As a mum of two, I've been swamped all summer long. With all the outdoor activities the kids have been doing and trips we've gone on, the family's eating habits have taken a back seat.

Most nights, I've been sticking a pizza in the oven or whipping up a quick pasta and getting takeaway on the nights I'm feeling really lazy. I wanted to get into a routine of making a home-cooked meal every evening, but I didn't know where to start.

Now that it's back-to-school season and between work, school, and after school activities, I don't have a lot of time to shop for ingredients, prepare, and cook a meal every evening. One day my husband suggested we try HelloFresh, saying one of his colleagues highly recommended it.

After talking for a while he convinced me to try it for a week since you can cancel your subscription at any time. You can choose between Meat & Veggie, Veggie, Family, Quick Cook. They do a plan for 2-4 people, 3-5 recipes a week. We went with Meat & Veggie 4 people, 5 nights a week, which ended up costing just £3.25 per meal! Then you get to choose your meals, and the menu changes every week so we'll always have new things to try.

HelloFresh: UK's Leading Recipe Box
Fresh, Quality Ingredients
Meals Start At Just £3.25 Each

Try HelloFresh Today!

Our box arrived at our doorstep right on time and I was super excited to test each recipe out.

The ingredients were clearly labelled and all very fresh. I liked that HelloFresh made an effort to be sustainable - even their ice packs are recyclable!

First up was Lamb and Chickpea Stew with Charred Courgettes and Zahtar Ciabatta. When I saw that it only takes 20 minutes to cook I was shocked, but my main concern was whether the kids would like it.

But to my surprise, it was on the table in 20 minutes! And everyone's plates were clean - even Toby! He's a fussy eater. HelloFresh was officially kid-approved.

As our week went on, I realised how great HelloFresh is. My favourite meal of the week was the Thai Style Crispy Tofu Red Curry with Charred Pepper and Garlic Rice, but the kids loved the Crispy Skin Chicken Breast with Mushroom Vin Sauce, Roasted Carrots and Roasted Garlic Mash.

Needless to say, we kept our HelloFresh subscription. I am amazed at how much time it saves me - it's been a life saver. It's also saved us a lot of money too, considering what we were spending on takeaways over the summer! HelloFresh also has helped us all get back into a healthy routine with our meals again.

HelloFreshmeals are delicious and wholesome, but most of all HelloFresh has given us back some quality family time. We can all sit around the table and catch up on our day together. If you're looking for a way to cook more home-cooked meals, try HelloFresh.

Update: The folks at HelloFresh are extending a special offer to our readers! Follow this link to get a discount off your first 4 deliveries!

TV News

Who's to Blame in the Slapfight That Pushed Kourtney to Quit KUWTK?

In the season premiere of Keeping up With the Kardashians Kim's criticism of Kourtney finally pushed things too far

Diggzy/Shutterstock

These days it's hard to imagine anyone getting mad at another person for staying home sick.

The best reason to get mad at someone during the coronavirus pandemic is that they refuse to stay home. But that wasn't the case last September, when the Kardashian family's usual tension and in-fighting escalated to physical blows between Kourtney and Kim.

It was around the time Kylie Jenner was scheduled to have a major moment at the Balmain Spring 2020 fashion show in Paris. As the season premiere of Keeping Up With the Kardashians documents, Kylie was planning to represent Kylie Cosmetics at the event—and was in the process of planning out looks for the models—when she became violently ill. According to posts made to Twitter and Instagram, Kylie had a case of strep throat that was so bad she was bleeding from the mouth and had to be hospitalized, with Kylie later tweeting, "It was the sickest I've ever been."

But apparently Kim Kardashian West was not convinced of her half-sister's illness, and she was not concerned for the well-being of all the models and attendees that Kylie could have infected—we used to be so careless pre-2020! She felt strongly that she and Khloé were the only sisters who knew the value of hard work, and she let Kourtney know that she and Kylie were letting down the family, stating matter-of-factly, "You don't care about stuff" and, "If I were on my deathbed, I would still show up." Cool...

This is not the first time that Kim, 39, has directed this kind of criticism at her older sister—the infamous fight over the Christmas photo shoot was much the same—but it was apparently the last straw for Kourtney, 40, who interrupted Kim to say, "You act like I don't do sh*t … You have this narrative in your mind—" which is when Kim cut her off. Kourtney continued trying to mount a defense while Kim interjected with her criticism until Kourtney finally came out with, "I will literally f*ck you up" and quickly showed that it was not an empty threat.

The exchange of slaps, kicks, punches, and digging fingernails has to be seen to be fully appreciated—though footage of kangaroos fighting in the wild will get you 90% of the way there.

In the aftermath of the fight airing on national TV, Kourtney all but officially confirmed that she will not be returning to the show. It's always sad to see a family business falling apart over this kind of sibling drama—even if the family business was to constantly be on the brink of falling apart over sibling drama—but the question remains, whose fault was it?

Actually, never mind, it was Kim's. Without a doubt. Good for her that she's a hard worker—and she has actually done some impressive things in recent years—but her attitude that her siblings are supposed to live according to her standards, and that she knows better than they do about their own health, is insufferable—especially from a younger sister. Kourtney should not have flown off the handle, but Kim should have seen that she was striking a nerve and backed off rather than escalating it—and actually slapping her sister across the face with a lot more force than Kourtney managed.

