Mindful Chef family recipe box product test – Feedback thread!

[MaddyMumsnet]

This thread is ONLY for Mumsnetters who are taking part in this product test.

Hi Mindful Chef testers,

Welcome to your Mindful Chef product test, we’re so excited to have you all here! 🍽️✨

Over the next couple of weeks, you’ll be putting Mindful Chef’s family recipe boxes to the test at home, and this thread is where we’d love you to share your experience as you go along.

We’re really interested in how the meals work in real family life – from busy weeknight dinners to getting everyone around the table – so the more detail you can share, the better.

To get things started, here are a few things you might want to tell us about:
Getting started

• How did you find the ordering process?
• How was the variety of Family-friendly meals on offer?
• What made you pick the recipes you went for?
• First impressions when your box arrived – how did everything look and feel?

Cooking & eating

• How easy were the recipes to cook?
• How well did they fit into your usual family mealtime routine? Did they feel manageable on a weeknight?
• Did they take more or less time than the recipe suggested?
• Did your children get involved in the cooking at all?
• Any favourite meals so far? Or any that didn’t quite hit the mark?

Family mealtimes

• Did the whole family enjoy the meals?
• Any big wins with the kids? Did they clear their plates? 👀
• Did the portions work well for your household?
• Could you see these meals becoming part of your regular routine

Overall thoughts as you go

• How are you finding the quality of the ingredients?
• Has anything surprised you so far?
• Does a recipe box help reduce the mental load of planning and cooking?
• How does Mindful Chef compare to your usual way of planning and cooking meals?

Photos are encouraged if you’re happy to share, we love seeing the meals (and real-life kitchen moments!) 📸

Please make sure you’re updating this thread regularly across the full 2-week testing period - we’re looking to hear from you throughout, not just at the end.

Thanks again for being part of this, we can’t wait to hear how you get on, and we’ll be checking in here along the way too.

MNHQ x

We chose the gnocchi bake and the mild chilli. We mainly chose these because we thought the children would be most likely to eat them, but also we wanted something a bit different to what we usually have.

So excited to be chosen for this - I've looked at Mindful Chef before but felt overwhelmed by the options, so pleased that I can actually try it and see how I get on.

I set up the account really easily, and found that it was easy to filter for "Family Friendly" - my kids are 11 and 16, so it was great to involve them in deciding what we will be getting over the next couple of weeks, and hopefully will involve them in the prepping and cooking process (highly doubt they'll want to be involved in the cleaning process though). My 11 year old is very picky, and my 16 year old will eat anything, so it was a great debate with them about what to decide, but we got there in the end.

Looking forward to trying them when they arrive next week.

Just ordered for Saturday. Pretty easy to use the website and a good range of meals to choose from (obviously my family couldn’t agree on what to order!)

I found signing up and ordering straightforward

There were lots of tasty looking recipes to choose from

We picked recipes with lots of ingredients that we wouldn't necessarily try ordinarily because we don't want to buy things we won't use again

I'm looking forward to my box arriving

I found the ordering process straightforward, I ordered from my phone and was able to set up an account and order with ease. You can quickly filter meal options and look at recipes in more detail.

I chose the recipes with my husband (our children are toddlers so can’t properly help choose but I did discuss it with my 3 year old who was excited at the prospect and at looking at the pictures). We chose recipes that are slightly different from what we usually eat (to try and give us some inspiration for future meals) and quick to make.

I’m looking forward to receiving my box next week!

Nearly missed the email as it was in my junk box 😱 have signed up now, what a treat! Quite a lot of variety to choose from, we’ve gone for a salmon dish and a beef dish for our fish week

Like others, I was surprised there were not many options in the family friendly section, and wonder what the criteria was

Really excited to be trying this. I found ordering pretty simple. I felt the choice of family friendly meals wasn’t that exciting but what was on offer did sound nice and there was plenty to cater for various diets which was good. Looking forward to the weekend when the food arrives!

I received the email notification that I had been selected for the product test on Monday.

The ordering process was really straightforward.

There is a good variety of Family-friendly meals on offer, however I picked recipes for meals that I wouldn't usually cook myself just so I can get the family trying out new meals.

My first order is due to arrive tomorrow so will be back to give my feedback on initial first impressions.

My order is arriving today. I’m surprised not to have had any dispatch emails though. Did anyone else?

@Wallaroo21 - I just received a text and email with a 1 hour slot for my delivery today.

Signing in here!

