You have questions - we have answers! La Bonne Vie FAQ's

We get a lot of questions about our personal chef services, so it’s about time we posted some FAQs! If you can’t find the answer to your question here, please contact us and we’ll be happy to get in touch!

1. What’s a personal chef? Don’t they cook in your house every day? Sounds fancy.

   A personal chef typically cooks in a commercial kitchen and delivers weekly, chef-prepared meals to their clients. A chef that cooks daily in someone’s home is a private chef. Here’s a great article on the differences!

   Personal chef services have become more accessible and available to many households over the last decade or so. Our clients appreciate the customization available with our services as well as the emphasis on healthy eating and healthy living.

2. What meal plans do you offer? Can you help me? I have so many food restrictions!

   We would love to help you however we can! We have experience with a variety of meal plans, including autoimmune protocol, paleo, vegan, keto, intermittent fasting, athlete-driven, macro focused, etc.  When you fill out our food questionnaire, it helps us get a great idea of how we can best help you and what nutritional focus you are needing. Our chefs have over a decade of nutritional experience and ingredients that we know how to substitute to help get you feeling great without feeling like you are missing out on any of the good stuff. 

3. I don't see any pricing listed, how does this work and what all can I expect from the service?

   When you sign up for personal chef services, we tailor a meal plan that best fits your needs and schedule, so you always have enough meals to get you through the week! Since it depends on how much variety and servings you need, we can recommend one of our meal plans to try and see how it fits what you need. The cost of groceries is separate from our service pricing so we can 100% tailor the meals to you without charging more!

   Grocery costs really just depend on what you'd like to eat that week (chicken and ground beef, versus steak and lobster) so whatever the groceries are for your meals that week, you can deduct that amount from what you'd budget for the grocery store since we are getting it for your instead! So not only do you have a chef preparing meals just for you, but you also get a personal grocery shopper to go with it! How cool is that?

4. How are you different from buying from a boxed meal prep company? Will I need to prep anything?

   There is zero prep work! All of our meals are ready to reheat, or finish cooking - for example it takes the same amount of time to heat salmon fresh, as it does to reheat (and no one wants reheated seafood!) so it will come fully prepped and ready to bake in the oven. We masterfully prepare the meals so that when you reheat them, they won't taste like leftovers, they will taste as fresh as if you prepped it all yourself!

5. How much time will this save me?

   Meal prepping is really a part-time job! From the time you begin meal planning, go to the grocery store (and that's if you only go to one store, once a week), prep, cook, pack, cool and store (let's not even mention the DISHES!), you will spend about 12-15 hours in the kitchen. Do you still feel like spending an entire Sunday working just to get through the workweek? We can handle everything for you!

6. Do you deliver or can I pick up?

   We deliver straight to your home. We can drop off the meals to a fridge in your home or garage so all you have to do is follow the reheating instructions and enjoy! 

7. Is there a contract or subscription? What if I go on vacation or need to skip a week?

   Many of our personal chef services clients opt to order week to week, and we keep a card on file to charge on a weekly basis. If you need to skip a week, just let us know the week beforehand and we will be sure to mark it in our calendar and you won't be charged for that week. There is no contract, but we do ask for at least one week's heads up if you plan on skipping for a time or need to pause. This helps us stay organized so we can continue to offer the best personal chef service in the area!

8. I have picky (kids, husband, etc...) can you help me?

   It can be a pain to cook multiple dishes for members of the family each night, and we feel for you! We can definitely work with picky eaters. We will be sure to communicate with you on a weekly basis to see how the meals are going, and if we need to tweak anything we can. We can also save favorite meals, or create meals you have made in the past that have been a hit. We know this can take some time for kids and family members to get used to, but we are here to help you ease the strain of figuring it all out by yourself! 

9. Do you offer more than just weekly meals?

   We offer weekly meals, snacks, smoothies, sweet treats, private dinner parties, small-batch catering events and a kitchen concierge service where we can organize/clean out your pantry and fridge and also pick up and store your groceries! Be sure to contact us for more info.

10. I love your meals! Do you offer a referral program?

    Yes! Just let your friends or family know to let us know you referred them and we will give you free food! 

If we haven’t answered your question here - no worries! Please reach out to us and we’re happy to answer any additional questions you have about our meals and services.

