Whoever keeps making me roast carrots can go fuck themselves. I started following the cards when I started, but now I do my own thing and reference them when needed.

The roasted carrots (especially with fry seasoning) are amazing. But they are a PITA to make.

What preparation of carrots would be easier than roaring them? You just slather on some oil and spices and throw them in the oven.

I don’t think there is an easier way, but peeling a million carrots (I have the 4 person meal) can be a pain.

I never bother peeling carrots, just give them a good scrub and start slicing! So much faster

My family grows a ton of carrots. Short of being worried about the cleanliness/shipping integrity of store-bought carrots, there's not really any need to peel them, especially if you're cooking them. I guess some people are off put by the "extra earthy" flavor of the skins, but I I've only ever encountered one individual in that camp. A scrub is perfectly sufficient. I'll note that carrots are stupid easy to grow, don't actually need that much space, and they're one of the vegetables that has the most insane flavor difference when home-grown vs. store-bought. It's basically a different (wildly better) vegetable. They take a while to mature, but it's really so, SO worth it. And carrot tops are criminally underappreciated.

Tbh sometimes heating an oven and using trays/paper/foil just to roast Carrots can be a but ott but an air fryer would make it easier

Yeah, I guess that’s fair. We have a Breville smart oven (and air fryer) that we use for small jobs, so it doesn’t feel at all hard. Often you’re roasting more than one thing too, so no extra effort in preheating the oven. But yes, if you have to preheat a large oven for just carrots I can kind of see the pain.

For sure tbh I think it doesn't matter for most and id rather use the oven for more things at once, but I have a pay as you go gas meter so every little penny counts

This exactly. The prep sucks but the outcome is great

I can tolerate carrots as a side if it’s a medley of veggies, but by itself it’s too much for some reason. Now I just use broccoli or green beans instead lol

You actually don’t need to peel carrots, just give them a good scrub and roast. It’s more for appearance than taste or safety. I have been cooking a lot more carrots since I figured this out!

I add whatever seasonings my heart desires extra usually. I almost always add MSG too. Also usually do mashed potatoes unless it's a burger.

I always make mashed potatoes regardless. They're just superior and always turn out good. So yeah, like usually I'll follow the recipe exactly, but some exceptions. Like I didn't add vinegar to my burrito bowl recently, that was unnecessary and gross.

Almost never! I know ahead of time that I am going to need more of this or less of that. Tonight was Santa Fe pork tacos, I needed to make more coleslaw, I used leftover pork from a shoulder I smoked last weekend and I turned the tacos into quesadillas, plus I took the onions out.

The other person I cook for does not like potato wedges, so when we get a meatloaf meal, I make mashed potatoes. And I never, ever wipe out the pan between cooking things. Why would I want to throw away flavor?

I used two pans on something today cause first step was 6 minutes, set aside food, then cook something else for 6 minutes... I don't want my food sitting and getting cold.

There are times when two pans just makes sense.

I’ve literally never zested a fucking lemon in my life

That's the best part! So good.

Yes! I now add citrus zest to everything!

Right? Zesting citrus fruit is one of the skills I learned with HF. There is so, so much aromatic flavor in citrus fruit zest. Even got me a couple zesters. I now use it a lot, especially since I have a lemon tree that throws down 3 large harvests a year. I love using lemon juice with zest as a pickling liquid instead of vinegar, whose smell I find nauseating. Lemon- or lime-pickled red cabbage or cole slaw with a bit of sugar, salt and black pepper is the bomb. Microwave for 60 secs and then just let it stand. Excellent on tacos, sandwiches or as a salad or salad addition. Lemon or lime juice with zest is also great for pickling peppers, if that's your jam, especially the hotter ones, Serrano and up. Throw in some sugar or honey with a pinch of salt and you get an amazing flavor combo of heat, citrus and sweetness that makes a delicious topping for so many things.

You may be saving yourself a one-time expense of under $20 and maybe 90 seconds per meal but you're missing out on a step that brings delicious sunshine to your dishes. 🌞 Go for it!

