Plated: Yes, I Do Cook, Occasionally

We received a gift card from Plated at BlogHer 13. I’ve not been asked to blog about their product by Plated or by my employer (which happens to be BlogHer). The opinions below are purely my own — and that of my family members who ATE the food. Heh.

I figured what the heck, right? We have these gift cards sitting here, might as well use one… so on Saturday night, I peeked at the menu and decided to order a flank steak and a chicken dish. Except by the time I checked out, the flank steak was no longer available. That made me sad. I didn’t really want any of the other options but I picked the one I thought looked most interesting….

So on Tuesday, the ingredients for Grilled Chicken with Balsamic Peaches and Quinoa and Arugula Salad and Pork Tenderloin with Watermelon, Mint, Feta and Cucumber Salad (this one was the one I chose when the flank steak was not available.)

KarenLynnn was right about the packaging. I think they need to use those Styrofoam packing containers that TW’s mom’s insulin is shipped in.

I thought we’d make the first dish on Tuesday night… but we didn’t because, errr, I don’t know why. We just didn’t. So Wednesday night I made the Grilled Chicken. It was a hit but boy did it use a lot of pots, pans, and bowls. Also, I should have used fewer greens — we’d have liked it better with a smaller green to quinoa ratio and I’ll remember that for next time.

You should also know that I ordered 2 plates of each dish but I was feeding three adults… TW didn’t think it was going to work out but it did. Perfectly.

And, tonight I made the Pork Tenderloin which was also a hit and EXACTLY the right amount for the three of us. (It also used fewer dishes, heh.) One problem — I should have read through the recipe before I started (hahaha, yea yea, I know.) After putting the pork to marinate and making the salad, the next step called for grilling the pita bread. Fine except the pork still needed 20-30 minutes so if we wanted warm grilled pita, we were screwed. I ended up wrapping it in tin foil and leaving it on the hot griddle. The pita was barely warm when the pork was ready. No big deal and it really was my fault for not reading through and thinking about how this might work out.

One other thing to note — Karen Lynn was also right about the timing. The cucumber for tonight was just about done. If I’d waited another day, there’s no way I could have used it. So next time I order, I’m going to have to be really conscious of our schedules and make sure that we really DO make these dishes on the first two days after the ingredients arrive.

And yep, I’ll order from Plated again. It was nice to have everything ready and not have to PLAN something or look around to see if we had all of the ingredients for a real meal. Very convenient. Easy recipes. Win-win!