5 Healthy Lunches You Can to Take to Work

5 Healthy Lunches You Can Take to Work

Healthy lunches are not just a concern for your kids as they head back to school, but for you as well! It can be challenging coming up with lunch box ideas for your kids, let alone yourself! Maybe you have co-workers who want to go out to eat every day or you tend to skip lunch and visit the vending machine. Or maybe you bring your lunch to work sometimes but you get tired of the same old boring sandwiches you pack.

Personal chef services is the perfect fix for that – we happen to make a lot of lunches for our clients and even companies here in the Lexington area to help combat the lunch conundrum. The key to healthy lunches at the office is something that is easy to make, will store well and something that will make your co-workers wish they were eating what you brought (so it needs to be really delicious!).

I like making a variety of cold and hot options because some days you want something light and refreshing while other days you want something more comforting and filling. Healthy lunches don’t have to be complicated; they can be very simple, so we wanted to share these easy-to-make recipes that can be made the day before or day of without going bad!

Note: La Bonne Vie is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to www.amazon.com (basically, I share with you my favorite products you can buy online, and it helps me out a little!)

1. Chicken Teriyaki Bowl

This Chicken Teriyaki bowl is amazing! It is also a lot more work to put together than the other lunches we are sharing, but if you make this for dinner the night before then you can simply enjoy the leftovers for lunch the next day. This teriyaki sauce is out of this world, but if you’d prefer to save some time you can certainly buy some at the grocery store, but be mindful that a lot of teriyaki sauce has a ton of added sugar. We love the Coconut Secret Brand, which uses coconut aminos instead of soy sauce, and has very few ingredients. In the picture, you see that the pineapple and chicken are grilled but for this recipe to make it easier, you can simple just cook the chicken on a pan and eat the pineapple as is – but grilling them will definitely add a ton of delicious flavor!

Ingredients:

Teriyaki Bowl:

• 4 chicken breast cut into 1 inch cubes and cooked

• 1 pineapple cut into 1 inch cubes

• 1/2 cup red onion diced  (1/2 inch)

• 1/2 cup red bell pepper diced (1/2 inch)

• 3 cups cooked day old rice (the more dry the rice the better)

• 1/4 cup- green onion sliced thinly

• 1/4 cup avocado oil

• 1/4 cup coconut aminos

• 3 tbsp sesame seeds

• 3 pats of butter

• 2 cups teriyaki sauce (See recipe below) or Coconut Secret Teriyaki Sauce if you’re in a hurry

• Salt and pepper, to taste

Teriyaki Sauce:

Ingredients:

• 3 cups coconut aminos

• 2 bananas

• 1 red apple peeled, cored and 1 inch diced

• 2 cups cantaloupe

• 1 tbsp peeled and grated fresh ginger

• 1/4 cup coconut sugar (or brown sugar)

For the Sauce:
1. In a medium sauce pan add all ingredients.
2. Set on low and bring to a slow simmer and reduce. (1 to 1 1/2 hrs)
3. Once fruit breaks down and sauce is reduced and getting thick. Take off stove.
4. Add to blender and blend on high until smooth.
5. Let cool and set aside. Should keep for 2 weeks chilled.

Directions:

1. In a large, heavy sauce pan, put your heat on high (note: pan needs to be HOT!)
2. Add oil and butter until pan is smoking.
3. Add rice and stir to evenly coat rice with oil. (Make sure to move rice quickly or will burn in pan) 3 to 4 min.
4. Add coconut aminos, butter and season with salt and pepper. Coat rice evenly. Cook 2 to 4 minutes.
5. Add cooked chicken, pineapple, red onion, sesame seeds, and bell pepper. Toss evenly with rice. Cook 4 to 6 minutes until chicken and pineapple  are browned.
6. Add teriyakl sauce and coat pineapple fried rice.  Plate in bowl and garnish with green onions.

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2. Mexican Kale Salad with Creamy Avocado Dressing

Salad:

• 4 cups kale, stalks removed and coarsely chopped

• 14 oz. can of black beans, drained and rinsed

• 1 cup corn

• 2 large bell peppers, finely chopped

• 1 large avocado, finely chopped

• 1 large tomato, finely chopped

• 1/4 cup red onion, finely chopped

• 1/4 cup cilantro, finely chopped

Creamy Avocado Dressing:

• 1/2 large avocado

• 1/3 cup water

• 1/2 of a lime, juiced

• 1 tsp. cumin

• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Add all of the salad ingredients in a bowl and toss together. In a blender, blend all of the avocado dressing ingredients until smooth.