Kangaroo Boxing Fight | Life Story | BBC Earthwww.youtube.com

In a series of tweets on the incident, Kourtney said, "It's trash #KUWTK." And when another user suggested that the fight had been the motivation she needed to finally leave the show—after previously deciding to cut way down on her involvement—Kourtney responded, "It is from our darker moments where growth happens." Grammar aside, it would be nice if she followed through this time and we no longer have to see this kind of drama without the soothing tones of David Attenborough's narration to reassure us that the kangaroos will be okay.

TV Remote

Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash

If you've been too busy catching up on the current, excellent season of The Good Place in preparation for tonight's finale, you may have missed some of this week's TV news. Don't worry. Like Good Janet, we can handle that for you.

Jane Has a Bun in the Oven

The CW announced on Wednesday that pilot orders are officially in for both Jane the Virgin and Riverdale spin-offs. Jane's new offspring will be titled Jane the Novella and will be an anthology series in which each season is based on one of the eponymous character's novels. Current writer Valentina Garza is set to write and executive produce, with Gina Rodriguez and Virgin creator Jennie Urman-Snydor attached in producer roles. Katy Keene, a spin-off of the hugely popular Riverdale, will follow other Archie Comics characters as they pursue their dreams in New York City. It's safe to assume that those dreams include Broadway—or at least some singing in the subway—as the show is billed as a "musical dramedy."


Guess Who's Coming to Gilead

Step aside, June and Nick. Move over, Fred and Serena Joy. Say goodbye, teen couple that was drowned in a high school swimming pool. Gilead is getting a new power couple: Christopher Meloni (Law & Order: SVU, Wet Hot American Summer) and Elizabeth Reaser (Twilight, The Haunting of Hill House) will be joining season three of The Handmaid's Tale as Commander and Mrs. Winslow, who mentor the Waterfords, according to Variety. The series returns later this year on Hulu. Blessed be the new cast members.

Baby Shark Dance | Sing and Dance! | Animal Songs | PINKFONG Songs for Childrenwww.youtube.com

"Baby Shark" is Getting a TV Series (Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo)

This news came out last week, but we're only now getting it out of our heads. Pinkfong, the Seoul-based educational media company responsible for the insanely catchy viral children's song is bringing even more earworms to the US (and exasperated parents) with more short videos, a cartoon series, and a musical on Netflix, according to Bloomberg.

Penn Badgley is Scared for his You fans

Penn Badgley continues his media tour this week, which is part promotional tour for the release of his Lifetime series You on Netflix, part trying to explain to viewers that his character is a monster.


And, Finally, RIP Ryan

Mindy Kaling, who is currently in Sundance for the premiere of her film Late Nighttold Variety what she thinks her Office character, Kelly Kapoor, would be up to now: "There's not an insignificant part of me that thinks that Kelly might be in jail," she said. "I don't want to say that she murdered Ryan, but, like, I'm also not convinced that he's still alive in the world of The Office."


Rebecca Linde is a writer and cultural critic in NYC. She tweets about pop culture and television @rklinde.


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Will Smith Celebrates 50th Birthday By Jumping Off a Helicopter

The Fresh Prince star raised money for charity with his family

Some people have a midlife crisis — Will Smith marks his 50th birthday by jumping out of a helicopter near the Grand Canyon.

The dad of three was raising money for charity alongside his wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith and former co-star Alfonso Ribeiro.

Yesterday, Smith did a bungee jump out of a helicopter near the Grand Canyon — over the Little Colorado Gorge on Navajo Nation land. About time too, since he was challenged by YouTubers "Yes Theory" six months ago — Smith was also raising money for Global Citizen's education campaign.

"For as long as we can remember, Will Smith has been a hero of ours, and meeting him, let alone going on an adventure with him, has been a lifelong dream," said "Yes Theory" in their challenge video. "Yes Theory" is a YouTube channel devoted to challenging societal norms and going outside of your comfort zone.

A month later, Smith posted a video on his channel entitled "THEY CHALLENGED ME!" — which first of all, is strange because we're still bridging the gap between Hollywood and YouTube. However, more and more, we see A-listers appear on popular YouTubers' videos or even have their own channels.

The video starts out with Smith meditating and getting fake angry when his friend interrupts him to show him the challenge video to "heli-bungee." The duo does research first and playfully banters with each other — they even run a simulation of what could happen. After accepting the challenge, Smith laid out three conditions — one, they do it for charity, two, they do it after his movie finished filming, and three, it has to be over the Grand Canyon.

Flash forward five months later, we come to the big day — Smith's YouTube video starts off with drone shots of the helicopter and of him receiving directions and boarding the aircraft. The craziest thing is that during lift off, Smith has to stand over the side of the helicopter which scared me even looking at it.

"Never look down," Smith said over and over again as he looked down. After a bit of coaxing — a lot of coaxing, actually — Smith finally jumps. We see beautiful shots of Smith going up and down, screaming and having fun as the crowd cheers below.

Seeing an actor from our childhood genuinely having fun and trying new things is a magical thing to watch — especially surrounded by family and friends. We hope you have a good 50th year Will, and don't become too much of an adrenaline junkie!


Amber Wang is a freelancer for Popdust, Gearbrain and various other sites. She is also a student at NYU, a photographer and a marketing intern.



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