Home Chef Review – See Why I Love This Meal Kit Service
Overview
Home Chef makes dinnertime a breeze. From classic meal kits to convenient Oven-Ready and Fast & Fresh options, their meals are designed to fit different needs. They’re the perfect solution for any household looking for quick-n-easy breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. You can even order snacks, and cold brews as well! They’re incredibly affordable, with meals starting at only $7.99.
As a professional food editor, I tested Home Chef for a week to get a full view of how it stacks up against its competitors. Here’s everything you need to know:
What’s on Home Chef’s Menu
Home Chef’s menu features 30+ recipes and 18 extras each week. And if you consider the number of protein customizations you can make with select meals, that’s a mighty robust menu. With their Customize It tool* you can upgrade, swap, or double up on your favorite protein – options include antibiotic-free boneless skinless chicken breasts, salmon filets, Impossible Burger, and more.
Choose from fancy dinners like their Blackened Salmon with Sun-Dried Tomato Alfredo Campanelle, or pick one of their mouth-watering Oven-Ready meals like the Cotija and Jalapeño-Crusted Chicken that requires close to zero prep. Simply assemble all ingredients in the tray you receive with your order and pop it in the oven. And on extra busy days, their Fast & Fresh microwavable options like the Cherry Chipotle Brisket Tacos are a true life savior – equally delicious but ready in only a few minutes!
Home Chef gives you the option to filter recipes based on your personal preferences, such as:
- Calorie-conscious
- < 30 minutes
- Carb-conscious
- Vegetarian
And I absolutely love their vast selection of add-ons that you can simply add to your weekly order!
Unboxing
Home Chef’s ingredients are shipped in a biodegradable, insulated box with reusable cool gel packs that keep the produce cold. You get fresh, pre-portioned ingredients organized in separate bags, making the cooking process super convenient.
Each order arrives with easy-to-follow recipe cards. Of course, they’re recyclable, but the idea is to hold onto them and reuse. The cards provide clear instructions and an image of the delicious meal so you know the degree of difficulty, spice level, cook time, and what your Home Chef meal will look like once plated.
Cooking and Eating
Brainstorming recipes, driving to the grocery store, selecting all the ingredients, and cooking can get exhausting. No wonder we go for highly caloric frozen meals or greasy takeout.
Home Chef, however, takes the hassle of cooking away, by saving time and making the cooking process enjoyable! Did you know that they feature the most Oven-Ready options of leading meal kit services? Plus, you will never cook the same meal twice. Instead, you can explore a wide range of flavorful recipes and cuisines from all around the world.
It’s astonishing how easy it is to develop a solid routine where the family gathers together every night to enjoy a wholesome, home-cooked meal.
Subscription
Signing up for Home Chef is super simple:
- Click on one of the links below and get redirected to the Home Chef Website. Then click on your preferences by answering a few questions.
- Enter your email address and zip code to create your account.
- Build a box that suits your needs by selecting the number of servings and recipes you would like to receive each week
- Enter your address and choose your preferred delivery day. Remember, their subscription is flexible, you can skip a week or pause your account at any time in just a few clicks. You won’t have to call or email anyone.
- Pick your favorite meals from their menu . . . and done!
You might find it a little frustrating that you have to complete the checkout process before you get to their menu page. But don’t worry. You can still change your mind after browsing their recipes.
If you need further assistance, just reach out to Home Chef — the #1 in Customer Satisfaction among leading meal kit companies**.
The Bottom Line: Is Home Chef Worth It?
Home Chef is a fantastic service for any household looking for a convenient dinnertime solution. Their recipes are tasty, easy to cook, and fit various lifestyles and dietary needs – all for a brilliant price point, with meals starting at only $7.99.
Sure, there are cheaper meal kits out there. But I can honestly say that Home Chef’s overall service is of the highest quality, so I don’t mind paying a little extra. What an exceptional experience, I will for sure continue with my subscription.
Home Chef is worth the investment, I highly recommend you try it!
Our friends at Home Chef are extending a special offer to our readers! Follow this link to get 18 Free Meals & Free Shipping!
