Plated 3/24

We had an amazing plated week this week.  As usual, great variety and super high quality ingredients.  We are going to take a little break the next couple of weeks and return to our BlueApron roots now that they have an option to customize our menu to include meat and poultry dishes.  Having more options every week is a good problem to have.

Here is what we enjoyed the week of 3/24.

Chicken Souvlaki Pitas with Tzatziki and Greek Salad
This was delicious.  The chicken was super tender and flavorful and I loved having a greek salad that didn't include olives (which I don't like).  Anytime a recipe includes Tzatziki I'm on board.

Dijon Pork Medallions with Broccolini and Smashed Potatoes 
The pork was perfectly tender.  This recipe instructed to make the smash potatoes using only olive oil, salt, and pepper.  D and I were both impressed how creamy they were!

Risotto with Roasted Radicchio, Mushrooms, and Lemon
Making risotto is always more labor intensive due to the constant stirring, but this was worth it.  The radicchio had a nice bitter flavor that was subdued by a honey glaze and acid from the lemon.

It's great to take our break on such a high note.  We'll definitely be back to plated in a couple weeks I'm sure!

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Plated 3/10 and 3/17

Here are our delicious plated creations from the past two weeks!  As usual, we ate very well and enjoyed a lot of variety.

Week of 3/10

Roasted Eggplant with Pine Nuts, Raisins, and Parsley
I really liked this dish but D wasn't a huge fan.  The eggplant roasted perfectly and the salty/sweet combo with the raisins was delicious. 

Chicken Fricassee with Gnocchi and Artichokes 
As simple as it was, the dill garnish really added so much flavor to this dish.  The sauce was flavorful but not heavy.  It would have been nice to have a little more gnocchi.

Sweat Pea Mac n'Cheese
I was worried the sauce for this was too thick, but it turned out great.  Cheese and Peas are two of my favorite things.  We also had plenty of leftovers!

Week of 3/17
Shepherd's Pie
This was our St. Patrick's Day meal!  It was super easy and was as delicious as any shepherd's pie I'd ever had at a restaurant. 

Chicken Tostadas
A lot of ingredient chopping for this one (which seems to always happen when prepping Mexican food), but it was worth it!  The avocado/greek yogurt sauce had a great flavor.

Baked Gnocchi and Green Salad
This was one was a fail.  The green salad didn't keep so well so we had to substitute a caesar salad on our own.  The sauce was just ok and there wasn't much gnocchi.  At least it left us plenty of room to have dessert. ;-)

Overall a good 2 weeks.  Recently I received an email from Blue Apron, informing us they will now customize the weekly menu's to be a mix of meat and vegetarian options.  We already have another plated delivery coming this week but after that we plan on returning to Blue Apron to finally try out their meat/chicken dishes.

Interested in trying plated?  Please use my referral link and we'll each get two free plates!
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Plated 2/17, 2/24, and 3/3

We've been so busy cooking, I've fallen a little behind on my plated reviews!  We've had a lot of great variety the past 3 weeks.  The ability to customize each week's menu has been my favorite aspect of this service (besides the food of course!).  It's also been nice to be able to choose to only have 2 recipes instead of 3 be sent on weeks where we know we won't be cooking as much.

Plated 2/17 (2 recipe week)
Maple Brown Sugar Pork Chops with Brussels Sprout Hash
We hadn't made pork chops in a while, and this was a definite winner.  The pork was perfectly tender and nicely sweetened by the glaze.  The hash was very simple yet flavorful.  There was actually enough hash leftover for me to have with eggs the next day.  Mmmm.

Pan Roasted Chicken with Winter Vegetables, Figs, and Apples
This recipe was inspired by (and suggested to be paired with) Cidre by Stella Artois.  We decided to purchase some and give it a try.  This recipe had a lot going on.  There were too many different flavors in our opinion.  The Cidre was quite tasty though.

