Hot on the Highstreet Week 215

I look forward to lunchtime all morning, and miss it all afternoon. Working in Knightsbridge has its perks but there isn’t much choice when it comes to feeding time! The options are too pricey or located too far away, most of my office end up going to Waitrose to pick out the ingredients to make their own plates of food.

Lunchbox London solves all your working day culinary problems providing office catering and individual lunches. The delicious meals are healthy and nutritious, prepared freshly each morning. The hard-working lunchbox girls think up a new creative menu each week which gets sent to you by email after you subscribe online. Just place your order from the menu by email the day before and your lunch will be delivered to your doorstep by 12pm the following day.

Their office catering provides for larger groups or meetings with artisan sandwiches, finger bites, and buffet-style sharing salads. All from just £6 a head. This innovative company have also got afternoon snacks covered, with healthy, appetite-satisfying snacks to get your through the afternoon.

The Lunchbox team came to meet me last week for the perfect little picnic in Hyde Park. After hearing about their backgrounds in cooking and studying at renowned cooking school Leiths, I tried a range of tasty and inventive meals. I greedily managed to finish off almost my whole menu:

Sweetcorn fritters, mozzarella, avocado-lime salsa & sundried tomato salad,

Goats cheese, pomegranate and aubergine chicken rolls with roast squash, rocket and herb dressing,

Marmite popcorn,

Seeded agave bars.

The fritters were my favourite, a crunchy texture with a good bite contrasting with the peppery salad, citrusy salsa and zingy tomatoes and the soft comforting cheese. It was polished off in no time. The chicken rolls were great too, a more filling meal with exotic sweet pomegranate fruit. Marmite popcorn proved to be a hit with my girly colleagues, who loved that one portion is less than 100 calories! The agave bar looked too healthy for me, a small and dense cake-like bar I was amazed to find it had a sweet and moreish taste, I particularly noticed the flavoursome desiccated coconut inside.

I went back to the office raving about this brilliant young company. Currently they only deliver to a limited central postcode but let’s hope Lunchbox gets out to all Londoners soon, everyone needs a lunch this healthy and delicious!

Visit the Lunchbox London website here or email thegirls@lunchboxlondon.com to find out more and order.

Hello Fresh

What is Hello Fresh?
“Hello Fresh is a new and revolutionary way to cook: we aim to help people who appreciate good food find the time to enjoy it.”

This online food company comprise a group of highly qualified chefs creating interesting nutritional meals. They deliver the necessary ingredients direct to your door, in the correct proportion for the recipes along with tips and information, inspiring you to cook at home. The boxes come in different sizes and varieties, so there is something to suit every palate.

Receiving my Hello Fresh box, I was aware of three obvious advantages: time saving, recipe teaching and healthy, non-wasteful eating. They are carefully arranged and thought through, cost and time effective for everyone. We did notice a few inaccuracies in the recipes: an instruction to boil a pan of unneeded water and a strange suggestion to squeeze an orange onto the chopping board. These discrepancies standout as the recipes are otherwise so clear, easy-to-follow and well presented.

As a keen meat eater I was disappointed when the incorrect veggie box arrived at my door, nonetheless the recipes were varied and intriguing.
– Zesty Citrus Stir-Fry with Tofu and Ginger
– Courgette and Sun-Dried Tomato Dorset Pastry Tart with Fresh Basil (although we received Rocket instead)
– Thai Mussaman Rice with Roasted Aubergine and Chestnut Mushrooms

Each recipe card includes preparation time and nutrition facts, and I was surprised to read that every serving contained over 450 calories considering the healthy ingredients, however the servings were huge. We prepared all three meals in one evening, a feast for a whole family to enjoy.  It was a bit chaotic but the results were mostly successful! The food smelt and looked as it needed to, and tasted fresh and full of flavour… I certainly learnt something from the experience and will definitely be trying the pastry tart again.

Hello Fresh do (nearly) all the work for you, sending a perfectly organised box with the exact measures of ingredients, recipe cards and an information pack. The only things left to do are to cook and enjoy it!

Boxes vary in price. Our veggie box, containing three meals each for two people, was priced at £36.00 including taxes and shipping. Working out at £6 per meal per person, it seems quite reasonable to me considering the knowledge and cooking skills you are left with even after all the food has been eaten!

Hello Fresh are kindly offering Thoroughly Modern Milly fans £10 off by using the voucher code MILLY1.

www.hellofresh.co.uk