Graze - Nature Delivered

Graze is a food delivery concept designed to encourage healthy snacking (or grazing!). The idea is that if we're all going to snack anyway you may as make it healthy and interesting at the same time. Graze boxes are ideal for offices, working from home or convenient snacking on the go.

How easy was it to order?

Getting started with graze is easy. Either visit the website www.graze.com or click the image below to get your first box free!

Click this image to get your first box free!

Select your box and how often you would like it. Enter your details and payment information (you can cancel very easily at any time on the website) and finally have a look at the snacks, selecting whether you like them, would try them or to bin them!

There are lots of catagories to choose from and each item has nutrition ratings, such as the rocky road (left) which is indicated as a good source of fibre. Some items are not available if you choose certain diet plans to keep your box balanced, for example I have selected an "eatwell" box which means I will receive everything except milk or white chocolate or flapjacks.

If you want to be very healthy you can try the boost or light boxes which contain lower calorie snacks

Delivery and Packaging

My Graze box arrived with the postman this morning as promised. It came in a recycled (and recyclable) box which fits through the letterbox containing 4 little plastic containers of snacks.

There seems to be a lot of packaging but the plastic containers are also recycled. One suggestion on the graze site was to use the little punnets as seed trays to make a desk top herb garden.

You also get a little guide to your box contents containing nutritional values, expiry dates and symbols to show nutritional benefits of your box.

The Food

 The snacks themselves were tasty although not as healthy as I may have expected. My Box contained:
Dark Rocky Road, Pear Tatin, Chocolate Orange Granola and Festival Fruits, only one of which contained a portion of fruit.

Graze used to do a fresh fruit punnet but I believe discontinued this due to the risk of spoiling before being eaten.

Ratings

 Delivery - Free delivery, fits though the letter box.

Packaging - Lots of packaging for four snacks but all is recyclable 

Quality & Taste - Nice tasty treats but not as much fruit as I would expect.

Value for Money - I could easily buy some fruit and nuts cheaper but it would not be as interesting.

Other comments: A good service for those who want to improve their snack habits, especially if your usual stop would be a vending machine.

     Overall Rating:

The Ferrari of Zesty Orange Beef Stir Fry

This is my second recipe from Hello Fresh! it's really a different take on a recipe I usually cook at home. Usually I would buy ready cut up beef, some veg and a sauce but this recipe has a lot more flavour and isn't as tricky as it looks.

200g Flank Steak, 1 Orange, 2 nests of Egg Noodles, 80g Mange Tout, 1 teaspoon Muscavado Sugar, 2 cloves of Garlic, knob of Ginger, 1 Lime, 1 teaspoon Sesame Seeds, 4 tablespoons of Cornflour, 1 tablespoon of Soy Sauce, 1 Red Chilli

As with the Tiger Prawn Linguine recipe, first I chopped up the ingredients; chilli, garlic and ginger. The skin of the ginger can be peeled off with a spoon(!) before chopping. Zest a quarter of a teaspoon of orange and squeeze half the juice. Next I mixed together the orange juice, zest, soya sauce, and sugar in a small bowl.

I then sliced the beef thinly and coated in cornflour with a pinch of salt and pepper before stir frying the beef for 2 minutes and taking off the heat. Boil the noodles in a pan of hot water for four minutes. Finally cook the ginger, garlic, chilli and mange tout for 2 minutes before adding the beef, noodles and sauce.

Mix it all up and serve with the sesame seeds sprinkled on top!

Result:

Again Hello Fresh! delivered a dish full of flavour. The ginger really stands out and this time I didn't add too much spice as the fresh chilli was quite mild and I removed the seeds! (leave the seeds in if you like a bit of kick)

Recipe Score:

I could have made something similar with a ready made sauce but the ginger and fresh chilli are worth adding.

Tiger Prawn Linguine with Chilli and Sun-dried Tomato

This is my first attempt at a recipe from Hello Fresh!, a home delivery company which supplies you with ingredients and recipes to make fresh restaurant quality meals at home in half an hour!

I love prawns and my fiancé has only just started eating prawns so I was really pleased to get this recipe in my first box of goodies.

My "Hello Fresh!" ingredients and recipe ready to cook

The first part of the recipe was to chop up all my ingredients: garlic, onion, sun-dried tomatoes and parsley. This is actually a really good method, obvious, but it really makes the rest of the cooking easy as you don't have to stop to prepare anything later.

Next the garlic onion, sun-dried tomatoes and chilli went into a hot pan with a little oil. Once the onion was soft I added a tin of tomatoes and half a teaspoon of sugar, then let it bubble while I popped the linguine into a pan of boiling water. Add raw prawns to the tomato sauce, drain linguine, and toss together with the parsley.

