Gusto boxes

[IdesMarchof]

Just started the gusto boxes. Would anyone like to swap recipe choices? / hints?

I’m cooking the prawn farfalle today - about to serve it for lunch but baffled the online recipe and physical recipe card don’t match. One says rocket one says pea shoots - I assume that’s a sub but weird that it’s the physical version that’s correct!

Has anyone else made this one? Or have any tips on choosing gusto meals?

Sorry, my last post got a bit jumbled as my DH was talking to me at the same time. Hopefully you get what I am trying to say!

Yes I understood!

Glad I’m not alone! The meals are so delicious, it doesn’t seem too much effort to use them up as snacks. I have a stack of ex Chinese takeaway containers which have all sorts of colourful goodies lined up!

That’s a good idea. We have stacks of those takeaway containers in our cupboard too so may start doing the same.

Just checked out the new menu for the week after next. Some nice recipes but there almost seems to be a chicken theme going on as more chicken based recipes than normal.

Ooh can I join please. We’ve been ordering Gousto boxes since about June last year and absolutely love them. Dd1 became a pescatarian last year so I only order fish and veggie meals. I don’t think we’ve ever eaten better. Even my red meat loving dh doesn’t mind.

I’ve ordered the peanut butter meat free burgers so can report back

Ooh I will be interested to hear what you make of the peanut butter burger!

Thanks for taking one for the team @Dunlin 😂

There's also a clotted cream one coming up 🤢

We had the Turkish spiced lamb pies tonight (minus the tomato in the salad because I suspect DH ate it, although he denies everything). Nice enough, although the pie was a little weird just having a big lump of mince inside.

I had paused my box for a few weeks and they sent me a code for "20% off for a month" so have ordered a box for 7 June:
Garlic and Prawn Linguine
Thai Green Veg Curry
Greek Lentil Moussaka
Tomato, Basil and Aspatagus Pasta Salad

Bit disappointed in veg/seafood dishes for the following week.

The following week seems 80% chicken dishes doesn’t it?!

I have the lamb moussaka coming next week. Also ordered Indian type chicken wraps, a keema topped nann bread thing and a pulled chicken noodle dish. Might change it again between now and the weekend though!

A lot of meat.
And then the fish dishes are always basa or pay extra for salmon...which pushes the total cost to a stupid amount when I can get two servings of salmon for less than £4 from the supermarket.

Yes I have noticed that. You literally have basa for every fish dish unless you pay extra for salmon. I can get 2 nice salmon fillets for under £3 in Auldi’s!

I like meat but I felt that most of the dishes for the week after next were various chicken meals. I like chicken but wouldn’t want multiple chicken meals in one week. I might give that week a miss.

We hate the use of clotted cream in some of the recipes.

I can’t eat the chicken recipes which is a shame as I won’t eat battery chicken.

Trial MindfulChef box comes later this week - will post a review.

Would be interested to hear your review of Mindful Chef, Foxhasbigsocks. My sister had it once and said the quality of ingredients was very good.

Mindful chef box has just arrived.

Positives so far are - everything was there and looking pristine! This was a winner because 50% of my gusto boxes are missing something and have dodgy items like bruised/damaged veg. To be fair though, my first gusto box was also perfect, so I’m reserving judgment until I’ve had another box, if the food tastes nice.

Another positive - everything except meat and fish and dairy is bagged in a numbered bag for the recipe - all veg etc. That meant it didn’t take me the time it usually does to sort through all the items and check they are there.

Welfare standards very high eg free range pork.

Negatives - I like the Gousto recipe cards and this comes with a little A5 magazine with the recipes in. That means you get all the recipes for the month (bonus), but I will have to cut out the ones I’ve made and pop them into my gusto binder! It’s great they are on recycled paper, but I like to write recipe notes on mine (eg chilli amount used) and not sure this format will stand up to that.

The amount of carbs looks tiny. I can just imagine dp shaking his head when he sees

My DH wouldn’t be impressed if there was a reduction in carbs. The chicken makhani that we got a few weeks back had a naan but no rice in the recipe which my DH was none too impressed by. I ended up having to boil him up some rice to go alongside it!

@pinkchampagne1 that made me laugh - my dp would definitely be the same!

I forgot to mention I also got a little free gift - a nice sparkling drink. We’ve never had any freebies on Gousto

We had the first MindfulChef meal tonight - teriyaki salmon with quinoa. Was actually very good - really tasty. The kids bizarrely liked the quinoa and also the salmon (I left the chilli out of theirs). Came with spinach and pak Choi. The recipe amount of chilli is always too much for us in Gousto so I toned it down but I think I should have stuck with the recipe amount as it would have been even nicer. The kids and dp both rated the meal 9.5/10

We dug out an old Gousto recipe for hoisin meatballs with sesame cabbage this week. Really delicious and we had everything in.

Glad you all enjoyed your first Mindful Chef meal, Foxhasbigsocks. Sounds like your dp enjoyed it despite the lack of carbs.

We had the hoisin meatballs a couple of times, iklboo. We really enjoyed them.

We are cooking the chicken pathia again for friends tomorrow evening.

I've made the lamb doner and Cajun chicken sweet corn casserole this week, both have been lovely! Pizzas in the oven - but fiddly but I love making the Gousto pizzas

Oh I liked the look of the lamb doner and would have added it if I had had a box this week. Good to hear you enjoyed it.

@pinkchampagne1 it was really tasty and felt quite a light / healthy dish compared to the usual kebab at least. I'd defiantly order again or make at home

wouldukissafrog, it sounds lovely. I will be on the look out for it next time it is on the menu.

I decided against a box this week as it was half term and we had plans to eat out quite a bit. Just had the bacon and mushroom risotto which was left from last weeks box though.

Back to finish off the MindfulChef review. So my conclusions are that in this box the quality of veg and meat/fish was clearly nicer than most we’ve had from Gousto, but it was a first order so may have been carefully checked.

Much longer sell by dates which was convenient.

Meals were tasty, but I’m not convinced by the vegan items coming as standard instead of dairy. Eg I was a bit baffled by cashew milk to make creamed leeks and coconut “yoghurt” used to make a harissa dip for koftes.

Overall recipes very good - meals choices slightly more to our taste than Gousto but hasn’t blown me away! I will probably alternate no box at all, MindfulChef and Gousto