Meal Service Review- Peach Dish

We've decided to work our way through the meal subscription services. Trials are steeply discounted, and we figured it could be fun. This one is southern style cooking, so you know it's delicious.

Week 10: Peach Dish

On a 5 star rating (low to high):
Flavor:***
Price: $$$$
Variety: ****
Prep (Difficult to Easy): ***
Website: ****

Promo used: $10 off with HN8ZcQU5 or b9EcvckR
Other Codes? Vergilis

Shipping: Standard box. These are packaged in organza bags with a protein.

The Recipes: We chose Salmon Dill Croquettes, and Chorizo Sopes. However, i had chosen the week of april 26th for our date, and peach dish took it upon themselves to choose meals for the week before that and shipped us a box for that week which really irritated me. i was under the impression that i could choose my start date and that clearly wasn't so. They substituted a stroganoff dish for the sopes (we were really looking forward to the sopes). The recipe cards are folded, and you REALLY have to read them. I missed the sticker on the fish that said to keep it frozen, but it luckily didn't seem to affect the product.

Prep/Time: DH prepped the first meal, which took around 30 minutes. He helped with the second which was around 30 minutes as well (but slotted for 50 minutes). I felt like these used an absurd amount of dishes. I didn't like that this didn't really follow the step-by-step method of other cards where you understood why you were doing a step and how it was being used in the dish. i kept reading ahead to figure these things out. I've mentioned that i have a food allergy to soy. There weren't really allergy flags on this website, and, being southern, it was no surprise that i had to figure out my substitute for a lot of mayonnaise (which is something i'm used to doing, but worth mentioning)

Price: This is on the pricier side at only 2 meals for $50 (which is a guideline. Every dish is priced a little differently, with most- but not all- meals for 2 people being $25). Their promotions are also not great, so the trial was $40 for 2 meals.

Flavor: I was not a fan of the stroganoff dish they chose for us, but DH liked it fine. The salmon croquettes were as expected and yummy as was the salad.

Portion: These were kind of small, not excessively so, but the stroganoff was a one bowl dish and we added asparagus from our garden to round out our salmon dish.

Variety: There's ~8 things to choose from, with some of them being desserts, soups, or salads. Given this is a "southern" food site, i really expected more southern style dishes. We chose the salmon croquettes but...salmon is a northern fish...

Cancelling: There's a button on the website. Easy Peasy.

Extras: They send you some "extras". Our extras were some caramels, oranges, and a southern food magazine. I told my husband that given the name, i thought it would be more appropriate to send a mason jar of country peaches with each box.

Overall: The food was good but overpriced. The presentation was sweet, but lacking the southern charm i expected. There was some miscommunication in the "week" system at sign up, and no allergy flags. Overall, i wouldn't repurchase this one.

Next week we're trying Saffron Fix!

Meal Service Review- Chef'd

We've decided to work our way through the meal subscription services. Trials are steeply discounted, and we figured it could be fun.

Week 9: Chef'd

Biggest Perk: No subscription needed.

On a 5 star rating (low to high):
Flavor:*****
Price: $$$$
Portion:***
Variety: *****
Prep (Difficult to Easy): ****
Website: ****

Promo used: WELCOME15 for $15 off
Other Codes? My own friendlink for $10 off

Shipping: They charge shipping if you only order 1 meal, but otherwise shipping is free. While this was packed and shipped like pretty much everything is, we did have one item (pomegranate seeds) leak juice in the bag.

The Recipes: I chose a ten-minute meal and a breakfast: Green Curry Chicken Tacos and Amaretto French Toast with Candied Bacon. Standard cardstock.

Prep/Time: This is kind of all over the place, but if you wanted ten minute meals, you could stick to ten minute meals. We did these both in one day. DH made the breakfast in ~30 minutes, and i did the 10 minute meal. They did send milk, eggs, and butter. For the 10 minute meal, the protein and the rice were both already cooked and vacuum sealed.

Price: These are priced by the dish, and many feel overpriced- certainly so on the desserts. Breakfasts were actually pretty reasonably priced ~$5-$10/person. We did a 10-minute meal and a breakfast for $31 shipped. That said, we didn't do a subscription and subscriptions DO come with a 5%-10% discount depending on how many meals you choose.

Variety: This was by far the biggest variety. There was a massive dinners menu, a gourmet menu, a separate "10 minute meals" menu, a whole array of breakfasts, and desserts. Honestly, the variety was almost overwhelming.

Portion: These were adequate portions. 3 pieces of french toast, 2 tacos. Bacon was sealed by portion and they did accidentally forget one of ours, which was not a huge deal, but disappointing. However, our breakfast ingredients included: 1/2 dozen eggs, a small box of blueberries, a big box of strawberries, half pint of cream, 6 slices of bacon (ours was 3. wahwah), 6 tbs of butter, cheese, and others fixings, so its regular price of $25 isn't a huge leap from what it would normally cost to buy those ingredients yourself with the convenience of not having to go shopping. There was enough fruit left over to do berries and cream for 2 later.

Flavor: This was delicious and i would absolutely make either one again.

Cancelling: While they have subscriptions available, this website is designed for you not to have to subscribe. There are discounts if you choose a subscription. We just picked alacarte.

Overall: I loved both of these meals. Breakfast was delicious, and the 10-minute meal thai tacos were fast, easy, and delicious. There was an oops or two, but overall i was pleased with the experience. The pricing is a little crazy, but i especially love the idea of having breakfast delivered.

Next Week, we'll be trying out Peach Dish!

