As a mom of two, a wife, and a small business owner, spending quality time with my family during August’s “National Family Fun Month” can feel like an impossible goal. How can I transition my kids into a full-time school schedule, cook dinner, and still have time left in the day to plan family adventures?
Well, the answer started with Home Chef meal kits.
If you aren’t familiar, Home Chef is a delivery company that cooks, packages, and delivers subscription-based meal kits designed to simplify dinner. Home Chef meal kit boxes arrived chilled, on time, and fully packed with fresh, natural ingredients offered at affordable prices. My subscription included weekly recipe rotations for my skill level and dietary preferences, with exciting new options for every meal.
With Home Chef’s new one-pot 4-serving meal kits, plus their new pizza and salad add-ons, I knew I could save enough time in the kitchen to plan end-of-summer activities my kids would never forget. Click below to get ten free meals at Home Chef!
To see what my family was up to this August, and to learn what we ate during every adventure, read on!
Staycation
My family spent some quality time together without even leaving our yard. Here’s how we turned a few free hours into staycation memories:
A Night at the Theater
On a normal night, my husband and I might binge-watch our favorite shows while my kids take turns playing video games. To provide some creativity to our family fun, my husband and I helped our kids write and perform a mini play!
In between script re-writes (all done in crayon, of course), I quickly whipped up a delicious Home Chef 4-serving meal that all of us loved. With the simple crank of the oven dial, a little aluminum foil, and my trusty baking sheet, I cooked Italian Sausage and Pepper Sandwiches with Roasted Fingerling Potatoes. We had a delicious Home Chef dinner, a super quick and easy cleanup, and an entire play ready to perform!
My husband and I watched, laughed, and clapped along as my kids sang about homesick space aliens, scaredy-cat pirates, and an evil witch who (spoiler alert) turned out to be not quite so evil in the end.
After-School Lemonade Stand
To teach my kids a thing or two about entrepreneurship, we transformed a boring Saturday afternoon and our drab street corner into a moneymaking lemonade franchise!
While my kids taste-tested each new batch of lemonade, my husband put together an incredibly easy Home Chef meal. Using just one pot, he cooked a Chicken Velouté Pasta with Peas and Parmesan before I could even finish designing our stand’s sign.
After filling up on rigatoni and chicken breast, my kids sold lemonade after lemonade. When it was all said and done, my kids had enough “net income” to buy a treat for themselves and give the rest to a local charity!
Pillowfort Movie Night
Following a long week, we used our Friday night to get into our PJs, construct a glorious pillow fort, eat a Home Chef meal, and watch our favorite family movie.
Amid all of the pillow construction madness, my two little amateur architects and I cooked a cozy Beef Shepherd’s Pie from Home Chef. From start to finish, the entire meal was prepared in just one pan, making clean-up as easy as pie.
After the kids fell asleep, my husband and I watched a gritty crime drama in the pillow fort. Getting the late-night munchies, my husband baked a Sicilian-style Margherita Pizza, a Home Chef menu add-on we ordered for late nights like this. My husband was now full and cleaning up the cookware was super easy: we just had to deal with one dirty pot!
Around Town
When we had the time for a 15-minute drive, my family and I spent August exploring around town. Here’s the 411 on our local hijinks:
Taking a Hike
Thanks to the time-saving ease of our healthy Home Chef meal kit, my entire family squeezed a two-mile hike into a regular Wednesday night!
As soon as my husband walked in the door from work, we were off to the races. I laced the hiking boots onto the kids while he got to cooking tonight’s Home Chef meal kit: One-Pan Chicken Teriyaki Noodles. The meal was amazing: filling, easy to clean, and chock-full of the vegetables and protein we needed to fuel our hike.
After eating, we hopped in the car and drove about 15 minutes south to a cute two-mile loop trail right outside of town. An hour and a half later, the kids were asleep in the car and my husband and I smiled, knowing we had the leftover noodles all to ourselves. 
Neighborhood Art Appreciation
Our town held an art festival one Sunday during Family Fun Month, so we fueled up on a Home Chef meal kit and prepped to come back with some “priceless” pieces.
While my husband made space in the car, I used just one pot to create Chicken and Poblano Corn Chowder from my Home Chef meal kit. After some simple stirring and stewing, we had a delicious Sunday meal and were on our way into town.
The art festival was adorable! After perusing the outdoor galleries and artist tents for what felt like hours, we finally settled on a cat-shaped vase for the bathroom. Now if only I can keep my kids from bumping it over...
Road Trip
This was the biggie—from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon, my family planned a trip to a National Park. 
We planned ahead and sent our Home Chef meal kit to our home rental. After driving to the park Friday night, we spent most of Saturday swimming, hiking, and napping in our hammocks. When it was time for dinner, I cooked a delicious 4-serving meal from Home Chef: Italian Sausage Penne in Creamy Tomato Sauce.
As if the penne wasn’t enough, I also ordered Caesar Chopped Salad add-ons to my meal box for the weekend. Now my family had all the protein, veggies, and carbs we needed to go spelunking on Sunday!
Shop for Your Own Meal Kits Today!
Thanks to Home Chef meal kits, I was able to spend my August enjoying family fun. The 4-serving meal options were a staple of my culinary planning, and the new salad and pizza add-on options were perfect in a pinch.
Are you interested in signing up for Home Chef meal kits yourself? Start building your Home Chef box today with delicious, filling meals your entire family won’t be able to get enough of.
