My First Experience With Plated – Get Meals Delivered To Your Home!
I’ve done the occasional dabbling in meal service kits but have certainly not made it a habit. My biggest excuse is that I’m just SO popular that I’m not at home enough to spend an hour or two making meals for several days in a row. Of course, this is pretty nonsense reasoning. Yet I’ve never really found a meal delivery system that stuck. But hey, I’m not above trying something new, so when I had the chance for a free week of Plated meals, I hopped on it like the Energizer Bunny. How’s it stack up?
A Visual Cornucopia
Let’s be real with ourselves: we’re visual creatures. If you see a plate of nachos that looks like the remnants of a romp through a swamp (rhyme time), you won’t want to chow down. Plated knows this, and offers a variety of plates that basically ask “would you eat this or nah?”
It’s a lot easier to say “that looks good” instead of trying to envision how, say, a black-bean pulled pork casserole would turn out. Out of 10 meals, I said seven of them looked good. Even two of the three that I ultimately gave a thumbs down to…I probably would have eaten them. I just figured I should make SOME “no” decisions. It feels good to say no. Try it sometime.
Plated Helps You Get Your Noms On
Once I had made my peace, Plated gave me three meal recommendations (I had opted for the three-meal package). I ended up staying with the three suggestions, though I did appreciate that I could swap anything I wanted into the mix.
That goes for the actual menu items, themselves. Plated offers 20 meals to choose from, though you’re able to customize to your heart’s content. It’s a great way to keep things varied.
Pizza Power
The first meal to make was an asparagus and arugula pizza, which I NEARLY turned down in favor of a non-pizza meal. And boy, am I glad I let my heart tell me “never turn away from pizza.” This thing was GOOD. I’ve never tried asparagus on pizza before – typically because it’s rarely offered at restaurants – but color me intrigued. I’m getting my nutrition while slamming a pizza pie into my face. That’s a win-win for all of us. Especially me.
Chicken Attack!
Sometimes I like to completely burn my food. Oh wait, I never enjoy doing that. I came dangerously close with the Fontina-Stuffed Chicken with Roasted Potatoes, Brussels Sprouts, and Peas. Fortunately, it just got a hearty sear instead of being completely ruined. That’s a good thing, because this was a tasty recipe.
Perhaps that’s an obvious thing to say. After all, cheese stuffed in just about anything is going to get a thumbs up in my book. Though I suppose you could have cheese stuffed inside of, like, a teddy bear. And that would not be as tasty as cheese stuffed in chicken. That concludes this very scientific report on tastes.
Just Drive a Steak Into Me
Anytime I’ve gotten red meat from a food delivery service, I’ve always been a little skeptical. I mean, how good could it really be? In this case, the answer is “quite good.” My Seared Steak with Asparagus and Grilled Tomatoes nearly set my entire kitchen ablaze. Not really, though I’ve never felt more like I was on an episode of Chef’s Kitchen than when putting this one together.
That’s not to say any of Plated’s meals were particularly challenging to make. However, it seems their time estimates appear to be on the low end. I would add anywhere between 10-20 minutes to each recipe’s total prep/cook time. Just enough time to watch a couple of scenes from Whose Line Is It Anyway? Piece of cake.
The Plated Value – Is It Worth It? (Let Me Work It)
I’ll get this out of the way first: all the meals I had from Plated were great. There was a nice variety and I sampled dishes I had little to no experience with. I’m always on the lookout for new recipes, and I would certainly add any of the three I sampled to my rotation.
However, you can probably save 10 to 25 dollars per week by going to the store yourself. Plans start at $47.80 (two nights, two servings each) and max out at $159.20 (four nights, four servings each). That boils down to about $9.95 to $11.95 per serving.
On the plus side, a Plated meal likely costs less than you’d spend going out to eat. And I do appreciate the flexibility of being able to cancel a week or two at a time.
Really, it boils down to how much you enjoy cooking. I actually think Plated’s sweet spot is for people that want to learn more about making meals. If your favorite dish to make from scratch is, say, spaghetti and meatballs, Plated is a great way to get outside of your comfort zone. It’s helpful that everything is pre-portioned out, though there were a couple of instances where a recipe called for olive oil or something that otherwise wasn’t included. Granted, these are all kitchen staples that you should always have in the pantry, but I’m sure it’s caught someone off guard before.
In any case, the food is really tasty, and that’s the most important thing. You may as well give it a try! If nothing else, it’ll be like eating out several times, only not as terrible and high in salt and sugar as actually eating out. And who knows? You may discover a new favorite meal!
Need to Know Info
Plated: www.plated.com
Meal Options: 2-4 days, 2-4 servings per night
Pricing: Between $47.80 and $159.20 per week. Free shipping on orders over $60
Time Commitment: One week at a time, change your plan or cancel anytime
