Kelly the Culinarian: Win it Wednesday: Meals by Plated

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Win it Wednesday: Meals by Plated

Plated approached me a few weeks ago about their meal service and it caught my eye. At a Yelp party, fellow blogger/Yelp husband Andrew of Bachelor Basics mentioned that he was also working with Plated, and he eventually hosted a Plated dinner party at my crib featuring shrimp and grits and chicken sliders. It was a pretty epic night.

Each week, Plated offers a menu of five entrees. Members pick their poison, selecting at least two plates of each dish by noon Monday. Everything need to prepare the meal, except for oil, salt and pepper, are shipped to your address overnight in these portable coolers. Meats are separated from everything else (duh) and all the ingredients are measured, labeled and grouped together. It takes the guess work out of shopping and preparing the meals.

The meals come with step-by-step photo instructions and support is on the Web in the form of videos and tutorials. Each meal is designed to take about 30 minutes to prepare.

I started with the eggplant tabbouleh with grilled chicken.  I realized I should have read the directions all the way through before I started. This was the first time I worked with eggplant and I probably should have cooked it more, but oh well. Also, this meal was scarce of veggies, so I added a few for my leftovers.  I was impressed with the quality of all the ingredients and loved that everything was labeled and measured.  This was supposed to be two portions, but it was more like three, so I had leftovers for lunch.

The next meal was catfish kabobs with cabbage slaw. This was the first time I ever cooked fresh fish - I usually cook frozen fillets. However, it's not that intimidating when you have instructions with pictures. I ended up using my own skewers for the kabobs and cooking this on the real grill instead of a grill pan. I must have cut the bread too generously because I didn't have enough to stack the skewers as indicated. No worries, the fish was still awesome. Again, I paired the leftovers with more veggies.

Overall, I think this would be a great service for people who like to cook but don't like shopping. I'm sure I could have purchased the ingredients cheaper, but they wouldn't have come pre-packaged. I thought it was a nice way to try new flavors, too. The tabbouleh, for example, called for tahini and harissa, ingredients I don't have on hand and might not want to commit to buying an entire container of. I also split up the meals into three portions because they were each about 700 calories a pop, which is a bit much for me. Plated also made making fresh fish less scary.

If you want to give Plated a try, today could be your lucky day. You could win four plates (valued at $60) along with a one-month membership. This contest will last one week and I'll announce the winner here next Thursday. Check out the Rafflecopter to see how to enter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

17 comments:

Unknown said...

I can't make Flank steak for the life of me!

The Brit With A Blog said...

Im loving the idea of Plated especially for my culinary-challenged hubs who doesnt know one end of a knife from the other!!!!

Jamie said...

I'm not going to enter, but I think this is a very interesting concept and eventually something I might like to try. Mike and I are so lazy so this would be helpful, haha.

Kamila Gornia said...

For me it's fish and meat. And poultry actually. I never make it so I'm intimidated to. I'm just scared of not cooking it right and getting sick :(

Sierra said...

Kelly the Culinarian has never cooked fresh fish? Your blog called and it is taking back your name.

Just kidding. Kind of..

You need to start cooking fresh fish. It is so fast and healthy and takes spices so easily. That broil function on the oven works wonders with fresh fish.

Sierra said...

I love mussels and have been wanting to make them, but I can't commit to learning how to prepare them.

Unknown said...

I've never roasted a chicken. It's on my list for this fall. Or cooked a steak.

Valerie said...

Trying to roast a chicken is tough...I bake it as long as the recipe says but it never comes out done!

Zenaida Arroyo said...

Ha, I refuse to make anything that has more than 3 ingredients. Yep, pretty much everything then huh?

Erin said...

Pie crust. Actually, pie in general. I'm not the world's best baker...

Becca said...

Anything to help me cook more, yes please!

Lauren said...

I never cook red meat. I like it, but never buy it.

Unknown said...

I'm intimidated by cooking fish, I jus don't know how.

Unknown said...

I'm really intimidated by the grill which is funny because I feel like it can't be that hard to use. But I never know how long to cook things on there.

Anonymous said...

Fish..just never know when it's done!

Unknown said...

I'm intimidated by rice dishes. I know it's supposed to be easy, but I can never get the rice/water balance right. Pan-fry first? To rinse or not to rinse?

Love the sound of Plated, especially now that's school's started again. Nice pics, too!

Createliveblog said...

Super intimidated by whipping egg whites to make them peak. I have no patience so anything I have to legitimately watch is going to be an epic fail. Same with browning butter. Just requires too much attention to detail.