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

Our box arrived today within the hour slot DPD said they would deliver

The box looked intact but a pack of chicken had burst and leaked

We had sticky 5 spice beef for tea and it was tasty

Getting started
I found ordering fairly easy, but I don’t think it was clear enough that I was getting two meals of four portions each, it sounded at some points like I was getting two meals of two portions each to eat in one go.

Variety overall was great but the “family friendly” filter was very limited and also non-sensical, there were plenty of other family friendly meals that were filtered out.

I went for salmon teriyaki bowl as we eat that a lot and my kids love salmon. We also went for trout pasta for similar reasons, the kids love fish and I know pasta will be fine. If ordering for just me and husband I’d have gone for some of the salads. I didn’t use the family friendly filter because I thought I was just meant to filter to family size, so the meals were not compliant with the guidelines.

At first glance the box looked good and sustainable but disappointing to see so much plastic used to portion out tiny ingredients.

Cooking & eating
Recipe was fairly easy but certainly not quick. If I was signing up to a meal box it would be to save time after a busy day and this did not.
The recipe book was handy and nice to have all the recipes so we can try them with our own ingredients.

Most of the staple ingredients were already in my cupboard so it felt wasteful and unnecessary using all the tiny plastic packets.

We had to use our own rice which was annoying, as we were only sent a small 200g bag. Seeing some of the other testers pictures I believe this was an error - I noticed the chilli recipe received two bags of microwaveable rice for 4, which equates to 500g.

Veg seemed to be good quality.

Kids didn’t get involved as cooking and a podcast is my time!

Salmon cooked beautifully, usually I’d do in the air fryer but going back to the oven in a sauce marinade reminded me how moist this can make it.

Teriyaki sauce was too sweet so I wouldn’t use all the honey if I did again. The yoghurt was too limey and in our opinion didn’t really “go” with the dish.

Kids didn’t clear plates which is normal for my 6 year old but usually my 10 year old would eat the lot.

This particular meal hasn’t quite hit the mark but I’ll see what the next ones are like before I say whether I’d use mindful chef going forward.

Our box arrived today! Delivered on time with dpd. Box well insulated and food was chilled. Unfortunately one of the eggs had broken (even in its very cute protective egg box!). Looking forward to cooking and trying the first meal tonight.

Got our box today, delivered well with DPD. The box itself was a little damaged at the top, but we're not cooking the first meal until tomorrow so we've not opened the inner bits yet to see if there's any damage in there.
One slight disappointment, got a text this morning to say there wouldn't be a recipe booklet in there due to an "unforseen supply issue". They did send me a link to get the recipes online, but I was looking forward to having a paper recipe to follow, rather than having to keep looking at my phone.

Really pleased with my box, ingredients packaged well and I appreciate the microwave rice rather than having to boil it. Much easier and a big time saver for family meals!
I’m glad I got the recipe book in mine so I can have a go at the other recipes. I chose from the specific family range this week but wondering if we need to stick to that next time as some of the other recipes did sound nice!

Our first box arrived, we ordered gnocchi and the sticky peanut prawns. Everything seemed well packaged. We had the gnocchi last night. The ingredients seemed fresh and the meal was easy to make. There was enough gnocchi for all 4 of us but it was a shame there wasn't enough salad.

Cooked our second meal this evening. This time it was a bigger hit. The trout was good and the pasta sauce was really nice - cooking with sundried tomatoes as well as chopped toms is definitely something I’ll take forward in my own recipes. It was good to try trout as we’d normally buy salmon or bass.

The garlic cloves were a bit haggard!

Again I think the carb portion was too small. 250g for a family of 4? My 10 year old is almost as tall as me and eats an adult portion. Pasta packs usually suggest 90g pp as I mentioned above.

I actually used our own pasta and saved the rice pasta for when gluten-free friends and family come over.

My boys enjoyed the fish, the only complaint from them was that the skin wasn’t as tasty as salmon skin (we always bung it in the air fryer for a crispy treat).

We tried the sticky five spice rice this evening. It was really nice. Everyone enjoyed it and said they would have it again.
Portion size was very good as was the quality of ingredients. Cooking instructions very easy to follow but I cooked the veg and meat for slightly longer than suggested.

I'm really looking forward to cooking the Mindful Chef meals over the next couple of weeks! Ordering was super easy, though as others have said, I loved some of the meals that weren't in the 'family friendly' section - my children would have eaten them, and it's great to give them more variety.

Box arrived yesterday. I was pretty disappointed that I received no recipe book. One of my pet hates about trying new recipes is having to refer to my phone which I had to do. To be fair I was warned about the lack of recipe book so did appreciate that and felt that was good communication.

