In Scotland, I tried haggis and I loved it. I mean I really loved it. I’m kind of sad that I can’t get it here because I’d totally order that on any given night. In hindsight, maybe it’s a good thing I can’t get haggis here, because it’s mostly carbs served on carbs and well… I’d have more than just a few pounds to lose in that case. 

Returning home from vacation is always bittersweet. It feels so good to sleep in your own bed again. It feels so good to hug your doggies again. It feels so good to get back into a routine… but can I just tell you how much I hate grocery shopping after vacation? Here’s how it always goes: 

You come home, exhausted after a long period of travel. 

You’re starving, but you don’t have any food in the house, so you swing through the drive through. 

You decide to go shopping the next day, but work is so piled up you wait until the last minute. 

You finally get groceries, come home, and are starving again. 

You’re too tired to cook any of those groceries, so you just order takeout… again. And mother-of-all-that-is-good, you forgot the dog food.

This can’t be just me, can it? 

This time, we did it differently. We anticipated that rabbit hole, so we decided to go the HelloFresh route with groceries delivered directly to our door in a refrigerated box and we stocked our refrigerator with Freshpet goodies. After all, we needed to do something extra special for the dogs since we’d been away so long. 

I actually really like to cook, but sometimes it feels like when I finally get to a place where I can cook, I’ve jumped through too many hoops and I’ve lost my desire. HelloFresh made getting back into the groove 10x easier by covering the shopping & planning, and delivering step-by-step recipes and ingredients right to my door. It makes it easy to relax and enjoy all there is to love about cooking — and eating! I didn’t have to brainstorm meal ideas or even physically go to the grocery store… it was just there, waiting for me and I could cook it when I felt that desire. 

Not needing to make that dreaded post-vacation trip to the grocery store freed up a lot of time for me to get everything else back in order. For instance, I unpacked my bag the very day we returned. I don’t think that’s ever happened. I was also able to host a business meeting for nearly 20 ladies at my house the day after we got back. I can say almost definitively that those things would have not gone off without a hitch had I also needed to meal plan and grocery shop, too. 

But back to the dogs, because those truly are the forgotten souls in all of this post-vacation mayhem. Teddy is my little anxious pup. She’s got pretty gnarly separation anxiety, so when I return from being gone anywhere overnight she’s glued to me for the foreseeable future. That both melts my heart and makes me really sad because I don’t like to cause her any distress. 

Like any normal dog-parent, for that distress, I tend to overcompensate. I feed her probably too many treats and fill her bowl a little bit too high. Coming home this time, I really wanted to keep her portions in check. Ted’s no spring chicken, and the weight is harder to work off for her (something I can relate to). 

Teddy’s favorite treats are carrots. Carrots are fantastic for dogs for so many reasons, so I try to include them in her diet whenever I can. I really like to feed my dogs real food because so many dog foods are filled with stuff that aren’t really great for their systems – and that’s why Freshpet was so appealing to me. It’s real, all-natural pet food made with fresh ingredients straight from the fridge.

Since we’ve been back, Teddy has really been loving the Freshpet Select Rolls. I just cube a little onto her regular dry food and she devours it! That makes me feel like I’m giving her something really nutritious for her and it makes her feel like it’s a treat. Sometimes I get really fancy and I cut up carrots over the top. 

The #FreshWithYourPet Meal Plan changed our perception of how easy it is to cook delicious and easy meals at home, but also bring the same benefits of a fresh and well-balanced diet to Teddy. You can obviously tell what her favorite part of the meal is… she makes this kibble mess EVERY time. I’m slowly adjusting her diet to include more Freshpet and less kibble. She’s ready for that transition.

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Because HelloFresh, Freshpet, and I love you – here’s an opportunity to score some goods for yourself and your pet! You could win 1 of 10 free HelloFresh boxes and $39 worth of Freshpet manufacturer coupons from October 9 – October 16, 2017. All you have to do is enter via the widget with the following options: Follow the @Freshpet Account on Twitter, Visit Freshpet on Facebook, and/or Comment on a blog post!

Must be 18 years or older and a US resident. Only one winner per household.

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I was selected for this opportunity as a member of CLEVER and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.