MommyCoddle

Terra’s Kitchen: farm to front door meals (and a coupon!)

Special thanks to Terra’s Kitchen for including me in this project and for the opportunity to share their farm to front door meals with my readers.

My family doesn’t eat out very often. For a family of six, the cost really adds up. And my husband prefers a home-cooked dinner to a restaurant meal any day of the week. And while I know I should take his preference for my home cooking as a compliment, sometimes this woman just wants a night off. And while he does indulge my need for a break, I have to admit that I really prefer eating at home too.

Even on the most hectic of evenings, I enjoy my time in the kitchen making our meal. It taps into my creativity and my love of feeding my family well.

When I returned home from my sister’s funeral earlier this month, I was feeling quite disconnected from home. What I was expecting to be an overnight visit to my mom’s turned into a unexpected week-long stay. And while my husband and kids and family jumped in with open arms to do school runs and feed animals and allow me to not even think or worry about all those little details, I returned home after the end of that long, busy, emotionally-draining week feeling a bit like a ghost in my own house.

As odd as it may sound, there is something very grounding in the daily routines of caring for my family. And when I am removed from them it can take a little while for me to get back in the groove and feel like things are humming along at home again.

So a few days later, when a large package was delivered to my doorstep I couldn’t for the life of me, think what it might be.

Weeks before this life upheaval, I had enthusiastically signed on to be part of this project with Terra’s Kitchen. Little did I know it would be arriving at my doorstep, perfectly timed and under very different circumstances than I expected.

Terra’s Kitchen is home meal kit delivery service that just recently became available in my area (DC, Norther Virginia, Richmond, for you locals.) The concept is one that is close and dear to my heart–a farm to front door service that encourages supporting the agricultural community. And fresh, seasonal ingredients and wholesome, chef-designed meals with no artificial or processed ingredients. It is all the things I want for my family (but don’t always have the time to source or shop for) delivered straight to my door.

When your meal arrives from Terra’s Kitchen, you receive all the ingredients–the fresh fruits and vegetables, from-the-farm meats–all pre-packaged, pre-proportioned and labeled for you to create a delicious meal for your family at home. (Bonus: All the meals can be prepared in under 30 minutes.)

Terra’s Kitchen uses a unique vessel to get all the food to your a door. It has a special climate-controlling technology comprising of commercial coolers that makes sure the ingredients arrive cool and fresh. My vessel must have been one of the last stops on my FedEx driver’s delivery and still everything inside was chilled and fresh. Not only that, these vessels are eco-friendly and reusable–after removing your ingredients to your home refrigerator, a special return label is affixed and the vessel is set outside for pick-up the very next day. And all the containers that your food arrives in are recyclable as well.

Each meal comes with a beautifully photographed step-by-step meal card (with the smart detail of being hole-punched so I can stash it in my recipe binder). Terra’s Kitchen offers meals for a variety of preferences and dietary needs–paleo, gluten-free, vegetarian. And the meal card also includes what equipment you’ll need (nothing outlandish, I swear), the staples you might need to add from your pantry (oils, kosher salt, ground pepper), pro tips (like how to keep your beautiful green goat cheese avocado sauce green just a little longer) and wine and beer pairings.

On the day my meal package arrived, I had already planned dinner for the evening and was worried I would have to quickly change plans to use up this meal before the ingredients went off. But the Terra’s Kitchen meals come with a window of time so that you don’t need to feel pressure to make them the moment they arrive.

But was the meal any good? Was it something I’d really feed my family?

I prepared meals on two nights from Terra’s Kitchen. A Southwestern Steak + Sweet Potato Bowl and Grilled Chicken Tacos with Avocado Goat Cheese Sauce.

Folks, don’t tell my relatives who raise and sell beef locally, but this was one of the best skirt steaks I have ever tasted. The meal used familiar ingredients but in ways I hadn’t tried before. And the meals were devoured by my family. The meals tasted like home, but they were interesting and different and delicious.

The Terra’s Kitchen meals were quick and easy to prepare (which is really what I need on most nights of the week), they included real food from quality sources (it tells you exactly where they are coming from on the packaging), and none of the ingredients were processed or artificial. It was exactly the kind of meal I want to prepare for my family, with the convenience of having everything delivered to my door. And in this case, perfectly timed when I was struggling to get my head above water again and get back into my routine when I returned home after a very difficult week.

I can think of so many reasons to use this service–to send to someone who may be grieving or who is going through a difficult time. To send to a family with a new baby who would enjoy the break from takeout to have a simple home-prepared healthy meal. To send as a thank you gift to a host or hostess. For a college kid or friend moving into their own place. Or to have for yourself on a particularly difficult or busy week when you don’t want to fall back on eating out. I even think it would be a blast to have a dinner party and order up a variety of meals to prepare with and for your guests. The ideas are limitless.

I get lots of opportunities to try new things on MommyCoddle, but I have to say that this service from Terra’s Kitchen is one of my faves. And I will most definitely be using it again (and breaking out those recipes again in the future.)

Want to try Terra’s Kitchen? Use the code MOLLY50 and get $50 off your first order.

Any questions? Ask me in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer! Here’s a speedy sneak peek at Terra’s Kitchen’s cool eco-friendly delivery vessel:

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Terra’s Kitchen. The opinions and text are all mine.

5 Comments

FAITH / family / favorites

Such sweet sorrow

I’ve tried to write this post so many times in the past week, only to find I don’t know what to say or how to begin or how to perfectly paint the picture of all that has happened in the past two weeks. At the beginning of this month, on a Sunday morning, my sweet sister Lauren passed away. My mother’s words ring in my head–she had a miraculous death.

