Cooking: Meals in a Box

Mama doesn't cook.

Thankfully the kiddos have great grandparents who ensure they are well fed and not starving. Which is a big reason why Mama never had to cook.

Another big reason is because Mama dislikes the preparations and shopping involved when it comes to cooking. Jamie Oliver makes it look so easy because everything is at hand — just toss this in, sauté that and add a drizzle of olive oil.

Not so in real life. There's always a missing ingredient, a mad rush to the grocery store, and leftover fresh produce that ends up rotting in the fridge.

So when I heard about Urban Stove, it seemed like the solution for lazy people like me. All you need for 3 home-cooked meals packed in a box and delivered to your doorstep.

I decided to try it out and ordered the Thai Green Curry, Ayam Masak Kunyit and Linguine with Chicken Cacciatore — stuff I would normally only dream about cooking at home.

Meals in a box. Like take-out. Only not.

Each meal packed and labelled separately for easy storage.

Since it was the school holidays, Girl and I decided to make it a parent-child bonding activity. We started with the Thai Green Curry.

So you know what everything was ... including idiot-proof instruction sheet

Fresh vege and basil leaves

Girl, being the more culinary-skilled of the two of us, did most of the work while I supervised and tried to make intelligent-sounding comments.

Some washing and chopping and putting it all together

And we were soon done (after fixing a hiccup of the rice cooker cable that was not pushed in properly).

Lunch is served! Portion for 2 but enough for 3 medium eaters 

It was a fun cooking experience. The curry was a little too spicy for our liking though — probably something in the paste — but Girl was enthusiastically and encouragingly eating up her portion in between mouthfuls of cold milk.

Next we tried the pasta.

Ready for cooking

This was supposed to be Mama's chance to practice her cooking. But I spent most of the time sitting at the kitchen counter and watching Girl at work. Good life!

Masterchef Jr in action

Boil and fry and mix and taste ...

And tada! Scrumptious pasta for lunch.

Tasted as good as it looked!

This round, it was yummy-licious and earned a thumbs-up from Daddy.

It is very convenient and easy even for kids. I've decided that if I don't cook, no harm training up the next gen ... so at least my future grandkids will have some proper home-cooked meals.

We still have another meal to work on, and we look forward to trying out a few more boxes from Urban Stove in the weeks to come.

Each box of 3 meals (each meal is for 2 pax) costs RM115, or RM19 per pax per meal.

Being the kiamsiap Malaysian I am, I asked the folks at Urban Stove for a discount for my friends ... and they offered a very limited 25% off voucher code! So if you want to try it out, type in "funwithUS" at the order form (valid for first purchase until Oct 3). Do let us know if you ordered and how it turned out! Free tasting services available too :-)


** update **
Dish #3: Ayam Masak Kunyit was a hit. Yumz!