Le sac cuisiner caught my attention about a year ago. Anything that makes life easier whilst simultaneously ensuring my “not so little” family eat fresh food, balanced menus and above all shake up their eating habits a bit is worth testing. Le sac à cuisinier seems to tick all the boxes. As it was “La Rentrée”, I decided it was a good time to test it. After all they say variety is the spice of life!
As my hubby and myself both work and with three little girls to entertain, I don’t want to spend all my w/e pre-cooking the weeks’ meals or planning meals in advance. I do occasionally do this but the novelty and my enthusiasm tends to wears off very quickly 😉 As a result I tended to fall into the “OMG what are we going to eat !!!” category and every night I would panic cook the same old suspects. Usually this entailed anything that was quick and easy, but not necessarily pushing the boat out in terms of culinary delights. Or giving into the “coquillettes – jambon” pleas of my children. They weren’t complaining, far from it, but really there is more to life than “coquilettes-jambon“! We do, after all, live in one of the culinary hot spots of the world with renowned Michelin starred chefs dotted left right and centre. I consider that it’s part of my duty at least to try and widen their culinary horizons a bit.
Le sac à cuisiner’s concept appealed: fresh and raw ingredients sourced from the local producers (when possible), pre-dosed portions measured out, menus that take no longer than 30 minutes and everything delivered once a week for you to cook yourself, or even better with your children.
It’s really simple you order on line on http://www.le-sac-a-cuisiner.com before Thursday night from a choice of three different options: classic, vegetarian or gluten free. The menus are displayed for the following three weeks so you can plan in advance. You organise to get delivered at a specified time on a Tuesday evening or you can pick up at a designated drop off. You get a little email reminding you of the basics you need to have at home to do the meals (olive oil, salt, pepper etc.).
Tuesday night the delivery arrived at home at a time that suited us – after work! The order was delivered by a charming man and the girls were super excited to see what was being delivered and what meals we could choose from. The menus are varied with one meat dish, one fish dish, one vegetarian dish and one lighter dish (salad, quiche etc.). Each menu comes with a printed menu and photos that clearly detail each step of the cooking process.
So the first thing I tested with my “big” girls (4 & 7 years old) was homemade chicken nuggets with rice and tzatziki. I prepared all the ingredients and set up a little work station on our breakfast bar. Each girl had a specific task which they took very seriously – my eldest chopping the chicken (from our local butchers Daniel Viret) and covering it with flour, my middle daughter covering the chicken with egg and breadcrumbs. They were amazing. They did a great job and even more importantly they loved every second of it. I’d be lying if I said they didn’t make a mess…but it was lots of fun 🙂 The result was delicious. It would be fair to say fresh homemade chicken nuggets with rice and tzatziki was a huge success. (even if the tzatziki didn’t appeal to my little ones).
Since this first test we have now ordered the “sac à cuisiner” twice and are still really pleased with it generally speaking. It makes life easier, it saves us time and stress as a family, it ensures that we have varied fresh food and above all, when possible, it is fun to cook with the girls. Our au pair has even started cooking these dishes for us and as a result she is perfecting her French vocabulary for cooking, learning to cook some new dishes and making everything so much nicer for us on an evening! I don’t think we’ll order it every week a but every two weeks is the perfect balance for our family and my mini master chefs.
To order yours online: www.le-sac-a-cuisiner.com
Or check out their Facebook page: www.facebook.com/le.sac.a.cuisiner
