Sun Basket is the sixteenth in my Sunday series featuring American Artisans. There are so many exceptionally talented craftspeople, designers, and small companies across this country and this is my chance to introduce them to you. These artisans are creating beautiful, useful and delicious products that elevate the experience of everyday cooking, dining, and entertaining. They’re using skills, techniques, and materials that might otherwise be lost in our era of mass production. Their work makes me happy, and I hope it does the same for you. Each feature will be paired with a giveaway to give you the chance to experience their work for yourselves. I’ll be doing these features every other Sunday for the foreseeable future, so be sure to check back, and enjoy!
The first time I made a Sun Basket meal I had more fun cooking dinner than I’ve had in a long time, I think you’re going to love it.
Some of my American Artisans work with their hands to create unique and useful objects, others use their talents more collaboratively, like Adam Zbar and Justine Kelly (an award winning San Francisco chef) of Sun Basket. Sun Basket is an organic farm-to-table meal delivery system, headquartered in San Jose California. You may have heard of this concept, it’s pretty hot right now — they deliver top quality, sustainably produced organic ingredients — all pre-measured and ready to go — right to your door, along with the recipes and photos so you can make simple gourmet meals in your kitchen without the hassle of shopping and prepping. You get to choose from an ever changing weekly menu that covers all the bases, including gluten-free, Paleo, and vegetarian diets. In other words, they deliver it, and you cook it.
The gourmet recipes and instructions are simple enough that even an inexperienced cook can manage them…and the bottom line is, the results are fantastic.
It can be so debilitating to face the evening without a good meal plan in place. Even though I deal with food for a living, I often I resort to a couple of fried eggs for my dinner because I’ve been too busy to plan ahead. After a long day of shopping for food, prepping and cooking it, then styling, photographing, and writing about food, and then cleaning up after it all — I’m pooped, and hungry!
Each box is like a mini cooking course, and you’ll discover new ingredients and techniques with every recipe.
I was introduced to Sun Basket at a time in my life when I needed a little extra help solving the ‘what’s for dinner’ question, and I’m excited to share it with you. Every last detail of the experience has been so satisfying, from opening up the box and pulling out each carefully labeled package, to cooking up delicious meals with very little effort. Here’s how it works:
- You go to their site and sign up for a plan. Each meal costs $11.49 each and you can get a 2, 4, or 6 person plan. You can cancel or skip at any time. Best part? Delivery is FREE.
- You choose your meals from the always changing weekly menu.
- Your meals arrive in a large well packed box, you unpack it and put everything in the fridge. You’ll get recipe cards with photos and detailed instructions along with your food.
- Choose which meal you want to make first — this is the hard part.
- Lay out all your pre-measured ingredients and follow the recipe to cook up a fabulous meal.
- For more information check out their website, or their FAQ section, here.
Sun Basket deals with top farmers, ranchers, and fishermen on the West Coast who are producing some of the best food in the country, and doing it sustainably and humanely.
So why try something like this? I love it because it’s farm to table, direct to you without the grocery store middle man. The food is ultra fresh and the quality is amazing. I shop in some of the best grocery stores in Los Angeles and the quality of the ingredients I get in my boxes from Sun Basket is fresher, it’s that simple. Cost-wise I think it’s a viable option because I often have to buy more than I want or need at the grocery store and it ends up going to waste. (By skipping the trip to the store I also skip those impulse buys.) And can I just say that I LOVE getting it all delivered to my door instead of having to run out at the last minute for food for dinner?
I also love that I’m guaranteed to be eating healthily, without having to think about it. The portion sizes, calorie count, and nutritional balance are all taken into consideration.
Every shipment arrives with a little packet of recipe cards with photos, step by step instructions, and nutritional info.
My first box was waiting for me at the end of a busy day. I brought it in, and unpacked it. Everything was labeled and bagged separately, ready to put right in the fridge, it’s all fresh, not frozen. My box even had a special note about the farmer who grew the specialty peppers included as part of my pork loin meal.
Everything you need is pre-measured and included in your box (except oil, salt, and pepper,) allowing you to focus on the cooking process — it’s fast and fun.
I guarantee you’ll discover something new in these meals, even if you’re an experienced cook. My hat is off to Chef Justine, all the meals that I’ve had have been super interesting and have introduced me to a new ingredient, technique, or flavor combination. And each dish that I made turned out looking as beautiful as the photos on the recipe cards.
A Sun Basket meal is cheaper, healthier, fresher (and usually faster!) than take out.
At the moment, Sun Basket delivers to CA, WA, CO, UT, OR, AZ, NV, & ID, but there are plans afoot to expand. This is a great idea for so many different lifestyles, from single professionals, to ‘power couples’, to retirees, or anyone who just needs a little help making healthy meals for themselves. Remember that if you don’t live in one of these states, but know someone who does, this would make a fantastic gift.
Sun Basket is giving away a week of meals for two (six meals) to one reader. Follow the instructions below to enter, and good luck!
*I received a Sun Basket box of meals for review. All opinions are emphatically my own!
The colors in your photos make this irresistible
Most of the photos are from Sun Basket, Sandy, and I can vouch for the fact that when you cook the meals, they look just like that.
Hi Sue, they all look like really great meals, looks like a lot of greens are involved. Never heard of this company.
They use a lot of seasonal fresh ingredients and they make a point of using unusual veggies and spices, too.
I love every single dish here…so FRESH and packed full of flavour, Sue.
I know — I could definitely get used to eating like this 🙂
I hope you post if they start delivering to other states.
I definitely will let everybody know Vanessa — be sure to sign up on my email list, I’ll probably announce it that way.