Meal Subscription Boxes: cooking

Home Chef: Sherry Wine Demi-Glace Flat-Iron Steak

7:34 PM

I loved Home Chef so much that I ordered another box from them. Their recipes sound too delicious to pass up.

The first meal I made was: Sherry wine demi-glace flat-iron steak with whipped potatoes and asparagus. Mmm!

The Contents:

Ingredients: Asparagus, garlic cloves, parsley sprigs, russet potatoes, flat-iron steaks, heavy cream, butter, veal demi (what?), and sherry wine

Preparation:

The first step was to prepare the veggies. Slice the ends off of the asparagus, mince the garlic, dice the parsley, and cube the potatoes:

Next up was the bring two pots of water to boiling. In one pot, boil the asparagus for 3-4 minutes. Drain the water and saute for 2-3 minutes.

In the other pot, boil the potatoes until tender. Small gripe: The instructions didn't give a suggested time. I had to Google, because I literally had no idea. Once tender, add cream, butter, garlic, salt, and pepper and mash together:

Cook the steaks:

Finally, prepare the sauce by combining the veal demi, sherry wine, and water.

Finished Product:

Final Verdict:

It looks beautiful, doesn't it? This was very tasty, though my husband and I both realize we aren't fans of flat-iron cuts. Our sirloin steak dinner was much better. I can't complain about that, because how else are we going to know if we've never had it?

Amazing dinner, Home Chef. 10/10!

#homechef

Final Thoughts: Home Chef

1:55 PM

$9.95/plate

$4.95/serving for some breakfast items

Best Feature: By far, my favorite thing about Home Chef is their recipe selection. They have the biggest (13+ choices) and best-looking menu of the meal delivery world. Their recipes are familiar, don't appear too complicated, and contain ingredients that are recognizable. I also LOVE that they offer breakfast items as well. I have not seen this from any other companies (so far).

Their recipe cards are also my favorite. They fill up the front and back of a full-size piece of cardstock. They fit nicely in a page protector without any additional trimming needed.

They have

Worst Feature: The only tiny thing I could complain about would be that they sent one huge mozzarella ball instead of several tiny balls. I wouldn't even bring this up, except something similar happened in my second Home Chef box (stay tuned!). I had another recipe that called for one bouillon cube and they sent two. Had I not been paying attention to the recipe itself as closely, I may have used both cubes. That being said, maybe those two were considered half cubes? I'm not sure.

Finally, my second box had a step that said to boil the potatoes until soft. Usually, this would be followed by a time suggestion. Not a huge deal, but I did have a "Uh... Home Chef? You think I have any experience with how long potatoes are supposed to boil?" moment.

Coupon Code: If you are interested in trying out Home Chef, click here to receive $30 off of your first box!

Home Chef's menu is so appealing that I chose to forgo a new company's box and chose a second week of Home Chef meals. Unless somebody can really step up, I think this will be the company we stick with.

Here's a visual reminder of what I made from Home Chef:

Truffled mushroom risotto with truffle oil, chives, and white wine:

Parisian bistro steak with potatoes dauphinoise and green beans:

French-cut chicken breast with mozzarella, pesto, and balsamic reduction caprese salad:

And if you're still not sure, check out some upcoming recipe options from Home Chef:

#hellofresh

Hello Fresh: Pan-Seared Pork Chops

10:00 AM

The first recipe I chose to make was pan-seared pork chops with pineapple-serrano relish and spicy cheddar grits.

The book reads, "The unexpected sweet-and-salt combination of cheesy grits and tangy pineapple salsa is what makes this dish special. If you have a grill, these juicy pork chops would be the perfect reason to fire it up!"

The Contents:

Ingredients: Pork chops, pineapple, serrano pepper, cilantro, lime, shallot, grits, shredded cheddar, and a bag of watercress

Preparation:

The first step was to clean, prep, zest, and chop the ingredients:

Next, cook the pork and start boiling water for the grits:

Next, make the spicy cheddar grits by cooking and adding butter, cheddar cheese, and serrano pepper. I loved the idea of adding pepper to the grits. The only grits I've ever eaten was with breakfast, as almost a soupy consistency. Needless to say, the clumpy texture of these were really strange to me.

More butter:

Cat cameo:

Next, prepare the relish. It was pineapple, lime zest, half of the cilantro, half of the serrano pepper, shallot, salt, and pepper. This was so yummy!

Slice the pork chops:

Finally, toss the watercress with lime juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper:

Final Product:

The Verdict:

Unfortunately, my husband hates pineapple and didn't enjoy the relish. The relish was my favorite part! He enjoyed the pork chops quite a bit. We weren't sold on the grits, but they weren't awful. Both of us would've preferred an actual side salad instead of watercress. We ate a few bites of the watercress, but it largely went to waste.

Speaking of the watercress, my husband made the comment, "Why does everything have to be covered in lime?" I've noticed this too, and it will continue into another recipe. I'm guessing this is a summer thing, but I'm not entirely sure.

So far, we're pretty pleased with our first Hello Fresh plate!

cooking

Final thoughts: Plated

6:21 PM

$12/plate

Best feature: Huge portions, beautiful step-by-step recipe cards, .PDF copies of the recipes included in your Account details.

Worst feature: The recipes (...sadly!)

The first meal delivery box I chose to review was Plated. I chose it based on rave reviews and its high price tag. I figured it was a perfect place to start and a company that surely wouldn't disappoint.

