My food bag

This week was a great week to start my blog. Ross and I are doing our second ever My Food Bag.

Our first My Food Bag was a Christmas gift from Ross's parents. We loved the food the first time around, but we had some trouble getting our bag delivered. When they arrived to drop off the bag, they rang my cellphone but the call never went through (for reasons that are still a mystery to me). Our bag was taken back to the depot and we had a very underwhelming dinner on the first night (never underestimate having a bag of frozen oven fries in the freezer). 

I suspect that the company was still experiencing some teething problems at the time and when I contacted them about it, they were very apologetic and offered us 10 percent off our next bag.  

So, this week we were ready to give it another whirl.  

My Food Bag is a great option for anyone wanting some more variety in their cooking. We get the gourmet option, which feeds two foodies for four nights with pretty decent sized portions. I'm pretty sure Ross and I are the target market for the gourmet bag - young urban professionals who can't always be bothered searching books for new ideas and co-ordinating recipes with seasonal produce and supermarket specials (we are both economists, after all!). So the whole concept is really right up our alley. Really the only downside is that it creates a few more dishes than we are used to. 

On Sunday night, all I have to do is pop downstairs when the buzzer rings - slippers, trackpants, the whole get up - to pick up our bag. Well, it's two bags really, but I'm not going to complain about overachieving. 

We unload our bags full of tasty and nutritious food. There's always lots of vegetables, which makes me happy, and the meat is always high quality. Invariably there's an ingredient in there that I haven't cooked with before. This week it's eggplant. I look at it suspiciously and hope that I can make something erring more on the side of tasty than rubbery - I have had varied experiences eating eggplant in the past. 

The exciting range of ingredients in our bag.

Our first meal was a Panang fish and vegetable curry. We like our food quite spicy, but you could adjust it to whatever heat you like. We often don't get enough fish in our diet, so this was an absolute treat. 

Panang fish and vegetable curry with rice.

For me, the highlight was Monday night when we had scotch fillet with balsamic tomatoes and parmesan mash. I wasn't sure what to expect of balsamic tomatoes, but they were off-the-charts delicious. And Ross cooked the scotch filet absolutely beautifully. 

Scotch fillet with balsamic tomatoes and parmesan oregano mash.

Compared with the last time we did My Food Bag, the meals were a lot simpler to make. The caramelised onion, camembert, courgette and mushroom pizzas we had on Tuesday were the ultimate in easy yet delicious. 

We had to replace the pizza bases that were supplied with gluten-free ones. Usually there are only one or two items that aren't gluten free and the recipes always say whether they are gluten-free, dairy-free or vegetarian, so we find it easy to adapt for us. However, at this stage, it doesn't seem like My Food Bag would be easily adapted for other dietary requirements. Hopefully the company will eventually be able to grow to a point where they can do a wider range of bags for different needs (and be able to deliver them to a wider range of regions).

Caramelised onion, camembert, courgette and mushroom pizza with pear and rocket salad.

The smoked duck salad on Wednesday night was something really quite different for us. The smoked duck was quite rich, so the salad and the tangy glaze provided nice balance. There were oodles of green vegetables. It was almost disappointingly healthy. Almost. 

We couldn't have the panko crumbs so our eggplant was simply fried in oil. And, guess what? It wasn't rubbery! 

Nailed it. 

Smoked duck salad with panko eggplant, apple and pak choy.