Guest post from Kate Kelly (Life of a Ginger blogger and member of The Produce Box)
I love using my Produce Box ingredients to create fresh and delicious meals. It’s inspiring to use locally-sourced ingredients to create new recipes. But there are days when I just don’t have the time to shop at the grocery store and get dinner on the table.
Like most people I know who work from home, I find it difficult to walk away from a project, even when a personal task like making dinner needs to be done. I’ve found a few ways to get dinner on the table when I’m busy, and one of my new favorite ways is using a meal kit from The Produce Box.
This week I decided to order a Paradise Provisions meal kit from The Produce Box. Paradise Provisions is another awesome North Carolina company. They help make your Topsail Beach, NC vacation less stressful by providing vacation essentials like soap, paper towels, toilet paper, and meal & cocktail kits. I was hoping it would be something we’d like, that is not too difficult to make, and quick to get on the table. I’ve tried several meal kit services and they were way more complicated than advertised.
When I first opened the box I was a little intimidated with all the different ingredients, thinking this was going to take a long time to make. But I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to make, and how quickly I had dinner on the table.
Making the Meal!
By purchasing the Paradise Provisions meal kit from The Produce Box, all the ingredients were provided in the kit I received. (When you purchase the kits from Paradise Provisions, you receive only the non-perishable items.)
In my kit I swapped out the onion for a tomato, because I really, really hate onions. I love that this is an option with The Produce Box. I hate getting ingredients that I won’t use.
The instructions provided for the Mexican Chicken & Avocado Corn Salsa were very easy to follow.
While the recipe calls for grilling the corn and chicken, I wasn’t able to use my grill because of an unexpected thunderstorm. I cooked the corn in the oven for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Then I put it under the broiler for a minute or two to get a little char on it. I cooked the chicken in a pan on the stove.
From unloading the box, marinating the chicken, preparing the salsa, and cooking the chicken and rice, the finished dish took less than an hour to get on the table. (The instructions recommend marinating the chicken for at least an hour and up to five, but it was delicious only marinating for 30 minutes.)
The Mexican Chicken & Avocado Corn Salsa was delicious! Everyone in the family loved it and asked me to make it again soon. That is something that doesn’t happen very often! I’m looking forward to trying other available meal kits.
If what you saw seems delicious, check out The Produce Box’s variety of boxes to see which one is right for you! Once you’ve picked one out, go ahead and sign up today to get your first box!