SusieQTpies Cafe: Meal Planning

Thursday

Quick Family Meals with Lemon Grass Kitchen and a Coupon #mc #sponsored

I love planning out my weekly menu. It has proven time and time again to save me time and money. No matter how well I have planned I have learned over the past few years to be really flexible with a busy household. Do you plan weekly meals? What tips do you have on dealing with feeding the family when meals don't go as planned? I participated in an Influencer Activation on behalf of Mom Central for InnovAsian Cuisine. I received coupons for Lemon Grass Kitchen frozen meals to facilitate my review as well as a promotional item to thank me for my participation.

Sometimes a scheduled meal doesn't turn out as planned. Other times I find that I can't cook a planned meal because of schedule changes and no one will be home to eat. Do you ever have these problems? There are also times when I don't want to plan a meal and hope to have easy meals in the freezer ready to go. Do you ever use prepared freezer meals?

I have recently learned about InnovAsian Cuisine Lemon Grass Kitchen and that they are one of the first Thai frozen food lines created by Chef Mai Pham. They offer a variety of easy cooking entrees such as Chicken Pad Thai, Beef & Broccoli Noodles and Red Curry Chicken. These are high quality frozen meals which the ingredients are individually packaged for superior freshness. The meals work both on the stove top and in the microwave.

Red Curry Sauce with Chicken - Family added in extras such as sticky white rice, thai basil, basil or cilantro

Have you heard or tried these meals? Does your family love Thai food? My family does and it is always a special treat when we travel to a larger neighboring town to enjoy fresh Thai food. We don't do it very often because it is too expensive and it is too far away to just hop over for a quick bite.

With the Lemon Grass Kitchen meals we can now have Thai food on those super busy nights when plans change. One box would be find for up to two people. Sometimes a 6-12 minute meal from start to finish is the best choice for the family. These meals are free of MSG and trans fat which is an extra bonus.

Thai-Style Chicken Fried Rice- Family added in chilies, fish sauce, lime or Sriracha sauce

As part of this sponsored post I picked up Lemon Grass Kitchen's Red Curry Sauce with Chicken, Thai-Style Chicken Fried Rice, Beef & Broccoli Noodles, and Shrimp Pad Thai for my family to try. I loved how quick the meals were to prepare. Everything was separated into packets for ease of preparation and to keep the meal as fresh as possible. So for example, the Red Curry Sauce with Chicken had 3 packets: chicken, vegetables and sauce. The Beef & Broccoli Noodles had 4 packets: beef, noodles, vegetables and sauce. The directions were easy to follow and yes, it was super easy to prepare.

Beef & Broccoli Noodles - Family added in chilies, basil, Siriacha sauce

We are Thai food fans so we know that certain Thai dishes get peanuts, bean sprouts, basil, cilantro, chilies, sticky white rice, and limes. I purchased all the extras for the family to pick and choose what they wanted to add to their meal. One box is 3 servings so for my family I would have to make 2 boxes for one meal.

Overall the meals were as stated, quick to make. I wasn't so thrilled at the salt content but most companies can't make processed meals without the extra sodium. My family thought that the meals were ok over all and agreed that they would be handy to have in the freezer. Sometimes a quick meal is needed and since we love Thai food this would be a good alternative to going out to a restaurant. This can also be a quick meal for the teens to make when we are out of town. The meal is complete as is and can be made in the microwave or stove top.

Here are the steps to make the Shrimp Pad Thai which was our favorite pick overall.

Frozen Noodles

Thaw noodles

Thaw sauce

Add all ingredients to skillet

Cook 2-3 minutes until hot

Family added in extras such as lemon, lime, basil, peanuts or bean sprouts. This really makes it more fresh!

Do you think this is something you would try with your family? Do you ever buy or prepare frozen meals?

The Lemon Grass Kitchen line can be found at Walmart and Safeway stores. Right now you can get a $1.50 off a Lemon Grass Kitchen product to give them a try. The Lemon Grass Kitchen coupon can be found here http://bit.ly/1p7CA9p. It is a digital coupon on coupons.com and once you click the link it will go into your print queue.

Find out even more about InnovAsian Cuisine on their social media channels:

InnovAsian Cuisine Facebook page
InnovAsian Cuisine Twitter page

So which quick meal will you try first?

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