Plated 2/24
Fresh Tagliatelle with Cauliflower and Hazelnut Pesto
I love pesto and I love hazelnuts.  The two combined was new to me though.  WOW.  So delicious.  This will be a dish we plan on making again.

Rosemary Braised Swiss Chard and Cannellini Beans
This dish made our apartment smell amazing and homey on a cold evening.  The flavors really all came through.

Pomegranate Lamb Kebabs with Raita and Smashed Potatoes
I would probably call these lamb meatballs instead of kabobs, but either way they were delicious.  The pomegranate glaze gave them a sweetness that really complimented the smashed potatoes.  It was also interesting to make smashed potatoes with olive oil instead of butter.  It's a technique I'll keep in mind for future Mediterranean style dishes. 

Plated 3/3
Moroccan Beef Tagine with Squash and Couscous
This was a very easy dish to prepare and had great flavor.  It would have probably been even better if we allowed the beef to marinate longer with the dry rub overnight. 

Pan Roasted Vegetables with Creamy Coconut Curry and Na'an
A nice, straightforward curry.  The na'an was absolutely perfect.  We wished we had 2 pieces instead of 1!

Broccoli, Sweet Potato, and Quinoa Casserole 
This was one of those "healthy" tasting recipies.  It was ok but we probably won't be making it again. 

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Plated 2/3 and 2/10

I've fallen a little behind on blogging, so I'm going to include two weeks of plated together in order to catch up.  Overall the past two weeks haven't been our absolute favorite dishes, but the variety has been nice.  We even found a dish worthy enough for our Valentine's dinner!

Week of February 3rd:

2 Steak with Chimichurri 
This flank steak was prepared over a citrus, carrot "hash."  I enjoyed the addition of the chimichurri sauce, but D felt the hash was favored well enough from the citrus that it wasn't needed.  We've gotten pretty good at grilling this cut of meat to a perfect medium rare.

2 Tofu Kebabs 
We were excited to try this recipe, but the execution was a little more difficult than planned.  Marinading the tofu prior to cooking was a little challenging since it broke apart very easily.  The flavors were nice and we really enjoyed the soba noodles.

2 Arroz con Pollo

The seasoning of the chicken was delicious, but we felt like the rice could have used a little more flavoring.  Salting it a little more would have probably helped.

Week of February 10th:

2 Winter Ragout 
We predicted this dish would be similar to the mushroom pasta we enjoyed a few weeks ago, so we decided to save it for Valentine's Day.  Pairing it with an amazing bottle of wine and homemade creme brûlée was the perfect way to make this delicious dish extra special.  It also made a huge portion we were able to enjoy for lunch over the weekend!

2 Roasted Chicken 
The seasoning of this chicken was very flavorful, but my favorite part of the dish was the twice baked potatoes.  I LOVE twice baked potatoes.

2 Brussels Sprouts over Polenta

This was an interesting recipe, but I think following the cooking directions exactly as they were listed on the instructions caused a slight fail in execution.  The brussels were a little too overcooked and the polenta was a bit too thick.  Great flavors and color though!

That wraps up our culinary adventures over the past two weeks.  More to come as February continues….

Interested in trying plated?  Get 2 plates for free by using my link!  https://www.plated.com/invites/c68767

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Plated 1/27/14

We've reached the point that it would be difficult to plan weekly meals without having plated in our lives.  Here are our delicious creations from this week:

Creamy Orzo and Eggplant and Arugula
This dish was very cheesy.  The roasted eggplant was a very nice addition texture wise.  D was not a huge fan of the arugula, but I thought it added a great bitterness to contrast the cheese.  Overall a great meal.

Philly Style Cheese Steaks
We ended up changing this recipe a little and omitting the mushrooms due to time constraints.  The sandwiches were still very satisfying. 

Baked Chili Chicken Meatballs with Swiss Chard
This meal was probably the first time the estimated prep time was WAY longer than listed on the card.  There was a lot of chopping involved.  The finished result was just ok.  I would even go so far to say it has been our least favorite dish in a while.

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