Hi readers! Hope your summer is going well!

I’m back with another quick post today, to share a newly discovered appetizer from a recent HelloFresh delivery. If you don’t know what HelloFresh is, it’s a meal subscription delivery service – how it works is they give you a number of recipe selections for the week (you choose how many meals per week, and for how many people per meal) and they deliver it with a recipe card and all the ingredients (except for basics like olive oil, salt, pepper, butter, etc.). You still have to cook them but the ingredients are pre-measured and conveniently delivered to your doorstep on the day of the week you prefer.

If you want to give it a try, you can get a box for free using my referral code, as long as you’ve never subscribed before.

Since it’s easy enough to skip deliveries using the app or the website, I decided to give it a try this year. I’ve been subscribed for a few months now, but I don’t get weekly deliveries because I’m not always in the mood to cook and often, we already have a meal planned at home or outside. I use to be a Blue Apron (a similar meal delivery service) subscriber years ago before the pandemic & I’ve learned a lot doing that. Nowadays, I’m quite comfortable pulling a random recipe off the internet or a magazine, or even just randomly combining various readily available ingredients at home. But once in a while, it’s nice to not have to search for a recipe or shop for ingredients last minute.

What I love most is getting to try new recipes I would have never found on my own. Most recently, I tried their Cheesy Potato Nachos appetizer (an add-on to the dinner recipes).

I was skeptical at first because the spice blend is savory sprinkled on sweet potato wedges. The Southwest spice blend is pretty strong with one of my least favorite spices – cumin. But I’m never one to cower from prior dislike! I was rewarded.

The cheese sauce is amazing, of course – just shredded cheddar melted in a cream sauce base (simmered until thickened). The trick is waiting until the potatoes are almost fully baked before starting the cheese sauce so the cheese sauce is hot enough to drizzle over the freshly baked sweet potatoes.

Even with the cheese sauce though, the sweet potatoes taste kind of odd and the spice is quite overpowering – but then magic happens when dipped into the guacamole (avocado + salsa/fresh tomatoes).

The guac truly makes this recipe, I ended up loving this app with all my starry-eyed foodie soul! 🤩😋

Even if you’re not a HelloFresh subscriber, you can probably easily copy the recipe! p.s. the Southwest Spice Blend is just 4 parts garlic powder, 2 parts cumin, and 2 parts chili powder, thanks to this very helpful post on Reddit!

And that’s all for today! Thank you for reading! I promise to write very soon.

If you’re ever in doubt, add guacamole 😉