A quick trip to Everett helps put dinner on the table

As a busy working parent, it’s awfully hard for me to prepare dinner each night, even though I work from home. Some days I’m great at taking out my recipe cards, ordering groceries, picking them up at Fred Meyer, and meal prepping all afternoon so that I can cook from scratch the rest of the week. Other times life becomes so wild that I’ve subscribed to meal kit boxes like Hungry Root or Acme Farms + Kitchen. We don’t usually eat out because it’s more expensive. That’s why I was intrigued to learn that Kindred Kitchen in Everett offers to-go dinner kits.

Kindred Kitchen, operated by HopeWorks, is an amazing cafe on Broadway that gives people a new start in life. It offers job training to low income or formerly homeless young people and young adults. The cafe itself is a fun place to hang out, read a book and eat lunch. They have a catering service, too. But it’s the dinner kits that have really captured my attention.

For our first order, I purchased the Snoho Chef family salad, the Tuscan Chicken Pasta for four, the Tex-Mex family salad and the Gluten-Free Chicken Enchiladas. It was easy to collect my meals because they had curbside delivery, but I ended up parking and walking inside because I wanted to indulge in a London Fog, which is my favorite drink at the cafe.

All of the food was a hit with my two teenagers and my husband. The pasta and enchilada kits were the closest to a traditional meal delivery service like Sunbasket, Hello Fresh or Gobble. Those meals required assembly and cooking time, but were still easy for me to whip up after a long day of writing. Unlike their corporation counterparts, the Kindred Kitchen kits had way less packaging to dispose of, which I appreciated. The salad kits were my favorite because they were the easiest to get onto the table. I just took off the container lids and created an instant salad bar.

As far as prices go, Kindred Kitchen ranges from $25 for a two-person kit, to $35 for a four-person kit, depending on the meal. They have vegan, gluten free and keto offerings as well.

If you try out this service — and I hope you do — I encourage you to have grace. Kindred Kitchen is a social enterprise, not a giant corporation, so when you order you might have to be patient and play around with the dates and pick-up times until you find one that works. For example, I tried to place an order on Sunday for a Monday pickup, and that didn’t work, but on Monday I was able to order for Tuesday. There’s also a place to leave a tip. Be generous and tip well!

You can find all of the dinner kit options by visiting their website at: kindredkitchen.hrpos.heartland.us/menu.

Jennifer Bardsley is the author of “Sweet Bliss,” “Good Catch” and more. Find her online on Instagram @jenniferbardsleyauthor, on Twitter @jennbardsley or on Facebook as Jennifer Bardsley Author. Email her at teachingmybabytoread@gmail.com.