HELLO FRESH - Stuffed Peppers Review (My Version)

What it is:  A flexible subscription service delivering fresh food and recipes of your choosing to your doorstep

Cost:  $69/week for 3 meals for 2 people (or $129/week for 3 meals for 4 people) for the "carnivore" option.  $59/week for 3 vegetarian meals for 2 or $109/week for 3 vegetarian meals for 4 people.

Details:  Each week Hello Fresh chefs offer a new group of meals to choose from.  You select your meals and delivery date.  Hello Fresh ships the recipes and all the ingredients to your doorstep in insulated packaging to ensure freshness.   

My current cooking skill level:  I consider ordering pizza or making a box of Shells & Cheese to be cooking.  I HATE cooking and think it's a complete waste of time!  I hate going to the grocery store, I'm a picky eater, and I have no creativity when it comes to planning meals.  My husband however is a great cook (especially when it comes to grilling)!  Since we got married many years ago, he's wanted me to cook, which is why I decided to try this subscription box.  I pick the meals and Hello Fresh sends everything to me.  Easy enough, right?  Welllllllll........

If you read my 5/23/15 blog post, you know this meal met an unfortunate fate the first time around.  I put everything in the freezer when it first came and then pulled it out last Sunday night and put it in the refrigerator so I could cook it Monday night.  I didn't end up cooking Monday night (or Tuesday for that matter) and by the time I was ready to cook this meal Wednesday night, everything veggie-wise had turned to mush!  Since I still had the ground beef left, I decided to go ahead and do my own version of this recipe.

Here is what the third meal from Hello Fresh was supposed to be:  Indian Stuffed Peppers with Curried Beef & Garam Marsala-scented Rice

Ingredients:  2 bell peppers, ground beef, onion, curry powder, garam marsala, a carrot, peas, Basmati rice, and parsley

My modified recipe:  2 red bell peppers, 1 green pepper, the original 1/2 lb of ground beef Hello Fresh sent, 1 lb mild Italian sausage, 1 TBSP onion flakes, 1 tsp curry powder, 1 carrot, 3/4 cup brown (Kroger brand) rice, and 1 tsp parsley

Time to Cook/Make Meal:  45 minutes

Difficulty Level (according to Hello Fresh):  1 (out of 3)

Cooking Instructions:

This time I prepared my veggies ahead of time since it still takes me forever to cut up vegetables.  Instead of buying a fresh onion and fresh parsley, I used 1 Tbsp of chopped onions and 1 tsp of parsley.  I combined that with 1 peeled/diced carrot and 1/2 of a green bell pepper that I chopped using my Kitchen Aid hand chopper.  As directed, I also added a bit of salt and pepper also and sat the mixture aside.

Next, I preheated the oven to 350 degrees and cut the two red bell peppers in half and drizzled each one with 1/2 TBS of olive oil.  I also seasoned them lightly with salt and pepper.

The vegetable step I did first would've occurred here.  Instead, I did the third step, which consisted of heating 1 TBS olive oil in a large pan over medium heat.  I added the ground beef, as well as 1 lb of mild Italian sausage and seasoned with salt & pepper.  I added the sausage for two reasons:  1.  I thought it would give the dish more flavor).

And 2.  I didn't think this little package of meat Hello Fresh (1/2 lb) would've been enough since I bought huge red bell peppers.

(It actually would've been enough.  Now I know to trust the portion sizes Hello Fresh sends).

I missed the part of the instructions where it said to set aside the meat mixture.  (That's how specific my instructions need to be - I need them to say "remove the meat mixture from the pan).  Instead I saw the part that said, "Add the onion and carrot to the same pan you cooked the beef in and season with salt and pepper".  So, this is what I did:

I combined the meat and veggie mixture I made earlier into the skillet and tossed it for about 5 minutes until the vegetables were softened.  Once the veggies were softened, I added 1 tsp of curry powder.  (This is where the garam marsala would've been added too, but I forgot to add it to the grocery list, so it didn't make it into the dish).  This is also where the instructions say to add in the rice and parsley (and I realized I messed up by putting everything in the skillet together earlier).  Oopsie!  

I just realized I goofed up another step too.  While the sausage/hamburger mixture was browning, I added 3/4 c rice to a saucepan with 2 c of water.

I brought it to a boil, then reduced the temperature to simmer and let it cook for 15 minutes.  (This is the first time I've ever cooked rice, so in my defense, I had no idea how long rice is supposed to cook.  I was also trying to cook potato wedges at the same time (there will be a future RawSpiceBar post about them), which I had also never done before and chop up the rest of the green and red peppers to use in omelets tomorrow morning.

What was supposed to happen is that I should've added the 3/4 cup of rice and 2 cups of water to the veggie mixture and let it cook covered for 15 minutes until the rice was tender.  Instead, I drained the rice from the sauce pan and added it to the meat and veggie mixture.  (I'll post a picture of the correct instructions below so you can see how this dish is supposed to be made).  

Next, I drained the meat/veggie/rice mixture and stuffed it into the peppers.  Put the peppers back in the oven and let them cook for about 5 minutes.  Here's the final product:  

FINAL VERDICT:  As I said earlier, I am not a fan of cooking AT ALL!!  Even though the ingredients I used varied slightly from the original ones Hello Fresh sent, the concept was still the same.  I'm surprised with how bad I messed up following the instructions.  Despite me combining things out of order and cooking the rice 15 minutes too long, the dish still tasted really good though.  (And my husband enjoyed it).  In the end, I enjoyed making it.  Like I said in my previous blog post, making these Hello Fresh dishes feels as though I'm taking a cooking class in my kitchen.  Next time, I think I need to make one dish at a time instead of trying to make two dishes I've never tried to do before at the same time.  I'm also going to study the directions a few times prior to diving right in.  :)

  
**Click here to receive $40 off your first Hello Fresh box.**  

As I mentioned in the 5/23/15 post, my next Hello Fresh box is set to arrive on 5/27/15.  I ordered the Smoky Adobo Chicken Tacos, Seared Provencal Steak, & Pan-Seared Pork Chops.    

Have you tried Hello Fresh yet?  If so, what did you think?

XOXO,
Stephanie

Here are the correct instructions for making this dish:

And here's the tasty omelet I made the following morning with the left over stuffed pepper ingredients.  Yummy!!