Healthy Habits Kitchen and BuyWithMe

After a lovely vacation on Cape Cod, I returned home to find myself so ill that I could barely make it off the couch. But dinner still loomed and as I envisioned my husband heading out to buy one more pre-packaged sodium-filled meal at the grocery, I suddenly remembered-I had a coupon from BuyWithMe for Healthy Habits Kitchen in Wellesley. BuyWithMe offers discounts for certain businesses if enough people go in on the deal. And this summer, they were offering a discount for Healthy Habits Kitchen. As a way for me to actually try BuyWithMe and Healthy Habits, BuyWithMe sent me a gift certificate for Healthy Habits.

Healthy Habits Kitchen has a few options for busy people. First, you can schedule an "assembly session" where you can assemble a healthy meal for your family. You can also take the route I did and pay just $1.00 more and the folks at Healthy Habits will actually get the dinner ingredients ready for you. Finally, you can get a group of friends together for a night out. Healthy Habits will then host a private party for 8 to 15 people where they provide appetizers, meal samples and dessert. It is BYOB and you have a lovely lounge to hang out. You then prepare meals. So, it is both a chance to hang out with friends and have dishes set for the week.

Their menu rotates periodically. Alas, for some reason I thought the food was already prepared. But instead, Healthy Habits packages it so you can freeze it for later or prepare it for a home-cooked meal. Luckily the Marinated Steak Tips required only a grill to cook (meaning little clean up!) They were very delicious-tender and flavorful. We also tried the "Tropical Chicken Kebabs" and the "Mojito Chicken." (Both are pictured at the top of the post.) These required a bit more prep work, but again, it was minimal and took only the grill (for the kebabs) and one pan (for the chicken). Again, both were very good.

Do be aware that Healthy Habits, in trying to support portion control (all meals are 400 calories or less), lists each of these dishes (1/2 orders) as serving 2 to 3 people. Maybe my husband and and I are both big eaters (could this be why we both have to go on a diet?) but neither portion filled us up. However, this would have been useful if we had eaten it with a big salad and were trying to watch our weight. Also, note that each of these dishes (a half portion) cost $18.99.

We also got side orders of lemon jasmine rice and pineapple brown rice. These cooked up quickly with minimum effort and were both tasty.

There is a chance BuyWithMe will team up again with Healthy Habits for another discount. So, watch carefully. It would be a good discount on a good meal.