My Food Bag. Real Reviews - the editors review

 

My Dinner Persona – Yvette DuBourdieu, ellaslist Founder

In my family there’s me, my husband and two kids aged 2 & 7. Husband is really no-good in the dinner dept – he’s not home in time, and to be frank it’s really not his gig despite 15 years of trying and failing to train him. So if the kids are to live – dinner is down to me.  But I find the forward planning of weekday meals a dull and laborious activity – I don’t like knowing too far ahead what I’m having – doing a meal plan absolutely guarantees that I won’t want the food when it’s day comes around. So I tend to shop randomly which creates either feast or famine situation in our house – either an overflowing pantry (followed by shameful food wastage) or I’m Old Mother Hubbard serving up rice ‘n’ beans.  I do feel strongly about what I feed my kids, I want quality produce from happy animals and I’m happy to pay a bit extra for that. I cook 90% from scratch with minimal processed foods.

I’m also the person first in line to try new things – if there’s a new service that’s going to help me plan and organise my busy life - I am there with bells on. I’m big on outsourcing as much as I can afford to (cleaning and grocery shopping etc) to make room for the stuff that matters (better time with the kids, exercise, keep my head above water!) As a full time working mum – if I did it all myself – we’d sink faster than the titanic. I need people to bring me stuff.

My Food Bag Review: Who doesn’t want their Sunday morning to start with a smiling man knocking on your door saying “Good morning here’s your dinners for the week”…..YESSSSSSS!  You had me at “Here’s your dinners for the week”

That’s how our experience started last Sunday when I was asked to test out their Family Food Bag product (5 family dinner meals for 2 adults and 2/3 kids – all planned, shopped and delivered to me at my home.

I had no idea what we were getting (although the info is available on the website) – but I love surprises and couldn’t wait to open the bags and find out. Healthy Fish Fingers, Chicken & Spaghetti, Vegetable Fritters, Beef & Noodle stir fry – it was good to see a variety of meats, plus a fish and vegetarian dish in the selection and I loved the gift bar of chocolate labelled for dad (it was Fathers Day that Sunday).

Overall: Having ingredients ready to prepare and cook has been a god send over the last week. Not having to open the fridge when I get home from work and dig deep for a creative solution to my mismatched ingredients has considerably lightened the load on the already frantic 5-7pm shift with cranky tired hungry kids. I’ve enjoyed us eating dinner all together, I’ve watched the kids try new things, new tastes and new flavours – without hesitation or recoil. There was noticeably less stress. I’ve enjoyed not throwing out 30% of my fridge contents. Most of all I’ve enjoyed not having to think about it.

It was pretty interesting to see what happened the following week when I didn’t have an order booked. Back to a cupboard-bare scenario and having to go out for a couple of dinners – we ended up spending so much in comparison and I truly missed it.

Convenience: Absolutely – My Food Bag is ideal for our family. I like the weekly or fortnightly ordering option, I like the fact that you can take a break when you’re on holiday or simply when you need to. I like that someone has nutritionally balanced the meals and taken the hard work out of combining nutrition, taste, ease, planning and shopping and the supplied recipe cards were so easy to follow and all done in less than 30 minutes.

Quality of food:  I was impressed by the fresh produce, ripeness and firmness of vegetables, loved that the fish is sustainable and their meat is free range.

Value for money: End to end – I’m not sure I could replicate this value at home – especially with free range meat and sustainable fish and factoring in the time it takes to do it all yourself. It works out at just over $6 a plate, $25 for my family per meal.  I can’t take my family out for cheap sushi for less than $40. Considering the effort that goes into the planning and delivery of these meals I thought the convenience, produce and service of the family bag was excellent value. Portions were very generous too. We had left overs for my lunch the next day – another meal I didn’t have to think about.

Deliciousness: Recipes on first glance looked very simple and child-friendly, I knew the kids were going to like the meals straight away but wondered if they would be tasty enough for the adults. I have to say that each recipe bar one exceeded our taste expectation and was packed with flavour, the last noodle dish we felt needed a bit of extra chilli oomph for our personal taste – easily resolved from our pantry. I’m pleased to see you can go online and rate your recipes so the choices get better and better.

My Rating 4.5/5 - would love to have more choice about the number of meals I’m able to order each week. Otherwise, an excellent product and service.

Want to try it for yourself? You can grab 25% off your first weekly order by using our code. Simply head to www.myfoodbag.com.au and enter the code ELLASLIST when you order.
This exclusive ellaslist offer is for your first bag only. Valid until 19th October 2015. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer. Full details on delivery areas and T&Cs available online.