The Mom Hack I’ll Be Using All School Year
Should we call the summer of 2023 the summer of mac and cheese, chicken fingers and fries? I’d rather not, but that’s been my reality over the past three months. That and lots of chocolate chip cookies and lollipops. It wasn’t my finest moment as a parent. “But it’s summer.” How many times did you find yourself saying that? Well, September is a great time for a reset. I just did my own kind of September reset with a cleanse. But for my kids, I just want some healthy, unprocessed, home cooked meals for them. I like to call it “a healthy September” but it’s nothing extreme. We’ll be reintroducing steamed veggies in place of the fried kind. Protein at every meal next to those beloved buttered noodles. And I’ll still serve them mac and cheese, but not for every freggin meal!
A healthy September for your family sounds great. But here’s the problem. September is nuts! I’m struggling to figure out how I will get one to dance, another to practice and a third to tutoring all on the same night. Yeah, it’s going to be an interesting fall for me. So when the heck am I cooking this so-called healthy, home cooked meal? I cannot resort back to Chick-fil-A and Panera every night again. I need something in between that and slaving over the stove for hours. Enter Home Appétit.
Home Appétit is a local food delivery service. They are based out of Philly but they deliver to all surrounding suburbs. I call them the food angels. You order your food the week before and it arrives on your doorstep on Monday, fully equipping you for the week. Someone else took the time to prepare and cook these meals so all you need to do is heat them up. And voilà! The kids have a home cooked meal that you didn’t have to cook yourself. Home Appétit, where have you been all of my life?
Home Appétit was started by Chef Lee Wallach nine years ago when he moved to Philadelphia. Lee wanted to create a home delivery service with the highest quality food made from the freshest ingredients sourced from local farmer’s markets, CSA’s and top grocers. Chef Lee’s philosophies are this: Organic when possible; All natural meats; A holistic approach to cooking; No artificial flavors, preservatives or hormones; No high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, or hydrogenated oils. Trusting the quality of the food that I’m serving my kids is important to me. And that’s what really sets Home Appétit apart from other services I have tried before. That, and the food is really good.
Each week, the menu changes. There is a huge variety of meal options, as well— another major difference with Home Appétit. There are about 30 different menu items to chose from each week. I love that there are options that are sophisticated enough for me and my husband (and my one more daring child) to really enjoy, like Thai style charred corn with string beans, peppers, lemongrass and kaffir lime and grilled harissa chicken with jeweled couscous, dates, & lemon.
There’s also your “kid foods” that aren’t just mac and cheese (although there is mac and cheese on the menu because Home Appétit isn’t dumb). Menu items like simply steamed broccoli; simply grilled butcher’s steak; spaghetti and meatballs; and chicken parmesan are things my kids will actually eat that I can feel good about giving them.
And then there are many items that the kids may eat and I will surely love, like local farm egg frittata with house-made sausage, veggies, & aged Vermont cheddar; roasted salmon poppers with barbecue sauce; and Za’atar-crusted pork tenderloin with garlic yogurt sauce. I understand that slowly exposing your kids to different flavors makes them better eaters overall.
There are also several gluten free, dairy free and vegan options on the menu each week. I’m telling you, it’s like you are a made-to-order-chef for your whole family, but all you had to do was add to cart and check out. This is my kind of family meal planning!
A few weeks ago, we tested out Home Appétit for the first time.
Look how much I got for just $100. This fed my family dinner for the whole week.
I ordered food for 1 person amounting to $100 for the entire order. I had more than enough food to feed my family dinner for the week. (You can check out my IG this week to see all of the meals I got in my order). My husband was on a golf trip that week, so I only calculated for me and the kids. If your family eats more than my kids (i.e. you have pre-teen or teen boys), you can specify the number you are feeding, up to 5 people, for larger servings of the items in your order. Each additional person costs $50 for the week.
Most menu items only need 10-15 minutes to reheat. That’s something my over-scheduled self can handle.
I ordered several sides and created custom meals for my kids who each have different tastes.
My favorite part about Home Appétit was that I could easily serve my kids different food items. I struggle to make everyone happy when dealing with three different opinions from my kids. Home Appétit enabled me to avoid having to play referee, which happens with every family decision, including meals. Everyone was happy at dinner because they could have what they wanted. But you know who was the happiest? Me. The girl who didn’t have to do much other than place an order with Home Appétit.
To me, that’s a major win. And one mom hack that I’ll be using this school year. If you’d like to steal my mom hack, use code Brooke20 for $20 off your first order from Home Appétit. Ordering opens every Tuesday morning and closes on Friday night at 10 pm. And, yes, you are welcome.
*This post is sponsored by Home Appétit, but as always, this blog contains my honest views and opinions. That will never change!