Thursday, April 9, 2020

Daily Harvest Delivery

Let's be honest, it has been a rough couple of weeks for all of us. We have had to dig a little further into the well of gratitude to find things to be thankful for when our norm is no longer our norm and everything feels way out of whack. With that said, sometimes it's the little things that can turn a day around... like a delicious delivery at your front door!

Well, hello there you!

You may remember a couple months ago when I shared my first Daily Harvest delivery (if you don't, you can check out the original post HERE now that you have all the time in the world to read old blog posts of mine ;)). Since that first box of smoothies, I received a second box with "warm" items - soups and harvest bowls. Everything I've received has been yummy, so when the company contacted me about a third box I had the hard task of deciding what to order next. 

Thankfully picking the cups is the hardest part of the whole process... everything else is easy-peasy!

This delivery arrived at the PERFECT time. Not only were we running low on our food in the house (it had been about three weeks since our last grocery run) but I was also planning to do my Yeti Ultra 24-Hour Challenge the following day. If you didn't read about that day of running, make sure you do. You see, the premise of the challenge was to run 5 miles during every 4 hour window for 24 hours. That may not seem too insane, but when you think about the logistics of eating and fueling between the runs, that's where these Daily Harvest cups came in and were a life saver.

Selfies at the end of my six runs... Not every run was good, but there was good in every run!

If you have ever run before, you probably know you shouldn't head out after eating a big, heavy meal. You need to give your food time to settle and digest a bit. Well, this is difficult if you are running six times throughout the day. (If you have read some of my past Ragnar Relay recaps, you know that a BIG problem I have is with getting a "bad belly" because of fueling issues.) With these cups being normally around 250 calories, they are the perfect size to eat an hour or two before one of the legs without feeling too overly stuffed or bloated. I ended up making the Cauliflower Rice + Pesto Harvest Bowl for "dinner" (in between legs 4 and 5). It was scrum-didily-umptious and the perfect size for what I needed. {Confession - I have never had cauliflower rice before... although the flavors were tasty in this one, the texture of the "rice" was still a bit crunchy, not sure if that's what is to be expected when it's made from cauliflower or if maybe I should have cooked it in a skillet vs. popping it in the microwave, but figured I'd mention it in case you have a texture "thing" like me ;)}

You gotta give me a little leeway on my selfie... I had been up for 18 hours at
this point and was getting ready to head out to run miles 21-31 for the day...

I also grabbed a couple of the smoothies to be an evening sweet treat during this time of quarantine. We normally don't keep a ton of sweets in the house (the hubby has a HUGE sweat tooth, so if I stocked it, he would gobble it all up in the first day or two...), but during this crazy, stressful time, I thought these might be nice to have every once in a while. (I opted for the flavors this time that sounded more like ice cream flavors {but obviously healthier than straight ice cream, with quality ingredients!} - Mint + Cacao Smoothie, Cherry + Almond Smoothie and Vanilla Bean + Cacao Smoothie.) I thought this would be the perfect way to #NeflixAndChill (or #DisneyPlusAndSmoothie) in the evening as a little treat.

I'll be honest, I think the only one I would order again would be the mint one. The Vanilla Bean + Cacao was supposed to
 taste like Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, but I didn't like it much (and with the cup being 500 calories, I would
have much preferred a pint of vegan Ben & Jerry's or something) so I gave it to the hubby. I also gave him the Cherry +
Almond one because it was missing something... maybe it wasn't sweet enough for me or something, but it wasn't my jam.

And while we're talking about "treats", I also snagged a cup of the Cacao Nib + Vanilla Bites. Inspired by homemade cookie dough, but made with whole, nourishing ingredients. Real vanilla bean and dates bring sweetness, and cacao nibs deliver on crunch. Let's just say I was both sad and glad that there were only 7 bites in the cup - sad because I could have eaten more and glad because I would've eaten more ;) {I'm very proud of myself that I didn't eat them ALL in one sitting!}

#RealTalk: I wouldn't say they are a substitute for the "real" thing, but they are a yummy, healthy-ish treat...

Last but not least, I've gotta mention the oat bowl that I picked. As I'm sure you have probably picked up by this point, I have a texture "thing"... In my head I have always wanted to like oatmeal, but the texture of it has always had to pushing it away. I grabbed this bowl in hopes that the flavor would outweigh the texture, but alas, it did not. Don't get me wrong, I loved the fruity flavors, but I just couldn't "do" the texture. I did give it to the hubby who gave it two thumbs up though ;)


In case you were in need of more reasons to love Daily Harvest besides convenience, yumminess and health aspects:

Source

Okay, so maybe not every option I picked this go-around were winners (for my picky palate), but I still love everything this company does and stand for. If you're interested in giving Daily Harvest a try, use code "CARLEEMCDOT" to save $25 on your first order. {#RealTalk - I do make a couple bucks every time someone uses my code, but hopefully by now you know I would ONLY recommend something I really love, so you better believe I'm not just sharing this "for the money" ;)}


PS In case you are worried about the subscription, pausing or cancelling the program is easy-peasy. You can also order Daily Harvest as a gift or grab a gift card that allows the recipient to put that amount towards a new or existing plan.

Have you ever tried a food subscription before?

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