Offer Expires In
*Source: https://www.homechef.com/customize-it
**Source: US Grocery Benchmark Study, April 2020, Market Force Information, Inc.
To The Stars Above - The Importance Of Octavia Butler
I’m not the only one who feels that way either, Butler went on to receive a raft of awards and accolades for her works, starting with:
- The first science-fiction author to be honored with a MacArthur "Genius Grant"
- The first Black woman to win the Nebula Award
- The first Black woman to win the Hugo Award
Butler's fiction helped frame Black women's agency and individuality in a world that often denies them both. Born in Southern California, Butler was raised by her widowed mother, and at a young age, she discovered her love of reading and writing science fiction.
While in college Octavia was encouraged to attend the Clarion Workshop, which focused on science fiction and led to her first published work, Crossover. By the late 1970s, Butler had become sufficiently successful as an author that she was able to pursue writing full-time - THE DREAM!
“All that you touch
You Change.
All that you Change
Changes you.
The only lasting truth
is Change.
God is Change.”
― Octavia E. Butler,Parable of The Sower
What a powerfully profound quote from such a violently relevant book.
Butler’s work has radically changed my perspective on life and has left a lasting impression on me as a Black man and a writer.
Above And Beyond - Octavia’s Legacy
Before I had the honor of encountering Octavia Butler’s body of work, I already adored science-fiction and fantasy. There are so many books, comics, shows, and films that I enjoyed as a kid, but the main thing they taught me was that someone who looked like me and came from where I was from could never be the main character.
Then sometime between high school and college, I discovered Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, and Alice Walker, all prolific Black American writers. Yet, when it came to adventures in deep space and post-apocalyptic settings, there was little out there.
Thank the heavens for Nichelle Nichols and the doors she broke for black actors, but where were the black science-fiction writers?
In walks Octavia Butler . . . Not actually [I wish], but figuratively.
“Embrace diversity.
Unite—
Or be divided,
robbed,
ruled,
killed
By those who see you as prey.
Embrace diversity
Or be destroyed.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Parable of The Sower
After I finished Kindred, I knew I had to DEVOUR everything else by this amazing writer. Building out my Octavia Butler collection has been a source of pleasure during stressful days and also an inspiration for my writing.
Octavia Butler shows me as a reader that we can exist alongside everyone else in science fiction and that, as a Black writer, the stars are the limit. She’s given me permission to write about whatever the hell I want and not to allow hateful, bigoted ideologies to stop me from telling the stories I’m meant to tell.
“I fantasized living impossible but interesting lives – magical lives in which I could fly like Superman, communicate with animals, control people’s minds.” Butler wrote in 1999.
Butler mastered the art of storytelling by digging into deeply uncomfortable terrain - particularly humanity's hierarchical nature - and examining it with unwavering honesty. Her works challenged widespread notions of evolution, community, and sexuality as set against the backdrop of alien invasions or post-apocalyptic America.
Photo by Seven Shooter on Unsplash
And this is only the beginning.
Butler’s work continues to inspire a renaissance of Afrofuturism. I can’t wait to get my hands on the amazing works to come that have been inspired and empowered by Octavia’s novels.
My personal recommendations
I think all of her novels are worthy of reading, but here are a few of my personal favorites:
- Kindred is undoubtedly her most popular work, this is a fantastic introduction to Octavia Butler and her out-of-this-world writing style. It’s an exquisitely rendered telling of the haunting connection 20th-century Black women have with 19th-century chattel slavery.
- Dawn The first novel in the Lilith’s Brood trilogy and is living proof that science-fiction doesn’t have to revolve around a white protagonist to be compelling or memorable. Octavia’s storytelling is impeccable. All three novels leave readers on the edge of their seats, wondering if humanity will continue to resist or finally relinquish to tentacle-covered galactic travelers.
- Parable Of The TalentsWinner of the Nebula Award for Best Novel and the sequel to Butler’s riveting dystopian classic Parable Of The Sower. The novel picks right where the first ends but from the POV of the first book’s protagonist’s daughter. Butler’s eerily prophetic novel provides a reality-check about what could be our terrifying potential future and our potential salvation.
