Photolog 2021: Day 175 of 365

So, somewhere in between ordering BTS merch, receiving BTS merch, and work, I decided to learn how to cook. (I know, you're shocked, right?) The reason I never really took the time to cook or bother with recipes before was because a) it is too time-consuming, and b) I don't want to have to buy ingredients. Like, if I need to use sour cream, for example, I'd have to buy a whole container of it when I only need a few scoops. And then it'll expire before I can even use half of it. As a result, I tend to eat the same things all the time when I'm at home because variety means having to buy way too many separate ingredients. (And, listen, when you live in an apartment, fridge and pantry space is limited.) Enter Hello Fresh.

Fusilli al Forno
I see ads for Hello Fresh all the damn time. Or Hello Fresh-sponsored YouTube videos. And I ignore them every single time. But then my friend Chelsea, who loves food delivery subscriptions, suggested it to me because it'll give me the variety of meals that I want, it'll get me into cooking, they provide the exact amount of ingredients I need to make that one recipe, and it's actually fairly priced. Plus, all the recipes require less than one hour to prep, cook, and serve. And they deliver it to you, even on Sundays, with the freshest ingredients possible. (I guess the name makes sense now, but I was actually surprised. Like, there was a GIANT bag of ice packs at the bottom of my box just to keep everything cold.) 

Fusilli al Forno
So I caved, because you get 40% off your first order, too. Each meal you order has a minimum of two servings, which is nice because that means I can cook the whole thing once and get two meals out of it. So my first box came with three recipes of my choice, a total of six meals, for $42. The first recipe I decided to try was Fusilli al Forno. It's fusilli pasta in a tomato-based sauce with tons of ground beef, garlic, and onions, topped with spinach, ricotta, mozzarella, and fresh basil. And it was FREAKING DELICIOUS. Like, I wouldn't be ashamed of serving it to someone else. I was kind of shocked, like, "Holy shit, I actually made this?" Now, granted, it uses an entire bulb of garlic and a whole onion (y'all, I chopped an onion for the first time in my life, after 34 years), so basically I will have garlic hands and dragon breath for days, but it's actually worth it! 

So, yeah, I am actually cooking REAL RECIPES now! Aren't you proud?