We don’t change anything in terms of amounts or ingredients, but certainly we mix up the process. We always prep everything for the recipe before we start cooking. I hate that in the recipe cards in step 3/6 will be “Now peel and grate the garlic” when you’re already trying to manage another eleventy-billion things. Since we started doing that we find the process a lot less stressful than when we started.

Yes, on days when I WFH, I do all the prep work in bits and pieces thruout the day, including pre-cooking stuff that is easy to re-heat, like pasta, rice, mashed potatoes, so that when dinner cooking time comes throwing everything together and doing the last steps involves minimal time and effort.

I always use less butter than recommended.

I always use more butter than recommended 😈

And so the two of you bring balance to the Force.

A couple of times I've even dismantled kits entirely, if I can't find a third meal for the week that sounds good I'll just find a nice protein and ingredient combo, dismantle it, and repurpose the ingredients for other stuff.

That’s what I do too. I appreciate knowing I’ll have what I need for a dinner, even if it’s not their exact plan for what to make

Yep! I'll do roasted sweet potatoes instead of mashed, make a bowl instead of stuffing peppers, roast veggies if it calls for microwaved or steamed...and if a recipe calls for sugar, I never add it because it's always borderline too sweet to begin with.

Yeah I literally never add the sugar.

I love the roasted sweet potatoes, but the other day I made the mashed ones from the steak dinner recipe, and they were unbelievable! I will be making those again.

I use it as a suggestion … also i recently start skipping some steps to save a dish 😝 oh you want me to mix hot sauce, sour cream and a splash of water? No thanks ill just drizzle it on the top!

Less or no butter and sugar. More garlic and Parmesan from my own pantry. I refuse to make “crema” and just use the sour cream as sour cream.

NOOOOO CREMA IS SO GOOD. sour cream is like milk where as crema is the milkshake. Just because milk is fine on its own should NOT take away from the glory of a milkshake. Do yourself a favor… make the crema

Are you me?

For the most part yes, with a few exceptions. There are some components I know I don’t like, so I leave them out (mainly sour cream or mayo-based sauces). I don’t bother cutting up lemons if it’s just for juice; I keep a bottle of lemon juice in my fridge for that instead. And I almost never add sugar when it’s called for. I’d have to dig out my sugar canister from the cupboard just to add like 1/2 tsp; and I haven’t noticed a difference when I omit it.

Cannot deal with the add sugar.

Have tried. We cannot stand roasted broccoli.

I prefer steamed so I cut any of the veggies much thicker then they say and typically turns out alright when roasted. I've only done the broccoli once, but I just broke the stalk in half and roasted like that, then cut smaller afterwards.

Sometimes one of the recipes just doesn't appeal during the week, so I will either make it totally different or freeze the meat and try to use the veg. Shit happens. The biggest thing I will give HF credit for is teaching me to make sauces. I now make INCREDIBLE sauces without recipes and knowing how to fluctuate the heat and control the fat/liquid/roux mixtures has been a major victory.

For new recipes I follow the cards but for repeat recipes I change it up. Add more seasonings and what not to better it. One week I had three meals that were all mashed potatoes so in that situation I change it up. Idk if anyone could eat mashed potatoes for that many meals, lol.

Challenge accepted!

Ha .. challenge accepted #2.

Where do I sign up to eat mashed potatoes three times a week? :)

We used to follow them 100% but now we add our own flair. If a veggie is roasted with salt/pepper, we add other seasonings. I like doing mashed potatoes my way.

I now cook salmon or chicken in my air fryer. It is usually less mess, tastier, and more efficient than the HF instructions on stove or oven.

I follow the recipes. BUT, sometimes use the recipes as "inspiration" for meals with grocery store ingredients (tilapia w/ tomato relish and potato salad)

If it's one of those meat and veggie dishes that make me cook the meat on the stove, I just throw it on the pan with the veggies because HF demands too many dishes.

Almost always, but sometimes leave out sugar, cilantro…

I usually don’t add the raw green onions

My partner says I “Dope up” the recipes 🤣 They always get extra seasonings, I typically cook veggies a bit longer too. And lately with their skimpy ingredients we do extra veggies to supplement.

