A few weeks ago we tried Plated, our fifth meal kit service. Once again we got three two-serving meals and made them for lunch.

Pros:
1.) Most of the ingredients for each meal were packaged in plastic bags making it easy to pull everything out at once for cooking.
2.) Good size portions so everyone had plenty.
3.) Very convenient.
4.) The instructions were colorful and easy to follow.
5.) It was relatively easy to find the gluten free options on their website.
6.) The vegetables were very fresh.

Cons:
1.) The meals are expensive compared to getting the ingredients on your own.
2.) Various people in the family didn’t like some of the parts of the meals.
3.) One ingredient in one meal was white wine and this really disturbed Fritz.
4.) The roasted red peppers container opened in the bag and so the oil was all over everything when we opened it.

The box arrived the day they said it would. It got here pretty late, but still before the cut off time. In the top of the box was the three recipe cards. Then the big vegetables and bags of ingredients. On the bottom was the meat, very well sealed.

All together, the box contained quite a bit of food. I liked how the ingredient bags were rolled down so they took up as little space as possible in the refrigerator.

The first meal we made was Steak au Poivre with Crispy Fingerling Potatoes. Other than not knowing how to pronounce the name of it, it was quite good. Fritz helped me make it and chose music by the Transiberian Orchestra to cook to. They sent fingerling potatoes, a shallot, a garlic clove, 2 steaks, baby spinach, cracked black pepper, white wine (this disturbed Fritz and he refused to eat the sauce because of it), heavy cream, and dijon mustard. As with all meal kits, we provided the olive oil, salt, and (regular) pepper.

I prepared the vegetables. I minced the shallot and divided it into two piles and minced the garlic. I cut the potatoes in half lengthwise and tossed them with oil, salt, and pepper.

Meanwhile, Fritz got the steaks ready to cook by patting them dry and seasoning them on both sides.

We seared the steaks and wilted the spinach (it was just garlic, salt, pepper, and spinach).

The steak turned out excellent. The sauce was good, too, but because of the white wine in it (no matter how much we explained that the alcohol cooks off), Fritz wouldn’t eat it. The potatoes were delicious. I liked the spinach, too, but at least Cameron did not.

The second meal we made was Piri Piri Chicken with Crispy Potato Chips and Sauteed Kale. Adrian helped me with this one. He chose songs by Sabrina Carpenter to accompany our cooking. They sent dinosaur kale, Yukon Gold potatoes, roasted red peppers, 2 lemons, a shallot, 3 cloves of garlic, spice mix (cayenne, oregano, and smoked paprika), red wine vinegar, chicken thighs, and parchment paper.

I cut up the vegetables. I trimmed the kale, cut the potatoes into rounds (I used our mandolin for that rather than a knife), cut up the lemons, chopped the shallot, minced the garlic, and chopped up the roasted red pepper.

I made the marinade. Some of it went on the chicken and the rest was saved to be used as a sauce. The recipe suggested pureeing the sauce if we wanted to. I am glad I did. The flavors blended very nicely.

We baked the chicken and potatoes. The potatoes ended up as perfect baked potato chips. Even if we don’t recreate anything else from our Plated meals, we’ll make these again. If I had paid attention when ordering, I would not have gotten this meal because I do not like dark chicken meat or chicken with bones in it or chicken with skin on it. I’m very picky when it comes to chicken. It wasn’t bad, but if I did this one again, I’d make it with boneless skinless chicken breast.

I was really looking forward to this meal because when we lived in DC we used to go to a place called Nando’s. This is the type of food they served. The flavor wasn’t as good as Nando’s, but it was close.

The third meal we made was Pan-Roasted Pork Chop with Maple Pan Sauce, Roasted Vegetables, and Truffled Walnuts. Cameron helped me make it. He chose songs from Hamilton to play while we cooked. They sent herb mix (sage and thyme), carrots, parsnips, fingerling potatoes, dijon mustard, pork chops, baby spinach, walnuts, crushed red pepper, maple syrup, truffle zest, and apple cider vinegar.

I cut up the vegetables while Cameron prepared the pork. I sliced the parsnips and carrots and halved the potatoes lengthwise.

Cameron made the sauce while I made the glazed walnuts.

The pork was very good. The sauce was okay. I wasn’t a big fan of the parsnips. The walnuts were pretty gross. The maple syrup and truffle flavor just wasn’t good. This was definitely our least favorite of these three meals.

After five meal kit services, Home Chef is still our number one choice. Plated ended up ranked right in the middle of the pack.

1. Home Chef
2. Blue Apron
3. Plated
4. Hello Fresh
5. Sun Basket