Delivery was great, dpd sent an hour slot and it arrived within the specified time.
I was impressed with the box, it was very cold and well packaged and I’d imagine would be fine sitting in a porch awhile if you’re not in. The produce looked good quality and it was good that a lot of the packaging seems to be recyclable.

We cooked the peri peri chicken thighs which took maybe slightly longer than stated but I kept having to refer to the phone and also mind my toddler, who also got involved with some of the cooking, which probably slowed things down.

The recipe was easy to follow and I spent around the usual time I would cooking. It would definitely be manageable on a weeknight for us.

I used slightly less spice for the kids portions as my toddlers not used to spice and 16YO not a fan of anything too spicy. It was good there was that option to adjust the recipe to suit. We all enjoyed it. The only thing I would say is it did feel smaller than family meals we would usually have, but perhaps our portion sizing is a bit big.

It is definitely something i would make again. It was easier not having to plan the meal, weigh out ingredients and nice there’s not any leftover bits to have to use up or put away. Although this could also be a drawback.

Just thought I'd comment because reading a lot of comments saying the portion sizes aren't big enough - from looking some of you had half the amount of carbs delivered than we did (we had 500g of rice delivered for four of us, two packets).

This might be a problem with the ordering system as I did have to change the options from a two person meal to a four when ordering. I am wondering if some of you are inadvertently ordering for two people instead of four?

Me and my husband are both fat and greedy and like big portion sizes, and have two teenage boys and our first meal was definitely a decent size.

Our box arrived on Friday; had an email from Mindful Chef that it was on the way and a time form DPD for arrival. Someone was home, it arrived very early but was well packaged had we not have been in to receive it.

Just made the chicken thighs and sweet potato wedges for lunch. Meat looked very good quality but a little chewy in parts. Veg very good and the yoghurt dressing was delicious - will be replicating this for summer bbq’s.

Can see the benefit of it all arriving with little packets for the dressing and sauces which means you don’t buy something for just one recipe. It take the hassle out of choosing a meal and gave us some variety on what we usually have.

It was quick and easy to prepare and minimal utensils used so less to clear away. Like others I was concerned the portion sizes might be a bit small, for lunch it was ok but I think for dinner it might have been on the small side.

I know others have mentioned about the smaller choice from the family-friendly section but for me I found it easy as too much choice makes me dither! I’ve selected different options for next week.

I’m pleased to get the opportunity to try this as I’ve always been curious about recipe boxes!

Received my order on Friday I received a text which let me know a 1 hour slot that it was going to arrive. It was really well packaged and liked the fact that I could just literally put the meal in the brown bag in the fridge to keep it all together for when I go to cook it.

Cooked the first recipe and the step by step instructions were easy to follow and made you feel like you was in control of the cooking.
It took longer to prepare than usual for our family mealtime as there was quite a few steps to follow with putting different sauces in at different times if it was a busy after school day when clubs are on this would not be an easy option to cook but for weekends when time is more available it would be perfect.

The rice to cook took alot longer than it stated it would after 40 minutes it still felt quite firm in boiling water.

No children did not get involved in the first cooking wanted to get my head around how the first one would work on my own.

Only cooked 1 of the meals so far had the mild tikka curry and was enjoyed by all but haven't cooked the 2nd one yet to compare with which I will be doing this evening.

Are you interested in hearing back from Mumsnetters who gave tried Mindful Chef, but are not part of the trial?
If yes, my contribution would be; never enough vegetables - I would usually cook much larger vegetable portions; and we felt the meals were a bit too 'safe' for us. By that I means, we like authentic dishes from around the globe with strong flavours. I appreciate you are trying to please all palates, but my son's reaction was that it was too Middle England for multicultural Londoners. His actual words were ethnic food for white people.

I need to do a couple of posts to catch up! , but I'm off to work in a bit so will just do the first one now. I'm grateful to have been chosen, am looking forward to a slightly lessened mental load this week and next.

• How did you find the ordering process?

Ordering was fine, I did it (as I do everything) on my phone, while homework, reading and general after school chaos ensues. That said I kept bouncing backwards and forwards between weeks and it cleared my basket, so I ended up stopping with the multitasking and doing it after the small people were in bed. That made it easier.

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

There were enough to choose from - a lot had soya in, which was limiting for us. Dairy is easy enough to swap out but soya can be a more intrinsic part of a meal.

• What made you pick the recipes you went for?

I've picked one simple and one more complicated meal each week to appease picky palates. I'm not sure as to quantities - last time we used Hello Fresh I ended up bulking everything out with extra veg, bread and butter.

