I don’t know about you, but I’m still recovering from a lot of time in the kitchen over Thanksgiving. Even though the traditional turkey day fixings aren’t hard to make, there is lots to cook when you don’t have sisters-in-law to help. So, when Monday rolled around this week, I was definitely in need of a little break.
Lucky for me, my friend Meg Barnhart, co-founder of The Zen of Slow Cooking, introduced me to a North Shore-based company called Fresh Midwest. Fresh Midwest is a new online fresh food and meal delivery business providing locally-grown produce, pre-cut fruits and vegetables, prepared salads, restaurant-quality meats and seafood, chef-inspired meal kits, and timing-saving meal solutions.
Twin brothers Patrick and Mike Fitzgerald, North Shore natives and creators and co-owners of Fresh Midwest, grew up with a respect for the food business. They have longstanding relationships with industry food leaders through their Chicago-based Midwest Foods, a second-generation, family-owned business of eight brothers and sisters. It has been one of the most prominent Midwest wholesale produce distributors for more than 50 years.
Fresh Midwest is super easy to use. You go online, order from their weekly offerings, and choose the day you would like it delivered. Depending on when you place your order, it may even arrive the next day–right on your doorstep!
I was most interested in their meal kits, as my friend Meg had shared that The Zen of Slow Cooking had partnered with Fresh Midwest on one using their spices for tortilla soup. Their meal kits include everything you need–from how-to directions to finishing garnishes.
The soup was easy to pull together and a hit with our family. It was plenty for the five of us who were home for dinner to eat. There is literally no thinking involved–Fresh Midwest has done it all! The best part is that you still feel like you’ve actually made dinner, but without having to grocery shop or measure out a single ingredient. And I think you’d be hard-pressed to purchase all of the ingredients necessary–and pay yourself for shopping–for what the meal kit costs to feed four to six members of your family.
We have also tried the Wild Fire Restaurant Chopped Salad and Tomato Mozzarella Flatbread that were terrific. But our absolute favorite was Grandma’s Chicken Pot Pie! This tasted like it was made from scratch (it kind of was minus making your own crust!) and it took less than an hour to prepare from mixing it up to serving it to my family. Wild Fire and Big Bowl are just two of the restaurants that Fresh Midwest is currently partnering with–many more are expected in 2021.
As Fresh Midwest is just launching on the North Shore–now making deliveries from Kenosha to Lincoln Park–they have offered me a discount code to share with you for $25 off your first order. Just enter AMS25 at checkout.
This is a great way to lessen your dinner time stress or to mix things up a bit. Please let me know if you give Fresh Midwest a try. I know we’ll be going back for more!
For more information about Fresh Midwest, visit their website.
xo,
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