I’d like to start by thanking you for the opportunity to trial the Bargain Box for 5 nights for 2 people. I would also like to mention that in my submission I stated that there are 3 in my family but because the boxes are always only for 2,4 etc and I’d heard there are generous portions and lots of people have leftovers, I was keen to try the box for 2 to see if it would stretch for a family of 3 like mine. So please keep this in mind as you read my review. We trialled a box for 2 people and it fed three of us. I should also mention my son is 9 ½.
The box arrived on a very rainy day but I have to say it was packaged beautifully. As I unpacked it and checked everything was there (it was – nothing missing at all) I noticed the little spice packets etc felt quite damp. Rest assured when I went to use them on the required days the spices/sliced almonds, sesame seeds etc inside were completely dry.

First up was Korean Fried Chicken Tacos. I have a confession to make. When I saw 300g of chicken (I would normally use 500g for us) I was a bit nervous and wondering what I’d gotten myself into for the week. I was worried one of us would be having eggs on toast all week! I did make sure to have a bit of extra chicken on hand because I was definitely nervous about this first meal. That said, I didn’t use my extra chicken – I cooked it for lunch wraps for the next day! So back to the Bargain Box inaugural meal – we loved it. The recipe was easy to follow, there was a ton of slaw and we all had plenty to eat. It was a total success! It took me slightly longer than the 30 minutes but the other four meals I managed to make in the time they said, so maybe it was just me, and it being the first one. We were fine with 300g of chicken between us. We had slaw left over which I used in above-mentioned chicken wraps for lunch the next day. My son is, shall we say, a fairly fussy eater? Not so much fussy maybe – he eats all the meals I feed him, but he eats incredibly slowly while complaining he’d rather be doing other things. He kind of just hates eating meals. He also isn’t a big fan of ginger. But he ate this meal really well – in fact, all of the meals, and I think he gave it a “not bad” which is a very high compliment coming from him! Hubby and I loved it. Enough said. It was a delicious meal and a total success in my opinion.

Night two was Mongolian Style Beef. Yum! This was definitely super quick to cook, we all had enough to eat (again, 300g mince for the three of us, but I didn’t get any extra ready “just in case” for this one!), and once again this meal for 2 fed three of us. No leftovers of course, for any of the meals, but I hadn’t expected any. I was just happy we were able to have enough for the three of us. One thing I’ve noticed is that sometimes the recipe calls for a half packet of things. In the chicken tacos it was a ½ packet of chopped peanuts. I’ll admit I threw them all in and it was delicious! In this meal, it was 1 tps sesame seeds, but I chucked them all in, as well as the full packet of mung bean sprouts! Firstly, I looked and saw there were no other meals for the week that called for the other ½ packet of mung bean sprouts so I really had nothing else to use them in. Secondly remember, three of us are eating a meal technically meant for two, so in they all went. The meal was delicious, we all loved it (again, a “not bad” from my son, and he ate quicker than usual so that’s really high praise!), and I don’t think adding the extra sprouts took anything away from the meal.

Our third meal was Middle Eastern Lamb Loaded Wedges and I must admit I’d been looking forward to this one all week. We’ve had a lot of rain and this looked like the ultimate comfort food. It did not disappoint! Hands down this was our favourite meal. They’ve all been delicious, but honestly, this one was just amazing. It was easy to cook and I think I kept to the allotted timeframe. Once again, it called for 45g cheese but I used all 90g (minus a thin slice that sort of went missing in the cooking process 😊 !!) It also said to use a ½ packet of sliced almonds. I threw them all in with total abandon. There was also a ½ cucumber left so I just sliced it and added it to our plates (after the photo of course) because as I’ve mentioned, three of us are eating a meal technically meant for two. And we haven’t had cucumber for a wee while being out of season, so we all enjoyed a few slices of it. We all had plenty to eat. Honestly. That said, this meal was so delicious we could have eaten it for days! I said to hubby that I was full but really wanted to go back for more. LOL I truly was full, but this meal was so good that it made you want seconds even though none of us needed seconds. And get this: my son exclaimed (yes, really, exclaimed) “this is delicious!!!” I have never heard those words out of his mouth at the dinner table. High praise indeed!

