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#66: Are Meal Delivery Kits Worth It?: a house log

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#66: Are Meal Delivery Kits Worth It?: a house log

Some people have declared the stainless steel appliance trend over (cue the gasps!). We used stainless appliances in our kitchen, but have chose against them for our beach house, so we are weighing in on when you might want to pull the trigger on stainless – or avoid it fully. And speaking of the kitchen, we have been trying some new things in there lately, including jumping on a certain culinary bandwagon, bringing some organization to our fridge, and at last taking a couple of those meal delivery services for a spin to see if they are all that they are cracked up to be.

You can download this episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, and TuneIn Radio – or listen to it below! Then use this page to check out any links, notes, or photos we referenced. Note: If you are reading in a feed reader, you might have to click through to the post to see the player.

Assist For Puerto Rico

We are thrilled to have raised $12,000 to be donated directly to relief efforts for Puerto Rico thanks to the generosity of the companies we teamed up with below. We are so so SO grateful for their eagerness to join us in sending some much-needed assistance to this striking island:

Universal Furniture | Delta Faucet | Cardboard Safari | Grove Collaborative | West Elm | DAP Products
Shades of Light | The Annie Selke Co. | HANDy Paint | Wohven T-Shirt Subscription | Sabrina Soto

If you’d like to contribute too, here is where you can donate to United for Puerto Rico

What is New

  • Our food photography likely needs some work, but here are some snapshots of two of the vegetarian dinners we tried out from the meal delivery kits (the first one is Hello Fresh, and the photo below that is Blue Apron). We paid for all of the boxes (#notsponsored) but simply hoped to see what all the fuss was about.

  • We were able to adapt all the meals to be vegan for Sherry, including the two that are pictured (I only put feta on my serving of the pasta above, and Sherry did not add the aioli to the paella below). We have made the avocado pasta again already with our own ingredients, and the paella is likely the one Blue Apron meal that we will try again.
  • Sherry also promised to list some of her go-to vegan meals & substitutes:
    • Amy’s Kitchen Roasted Vegetable Pizza (I also enjoy this simply as much as any other pizza)
    • Butter substitute: Earth Balance Buttery Spread (we all use this now and it tastes simply like butter)
    • Mayonaise substitute: Follow Your Heart Vegenaise (we all use this too – has a tang but it is good)
    • Milk substitute: Silk Unsweetened Coconut Milk (tastes the most like real milk with cereal to us)
    • Sour Cream substitute: Tofutti Better Than Sour Cream (I, John, disagree with this name! Real sour cream is still better!)
    • Go-to guacamole: Wholly Guacamole Avacado Verde (it is more like a salsa-guac combo)
    • Go-to hummus snack packs: Sabra Classic Hummus Singles
    • Also, extra firm tofu is the best tofu (this is what we get)
  • If you folks have any other vegan recipes or substitutes that you enjoy, please let us know
  • And if there is a meal delivery kit that has more vegetarian options, tell me so I can order it and not tell Sherry again

Updates

  • If you missed our original discussion of my neurosis about light temperature, it is in Episode #57
  • And here are our go-to soft white LED bulbs for reference
  • And Episode #63 is when we talked to Dr. Budgets and got his recommendation for Mint.com as a strong free budgeting tool
  • YNAB (You Need A Budget) is the budgeting tool you folks enthusiastically recommended too, so we are taking it for a spin. We’d still enjoy any pointers and tricks you have (I am still getting used to it, but hoping in a few months it’ll feel more intuitive).
  • And if you live in the vicinity of Bristol, Virginia – we will be speaking there on Thursday, November 9th at a shop called House Dressing. Click here for info & tickets (only 100 are available!). Hope to see some of you there!

Listener Question

  • Here is some related reading on the stainless steel trend:
    • Apartment Therapy: Are You Ready For The New Stainless Steel?
    • Elements of Style: Is Stainless Steel “Over?”
    • Consumer Reports: Will Black Stainless Steel Finish Off Stainless?
    • People Magazine: 2017 Kitchen Design Trends
    • Digital Trends: “Black Is The New Stainless”
  • For reference, these are the appliances we chose for our kitchen (seen above and below): counter-depth refrigerator | gas range | dishwasher | microwave
  • And here is where you can read more about our plans for the beach house kitchen, including our mixed finish appliances

  • Below are the “White Ice” version of our appliances, which we chose were not the right white color. That fridge even seems too bright next to the cabinets in Whirlpool’s own rendering:

  • And to see some of the other appliance finishes vying for the crown, here is Viking‘s Graphite Gray rendered in a wood kitchen:

  • LG and others are also doing finishes like “Black Stainless” that offer darker options still with a metal finish. Not sure the man bun is selling me on them, though.

  • And of course, there are colorful options from companies like Big Chill (below) and Smeg (and you know we enjoy a vintage pink stove)

We are Digging

  • There is a shot of the inside of our fridge, including the bins that we have been using to wrangle our snack cups of guacamole & hummus (the before shot would be them toppled all over in a few distinct corners and piles). Our fridge is not typically this sparse, FYI – it is time to get my Clicklist on.
  • The bins come in three sizes (we have the “Medium” ones).
  • Here is another good option in case those go out of stock.
  • IFTTT is the app that I am digging (it stands for “If This, Then That”) because it is sending Instagram photos automatically to Twitter for us.
  • It does plenty of other lively and useful things by connecting your web accounts and smart devices (a sampling of them are showing bel0w). And it is all FREE!

If you are looking for something we have dug in a past episode, but do not remember which show notes to click into, here is a master list of everything we have been digging from all of our past episodes.

And lastly, a big thank you to The Annie Selke Companies for sponsoring this episode. Do not forget to take a peek at Annie’s new bed & breakfast, 33 Main, and use code YHL15 to get 15% off any order at AnnieSelke.com/YHL, including bedding, furniture, rugs, and more!

Thanks for listening, folks!

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