it felt like there's less waste this time around. Or I just chose recipes that don't have a lot of plastic.


I will continue using HelloFresh, but I need to balance using it and our weekly grocery run. Also, I have a small fridge and don't have an oven, so managing my limited space is always a concern.

Saturday, August 28, 2021

Lunch at Viet Flavour Restaurant

One of our after-work entertainment is watching Mikey Chen and Strictly Dumplings on YouTube. In the most recent video we watched, he enjoyed a bowl of pho and other Vietnamese dishes. Thus, we decided to go to the closest Vietnamese restaurant to our place: Viet Flavour Restaurant.

We used to have Express Pho a couple blocks away, but it has closed down to give way for the new sky train station.

Today, we ordered two main dishes, an appetizer, and a dessert.

Pho Dac Biet
Special beef noodle soup (pho) with rare beef, brisket, beef balls, and tripe

Delicious!

It's so delicious I want to cry. I tried adding Sriracha to see its flavour, and I am not a fan of adding it to my pho. It adds heat, but that's about it. I love my pho bowl as is.

Com Suon, Cha, Cha Gio
Grilled lemongrass pork, chicken, and spring roll on rice

This is hubby's order. Of course, I would order my favourite beef stew if he ordered pho, but that's just a good reason to come back.

Cha Gio
Vietnamese deep-fried pork spring rolls

It's hard to go wrong with spring rolls. It's crunchy outside and porky inside.

Kem chuoi Chien
Ice cream fried banana

The dessert is like our turon from the Philippines, but without the sugar coating on the spring roll wrapper.

Overall, Viet Flavour Restaurant is a great source of Vietnamese food. I'll come back to try their Vietnamese beef stew.

Friday, August 27, 2021

The Brownie Bakers at Thank Granville It's Food trucks (TGIF)

The South Granville Business Improvement Association (SGBIA) organized Thank Granville It's Food Trucks (TGIF). Every Friday and Saturday from 11 in the morning until 8 in the evening from June through Labour Day, there will be a rotating lineup of food trucks located along West 10th Avenue at Fir Street in front of the Vancouver School Board building.

Trying to catch a food truck is always a challenge. We went to TGIF today in hopes of enjoying dinner from The Jerk Shack. Unfortunately, when we got there at 6:30 PM, they're already gone. That said, we saw The Brownie Bakers. Thankfully, they have more brownie flavours still available, so I ordered one of each available flavour.

Three different brownie flavours from The Brownie Bakers

I mentioned in my previous, and I will reiterate that their brownie is fudgier (cake-like?) and quite different from brownies from stores. I should bring some for my youngest sister since she bakes brownies just to see what she thinks.

Plain Chocolate Brownie

We can only eat two bronies tonight, so as suggested by the nice lady selling at The Brownie Bakers, we placed our Plain Chocolate Brownie in the fridge. I can't wait to put it in the microwave tomorrow.

Classic Toasted Walnuts Brownie

I love desserts with varying textures - fudgy browny and chewy walnuts are a good combination.

Oreo Brownie

My favourite so far from The Brownie Bakers is surprisingly the Oreo. It's slightly better than the Classic because some Oreo cookies are still crunchy while others are creamy. Every bite has a different texture. It's so exciting to eat.

TGIF is almost over, and I'll miss the food trucks, but I can't wait to slowly eat my way around South Granville and along West Broadway.

Tuesday, August 24, 2021

Lunch from Kulinarya Filipino Eatery

Today is my third time ordering from Kulinarya Filipino Eatery, and we have enjoyed all their dishes so far. Today we ordered three dishes and two desserts.

Lunch delivery from Kulinarya Filipino Eatery

For lunch, we enjoyed the fried Daing na Bangus and Kaldereta. Then, we'll have the Batil Patong in the next couple of days. For desserts, we ordered Ube (purple yam) Brownie and Cassava Cake.

Batil Patong
Menu Description: From Roy's hometown, Tuguegarao. Stir fry egg noodles, pork belly, egg, cabbage, carrot, bean sprouts, and ground beef

It is the reason I love trying new dishes. Batil Patong is so delicious, and I hadn't heard of it before hubby pointed it out in the Kulinarya Filipino Eatery menu. It's saucy, and as you can see from the picture, the serving is tremendous - definitely good for sharing.

Daing na Bangus
Boneless milkfish with tomato and onion Ensalada

The Ensalada is so delicious, and of course, boneless milkfish is my favourite fish from the Philippines.

Beef Kaldereta
Hearty beef stew in a tomato-based sauce with potatoes and vegetables

The Beef Kaldereta is spicy and delicious, but the serving size is the smallest among all the things we have ordered from Kulinarya Filipino Eatery. But what it lacks in serving size, it makes up in flavour.

Ube Brownie
Purple yam brownie

Hubby and I can't decide if we liked it or not. It does have a nice ube flavour, and it's not overly sweet, but it feels more like a pudding than a brownie, and I think they should serve it with ube ice cream.

Cassava Cake
Pudding made of freshly grated cassava, egg, coco milk, and sugar

I enjoyed the cassava cake. The top has the texture of egg pie, while the cake itself is moist. The inside is filled with cassava. It's delicious. At this point, we have tried four out of the five desserts that Kulinarya has to offer. I'll wait for Leche Flan to be at DoorDash, and we'll order that next.

I also can't wait to visit them in person.

Most viewed post in the last week