One way I try to save money is by shopping pretty carefully at the grocery store. We wash and chop our own veggies and fruit rather than buying the ones ready to go at the store. Of course I look out for sale prices and stock up when prices are super low. I have never had a delivery service for food items and have always thought it would be a real waste of money.
Recently, I saw an ad for Plated on my Facebook newsfeed. Yes, I realize I am a sucker for clicking on their special offer, but I did it! Plated is a company that sends fresh food to your doorstep on a regular basis. You choose the meals they send and how often they send them.
Their offer was 4 meals for $20. It sounded like fun and I was (apparently) in a weird mood – so I decided to do something I’ve never done before and give it a shot! Maybe I’m just bored of the same old stuff. I went to the site, picked out two different recipes (getting enough for 2 people on each recipe), selected my delivery date, and paid. Then we went on vacation and I kinda forgot about the whole thing…
Imagine my delight when I got an email reminding me the food was going to be sent AND giving me the option to change my order or even delay it. Very impressive. Not only did they remind me they gave me a direct link to make changes. Of course, there wasn’t anything here to eat after being gone for 7 days, so I was thrilled the food was on it’s way.
I was amazed at how they packed everything. It was neat and very cold. I also like the way everything was labeled and I love the easy to read recipe cards and the step-by-step pictures.
I was very excited to get the box and Eva and I had a lot of fun opening it. Yes, we still get excited when there is a package at the door! And I was interested to see how they were going to ship fresh food and keep it cool. I was not disappointed. The entire box is lined with some sort of thermal wrap stuff (that’s my technical description). It was thick and cushy. The produce was wrapped individually and bagged up with other ingredients for that recipe. There were four large frozen gel packs, two in the bottom and two in the main part of the box.
The food was very cold and the packs were still frozen in the middle. All the way from New York to Florida!
Very helpful. We followed the directions exactly and both meals were delicious.
Each item was clearly labeled but one of my favorite parts was the large recipe cards that came along with the food. They showed the finished product, gave detailed directions with step-by-step pictures, and the print was large enough that I didn’t have to go hunting for my reading glasses.
Yummy and fun to make!
Eva and I enjoyed trying something new but we weren’t sure if we would like the swordfish I had chosen. Thankfully we were very wrong! It was so delicious! We cooked everything exactly according to the directions and I was pleased with the results. The orzo was particularly yummy with the lemony sauce on it.
Once the squash, zucchini, and onion are arranged it all gets baked in the oven.
I think the vegetarian meal I chose was our favorite of the two. The name of the dish was ‘Summer Squash Tian with Quinoa’ but Eva and I called it a Ratatouille because that is one of her favorite movies.
The one thing that was a little disappointing was the condition of the basil used in both recipes. I think it must be hard to find a way to ship fresh herbs where they stay looking good. I suspect that the basil may have been against one of the freezer packs, froze in the box and then turned black in my fridge. One of the squash had a few spots on it but everything else was in perfect condition. I will let the following pictures speak for themselves:
The basil in both packages was in poor condition and I didn’t use it. Very sad.
Overall I was truly pleased with the food. Plated is pretty amazing in my book. I did a little reading on their Facebook page and saw that a number of their customers have meals delivered on Saturday every other week as a special treat. That seems like a good idea to me as I probably couldn’t afford to do it every week. It’s also a great way to get out there and try something new. If you do the trial (like me) you are able to cancel your membership easily if you decide to not continue with the service.
Let me know if you decide to give it a try! I read somewhere that if you use GETPLATED as a coupon code it will give you the four meals for $20 that I got from Facebook. Good luck!
And just so you know Plated doesn’t know who I am or that I was planning to do this review. They just sent the food.
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