While their customer service and commitment to recycling (carbon neutral packaging by 2016) is awesome, their recipes fell short for us. Unfortunately, it's all about the recipe when it comes to cooking. Three of the four recipes we made, I felt like they tried too hard to throw in a stand-out ingredient. The cheesecake didn't need Greek yogurt. The mint in the chicken salad was weird. There was too much going on with the quinoa salad. The gyros, however, were fantastic.

I took a look at next week's menu to see if that trend continued. There are some sure-fire recipes such as fried chicken, burgers, and breaded fish. Some of the other options sound completely foreign to me, such as:

Cold peanut noodles with maple cayenne cashews and sambal-glazed eggplant and peppers
Crispy tamarind-ginger chickpeas with mustard seed, tahini yogurt, and spinach
Smoked salad with mache salad, bagel chips, and sesame-poppy seed vinaigrette

Maple cayenne cashews? What's sambal? Tamarind-ginger? Tahini yogurt? Mache? It's entirely possible that Plated is too advanced for my palate. I was a picky kid and have been very slow to try new things as an adult. I still don't each fish because "Ew, fish". I had never tried kale before this box.

If you are a picky eater, perhaps Plated is not for you. If you are an adventurous vegetarian, give Plated a shot. Unfortunately, I wasn't a Plated customer long enough to give out an official coupon code. If you give Plated a shot, do a quick Google search for one.

Here's a quick visual reminder of the recipes I reviewed:

Chinese-Style Chicken Salad with Napa Cabbage, Almonds, and Mustard Soy Vinaigrette:

Steak and Zucchini Gyros with Pesto:

Avocado, Quinoa, and Mango Salad with Jalapeno Vinaigrette:

And finally, Greek Yogurt Cheesecake:

#plated

Plated: Avocado, Quinoa, and Mango Salad with Jalapeno Vinaigrette

5:25 PM

This is the final recipe from my Plated delivery. In hindsight, I probably should have made this dish first, because it had the most produce. The mango and avocado were a little squishy in places, but this might've had more to do with bruising during delivery than age of the produce.

I was skeptical of this recipe when I picked it. During the selection process, this was our "filler" recipe. It sounded weird, but it looked pretty. My husband was intrigued by "jalapeno vinaigrette".

Remember in my gyro post I mentioned that most of the ingredients come in a handy little bag? This is what I meant:

Three items for one meal? Convenience! Let's get started.

The Contents:

Ingredients: quinoa, sunflower seeds, jalapeno, shallot, mango, lime, avocado, dinosaur kale, cilantro, and apple cider vinegar.

Dinosaur kale? Cool! We made our selection based on picture and title alone. We didn't look at the recipe specifics beforehand, so I was surprised to see that the leafy green in the picture was kale.

Look at all the healthy things! Let's be real, that much nutrition never makes it to my plate. I couldn't wait to get started.

Preparation:

This time, the recipe started out with the cooking steps. First up was to let the quinoa cook for 10 minutes.

From this:

To this:

The next step was a little strange. The recipe said to heat a small pan until it started smoking. I've always heard that heating an empty bad is bad. Is this an old wives' tale? According to Google, it depends on the pan and the temperature. I figured I give it a minute or two to smoke and then continue on regardless. Sure enough, the pan did smoke. You can even kind of see it in the picture:

The reason for the smoking pan was to char the seeded jalapeno.

Ouch! Sorry buddy, the recipe made me do it! What? You don't talk to your food? :)

Toast the sunflower seeds:

Now we wash and chop the produce:

Sorry buddy, this isn't kitty food. This isn't even meat, but thanks for the photo op!

Can we stop for a moment to talk about mangoes? First of all, I had never cut up a mango before. I wrestled it away from its pit (?) and started diligently chopping it into bite-sized pieces. Halfway through I asked myself, "Was I supposed to remove the skin?" I checked the recipe, no mention. I Googled and it seemed to be a split decision. I decided to try a piece and it was bitter and awful. Do you know how annoying it is to cut the skin off of lots of individual little mango pieces? Very! The more you know...

Once everything was chopped, it was time to make the vinaigrette. It consisted of the apple cider vinegar, a chopped shallot, and the chopped charred jalapeno. It tasted pretty good. I felt like I was making something I'd see at Chipotle. You can't go wrong with Chiptole, so I figured this recipe was going to be great.

Next up, mix the kale, avocado, mango, and half of the vinaigrette.

Plate the quinoa first, then the salad, then top with the remaining vinaigrette and sunflower seeds. What a beautiful plate!

I have to hand it to Plated, they make some beautiful recipes.

The Verdict:

I hate to say it, but this was another blah recipe that I wouldn't make again. My husband felt that the quinoa was too weird for a salad. He also wasn't a fan of the kale. I can't even really explain why I didn't like it. There was so much going on with the recipe, yet I still felt like it was bland. I guess substituting rice for the quinoa could have helped, along with more vinaigrette.

Even though this made two huge plates, my husband and I ate about half of one plate. It was disappointing to once again throw away so much food.

See my next post for a Plated wrap-up.

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Meal Subscription Boxes

Home Chef: Sherry Wine Demi-Glace Flat-Iron Steak

The Contents:

Preparation:

Finished Product:

Final Verdict:

Final Thoughts: Home Chef

Hello Fresh: Pan-Seared Pork Chops

The Contents:

Preparation:

Final Product:

The Verdict:

Final thoughts: Plated

Plated: Avocado, Quinoa, and Mango Salad with Jalapeno Vinaigrette

The Contents:

Preparation:

The Verdict:

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