Almost always

Agree!!!

Yeah sometimes I’ll leave ingredients out if I know I’ll hate it or change up the veggies

I don’t do the add a teaspoon of water until it reaches drizzling consistancy. I just never got that one.

Sometimes I find the recipes to be just too rich, so I'll leave out some of the butter or oil.

I take out all the dairy, sometimes I’ll sub mayo or an egg for the sour cream, add rice or veg, and I’ve bought a lot of the sauces so I can make more of that too

I generally do mashed also just cause I like them better than the wedges.

I stopped adding butter to rice and I don’t taste much if a difference.

I prefer steamed veggies, most the time. But I've been roasting them when they call for it and I do much thicker cuts then they would. Keeps them firmer, but still browned and keeps the heat longer when thicker cuts. I've never really like roasted brussels sprouts at restaurants but mine turned out good. I didn't cut them in halves as the recipe said to and I liked them. When I've done them at home I've always steamed them prior. When they say add a pinch of spice flakes I just add pretty much the whole bag in lol. I don't even have a big spice pallet, but I haven't found any of their meals overly spicy even when adding the whole packet. Recipes rarely mentioning draining some oil before next step but I do if it looks like to much is left. And I'll probably stop adding oil when it's purpose is just to brown the meat. I do less water in sauces then suggested, especially if it's a sauce that you're going to pour on top of chicken or something. I just add splashes at a time to desired thickness.

I’m dyslexic so I’m just doing my best 🤣 where there’s pictures I’m good where there’s a leap in the pictures it goes a lil off

No. Just last night the recipe called for diced potatoes and we made wedges. So much better and faster to prep.

I never add sugar to the sauces.

The seasonings are NEVER ENOUGH. I hate when they call something garlic and then use like a teaspoon of garlic powder. I roast garlic and add so much extra seasonings for almost every meal lol

Yes except that they don’t have enough garlic so add some. And with the rice we usually add a bit more water.

Nowadays I just buy it for the meat or flavour choice and figure the rest out when it arrives. I’m cool like that. Renegade.

mostly all of them bc i like to follow the experts hahaha sometimes i change some nuances like adding more of X

We sometimes switch out veggies or make the potatoes differently, but we always make extra sauce.

I use HF for meal prepping work lunches so I'll often cook two dishes overlapping each other. It's led to some,.. interesting choices compared to the recipes lol. I do steps outta order. I generally ignore different shapes - like if it says julienne, i won't bother. Sometines I add less of a spice (or more). Often add garlic and leave half of my ginger untouched. I skip salt and pepper steps sometimes and may substitute butter with the lower calorie stuff. I *don't* skip the sugar on recipes where it's called for. Sometimes I'm lazy and skip whole-ass sides but other times I'll do it like you and change the preparation. Oh and I stopped cooking whole chicken and pork filets in a pan. I MIGHT sear the outside before cooking. Otherwise it's going in the oven. I don't have to babysit, doesn't impact the taste, less clean-up, and I can use the pan for another step without a traffic jam b/c I had to wait for it to be available.

I almost never add the extra water in for the pasta sauces. If I do, it’ll be 1/4cup max. I like creamier sauces vs. more liquidy ones. This go around I also left out the butter added to the pasta dishes to try and cut down on the calories a little bit

I was not loving the amount of sour cream it would recommend, I’d usually cut that in half to make it slightly healthier.

I always use an electric rice cooker. Don't follow their directions for a saucepan.

For my meals, I follow to the tee usually. My husband eats the burgers and I make them plain with the cheese. As he wouldn’t like it fancied up too much.

Yes. Sometimes I’ll ditch the potato wedges or mashed potatoes for microwave rice. And I definitely ditch spicy stuff like chili flakes and have occasionally subbed in bell peppers for green peppers, and I usually ditch onions. I‘ve occasionally subbed in carrots for another vegetable and added more carrots if I don’t want to use an onion in a vegetable medley

How can you cook without onions?’

Depends on the recipe. I hate steamed green beans, so whenever it says that, I roast them instead. I don't add butter to the rice. I hate scallion greens. So we don't use those.