Every time I prayed for my sister as we were dealing with her cancer I found myself always coming back to the word merciful. Praying for God’s mercy–with her, with my mother, with my family. And that feels like exactly the gift we were given.

It feels odd to describe a death as “good”. It doesn’t ignore the sadness and the grief, but it does recognize that she left us with no pain, no fear. It was gentle, and merciful.

And as we all gathered in her room, around her bed and prayed for her and for us and let her go, just a little bit of gratitude crept into my heart as well. That God was merciful. That we were all there. That we will see her again. That her body is now new and restored.

12 Comments

animal kingdom / children and nature / DAILY FARM LIFE / family / favorites / Woodlawn

2.29 A peek around our home, in list form

It’s the end of the month and my brain is thinking in lists. I’m looking forward to a beautiful March and starting to write down some thoughts and ideas on what I want to accomplish. So while I’m in list-making-mode, a genetic trait passed down to me from my grandmother and mother, I share a little peek around our home, in list form.

READING:

*Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone: Yes, I am finally, much to my daughters’ glee, picking up the Harry Potter series. My kids devoured these books last year–as in disappeared into their rooms barely breaking for sustenance-devoured. And Mary in particular, has been pleading with me to read them. Well, she caught me on a good night, when I really wanted to read something but I didn’t want to read the self improvement book sitting on my bedside table. So HP it was. I’m starting to see why they might have liked them, just a wee bit.

*Made To Crave: My women’s Bible Study is reading this book together and watching the video series that goes along with it. I have to say I was prepared to have “heard it all before” but she really presents a truly fresh perspective on health and wholeness. I’m really enjoying it. And highly recommend it–even better with a fun group of girls.

WATCHING:

*Broadchurch: Okay, I confess that I’m actually not currently watching this because I blasted through the entire two series in about two weeks. It’s a British crime drama and you will be utterly sucked in from the very first episode. Beautiful scenery. Fascinating characters. Mind-achingly interesting plot turns. If you need a Netflix binge other than Fuller House…you’re welcome.

*Nature: As a baby, Birdy used to bring me wriggling stink bugs clutched between her chubby little fingers. We used to rake away the piles of field guides inside her crib. And last fall she carried around a (dead) woolly bear inside a tiny fold-up dollhouse. People. We even took the caterpillar with us on shopping trips. Finally, when it became so decayed that the spines of the woolly bear would lodge themselves in her finger tips, she entertained the idea that perhaps her caterpillar wasn’t actually taking an extended nap. Last month, when she required stitches in the top of her ear, we mesmerized her with YouTube videos about killer whales while the shaky-handed doctor at the walk-in clinic stitched up her gaping wound and proclaimed “Oops!” more times than you care to hear. My child is an ecologist. So you can imagine that tucking up in front of an episode of Nature on PBS has her simultaneously enthralled and talking nonstop. If I dare turn my head away from the television for a few minutes, she grabs my chin and pushes my eyes towards the screen so I won’t miss a detail. We wait in eager anticipation for every new episode to be recorded on the DVR. And then snuggle in bed together afterwards while she recalls every single detail.

EATING:

*Lent is here and I’m digging deep into my repertoire of meatless meals for our Friday dinners. Fish tacos is the hands down winner. This recipe is spot on. Next week, I think it will be quiche.

*I’ve been really into protein smoothies in the morning. I used to drink my cup of coffee on the morning school run, but I realized that I was so rushed I was throwing junk into my mouth for breakfast, just so I had something in my stomach before my cup of coffee. Not only that, I really loooove my morning cup of coffee. Drinking it from a sloshing cup while I race down the backroads avoiding potholes and river debris (not kidding. That was us this week.) is not my idea of savoring one of my favorite parts of the morning. So now, I’m whipping up a simple protein shake in the Vitamix while I make kid breakfasts and pack lunches and find the SHOES! Right now, my magic and oh-so-simple combo is organic almond milk, chocolate protein powder, Digestion Plus (a pre/pro-biotic), almond butter and ice. Tastes like delicious.

FIXING:

*Plumbing. If you live in an old house you can guarantee one thing: All plumbing crises will happen either before a blizzard or after 10pm at night. We are currently dealing with several plumbing issues that have been upgraded from crisis to annoyance. In the meantime, while we await the arrival of a plumber we have a working toilet in one upstairs bathroom. A working sink in a different bathroom. And a somewhat working bathtub in another bathroom. “Somewhat working” if you count that it drains both down it’s intended pipe and down the basement wall. Awesome. So heaven forbid you want to brush your teeth and wash your body in the same bathroom. I feel like I’m living in a college dorm and I should give my kids toiletry baskets and flip-flops to carry around the house from bathroom to bathroom. But, the good news? We are blessed with more than one bathroom and when we piece it all together, we have a complete set! And, the working toilet is upstairs. I’m clocking lots of “stairs climbed” on my Fitbit.

LISTENING:

*Dolly Parton. I can’t explain it, but she hit the spot during dinner making the last two nights.

*Audrey Assad. New to me, but a beautiful, clear, pure voice I could listen to all day.

*United Pursuit. My favorite go-to right now. While I’ve only been able to catch one of their live-stream sessions, I binge on their YouTube videos while I work at my desk. And make dinner. And drive in my car. On my personal bucket list is a United Pursuit-esque session, but outside, under the stars and little lights, perched at the top of a hill. Some day.

*Lost Boy. I blame this on my daughters. But man does it get stuck in my head. And I can easily play it on the piano so of course we’re putting on Elizabeth concerts for all. She can totally knock this song out of the park. But I may be slightly biased.

More soon. xo.

2 Comments