2. Place the dressing in a separate container and put in the refrigerator until you are ready to toss with your salad. If you are going to bring this salad to the office, I would hold off on putting the salad dressing on the salad until you are ready to eat it or else it will get soggy.

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3. Smoked Salmon Toast

Ingredients:

• Smoked Salmon slices

• Cream cheese, room temperature or hummus

• Cucumber slices

• Rye bread or whole wheat toast, gf white toast, or bagels work great!

• Herbs of your choice, finely chopped, (chopped basil, chives, or dill are awesome choices)

Directions:

1. Take your rye bread, spread some cream cheese on it, add a few cucumber slices, top with the smoked salmon slices and top with herbs of your choice for extra flavor.

If you would like something a little healthier, use hummus instead of cream cheese. This is such an easy lunch to make and you can find smoked salmon at grocery stores like Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods. Make two or three of these and you’ll be fully satisfied and ready to get back to work!

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4. Greek-Style Stuffed Avocados

These Greek-Style Stuffed Avocados are not only packed with flavor but packed with nutrients that come from the healthy fats in the avocado and the chickpeas. Even though this might not look like a hearty lunch, you’d be surprised how filling two or three of these are!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup chickpeas

• 1/2 cup English cucumbers, sliced and quartered

• 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes

• 1/3 tsp paprika

• Avocados

• Avocado oil

• Parsley for garnish

Dressing:

• 1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice

•  2 tsps tahini

• 1/4 cup Greek plain yogurt

Directions:

1. Heat up the grill to medium heat.

2. Cook the chickpeas and toss them in about 1/2 tsp of grapeseed oil with the paprika and salt and pepper.

3. Cut the avocados in half, removing the pit. Scoop out the center of the avocado so you have a deep hole in the center. Put some grapeseed oil onto the grill and then place the avocados flesh-side down on the grill for about 5 minutes until they have grill marks.

4. While the avocados cook, mix the cucumber, tomatoes and dressing in a small bowl. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper.

5. Divide the cucumber mixture between each avocado half, stuffing it into the center. Top each half with some chickpeas and more dressing if desired and garnish with parsley.

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5. Roasted Vegetable and Turkey Pesto Wrap

We couldn’t write about lunch recipes without including a recipe for a delicious wrap! This wrap is more of a warm and cold wrap because it has roasted vegetables in it, but it’s good either way!

Ingredients:

• Turkey Slices (I suggest having them cut fresh from your local grocery store deli)

• Cheese of your choice, or no choice if you want this to be dairy free

• Any farmer’s market pesto sauce or you can make your own here. 

• Onions, sliced lengthwise

• Red bell peppers, sliced lengthwise

• Zucchini, sliced lengthwise

• Whole wheat tortilla or other tortilla of your choice (gf, spinach, cayenne, corn, etc.)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. On a cookie sheet, place your onions, red bell peppers and zucchini and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil. We love the Kirkland Signature olive oil from Costco, and Trader Joe’s also has really great options that are the real deal.

2. Cook in the oven until they are roasted and a little caramelized, about 5-10 minutes or until tender.

3. Pull out of the oven and let the roasted vegetables cool slightly. Take your tortilla and spread with the pesto sauce, add your slices of turkey, cheese and roasted vegetables. Enjoy!

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Is cooking not really your thing? We are running a New Year Special where you can receive 25% off your first week of customized meal delivery service – which means you’ll have lunches you can take to the office, or pack for your kids. The possibilities are endless! Just mention it when you fill out the info.

How Much Wine Do I Need for a Party?

A bottle of red. A bottle of white. If only it were that simple!

When planning a dinner or a small-batch catering event, the question I get asked most is: How much wine do I need? Finding the answer is like solving an algebraic equation. So let’s all take a trip back to high school for a moment…

A bottle of wine contains 750 ml, which equals about 3 cups.
An average pour is approximately 4 ounces (or ½ cup). This means you’ll yield about 6 servings per bottle. But…
Being that people rarely pour an exact measure, and most over-pour, it’s more likely you’ll get about 5 servings per bottle.
According to Total Wine, most guests will consume 2 glasses of wine in the first hour of the event and 1 glass each additional hour. Using this formula, Total Wine offers a handy calculator that computes how much wine you’ll need based on the number of guests and duration of the party.

