Diva In The Kitchen: Plated.com Review
A few weeks ago, a friend sent my husband a coupon for four individual meals (or two two-person meals) from Plated.com. This site and service was totally new to me, so I thought it would be fun to try. This is not a sponsored post, but I wanted to share my experience with the service and product in case it would be useful to any of you.
The idea behind Plated is that each week, seven chef-designed recipes are introduced as the menu. They feature four meat and fish dishes and three vegetarian dishes. You can choose what meals you want to make, pick a delivery day, and all the ingredients arrive on your door step. Based in New York City, their website supplies that they use "local and seasonal produce whenever possible and source our meats from local, family-owned purveyors."
We chose two gluten free options from that week's menu: Grilled Flatiron Steak with Potato Salad and Asparagus Salsa and Summer Vegetable Paella. When choosing meals, you can also look at the calorie count, type of meal, difficulty, and prep time. They provide information regarding whether the meal is gluten free, dairy free, vegetarian, low calorie, spicy, low cholesterol, etc. We received our box on time the day of our scheduled delivery. Inside the box was a padded foil lining that held two big bags of ice (they were still half frozen when the box arrived), along with all the ingredients for the two recipes we chose. On the outside of the padded lining were the 8x10 recipe cards.
The ingredients were all packaged and labeled. This level of organization is right up my alley! Everything was fresh and ready to be prepared.
The large recipe cards feature a picture of the final product on the front with various cooking tips relating to that recipe. On the back of the card is a list of the ingredients and step-by-step instructions (with pictures!) for preparing the meal. Thanks to being able to have this handy recipe card on hand, I have already re-created the potato salad a couple times.
Here is another example of how everything is packaged. The mustard and yogurt for this recipe were in little plastic containers, while the red wine vinegar was in a little bottle.
The directions were very easy to follow. I didn't compare our time of prep and cooking to the recipe, but I didn't feel that it took us too long to complete.
The portion size was as it should be per person. The flavors went together really well to create a satisfying meal we probably wouldn't have thought to make otherwise. I did end up adding feta to the meat dish at the end because I thought it would be tasty. It was. lol
Our second meal was the Summer Vegetable Paella. Again, everything was freshly packaged and labeled. While this recipe was a little more involved, it was still easy to make via the clear instructions. This was my first time making paella, so I was excited to try it. The amount of flavor in this one dish really surprised and impressed both myself and my husband. It had such simple ingredients. Seconds were had for sure! Plus, we still had enough leftover for another meal the following day.
The service is $10 a month, plus $12 a plate when you order your meals; or you can pay as you go for $15 a plate. If you want to try it out, you can use my referral code to get two free plates when you make a full priced purchase. While I know that the cost is pretty steep for a lot of people out there, the convenience and hassle-free portion of the service might just make up for it.
Have any of you used Plated.com before? I'd love to know your experience and thoughts!
The idea behind Plated is that each week, seven chef-designed recipes are introduced as the menu. They feature four meat and fish dishes and three vegetarian dishes. You can choose what meals you want to make, pick a delivery day, and all the ingredients arrive on your door step. Based in New York City, their website supplies that they use "local and seasonal produce whenever possible and source our meats from local, family-owned purveyors."
We chose two gluten free options from that week's menu: Grilled Flatiron Steak with Potato Salad and Asparagus Salsa and Summer Vegetable Paella. When choosing meals, you can also look at the calorie count, type of meal, difficulty, and prep time. They provide information regarding whether the meal is gluten free, dairy free, vegetarian, low calorie, spicy, low cholesterol, etc. We received our box on time the day of our scheduled delivery. Inside the box was a padded foil lining that held two big bags of ice (they were still half frozen when the box arrived), along with all the ingredients for the two recipes we chose. On the outside of the padded lining were the 8x10 recipe cards.
The ingredients were all packaged and labeled. This level of organization is right up my alley! Everything was fresh and ready to be prepared.
The large recipe cards feature a picture of the final product on the front with various cooking tips relating to that recipe. On the back of the card is a list of the ingredients and step-by-step instructions (with pictures!) for preparing the meal. Thanks to being able to have this handy recipe card on hand, I have already re-created the potato salad a couple times.
Here is another example of how everything is packaged. The mustard and yogurt for this recipe were in little plastic containers, while the red wine vinegar was in a little bottle.
The directions were very easy to follow. I didn't compare our time of prep and cooking to the recipe, but I didn't feel that it took us too long to complete.
The portion size was as it should be per person. The flavors went together really well to create a satisfying meal we probably wouldn't have thought to make otherwise. I did end up adding feta to the meat dish at the end because I thought it would be tasty. It was. lol
Our second meal was the Summer Vegetable Paella. Again, everything was freshly packaged and labeled. While this recipe was a little more involved, it was still easy to make via the clear instructions. This was my first time making paella, so I was excited to try it. The amount of flavor in this one dish really surprised and impressed both myself and my husband. It had such simple ingredients. Seconds were had for sure! Plus, we still had enough leftover for another meal the following day.
The service is $10 a month, plus $12 a plate when you order your meals; or you can pay as you go for $15 a plate. If you want to try it out, you can use my referral code to get two free plates when you make a full priced purchase. While I know that the cost is pretty steep for a lot of people out there, the convenience and hassle-free portion of the service might just make up for it.
Have any of you used Plated.com before? I'd love to know your experience and thoughts!