Alexa picked our meals for a week!

Since I started engaging in food freedom, I’ve been overwhelmed by the choice of meals I now have available. When I would restrict in the past, I had set rules that I would follow and I would opt for ‘low fat’ or ‘low carb’ options. This made it really easy for picking what I wanted to eat because I had less options. However, my relationship with food and my body was in tatters and since eating intuitively, I’ve felt way more love for myself. To make choosing food a bit more fun, I decided to turn my meal plan into a game. Here’s how Alexa picked our meals for a week!

One thing that Alexa can do is randomly pick numbers. James and I started by picking a cookbook each.

We needed 5 meals. James picked James Martin, The Collection. I picked Jamie Oliver, Veg, and then we both picked Hello Fresh, Recipes That Work, as our final option. We chose two meals each from our individual choices and one from Hello Fresh.

The Picking Process

We flipped a coin (or rather we asked Alexa to flip a coin) to decide who went first. Looking at the contents pages, we thought about what kind of meal we wanted her to pick from and asked her to pick a random number between the page numbers.

For example: in Veg, the Traybake section starts on page 92, followed by the Rice & Noodles sections, and the Pasta section, which ends on 151. I was happy with anything from these three sections so I asked Alexa to pick a random number between 92 and 151.

One rule

We could only ask her to re-pick once on our turn.

What did Alexa pick?

James Martin, The Collection.

Goujons of Sole with Lemon

These were supposed to be like posh fish fingers but we accidentally bought the wrong type of sole and it was too thin to make goujons. Not to worry, we were happy with our fish fillet salad and wedges although, I wasn’t keen on the fish itself.

Simple Lamb Curry

This took a long time to cook but it was delicious. The curry itself had meat from a lamb shoulder, spinach, red pepper, and yellow pepper. We served it with plain rice and peshwari naan bread. The recipe made enough for leftovers so we were extremely happy however, the price of lamb is not budget friendly!

Jamie Oliver, Veg.

Mighty Mushroom Pasta

I completely forgot to put the hazelnut topping on top of the pasta before I took the picture! Nevermind, I think it still looks pretty tasty! This recipe was super simple and yet oh so tasty. Mushrooms, fresh thyme, plum tomatoes, blanched hazelnuts and Parmesan cheese work together in this recipe to bring you a filling and hearty pasta dish.

Shakshuka, My Style.

I have to say, I was anxious about this dish. When it was picked, I wasn’t excited by it. However! Never have I been more surprised by a dish. Although it took a while to make, it was so worth it! This saucy mix was filled with potatoes, butternut squash, mixed peppers, flat-leaf parsley, eggs and a whole variety of spices. It also had a bit of rose harissa stirred into the sauce which I have never tried before. We served this with warm flatbread.

Hello Fresh, Recipes That Work.

Tumeric Chicken

I have recently fallen in love with chicken thighs (a couple of years ago I thought I would never eat chicken again and yet here we are). This recipe didn’t specify chicken thighs – it actually said to use skin on chicken breast, but I find chicken thighs to hold so much more flavour. Along with the chicken, we have courgette, fresh coriander, natural yogurt, desiccated coconut and rice, plus a handful of spices to make the rice lovely and fragrant.

Our reaction to when Alexa picked our meals for a week

Although this was really fun to do and it encouraged us (or rather, me) to try new recipes out of my comfort zone, it definitely made our weekly food shop more expensive than usual. Things like the lamb and the rose harissa were more than I would usually spend but we had committed to our meal and, to be honest, I’m glad we did.

I need to know:

What was your favourite meal that we had?

Are there any recipes here that you would like me to share?

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