So my hubby had a hard act to follow the next night. He cooks one night a week while I take our son to music lessons. He was VERY nervous about cooking the Smoky Mexican Veggie Cheeseburgers. It’s mostly to do with the fact that he has a pretty limited repertoire. He cooks a mean omelette and is ace on the BBQ, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen him follow a recipe. Not that he can’t mind you, it’s more a lack of interest. So I thought this would be interesting. I will be the first to admit that he did a superb job! I got home to a kind of organised chaos so just left him to the finishing touches while I did other things. Talking to him afterward he said he felt less nervous when he realised the burgers were in fact mashed up kidney beans, diced red onion, breadcrumbs and egg. I think he was nervous about doing mince burgers in a frying pan (as mentioned above he’s on better terms with the BBQ than the cooktop), but there was no need to worry. A few thoughts about this meal: Firstly, it was delicious and halfway through, my son asked what kind of mince it was! 😊 So there you go. We told him the kidney bean, vegetarian kind. He hadn’t realised. Secondly, the flavours were fantastic. Hubby did use the whole packet of chipotle sauce instead of half, as he said there wasn’t much chipotle mayo and thought we’d need a bit more so he doubled that part of the recipe. He didn’t want the burgers too big so they’d possibly fall apart but they were a decent size, and he manged to fill four buns with burgers and all the toppings. There is one smaller burger leftover for a lunch. We do have ½ a red onion left but I can use this another time. He said he used a little more than half a packet of the breadcrumbs but there are still some left. And because he’s not me, and doesn’t eat cheese while he’s cooking, we do have the other 45g of cheese left. But not for long, I can assure you! They’d sent a 6-pack of hamburger buns which is generous. We did use four last night and that last little patty might go on bun #5 today so it actually worked quite well. I should mention the recipe said to make 3 burger patties. Luckily for us it did make more. The lettuce we were given was also generous, a whole baby cos lettuce. We’ll use the rest on lunch sandwiches. The only downside to the meal was this: looking at the plate it just felt like there wasn’t enough veg. It was one burger in a bun on the plate and it looked a bit bare. I should point out that aside from the burgers being made from kidney beans and diced red onion, on the top of the burger was also sliced tomato, lettuce and sliced roasted capsicum. So technically it probably is enough veg. But compared to all the other meals so far where we’ve had lots and lots of veg in them, this just seemed like it needed more. Hubby microwaved a few frozen veggies for us. To be honest, the burger was filling and I probably didn’t need the extra veg, but it made us feel better to add some extra (after the photo was taken of course!).

Last up was the Spice Rubbed Beef Rump Steaks with Feta Roast Veggies. Looking at the recipe, it looks mouth-wateringly delicious with surprisingly few ingredients! What a beautiful meal with which to finish the trial! It was a winner – everyone loved it. The flavours were amazing and the veggies were delicious. We definitely had no leftovers at all but we again felt we’d had enough. Just. I’m not a huge fan of steak so admittedly I ate only a small portion, but I still had enough to eat. My son said it was really good, and he especially loved the honey mustard mayo on it. It seemed to easy to prepare. I’d cut up the veggies a bit earlier so when it was time to cook, it was so quick and easy, and I didn’t have a lot of things I was trying to do at once.

Some final thoughts on the Bargain Box for 2 people for 5 nights: The meals were delicious. We’d be happy to eat them all again (we could live on the loaded wedges!). My son liked, truly liked, all the meals. He actually didn’t complain about any of them, and one meal was even described as “delicious”. A first. We all had enough to eat every night. None of us were still hungry at the end of the meal, even though we stretched it between 3 people. We loved all the veggies that went with the meals, and some out of season which we wouldn’t normally buy this time of year. I think because all the other meals had so many veggies, the burger meal felt a bit lacking. But again, it was probably just our perception of it – a bunned burger on a plate does look a bit lonely, even though it had lots in it.

Some of the ingredients are clearly packaged for a family of 4, for example we were supposed to use 45g of the 90g block of cheese. So we had a few extras along the way – as mentioned earlier, cheese twice, mung bean sprouts, half a cucumber, half a red onion and a few sprinklings: chopped peanuts, sliced almonds, sesame seeds. Most of these I just threw into the recipe anyway, so it helped the meal fill the three of us and did not deter from the food in any way. We will use the other small bit of cheese and red onion this weekend (who am I kidding, I’m having the cheese for lunch today!) so those won’t go to waste. I don’t like food waste and I have to say that nothing we were given is going to waste.

I’ve mentioned my son is 9 ½. And while he complains through most meals because he’d rather be doing something else, he also does eat a fair amount. I gave hubby the largest portion, son the 2nd largest and at times I felt my plate looked a bit lacking. That said, I’ll be the first to admit that I had plenty to eat and did not go hungry. I think that just says something about my portion sizes other times, so it’s shown me that I really don’t need that much food on my plate each night! I think we could get away with the meal for 2 for a little bit longer, but probably not too much longer to be honest. Would have been fantastic when he was younger though as I wouldn’t have even worried about it feeding the three of us!

We really enjoyed the opportunity to trial Bargain Box, and have actually ordered another in about a week’s time. We’re looking forward to trying those recipes too. The meals are really easy to make, incredibly convenient, and taste great. They all turned out really well too.