I decided to sign up for this product test because basically I am 44, have two teenage boys and a husband, and quite frankly I have got bored with having to have the imagination and drive to produce a meal for us every evening.

I do tend to "cook from scratch", and eating fresh food is important to us, but I have never tried a food subscription service. I am very interested in whether it turns out to be good quality, and also whether it constitutes "good value" (bearing in mind my time spent cooking has a "value" as well!)

How did you find the ordering process?

I found the process fairly easy. The website seemed easy to navigate, and had no problem with placing the order. I suppose though I can't compare how easy it is to use compared with other similar services as I don't have experience of them.

How was the variety of Family-friendly meals on offer?

I will be honest here and say the recipes that were classed as "family friendly" didn't excite me as much as the wider range of options. I think options like "mild chilli" could be appealing to a younger family than mine.

I do think Mindful Chef could increase their family friendly range by including some of the recipes that aren't currently classed as that. For example, I am sure my family would have all enjoyed the chicken nasi goreng.

What made you pick the recipes you went for?

From the options available, I wanted to make sure I picked something that I wouldn't ordinarily cook myself, and that might seem a bit different and a bit of a treat.

With that in mind, I discounted getting the sweet and sour, the chilli and the tikka masala (though if i was to have the subscription on a regular basis I would probably pick things that we would ordinarily have).

So I picked
Pork and Apple patties and
Sticky Five spice beef.
I am looking forward to trying both dishes.

First impressions when your box arrived – how did everything look and feel?

Just received the box and I am impressed! Well packaged, everything seems cool.

The meat is the correct portion I would choose for my family (500g), as that was a concern of mine before I received the box, as quantities weren't stated on the website.

The vegetables seem nice and fresh, and I am impressed with the little packets of ingredients.

I think I will plan to make the sticky beef this evening.

I found it very easy to place my first order, and it was delivered today. Easy and quick to unpack, reassuringly cold. I like that you get all recipes,not just the ones you ordered.

Our first box has just arrived! It was very heavy! Everything was packed well, although I think the box could possibly be smaller. Everything was well packed and felt cold from the 2 cool packs. One of the ingredient bags was ripped a little at the bottom but it didn’t make much difference. I like that you can just put the bags straight into the fridge. I would have found it much simpler if the meal name had been written on each of the bags so I didn’t have to open them and check inside. I was also unaware that there would be no recipe cards to go with the meals. I would much rather use a recipe card than have to keep looking at my phone. We are having our first meal tonight so will share how it goes ☺️

• First impressions when your box arrived – how did everything look and feel? Hmm as a family of four - two of which are teens I am slightly horrified by the portion sizes. Whether because we're all over 6ft - all in our BMI though I would add but the portion sizes look like a family of two not four. Having googled these are indeed portion sizes for two people NOT four! Think we will have to add in extra! Not impressed for the cost so far and glad I didnt pay.

there should be a little booklet in the box which has all the recipes in.

@lpbarton absolutely agree with you, we are family of four, my kids are 6 and 10 but eat fairly good portions. The carb portions are too small - 200g rice between us! And 250g pasta for our other meal. Pasta packets normally recommend 90g pp.

Fresh produce looks good and appealing. Starting to cook now…

@EggbertHeartsTina will be interesting to see how filling we find them. They seem more like a lunch then main dinner meal but the produce does look fresh and good quality!

Right, thought I'd pop on as we've just had our first meal, the Sticky Five-Spice Beef.

First things first, the quality of the produce seemed very good on first inspection. The quantity also seemed more than adequate for our family, with the amount of beef (500g), amount of rice (2 packets of 250g) and the veg being the amount we would usually eat.

I started following the recipe. I did adjust the times as I thought the onion and the carrot could withstand a bit more cooking. I used two pans instead of one to speed the process up, and I would say it took 30 mins to cook all in all. As someone who cooks regularly I would say it wasn't easier than following the usual recipes I follow (but that isn't the issue).

Very importantly I need to say the minced beef was the nicest minced beef I have ever cooked! No water came off it whatsoever, and it cooked beautifully.

I will show below the recipe plated up. It was more than enough food for us (two greedy adults, and boy teenagers).

The meal itself was really delicious. Me and my husband thoroughly enjoyed it. One teenager complained about top much veg 😂. But I would say a top notch meal.

I am a naturally sceptical person, so I'm not easily won over, but I am pretty happy with the meal (and the recipe booklet). I will see how the other meals turn out before my final verdict though.

For those who've had their deliveries today, is the box cool enough to be left outside in our safe place for a couple of hours? I have to go out tomorrow morning now and I imagine sod's law that's when it'll come.

