So you want to eat healthier but dislike shopping, chopping and cooking? A Cutchogue couple has come up with a solution that takes the work and worry out of preparing nutritious meals — and you never have to leave your house.
Dr. Russ L’HommeDieu and his wife Karen have just launched Harvest Food Box, an online company whose tag line is “Good clean whole food from plants, made ridiculously simple.”
The L’HommeDieus will deliver a box of food – with all ingredients chopped, diced and measured – right to your door. All you have to do is place everything in a slow cooker, turn it on, and enjoy.
Although all ingredients are vegan (and gluten free), meat or dairy can be added for folks who are carnivores, says L’HommeDieu.
The idea for the business sprang from an experience “Doc Russ” (he has a doctorate in physical therapy) had with a client he was coaching privately for weight loss.
“My client was desperate to lose weight and asked me to suggest a specific diet for him,” recalls L’HommeDieu. “I told him that if he wanted to get the weight off and keep it off, he should go 100 percent vegan.”
The client signed up with a meal delivery service but did not want to prepare and cook the meals himself. So the L’HommeDieus began preparing boxes of food for him; all he had to do was put everything in a slow cooker and he would have the healthy vegan meals he needed.
“He loved it,” says L’HommeDieu.
After a few months of providing meals for several clients, the couple, who are devoted to encouraging people to eat healthier and adopt a vegan lifestyle, realized that there was a need for this kind of service and came up with the idea for Harvest Food Box.
The couple both have a culinary background and Russ L’HommeDieu is no stranger to the struggles people have with losing weight and keeping it off. Fifteen years ago he weighed 400 pounds. After his doctor told him that he was on a path to developing diabetes, L’HommeDieu got scared.
“I was 36 years old I was confronted with the reality that I was sick,” he says.
This reality motivated L’HommeDieu to reconsider everything he’d ever known about weight loss and nutrition and ultimately turned him to veganism, which resulted in him losing 200 pounds. He studied nutrition and wellness, eventually creating an online weight loss program. He sold his ice cream shop (you might remember “Ice Cream Cove” in Southold and L’HommeDieu’s ice cream boat, which he successfully ran on the North Fork about 17 years ago) after he gave up dairy.
Harvest Food Box provides three boxes of food per week at a cost of $69.99. All the vegetables are chopped, all the spices pre-mixed and there are both canned and boxed ingredients included. They provide recipes which are geared toward use with a slow cooker, although they include instructions for cooking in regular pots. There is enough food in the three boxes to feed four people with leftovers, which can be repurposed into additional meals.
The L’HommeDieus try to use as many locally sourced ingredients as possible, and although they would like all the vegetables to be organic, price considerations and availability prevent them from being 100 percent organic.
Delivery is available throughout the entire North Fork and on the South Fork as far east as Bridgehampton. They don’t ship boxes outside the area, but will arrange for people to pick up boxes at a designated location.
The couple invites people to lunch at their Nassau Point home once a month to sample their food and discuss nutrition and health. Their next lunch is April 22.
For more information, visit the Harvest Food Box website.