However, to accurately solve for X, there are a few additional factors to consider when determining how much wine is appropriate for your event:

Time of day: Is your get together scheduled for morning, afternoon or evening?
Type of event: Are you hosting a corporate party, birthday party or wine tasting?
Guest preferences: You know your friends and family best. Will they all adhere to the “2 drinks in the first hour” rule? Will you need a bit more or less?

Let’s Look at Some Examples

If you’re hosting a 2-hour breakfast, the Total Wine calculator will suggest you need 4 bottles of wine or champagne. But guests usually don’t drink as much in the morning as they do in the evening. Therefore, 3 bottles of champagne might be all you need. (The calculator will, by the way, adjust amounts if you’re planning on serving something other than wine, such as vodka for Bloody Marys.)

Similarly, if you’re hosting a corporate event where guests are expected to talk business, they will likely stick to 1-2 drinks total—even if the meeting or dinner runs a bit longer.

All things considered, I recommend you check in with the wine calculator and make slight adjustments as needed.

Still confused? Let our Personal Chefs do it for you! Our catering services specialize in suggesting the best wine in the right quantities for all of your occasions. From wine pairings and dinner parties to graduations and birthdays, we’ve got all of your food needs covered. Call us to book your next event: 502-783-7153

Carve a Turkey With These 7 Easy Steps

Somewhere between the in-laws, extended family and all of the cooking…. there is the TURKEY. It seems so simple to carve a turkey. It’s not like you need to chase it around the farm, cut its head off, de-feather it and get it all cleaned up.  You simply buy one that is ready to be seasoned and cook it in the oven (or let our personal chef services take care of it for you). What could possibly go wrong?

If only making a turkey for Thanksgiving was that simple. If you don’t know what you’re doing,  the turkey can end up looking like a dog ravaged the main dish. Carving a turkey is not an easy task especially if you’ve never done it before, so we wanted to offer you some tips on how to properly carve a turkey like a professional chef would but in 7 easy steps! (your guests will be really impressed)

The first thing to note is that you shouldn’t feel required to carve a turkey on the table with all of your guests around. Though a common tradition in many families, it’s perfectly fine to carve the turkey in the kitchen and bring the arranged platter to the table (and it much less intimidating too without everyone watching). This especially holds true if you’re a novice at carving.

Pro- Tip:  Be sure to let the turkey rest for at least 25 minutes before slicing: this helps the juices redistribute through the meat, making for a better-tasting turkey. (It also makes it easier to carve)

Step 1 

Remove the drumsticks and thighs. Start by pulling a drumstick away from the bird and using the knife to disconnect the thigh bone from the body. Set it aside to carve later and remove the second drumstick.

Step 2

Remove the wings in the same fashion to fully expose the breast for carving. The wings on modern, commercial birds contain very little meat, so they’re often used mainly for presentation on the platter.

Step 3

To carve the bird, make sure it’s lying on its back, breast-side up. Begin with a long horizontal cut at the base of the breast. You might be able to feel where the breast meat ends and the bone begins – cut as close to that area as you can.

Step 4

Begin slicing the breast from the top down, working at a slight angle to cut away from the carcass. The horizontal cut at the bottom provides a convenient stopping point, making it easy to finish each cut. Transfer slices to a warmed serving platter.

Step 5

To carve a drumstick, hold one end and slice off one side. Lay it flat on the cutting board and continue carving. Slice each side, turning the drumstick a quarter turn until you’ve removed all the meat.

Step 6

Place the thigh on the cutting board and begin slicing parallel to the thigh bone. Cut it into even strips.

Step 7

Arrange the rest of the meat onto the warmed platter and serve.

If you’d rather not tackle the turkey this year, we’d love to help simplify your holidays and make your Thanksgiving feast customized to you and your guests! This is a great option if you have special dietary needs and you aren’t sure how to navigate it during the holidays.

Check out this awesome article from Ace Weekly in Lexington KY for more Thanksgiving tips and tricks!