Healthy Habits Kitchen

Earlier this month, I was invited to come take a tour and learn more about a local business called Healthy Habits Kitchen.  Healthy Habits Kitchen is a business that creates nutritionist-approved meals that are ready to be cooked for a hot and healthy meal.  I was intrigued by the concept so Bret and I ventured out to the facility in Wellesley last week to check it out.

We met with Susan Schochet, the founder of Healthy Habits Kitchen, and we could have talked to her for hours.  A former insurance executive, Sue found herself creating this business when she found herself in the middle of a major career transition.  Sue has always loved cooking and she wanted to find a way to make home-cooking both healthy and accessible for people who don't normally (or can't) cook.  Healthy Habits Kitchen creates meals that can be cooked without the actual meal planning or prep.  It is a great alternative for professionals or soccer moms who just don't have enough time to do it all.  I really liked that all of the meals are reviewed by a licensed dietitian to ensure that all the meals contain no more than 400 calories per serving, less than 30% fat and a maximum of 800 mg of sodium.

Healthy Habits Kitchen has a menu online so you can pick what meals you'd like to have.  You can either come in and assemble the meal kit yourself, pick up already-prepared meal kits or have the already-prepared meal kits delivered to your home.  The menus are constantly changing as Sue has over 150-200 recipes that meet the health and taste criteria for each meal.  Sue and I bonded over our common sources of meal inspirations - cooking shows, restaurants, the Internet, or our respective mom's recipes.

Sue invited us to try out one of the meal kits.  Since Bret and I cook on a regular basis, she recommended the Peachy Chicken with a side of Smashed Sweet Potatoes because it involves more steps than the other dishes.  If you're not going to cook the meal right away, all of the kits are freezer-friendly and just need to be thawed in the refrigerator about twenty-four hours before you plan on cooking.  We put our meal kit in the freezer and didn't get around to cooking it until Monday night.  After spending Patriot's Day watching the Red Sox at Fenway Park and then cheering on our friends in the marathon, this meal was the perfect solution for a quick meal.

All of the containers have the nutritional value and instructions right on the packaging.

The Smashed Sweet Potatoes were put in a small baking dish and warmed up at 350 degrees for about half an hour.

While the sweet potatoes were in the oven, I got to work on the rest of the meal. 

I seasoned the portioned chicken breasts with salt and pepper.

I then warmed up a skillet on the stove at medium-high heat with some vegetable oil.  I browned the chicken and then removed the chicken from the pan onto a plate.

I then added the ingredients for the sauce and the chopped peaches to the pan and scraped the brown bits from the bottom of the pan.  I turned the heat up on high and let the sauce thicken up before adding the chicken breasts back into the pan.  I covered the pan and lowered the heat to let the sauce simmer and the chicken cook through.

While the chicken and sauce were simmering, I made a quick salad using chopped romaine and grape tomatoes.

And just like that - dinner was ready!  I've got to be honest and tell you that nothing about the meal tasted like something that was frozen or already prepared. 

The kit took out all of the prep work for a home-cooked meal but it didn't sacrifice on flavor. 

If you already cook on a regular basis and don't think you would need meal kits for yourself, Healthy Habits Kitchen also provides a gift registry so that you can provide the gift of a hot meal to someone, like a new parent or someone who is ill.  I wish something like this existed when I was studying for the bar exam years ago!

You can also host a private party for you and your friends to prepare a week's worth of meal-kits while being provided a complimentary meal.  Or you can check out one of their events, like the upcoming Wine Workshop on April 26, 2011.

Thanks again to Sue for letting me check out Healthy Habits Kitchen.  To find out more information, you can check the Healthy Habits Kitchen website. 

Healthy Habits Kitchen is located at 36 Washington Street, Suite 2, Wellesley, MA 02481.