Sun Basket- Chicken With Olive Relish & Potatoes Recipe

Hi friends, I am taking you into my kitchen today to share all about Sun Basket and a fun bonus recipe, Chicken with Olive Relish & Potatoes.

I have been with Sun Basket for OVER A YEAR now, I cannot believe how fast this time went by. I received my first Sun Basket in the beginning of December of 2015 and since then I have cooked over 100 meals with Sun Basket.

So what is Sun Basket?

Sun Basket is a healthy meal kit delivery service offering easy, delicious recipes and fresh organic ingredients delivered weekly

My Story.

 I was not raised in a household where cooking was a part of our family. I was raised on restaurant food and I didn’t cook my first meal until I was out of high school. I never learned how to cook and because I was raised eating restaurant food I developed an extremely picky palette and a taste for finer foods. This became a huge obstacle when I got older and moved out on my own where I had to learn to put food on the table myself. First I didn’t know how to cook, secondly home cooked food was a huge palette adjustment.

This “adjustment” turned into a huge struggle that caused way too much frustration and stress.

I wanted to be someone who fell in love with cooking; where cooking created memories. I wanted to be someone who had memories of baking cookies in the kitchen with their grandmother or sharing mom’s secret spaghetti sauce recipe with their kids. I wanted to have my own famous chicken noodle soup recipe. I wanted the kind of cooking that filled your home with delicious smells and people were gathering and bonding around the table.

But I wasn’t.

I had my own Julie & Julia phase that lasted less than a week.

After having a shelf full of unused cookbooks and cooking meal after meal that came out awful, I was completely discouraged and ready to just give up on cooking. I would just have to get rich and hire my own personal chef, am I right?

Then I found Sun Basket.

I had heard of meal delivery services before, but honestly, they sounded shady. They delivered all over the country, who knew where the food was coming from… I just never considered a delivery service. Until a friend, who was a blogger, was sent a Sun Basket to review. She LOVED it and thought it would be perfect for me, so I looked into it.

Why Sun Basket?

Sun Basket sources organic produce and strives to support local farmers and ranchers. The recipes are created by an award-winning chef, Justine Kelly. You get to pick your own meals from a variety of options every week.

It was perfect. They source REAL food, the recipes are created by a chef who makes homemade food taste as good as they make it in the restaurant, but without sacrificing your health. I always know where my food is coming from and what I am putting into my body. I get a choice in what meals are sent to my home and they are always changing the meals so I never get bored.

Finally, they make cooking simple and easy.

I honestly, didn’t think this was possible. Have you ever looked in a cookbook and saw that one recipe is 3 pages, takes 4 hours to make, and has over 15 steps? I just wanted food on my table, I’m not trying to serve a whole village!

Every meal that Sun Basket sends out tells you exactly how long it will take to make, prep work included, and each recipe ranges from 20-45 minutes. Not one meal I have received has taken longer than an hour to make. I love that Sun Basket doesn’t have me spending hours in the kitchen, they understand me…I just want to get to the eating part.

Each meal has six steps or less to follow & each of those meals has the right amount of ingredients already premeasured out for you. Half the prep work is already done before you even get started. No need for planning, grocery shopping, and measuring.

Lastly, they label every meal. Every recipe includes calories, protein, fiber, added sugars, and carbohydrate numbers. Along with listing ingredients that can cause allergens, Sun Basket labels which meals are paleo, gluten free, or vegetarian. They strive to create meals for every diet, especially a healthy one.

Being able to feel good about the food I put in my body is of huge importance to me and I never have to worry about that when I have one of my meals from Sun Basket. 

So how does Sun Basket work?

Pick your meals. At least a week in advance you pick your meals. I have the option to pick three meals from 11 different options.

Next, they deliver Sun Basket right to your door.

Inside each Sun Basket: three recipe cards and all the ingredients needed to make each meal.

Sun Basket already has the right amount of each ingredient needed for the recipe measured out for you. All you have to do is chop up the ingredients and get to cooking.

For the recipe I am sharing today, I just had to chop up the potatoes and parsnips to roast in the oven, zest and juice a lemon, and chop up the ingredients for the olive relish.

Next, is just prepping the ingredients. For this recipe, I just tossed the vegetables with olive oil, salt & pepper, and put them in the oven along with seasoning each chicken breast with a little salt & pepper on each side.

One of the many things I love about Sun Basket is how they always list what cooking tools and pantry staples you will need for each meal, so I always know ahead of time what I am going to need and what size pan which helps prevent me from dirtying up more pans than I need. The less time I spend doing dishes, the better.

& after I prep my ingredients, all I have to do is get to cooking.

Finally, I am a huge sauce lover and Chef Justine always creates the most amazing sauces/toppings/seasonings for each of the meals. Whenever there is a sauce, it is premade, which makes your life so much easier, I know it does for me. For this recipe, the chicken is topped with an olive relish. Adding these types of seasonings/toppings or sauces to each meal gives the food so much more flavor and makes each meal incredibly savory…and mouthwateringly good.

The last step to every meal is to put it together on a plate and serve.

& it is literally THAT SIMPLE.

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Sun Basket has restored my faith in the kitchen. Since signing up for Sun Basket, I have learned how to cook a variety of meals and I received the practice I needed in the kitchen. Sun Basket provided me with a way to learn the skills needed for me to cook in a way that was easy for me to grasp and always left me with encouraging results. With Sun Basket my kitchen receives the use and love that it deserves. I now eat more balanced and delicious meals with a lot less frustration and disappointment.

I highly recommend if you are looking for a way to cook homemade meals and not sacrifice your health or flavor, then give Sun Basket a try.

If you are looking for more information on Sun Basket you can visit their website here. If you have any question feel free to ask me or visit their FAQ page here.

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Barcelona Chicken with Meyer lemon-olive sauce Recipe

*you can also find the recipe on Sun Basket’s page here.

Ingredients:

½ pound garnet sweet potatoes

½ pound purple sweet potatoes

6 ounces parsnips

1 teaspoon sweet smoked paprika

Two 6-ounce boneless skin-on chicken breasts

1 or 2 shallots

¼ cup Kalamata olives

¼ cup Castelvetrano olives

1 Meyer lemon

Fresh basil

Instructions:

***Please note this is NOT an affiliate or sponsored post. All opinions are my own.***