Plated Review & Free Plates Coupon! #platedpics – May 6 & 13

 Plated sends weekly dinner kits with high quality ingredients and chef-created recipes. They say they’re subscription only now – not true. We turn off automatic shipments and order the meals we like.  This round of Plated included several south of the border selections.

The recipe card is new and fresh for 2015, though I wish it would indicate the ease of the meal, which is shown when you order the meal and in the email that sends out what you might need, but it would be handy to have on the card.

When you sign up for Plated with this link or use code b0c635, you’ll get 2 free plates with your first order. Sometimes we order Plated and sometimes Hello Fresh. It just depends on what meals we’re interested in. [Hello Fresh: Take $40 off your first box with coupon code 7UT7K8]

May 6

Chicken Tostadas with Greek Yogurt-Avocado Sauce:  This dish hit a lot of good notes — it had creamy, crunchy, zesty and spicy all wrapped in one.  Or, rather, not wrapped in one.  Tostadas are a bit tricky to shove in your face neatly, particularly when they are piled high with lots of fixing (and Plated usually offers hearty portions on the veg-based toppings).  This was a tasty dish, but it did involve a little bit of knife work.  Nothing complicated, just a bit of chopping, even with the cabbage pre-shredded.

Steak Fajitas with Peppers, Onions, and Cholula Guacamole:  Avocados must be in season, because this dish also featured the tasty, creamy fruit.  Lots of dicing here, too, but definitely worth it.  Instead of the tangy notes of the tostada dish, this combo is a straight classic with cumin and cilantro as the stars.  The veggies included made ALOT of the guac salsa, so you could even have reserved a third of it for some late night nachos.   One note on the avocados — I’ve lived in California and have bought avocados from groceries large and small and farmers’ markets and CSAs across the country — and these were the nicest, most perfectly ripe/firm, not-yet-stringy and not-at-all-brown avocados I’ve ever been able to get my hands on.  I was very impressed (and immensely satisfied with the taste, too!).

May 13

Seared Steak with Garlicky Potatoes and Greek Salad:  You can’t go wrong with steak and potatoes.  The steak was a little difficult to cook evenly, because the cut was more of a pyramid than a slab.  The potatoes were phenomenal.  When salads are part of the dish, you usually get a whole head of lettuce, so there is plenty to go around.  

Chicken Ropa Vieja with Black Beans and Rice:  This shredded chicken dish was hearty and hit the spot.  I’m always impressed at how much flavor you get out of the pastes and seasonings included (when cooking from scratch, I douse my food and fail to get any additional flavor out of the effort).  This dish was pretty straight-forward — the only tricky part is having the patience to shred the meat without burning your fingers!

So that’s what we made with our box in May!  It is hard to go wrong with Mexican and Latin-inspired dishes — they are always a home run if the ingredients are fresh, and Plated is always fresh.  This was a fun and tasty set of boxes.

Each meal includes easy-to-follow directions, and almost everything you need is included:  from the often organic meats to the fresh herbs.  You need only contribute the most basic of culinary skills, and Plated will walk you through the rest.  Have on hand basic kitchen utensils and you can transform the contents of your Plated box into a photo-worthy culinary masterpiece in under forty-five minutes (usually less).  I love the way each meal incorporates only a couple key herbs or spices; the flavors shine through, and the recipes remain easy to follow.

If you haven’t joined up, visit Plated to find or more or to subscribe.   You can use code b0c635 to sign up for Plated and get 2 free plates with your first order! You can see all the meal subscription services & dinner kits in the directory plus all our Plated Reviews!