Ranch Parm Mushrooms
An easy side dish for a busy week...and closing out the crowd funding with a bang (and some thoughts).
Happies.
My push to get folks to invest in Eat Happy Kitchen will come to a close in a week.
This has been a difficult and illuminating experience. And yet, as I’m typing this, 334 of you have decided to invest $450,000 into Eat Happy Kitchen.
Holy shit.
With that money we will be able to do so many things that we weren’t able to do before, all of which is explained fully in this webinar link.
I am optimistically realistic as we move forward with this capital shot in the arm, but there’s a dirty secret startup CPG companies aren’t supposed to discuss publicly:
The national retail distribution system is not designed for us.
That makes it really hard for a bootstrapped, scaling startup to navigate in a world we’re always told we need to be in for growth.
Competing with large distributors and big-money deals is made more challenging in a system that’s optimized to work with the big food conglomerates.
But we still compete and we’re still growing in spite of that.
How?
Because we are guided by our North Star.🌟
Our North Star mission: being a premium, clean pantry item brand you can trust, with better-than-homemade quality and taste.
👉It’s our differentiator
👉It’s why we exist
👉It’s why we still have opportunities to scale, and
👉It’s why buyers are adding us to their shelves.
Why would we ever waiver from that?
As a relative newbie to CPG, I’m still shocked at how high the expectations are to:
✅Make and sell a great, innovative, perfectly packaged product
✅Build in margins of 80% or more so that everyone involved can take their cut
✅AND AND AND (this is important) price it low enough so that the consumer still wants to buy it.
There are so many hands in the pot, and we’re up against a system that’s built for everyone but us.
It’s untenable without enormous scale, so we are working to grow and scale sustainably and not let the behemoths run us out of business..
Jump into our equity crowd fund if you want to own a piece of a company working to be a solution. Or at least stock up on sauces and spices and make some yummy clean food for dinner.
Now, let’s do some ‘shrooms together…
The downloadable, printable version of Ranch Parm Mushrooms lives here.
Get Eat Happy Kitchen Dill Ranch Seasoning here, use store-bought with no sugar added, or make your own from Eat Happy Too cookbook.
RANCH PARM MUSHROOMS (AIR FRYER OR OVEN DIRECTIONS)
(Yields 12-15 mushrooms)
1 pound Cremini or baby Bella mushrooms, stems popped out
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon Eat Happy Kitchen Ranch Seasoning (or use any no sugar added ranch seasoning)
Grated fresh parmesan
Chopped parsley for garnish
Air fryer directions:
Preheat the air fryer for 4 minutes at 400 degrees.
In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the olive oil and ranch seasoning. Using a plastic baggie, shake the mushrooms with olive oil and ranch seasoning, tossing to coat all of the mushrooms well.
Place the mushrooms evenly in the air fryer. Grate the fresh parmesan liberally over the mushrooms. Cook at 400 degrees for 7-8 minutes, or until mushrooms are soft and the cheese is melted. Serve, garnished with fresh chopped parsley.
Oven directions:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the olive oil and ranch seasoning. Using a plastic baggie, shake the mushrooms with olive oil and ranch seasoning, tossing to coat all of the mushrooms well.
Place the mushrooms on a baking sheet and grate the fresh parmesan liberally over the mushrooms. Cook in the oven 8-9 minutes, or until the mushrooms are soft and the cheese is melted. Serve, garnished with fresh chopped parsley.
looks like a good recipe to have on hand when the dinner chaos sets in