Result:

The dish was full of flavour but very hot; when it said add the chilli I poured the whole little cup in rather than just a pinch! The result was very hot but still demolished quickly just with plenty of water.

We both really enjoyed this recipe and I would definitely make this dish again but be careful with the chilli flakes!

Recipe Score:

 

(please note: my own cooking probably deserved a 4 but it wasn't the recipe's fault that I can't read "pinch"!)

Hello Fresh!

Hello Fresh is advertised as a high quality service for busy people. Every week(or fortnight if you choose) they will send you a box of ingredients and recipe cards. Everything you need to prepare fresh meals in about half an hour. You are expected to have salt, pepper, oil and butter otherwise everything you need is provided.

I decided to try this service with a discount code for my first order. (use Z3548X to get £20 off)

Hello Fresh - 3 meals for two people

 

How easy was it to order?

The website is modern, clean and very clear.  Navigating the site you can find out about Hello Fresh, what to expect in your box and even free access to their recipes.

Ordering is a simple as clicking "try now", enter your postcode and select your box choice (3 meals, 5 meals or 3 vegetarian  meals. Next choose how many people you are feeding, how often you want a box. I chose a 3 meal box for 2 people once a fortnight. This option is £39 for 3 meals but you can get a £20 discount on your first delivery.

Finally register your details, enter the payment bits and enter your discount coupon (£20 off!).
I've included my code below but if you have a friend subscribed you can use theirs and both benefit!

Delivery and Packaging

My box arrived as promised on Tuesday. It was packaged in a sturdy box, with wool insulation and ice packs. 

The wool is used as an eco-friendly option and can be used for composting etc. if you remove the plastic wrap. The box as you would expect can be recycled in your household recycling bin

What's in the box?

My box included recipes for Tiger Prawn Linguine with Chilli and Sun-Dried Tomatoes, The Ferrari of Orange Beef stir Fries, and grilled Lamb Pittas with Cucumber Salsa and Summer Salad.

I was also please to receive a complimentary bar of chocolate with my first delivery!

The ingredients were well packaged down to the little brown bag of bits and pieces such as chilli flakes, soy sauce and brown sugar.

Everything lasted well ecept for my pitta bread which went mould on the 3rd day but HelloFresh customer service apologised and gave me £5 off my next box.

I will post my  cookery attempts separately!

Ratings

 Delivery - Free delivery but only on a set day

Packaging - Lots of packaging but most is recyclable 

Quality & Taste - Really good quality ingredients 

despite my pitta going mouldy!

Value for Money - Quite pricey for the average family but not bad considering the effort involved in sourcing ingredients and cost of eating out.

Other comments: I liked that this service encouraged me to try recipes that I wouldn't usually try and new ingredients which I wouldn't usually buy.

     Overall Rating:

Riverford Organic Farms

I've been receiving veg boxes from Riverford Organic Farms for a couple of months now.

I'm not really into organic food, if I'm at the supermarket and have a choice between organic apples or supermarket own I'll tend to go for the cheapest if they look good. What I do lack tends to be variety, if I walked around the supermarket once a week and picked up vegetables I would always end up with potatoes, carrots and occasionally sweetcorn (exciting I know).

The beauty of a veg box is that you get what's in season and you get variety without the supermarket sorting and cleaning and packaging.

Riverford Organic - Mini Veg Box

How easy was it to order?

The website itself is very easy to use on the front page I can easily select boxes, shop or recipes. There is also a tool to help you choose what size and type of box suits your needs.

Once you've chosen a box you can set up a regular delivery or stick to a one off purchase, add other items if you wish.

At checkout you enter your postcode, select frequency of your delivery and all the usual details.

Delivery and Packaging

On my specified delivery day my box was hand delivered by a Riverford van from my local farm (about 40 miles away). By sticking to set delivery days they are able to offer free delivery when you buy a box or spend over £12.50.

What's in the box?

A mini veg box aims to feed 1-2 people with 7 items included.

My box contained onions, carrots, a bag of rocket, a large cauliflower, two heads of broccoli, four portobello mushrooms and a bag of potatoes.

Ratings

 Delivery - Free delivery but only on a set day

Packaging - Minimal packaging, collected and re-used by farm

Quality & Taste - Nice quality fresh vegetables



Value for Money - Expect to pay more for organic


Other comments: It can be difficult to use everything in the box although you are provided with recipes and news. It would also be nice to have more choice on what you like and don't like. Otherwise I cannot fault the service I've received.

     Overall Rating: