La Cuccina is a restaurant in Hout Bay, which is obviously closed in the National Lockdown from the Covid-19 Pandemic. The great news is, they have the most delicious ready meals that we can order online.

Their slogan is:

You can taste it!

I must admit that I’ve really enjoyed cooking, braaing and even baking more during lockdown. We’ve never been big takeout people – there’s not a lot we can order, unless it’s Banting based pizzas, however, it’s always been nice to know that if we don’t feel like cooking, we could order something.

When I heard about La Cuccina doing home deliveries of their ready meals, I was so excited –  a break from cooking and something healthy that we can actually eat! Win win!

This is also an incredibly stressful time for our businesses – especially the restaurant and entertainment business, so being able to support local businesses is wonderful.

La Cuccina have a wide range of dishes from Meats, Vegetarian, Vegan, Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free and Low-Carb to name but a few. They are also Halaal certified for their ready meals.
They have meals for families of 4, families of 6, quiches, cakes, tarts… all the deliciousness you could ask for.

I ordered easily (from the Low Carb section) and had the meals delivered on the day I had asked (you can actually specify.)
I simply popped them into the freezer and each morning, I’d remove two (I got two 500g meals for Sox and I) to defrost in the fridge, with this great feeling of “Yay! Dinner is sorted. One less meal to think about.” What a pleasure!

That evening, I decantered the meals, heated them in the microwave for 2.5 minutes and dinner was ready. Any parent will know that time after the kids have gone to bed is precious – it is finally time for YOU! We got in an extra episode of our Netflix show because we weren’t standing cooking/braaing.

These are not your typical heat up meals… they genuinely taste as if you’ve just cooked them yourself (oh and you all of a sudden have chef skills 😉 .) Each meal is lick-your-plate-clean delicious and has been the perfect portion size for the both of us.

Another great thing about ordering a few of the meals, is you can decide what you feel like. One evening I really felt like a curry and hubby really felt like the chicken, so I took out one of each. The other evening we couldn’t decide between the stuffed chicken and the Italian meatballs, so we didn’t. We took out one of each and shared, getting the best of both worlds.

I’m going to go through each dish and I’ve linked the dishes so you can go straight to them to order.

Cape Chicken Curry:

This was so flavoursome, with just the right kick!

Tuscan Chicken:

I loved this! The most surprising ingredient in this dish was the sun-dried tomatoes on top. They really elevated the dish by complimenting the creamy, spinach sauce with the chicken. I’m sorry I didn’t order more… but I’ve placed an order for this week.

Butter Chicken:

This was more-ish (I’m not joking when I said I licked my plate clean) and I want to stock up on these for the upcoming winter months!

Italian Meatballs Napolitana:

6 decent sized meatballs that weren’t dried out at all and had the tastiest Napolitana sauce, finished with fresh basil and Grana Padano. I’m sorry I don’t eat spaghetti – this is the perfect Lady and The Tramp movie dish! This is also the closest I’m going to get to traveling to Italy (and I’m absolutely fine with that!) 😉

Stuffed Chicken Breasts with Pesto:

The chicken breasts were tender and the stuffing was divine – sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil, rosemary and mozzarella! Such a great combo!

I’ve linked each meal, but I really do suggest you look at the entire menu because their offerings are impressive: www.lacuccina.co.za

PS. If you order, please do let me know! I’d love to be able to share that.