Sixteen years after Butler's death, her legacy is more relevant than ever.
Octavio Butler stands as the blueprint for future Black science-fiction writers - and all writers - who seek to share the worlds they’re conjuring and the outstanding characters they’re creating.
This weekend, do yourself a favor and check out any of
Butler’s books, you won’t be disappointed!
What We’re Watching: Everything We Loved About The Piano Lesson
To be honest, I wasn't sure how it would turn out with such a star-studded cast consisting of Samuel L. Jackson, Danielle Brooks, and John David Washington, with Samuel's wife, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, directing. But boy, did they not only exceed my expectations, they brought such personality and fire into their characters.
The Piano Lesson is a play about family, inheritance, and heritage and how best to honor that heritage. Wilson’s play opened at Broadway's Walter Kerr Theatre in 1990, and ran for over 10 years, winning multiple awards, including a Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Set in 1936, the story revolves around two adult siblings who cannot agree on what to do with a family heirloom: a piano carved with the faces of their enslaved ancestors. One insists on keeping the piano as a reminder of their ancestors’ hardships, while the other, a sharecropper, wants to sell the piano to buy the land where their ancestors worked, believing that to be the best way to honor them.
The show brings to light the experience, trials, and tribulations many African Americans faced during the great depression. Wilson’s authentic writing, paired with the talent placed on stage – particularly Brooks, who delivered a show-stealing performance – creates an experience like no other.
Credit: Andy Kropa/Invision/AP/Shutterstock
Believe me when I say you must see this before it leaves Broadway! I know I’m happy I was able to snag tickets.
Until you get your tickets to The Piano Lesson, here are other noteworthy plays included in August Wilson's Pittsburgh Cycle:
- Jitney
- Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
- Fences
- Joe Turner's Come and Gone
- Two Trains Running
- Seven Guitars
- King Hedley
- Gem of the Ocean
- Radio Golf
It’s safe to say I’ll be delving further into Wilson’s works and eagerly awaiting both the film adaptation of The Piano Lesson and the next of his plays to make it to Broadway!
The Piano Lesson is only playing at the Barrymore Theatre for 17 weeks. Get your tickets before it’s too late – you don’t want to miss this cast or this show!
Take A Walk Through NYC’s Central Park And “Say Their Names”
“Racial violence has been a distinct part of American history since 1660. While that violence has impacted every ethnic and racial group in the United States, it has had a particularly horrific effect on African American life ranging from revolts of the enslaved and lynchings to urban uprisings and calculated acts of murder. SDAAMFA is honored to bring this exhibition to New York City and dedicate it to the ongoing fight to end systemic racism.” - Gaidi Finnie, Executive Director of the San Diego African American Museum of Fine Art
Produced by the San Diego African American Museum of Fine Art, this collaboration includes the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and the New York Urban League, among other NYC cultural institutions. Described as an augmented reality experience that combines digital photography, cutting-edge technology, and art. There are 50 virtual pedestals bearing over 200 photos of Black people who died from racism over the span of 200 years.
This is precisely what we need so that each and every one of the names we cried out during the 2020 lockdown-driven protests won’t have died in vain.
Photo by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on Unsplash.com
People featured in the memorial include Eric Garner, Emmett Till, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor, along with victims of the May 14th mass shooting at a Tops Supermarket in Buffalo, New York.
Say it with me, THEY MATTER, WE MATTER!
Come September 17th, I know what I’m doing. Do you?
Sul Sul! The Sims 4 Is Calling
“Is this really an article about The Sims?”
YES!
And no, Sims is not just virtual Barbies. Absolutely not.
The Sims is a popular long-running life simulation game. In fact, it's one of the most successful video games in terms of sales and has sold over 175 million copies worldwide.
Playing The Sims, is an EXPERIENCE and with33 million players worldwide, it’s clear I’m not the only one who feels this way. Plus, it’s so accessible, players can find The Sims 4 on PC or Mac, and gaming consoles like Xbox and Playstation.
