As promised, Bill and I prepared the first of our three Hello Fresh meals last night.  We opted to cook the steak, broccoli, and potatoes dish.   Here’s how it went.

Bill peruses the recipe.  It was in German, but the Google Translate feature on his tablet was a big help.  He hovered the camera over the recipe card and Google Translate instantly turned the German words into English.

I paused for a beer break.  That is a Chimay Gold, which I ordered from www.saveur-biere.com.

A closer look at the translation process.

Boiling the potatoes, which would eventually be mashed with chicken broth and roasted onions.  I usually do this with butter and milk or cream, so the mashed potatoes were probably a bit less fattening last night.

Washing the broccoli.

Chopping the broccoli into florets.

We put the broccoli into a small casserole dish with a little olive oil (which we provided) and salt.  This was the first time we cooked broccoli this way and Bill said he liked it.

At about this point, the kitchen area was getting too crowded, so I waited in the living room while Bill made the red peppercorn cream sauce and cooked the steaks.  I will mention that the steak portions were very small; however, they did appear to be about the size recommended for adults (about the size of a deck of cards).  Bill and I already eat too much meat, so the small serving size wasn’t a bad thing for us.  For other people, it may not have been enough.  Also, we had to provide bullion/chicken stock for the potatoes.  For some reason, that was not included in the box.

There were a lot of steps in the cooking process and at one point, the smoke alarm went off.  That’s good.  At least we know it works.  I will say the food smelled good and it was definitely a change from what we usually eat.

This was the end result…  It took about 40 minutes to prepare and was pretty edible, though Bill did overcook the steaks a bit.  Next time, he won’t put them in the oven to keep them warm after he cooks them.

Looks pretty close to what’s on the advertising…

I note that this is a dish that most likely would appeal to Germans.  I didn’t think this was bad at all, but when it comes to mashed potatoes, I am a purist and like them plain with a little salt and butter.  I don’t think we will do the mashed potatoes with roasted onions again, though Bill said he was glad to get the chance to try them a different way.  He does plan to oven roast the broccoli again and we both liked the peppercorn sauce that went with the meat.  With a little practice, we could probably get that down pretty well.

Part of the reason we’re doing this is because we want to expand our experiences with different foods rather than cook the same things all the time.  If we recreate last night’s meal, we will definitely add our own touches to it.  But overall, Bill and I were pleased with the process of making this first meal. It was plenty of food, though the portion sizes included more potatoes and broccoli than beef.  We do have plenty of leftover potatoes.

Tonight, we will try the chicken breast with sweet potato wedges and carrot-yogurt salad.  I am not really a sweet potato fan, though I have heard they are very good for you.  I will try my best to give them a fair shot tonight and will report on our efforts tomorrow.