Thanks for choosing me, really looking forward to this. I have two kids 12 & 17 who are both a bit fussy in their own ways, the 12 year old much more so. We sat down and they got to choose one each but also made sure that the other one would eat it. Signing up and ordering was so easy and really quick, I signed up on Monday and managed to get my first two meals delivered today. There seemed to be a really good selection of meals and we went for Sticky Peanut Prawns with speedy brown rice and broccoli and peri peri chicken thighs with sweet potato fries, mange tout and peas.

Box arrived today and everything was packaged really well with ice packs for the prawns and chicken. Both recipes were in brown paper bags and labelled and there was a recipe book in the box with all of the family friendly recipes in so even when the trial is over we can still cook the meals that we didn’t get to order. All of the food was very fresh, nothing was wilted or sad looking (Gousto I’m looking at you)!

I got over excited and cooked our first meal this evening as we were all at home. I cooked the sticky peanut prawns and it was SO good! 12 year old wasn’t a fan of the prawns but that’s nothing to do with the recipe, she did eat two and then my husband and son shared her left over ones! The recipe was easy to cook, the instructions flowed nicely and were easy to follow. I’m not a natural cook so I like simple to follow recipes and this was perfect. This was definitely manageable on a week night and took about 30 minutes including the prep and having a 12 year old helping! 3 out of 4 plates were cleared and it was only the prawns left on my daughters plate, portions were good although my husband would have eaten more if there was any. I’ll add a photo but so far so good!

Yes definitely x

Received the first box today, May 1st. Decided to try the Chilli Con Carne recipe for dinner, our ‘safe’ choice for the kids and because I was off work today with hubby home early so we could see how long it actually took compared to what the method claimed it would take (I made something a couple of weeks ago that should have taken 40 minutes from start to finish, prep AND cooking… took over an hour because chopping the veg didn’t take 10 minutes as they had promised, I can’t go off recipe time claims anymore after that!)

I had an email off Mindful Chef yesterday letting me know it would be DPD delivering and to expect a time slot in the morning – I do rate DPD as a good courier company, maybe not for everything as I do usually need to be in and having to sign for most deliveries with them which can be inconvenient (however they let you rearrange which I’ve found really helpful), but they are usually good with regards to sending a slot by mid-morning and actually arriving during that time slot, so I was quite happy with the choice of courier. As promised, I got my email and my text message with my slot, and the box arrived on my doorstep during that hour. It was a hefty box, which I wasn’t too surprised at, but it does make me wonder if I missed some sort of disclaimer as there must be people out there who would struggle to pick up that weight when delivered. Or I’m overthinking it, just trying to analyse honestly!

The box was very clearly from Mindful Chef which I can see being an advantage and a disadvantage: it was left on my front doorstep for anyone and everyone to see, so had I been out it was obvious what it was and was easily available should anyone have wanted it (not that that is a concern here, but it may be elsewhere). However, knowing where it was from meant that I was in more of a hurry to get it inside and unpacked, had I been expecting other parcels and they had all come in plain boxes I may have just set this to one side and left it for a few hours. So depending on the area you live in and the shelter your house offers, having this big blue box with the company’s name splashed across it may be a bad thing or it may not matter at all. Again, possibly overthinking this.

I opened it up pretty much straight away (delivered around 2.30pm and planning on having the Chilli for dinner) and found a small cooler compartment and two bags underneath some leaflets. The bags were clearly labelled 10 and 13, and when I looked in one of the leaflets – which turned out to be the recipe book – they were labelled in there as meals 10 and 13. The ingredients were all present and correct, with the meats and dairy in the little cooler compartment separate to the veggies and additions. The way it was packed was neat and organised and easy to check and store, I like the way they do it. There were some cool blocks included too, obviously to keep the goods cool in transit, and they were still slightly frozen so I knew the food inside was still nice and chilled. I’ve defrosted and emptied one and it’s just some sort of cooler gel which is supposedly safe enough to throw down the sink, I’m actually going to keep the other one and see if it can be re-frozen and reused for travelling or storage one day – but it does clearly state it can be emptied down the sink and the packaging recycled at a centre which is quite good, basically everything that arrived is either recyclable or portioned out to avoid food waste.

I kept the Chilli ingredients out and put the other ingredients away, hoping to do the Lamb Meatballs on Sunday.