Sims not only allows me - and so many others - to step away from everyday reality, but I also get to explore endless possibilities and opportunities. One day I can be a father of four working on becoming a Silver Screen legend, the next I can be a femme-fatale vampire who owns a 5-star restaurant. The list goes on.
No, like it actually goes on. Once when I played as a bachelor, my sim was abducted, impregnated, and then the next day his house caught on fire. Talk about drama with a capital D.
I even got the chance to speak with a few other simmers to uncover what the game has meant to them:
“Playing the sims eases my stress, and is one of my biggest hobbies. Sharing my sims stories online has become an amazing creative outlet for me.” - @WhimsyAlien
“Some aspects of the game are like therapy for me. During the pandemic, playing The Sims was a great way to ease my anixety and stress.” - @NardVillian
“I’ve been playing the sims since around 2003 and I can’t begin to describe how it’s helped me, not to mention the amazing community, and all the simmers around the world I get to connect with.” - @TheBlackPlumbob
“I'd like to thank my older sister for getting me into the sims, one day, she got up from her computer, and there it was The Sims 2! Now when the world isn't being nice, turning on Sims and hopping into my own universe helps every time.” - @CheyLaVie
“The Sims 4 is for anyone who enjoys the art of storytelling, or has a visual eye for design, this game is for you! Plus, I enjoy being a part of such a welcoming and supportive community.” - @NardVillian
The game gets your creativity going, pushes you to think outside of the box, and allows you to fully express yourself, which is something many of us can’t do IRL.
What I love most about the game is that there is no right or wrong way to play. There’s only you, your sim, and endless possibilities. Sims truly creates a gaming experience like no other.
The billions of player-made challenges also level up the experience. The 100 Baby Challenge allows your sim to pop out hundreds of babies, while the Off The Grid Challenge puts your sim on a lot with no electricity, money, or modern amenities.
There’s something for everyone in this world. Whether you want to try your hand at the nuclear family, become a leader of a werewolf pack, or dabble in the supernatural, Sims 4 has you covered. Just don’t expect any cars.
If you’re ready to express yourself and see your imagination fly, it’s time you check out TheSims. Trust me, once you start playing, you won’t want to stop – especially once you uncover all the money cheats!
P.S. - Steer clear of the Cowplants ;-)
Beam Me Up Scotty - The Extraordinary Legacy Of Nichelle Nichols
Sadly, Star Trek’s beloved Lieutenant Uhura has passed – she died of natural causes at age 89 on Sunday. Although she’ll no longer stand as a living example of why representation matters, we’ll not forget her legacy as an actor and what inclusion meant to her.
Just think of all of the doors she kicked down for the actors of color who followed in her thigh-high leather boots.
If you aren't familiar, no worries neither was I – I blame my parents for having me in ‘94 – but it’s time to get into just what made Nichelle’s star shine so brightly.
Best remembered for her work on Star Trek – the cult-inspiring series that aired from 1966 to 1969 – Nichols wasn't just another sixties babe – there solely as eye-candy for a masculine protagonist.
Nichols was the first Black woman to have a continuing, leading role on television and later worked with NASA to recruit minorities for the space program.
Subsequent Star Trek series and films featured Nichols on equal footing with characters of a variety of races set the bar for inclusion and multiculturalism.
Her list of firsts continues. Nichols and co-star William Shatner shared the first onscreen kiss between a black female and white male on American television, setting the stage for countless showmances and romantic couplings to come.
"While fans will miss and honor the famous actress who opened so many paths with her presence on the screen … Nichelle Nichols, you were one-in-a-million in so many, many ways." -George Takei, of Star Trek
What’s the best way to honor such an iconic, one-in-a-million actress?
INCLUSION… REPRESENTATION!
Excuse my caps lock, but It’s 2022, and it feels like women and minorities are still not heard.
The best way to honor Nichols and her legacy is to push for diversity and show the major movie-makers and production companies that we watch stories that feature actresses like Nichelle Nichols. They need to produce more films and series featuring diverse female artists like Killing Eve, A Black Lady Sketch Show, and Everything Everywhere All At Once.
We may have lost a megastar, but Nichelle’s mission will live on through her fans!
Rest In Power, Nichelle Nichols.