I am so excited to test Mindful chef meals with my family, we really get stuck in a rut of meals and having everything delivered is brilliant. There are lots of options on the website, I have to say it's wasn't so easy to navigate on my mobile phone found it easier on the laptop. Maybe there was an app I missed to make it more phone friendly, now I struggled to choose family friendly meals we looked through them all with the 9 and 19 year old and and eventually agreed on the steak meal and the hidden veg pasta bolognaise. We paid extra so the box arrived between 7am and 12 lunchtime as didnt want to be waiting in all day for it. The products look lovely and come in bags to place in the fridge grrat for convenience. Today we had the dinner steak salad will post a photo, it was easy to make and tasty although my 9 year old didnt like the herbs or sauces.

Grateful to get on the trial. Plenty of tasty recipes to choose from. Choose Vietnamese style beef salad. 10/10 super tasty and plenty for 4 to eat. Even got leftovers . Was easy to follow the recipe. Everything you needed was in the bag.

Easy to order from the delicious recipes. Decided to try the sticky 5 spice rice. An excellent choice. Everything I needed was supplied in the bag. Full instructions. Found it easy to follow the recipe. Everyone thought it was very tasty

We had the mild chilli tonight. It was nice and easy to cook, although it took longer than the recipe said for the sauce to thicken. To be honest it still wasn't necessarily very thick when we ate it, but that could just be the way I cooked it.

I was a bit worried after reading previous comments about portion sizes, but there was more than enough for us. My children are very young though so I imagine our portion sizes are smaller than if we had two teenage boys. My son absolutely loved it. We liked it, but I'm not sure it's worth the money. It felt like something we could have made ourselves a lot cheaper, although we did pick more "simple" meals to make it more likely that the kids would like them.

I'll write something longer when I have time next week but I'm slightly fascinated by the number of recipes that have broccoli in them! Does Mindful Chef have shares in a broccoli farm or something?!

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

The box arrived on Saturday, we were at swimming lessons and DPD were happy to leave it on the doorstep which was a relief (in my experience you can set the porch as your safe drop-off spot as much as you like and they can still pootle off with your parcel!)

Very securely packaged, cold things were cold, meat looked fresh, and nothing was damaged. The latter was a relief as we stopped with Hello fresh as the veg kept arriving battered bruised and way beyond fresh.

Special mention goes to the individually packaged eggs which were hilarious, although surely at the point you have to find an individual egg box it's less wasteful to just send a box of eggs?

Quantity struck me as slightly scanty. Im feeding a husband, 7 year old and 11 year old. It's unlikely my 7 year old will eat much - he doesn't move much from safe foods, but we will give him a bit of everything to try. I think carbs wise i'd have expected half as much again. It may be I end up adding to it, or offering Weetabix as supper afterwards.

We had our second meal from our first box, sticky peanut prawns. Again the ingredients were fresh, it was very quick and easy to make. Less time consuming than the gnocchi although the timings for cooking the prawns was slightly longer than I would usually cook them. It was a really delicious meal. I do think £22 for a meal is quite expensive. We used these meals as a weekend treat and that's the only way I could justify spending money on something like this. That said I do love that the recipe book includes all of the family friendly recipes, my family have already chosen other recipes they'd like to try.

I cooked our first meal yesterday - roast trout recipe.

Completely forgot to take photos but it meal was lovely. My DH loves roasted vegetables so he devoured the meal. My DC (age 13 and 9) liked the meal but weren't a fan of the gluten free pasta.

I was initially concerned about the portion sizes but the trout portions were very generous so made up for the small bag of pasta (250 grams). The recipe was easy to follow but the pasta needed a bit longer to cook than the suggested time.

I'll cook the second receipe in the next day or two.

Completely missed the email in my junk mail but spotted it just now and have placed my order. All was easy and straightforward, with some good choices in the family friendly options. We’ve played it safe for week 1 with two options that we know the kids will eat. Will report back!

We’ve had our first box now and cooked both meals. I found the ordering process pretty easy, but due to a tomato allergy it meant we had a limited selection of meals. Also we are a family of 2 adults, a 5yr old and 11 month old so the portions only being for 4 doesn’t quite work for us. I was a bit annoyed too at it not being obvious which recipes included honey and therefore aren’t suitable for babies.

The produce that arrived was great quality although the chicken in the curry was really rubbery. I did appreciate it being pre cut though. The recipes were very straightforward and gave good options for adapting them, but to be honest so far they are just too simple and a bit bland. For the curry especially I had to add to it to get some more flavour. The biggest problem though is portion size - there is way too much for us and while I try to save leftovers etc it just feels like I’ve cooked and paid for twice as much food as I need.

For me and the way I cook, there hasn’t been much benefit because of the simplicity of the recipes and ingredients. I still need to do a food shop for everything else anyway, but I’m still looking forward to the next two meals to have something different.