The Best Meal Kit for your Holiday Dinner
With the holidays just around the corner, I've had nothing but dinner recipes and Pinterest boards floating in my mind for the past few weeks. As usual, a beloved local Central Coast business is here to save the day and save me from a holiday-induced kitchen panic attack.
Today I'm highlighting local event space turned meal-kit connoisseurs at Rincon Beach Bar, who did what many local businesses had to do this year, pivot. This means that a business once centered around in-person events in Santa Barbara such as weddings, had to quickly step up to support the community in new ways - cue the Invisible Chef Meal Kits. With the recent reimposed stay-at-home orders, these kits have become a staple to many food-loving members of the community for good reason. They allow you to enjoy restaurant-grade food in the comfort of your home with minimal preparation, aka minimal stress.
I personally made the decision to hand over the apron this year and trust the team to deliver a 5-star meal for my family. I placed an order for the Small Invisible Chef Holiday Meal Kit online, and drove to their Carpinteria restaurant location for pick up. FYI, they also offer delivery for an extra $15 - $25 depending on your zip code, there’s more information on their website. Marc and his team made sure everything was neatly presented, and ready to heat at home. The entire process was truly as smooth as (herb) butter (which of course, is included in your kit to smother on the pull-apart rolls). Each dish had clear labels with reheating and assembly instructions, so when it came time to hop to it, my total cook time was only about 45 minutes.
I’ve included a breakdown of the items included in my order:
3 cups Strawberry Field Salad (Organic Arugula + Strawberries + Dried Cranberries + Candied Pecans + Gorgonzola Cheese + Honey Lemon Dressing)
6 garlic Pull apart Rolls with Herb Butter
2 cups Roasted Green Beans with preserved lemon
1 lb. Whole Roasted New Potatoes which I substituted for potatoes au gratin
2 Chicken breasts, a hefty serving of Salmon, and I added Butternut Squash Ravioli (because why not)
I’m also a sucker for Ahi Poke and Sugared Bacon so I added one order of each to the kit
I had a blast prepping the salad and ahi poke bowl, and may have (definitely) dug into the potatoes au gratin while they were still room temperature. By the time these were ready, the other warm dishes were reheated and ready to serve. I quickly set the table, plated the dishes, and voila! dinner was served. We washed down dinner with Campo Viejo Cava Brut Reserva and a mountain of cookies from the Rincon Signature Cookie Box. This ended up being more than enough food, and we even had leftovers for lunch the following day.
I definitely spoiled the surprise in the first sentence but, you can try this yourself and get 10% Off Kits using the code JASMINE10. Code expires on 12/31/2020.
As an avid user of the #supportlocal hashtag, it’s my obligation to remind you to support your local businesses this holiday season (and always). They show up for us when we need them, so let’s make sure we do the same.
Cheers to our local businesses, to the team at Rincon Beach Bar, and to a great 2021!