Cooking & eating
Mild Chilli Con Carne, cooked and eaten 1st May

• We chose this as our safe option and it’s a recipe we cook as one of our semi-regular meals so I chose to do this first in the hopes it would be quick and easy and actually get eaten. It stated 10 minutes prep and 20 minutes total – it took around 35 minutes altogether, maybe I’m just slow and finely chopping onions and got a bit picky wanting the peppers as small I could for the kids, but as I said I don’t trust the timings on recipe sheets much at the moment. Although it took a bit longer than expected it was still quite easy, obviously helped by the ingredients being pre-portioned and basically ready to go. I had everything chopped, kidney beans drained, packets opened and water measured for the final step, and it was just a case of following the order and cooking times for everything.
• This is the sort of meal we would prepare and cook in advance a little but with it being a quicker kind of meal it can also be done just before we sit down. On a normal day when we’re all out of the house we don’t usually cook a meal-meal as the kids eat in nursery about 30 minutes before we pick them up, but a couple of months ago when they were finishing earlier this would have been a meal I would have started on as soon as we got home and had warmed up and waiting for hubby when he finished work and joined us. This recipe was definitely manageable for a weeknight, I started around 45 minutes before we wanted to sit down and eat and with prep, cook and cooling it was perfect timing really.
• I think the prep took a bit longer than it stated it would, but that may be because of my own skills and abilities. And I was in and out of the living room to two toddlers so that wouldn’t have helped the timings. Even adding on an extra 15-20 minutes it works as a regular weeknight evening meal, the only thing that could be done different is cooking it in advance but even then it would take around the same amount of time I reckon.
• My kids are 3 and 2 so they were kept at arm’s length I’m afraid, they enjoy turning the cooker knobs and touching anything and everything they’re not supposed to so until they learn some self-control (we are working on it!) they are kept out of the kitchen for their own safety.
• This is the first meal tried so can’t really comment on favourites just yet.

Family mealtimes

• My 2yo demolished her potion, my husband ate his with a few small complaints, and I ate mine. My 2yo wouldn’t even try his, but he is the picky eater and it wasn’t too surprising to us, just a bit frustrating (although it’s been saved for another meal for the 2yo over the weekend so all is not lost!)
• As above, my 2yo couldn’t get enough and my 3yo didn’t even entertain it. We even picked the kidney beans out of his portion as we knew he wouldn’t touch them!
• The portions for this meal were not enough for the 4 of us, and bear in mind that’s 2 adults and 2 toddlers. If our son ate as well as our daughter, they would have finished their portion (which was only slightly smaller than my husband’s and mine) and the array of snacks afterwards and possibly still been hungry before bed. Seriously, my daughter ate her bowl and then some fruit, a yoghurt pouch, some carrot sticks and a small cupcake. AND 7oz of milk before bed. My husband doesn’t have the biggest appetite but he has gotten himself a snack since eating dinner, and I am currently eating a tub of ice cream whilst I type up my thoughts on the box/meal. I can certainly see why people would lose weight if they opted for this box on the regular, but for us, as a family of good eaters with big appetites for our main meals, this would be more suitable for a lunch or, to be perfectly honest, a main meal for 2 with a couple of other additions (like garlic bread and a lot more veg in the sauce)
• This meal is already one of our semi-regulars, but with a lot more ingredients to bulk it out and fill everyone up more. I don’t think, if we were to subscribe ourselves, we would go for this one again if it was on offer, and if we did I would have to add a lot more to the sauce and offer a side too

Overall thoughts as you go
I have my thoughts on this one meal that has been cooked, but I am going to wait and see how the next 3 pan out. I will likely report back on each meal for the above sections, but this ‘overall’ section I will make notes on and come back and summarise at the very end. I’m not sure any of my thoughts and opinions (or my husband’s, actually) will change much through the next 3 meals, but I think saving this for the very end might be the best course of action.

I have added a few photos from receiving the box, looking at the ingredients and how much my kids were given. I was so focused on feeding them I didn’t take any through the cooking or plating up steps though!

We received our first box today!! So excited! Arrived at the time given, all was very well packed and looked like really good quality ingredients. It was so much fun to open it up.
I made the steak salad. It did take quite a while to make it but was nice to use good quality ingredients, the portions were quite big but probably because my kids are younger. We all enjoyed the dish. The kids were a bit fussy with the beef but they still had some and we had some leftovers too!

was yummy. very filling and healthy dish. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Great that there was no wastage. Some smaller packs were a bit fiddly to open with no easy open option. Although very please with how easy it was to open the meat packet.

all in all a great experience. The finished product looked good.

looking forward to tomorrow’s meal!!