Alabama Bliss Meals

Over the summer, I discovered a company called Alabama Bliss.  It is a small company back in Muscle Shoals.  It is a really unique place.  It is a boutique offering clothing and accessories; they have a cafe serving both food specials daily and coffee; they offer grocery delivery; and [what this post is about] they have take home meals that you can cook at home later.

So I found them via facebook.  A few of my friends back in my hometown would use them often.  They used to require orders to be placed via facebook, and that's how I started seeing their posts.  I started following them and noticing their meals.  The biggest problem is their location.  That is about an hour and a half drive for us.  They eventually started offering delivery to the Moulton/Decatur area.  My parents live in that area.  My best friend, Emily, and I thought about having a pool day at their house one day, then we would meet Alabama Bliss afterwards.  Well every week we could just not find enough food on the menu that justified it.  This literally went on for about three months.

We finally found a week where we found things we wanted.  But then it was cold and the pool wasn't an option.  Then I started noticing the times they delivered to Moulton and Decatur.  They just didn't work with our schedules.  Emily's mom came to visit one day, and she brought Emily some of their meals.  Emily really loved it and the ease of it.  There came another week that Emily happened to be going into town to visit her parents.  She was going to bring back some meals for her and volunteered to bring some back for me.  So I finally bit the bullet and decided to give it a try.

There are multiple deals they have.  I decided to do a full meal deal.  This included 3 full meals, 2 sides, and 1 salad.  I also added one additional side.  You can also order a half meal deal as well as order things individually.  I figured I should go all out the first time!

Below are the items I ordered:

1. Full Meal: Creamy Ranch Pork Chops - cooked via crockpot

2. Full Meal: Poppy Seed Chicken - bake in oven

3. Full Meal: Fajita Chicken Casserole - bake in oven

4. Side: Smothered Green Beans 

5. Side: Mac and Cheese

6. Side: Yummo Bread

7. Salad: Farmer's Market Salad

Meal Pairings

• I paired the salad and the bread with an already prepared meal the night Emily brought us the food.
• I paired the pork chops with the rest of the salad, Mac and Cheese, and another serving of the bread.
• I paired the poppy seed chicken with more of the Mac and Cheese, green beans, and another serving of the bread.
• I paired the fajita chicken casserole with chips and salsa we bought separately.
• To finish up the vegetables, we had the remainder of the Mac and Cheese, green beans, and bread with a roast I made.

Because we did the full meals, we obviously had lots of food!  We decided to freeze the entree leftovers that we had each night.  We were able to eat all the vegetables over several meals.  Below are the number of meals each item lasted

• Pork Chops: 3 Meals
• Poppy Seed Chicken: 4 meals
• Fajita Chicken Casserole: 3 meals and 1 lunch
• Green Beans: 2 meals
• Mac and Cheese: 3 meals
• Yummo Bread: 4 meals (Brad only had it for 2 meals)
• Farmer's Market Salad: 2 meals

All of the meals were super easy to prepare.  Each one came with instructions on how to cook.  Most items were baked.  Cleanup was also super easy since they came in containers that you actually baked the items in.  Each meal also had a freeze by/cook by date.  Most meals were good for almost 1 week!  So we were able to cook over a few days.

Each meals was super great.  My favorite was by far the poppy seed chicken.  It was so creamy and delicious.  The pork chops were also really good and super tender!  The fajita chicken was our least favorite [still good though], but it made for great leftovers for lunch the next day.  All of the sides were super good.  My favorite was the salad.  I know that sounds crazy, but the ranch dressing was homemade and some of the best I have ever had!  The other sides were great too, but I LOVED that ranch dressing.  Plus I love salads but I can never make them taste as good at home.

I really hate that they are located so far away.  We have similar places here in Huntsville, but the prices aren't as great, and none have quite the variety that Alabama Bliss has.  I definitely feel like it is worth the money when I can easily get it.  I don't feel like it is worth my drive, however.  Especially when that drive would involve an 18 month old!  All of the food was really great, and it was nice to not have to do all of the prep work or really all of the clean up in general.  We just threw away the pans when we were done!  Next time I think I will order multiple meals [assuming there are multiple meals I want] and maybe even freeze some or eat them over the span of the week.  If you are around that area, you should definitely give them try!