Meal Service Review: Home Chef

We've decided to work our way through the meal subscription services. Trials are steeply discounted, and we figured it could be fun.

Week 8: Home Chef

promo image from startupanchor

Biggest Perk: Comes with a binder!

On a 5 star rating (low to high):
Flavor:*****
Price: $$$
Portion:****
Variety: ****
Prep (Difficult to Easy): ***
Website: ***
Sustainability? Your box comes with a guide to where they source ingredients and how each packaging component can be recycled.

Promo used: 3PLATESOFF
Other Codes? GA30FREE            There are other codes out there, but they pretty much all do the same thing.

Shipping: Pretty standard- basic cardboard box, eco insulation with ice packs. Proteins are in 1 bag, each recipe has another bag. This is the only one that seemed to make an attempt at easy open packaging on the protein (it still didn't open great, but the tab was there).

The Recipes: We went with a Bleu Cheese Crusted Sirloin, Coq Au Vin Chicken, and Shrimp Pomodoro. These are hole-punched like TK's were, BUT HomeChef is the first one to send a binder to put them in. It's nothing fancy, but i appreciated it. I generally found these easy to follow, and we had a busy week so i even made 2 recipes at the same time one night, but when DH made the third, he had some stumbles, so maybe the recipes aren't as straightforward as some of the others :/

Prep/Time: Our recipes were ~40 minutes. We had a busy week and i actually made 2 recipes together for dinner, turning it into surf and turf. Doing that involved extra dishes, but it was all delicious.

Price: This normally runs $9.95/serving (so ~$60/week). The trial was $29.70

Variety: There were 10+ recipes to choose from, as well as the option to do add-on premium meals (premium meals cost more per serving. This weeks option was lamb chops), smoothies, breakfast, or fruit baskets. All of the choices felt a little upscale which was nice. It did ask for some taste preferences (meat, seafood, vegetables) and foods we choose not eat (like soy).

Portion: These portions were good, but not huge or anything.

Flavor: Everything was super delicious, we would make it again, and the recipes are relatively easy to repeat.

Cancelling: There's a "Pause your account" button on account settings. I did have to consult their FAQ for skipping a week, but the option is there.

Overall: We enjoyed this one. They were a reasonable price, bag and a protein, sent a binder, tasted great.

Next Week, we'll be trying out Chef'd!

Soy-free soy sauce

I've mentioned that i have a food allergy, and until last week it was largely an annoyance- i shouldn't eat it and avoided it, but it wasn't life threatening, and little things here and there (like bread) we didn't worry about. My epipen expired 6 months ago, so naturally NOW i would start having anaphylactic reactions. One of the foods i didn't used to worry about was soy-sauce (because soy-sauce is heavily fermented, fermentation breaks apart protein bonds, the proteins are what your body attacks, yada yada), but i had an anaphylactic reaction to something containing "soy sauce" (wasabi almonds. it's possible they used a powdered substitute that is not quite the same thing as soysauce, but either way- they tried to kill me).

I've eaten completely soy-free (i've eaten completely allergen free and unprocessed. lot of work let me tell you) in the past, and since I LOVE asian food, i'd thought i'd share a couple of my "soy-free" tricks for cooking. There are lots of soy-free products you can buy, but i'm talking strictly in the kitchen here. Anything you make by hand, especially without preservatives, is not going to have a super long shelf life, so when you need 2 TBS of something for a recipe, you shouldn't have to spend 20 minutes boiling crap to get a reasonable substitution.

soy-sauce: soy sauce is basically just salty, so i substitute it with salt water. i like to use black truffle salt, i just feel like it gives it that something extra that closes the gap in flavor, and my husband agrees, it comes out pretty darn close. I do roughly a 1:4 salt to water ratio (1t salt to 2T water). It isn't the right color (obviously), but it's a great substitute on flavor. There are recipes out there with vinegar and molasses; personally, i think they're just trying too hard.

hoisin sauce: hoisin is a sweet asian sauce filled with spices and soy sauce. there are lots of recipes on the internet, but a quick substitute is buckwheat honey (or manuka, or another dark pungent honey) and peanut butter. Those dark honeys just have a completely different flavor profile than the traditional golden honeys most of us are accustomed to. I actually don't like the dark honeys for eating, but as a substiture for hoisin, dark honey and peanutbutter is right on. You can use garlic and cayenne powders to round out the flavor, but buckwheat honey alone gets really close and adding the peanut butter is almost indecipherable. (if you have a peanut allergy, i still totally recommend the dark honey and garlic).

mayonnaise: There are soy-free mayo's out there, they cost a lot, and if you really love mayo, you can splurge. I actually never liked mayo (certainly not enough to make it myself) even before i couldn't eat it, but i like some things that are made WITH mayo-like deviled eggs and pasta salad. Most of the time, i substitute greek yogurt or sour cream. avocado or just plain olive oil are also good substitutes depending on the dish. For coleslaw, i make an asian slaw with sesame oil, but there are lots of vinegar based slaw recipes out there that are super delicious.

Meal Service Review- Plated

We've decided to work our way through the meal subscription services. Trials are steeply discounted, and we figured it could be fun.

Week 7: Plated

Biggest Perk: Great portions, simplified packing

On a 5 star rating (low to high):
Flavor:*****
Price: $$$$
Portion:****
Variety: ****
Prep (Difficult to Easy): *****
Website: ***
Sustainability? Pretty much all of their packaging is recyclable and they use green bags that absorb the ethylene gas from produce. They use 100% sustainable seafood, 100% antibiotic free meat. They don't always source organically or locally, but they do make an effort to source from responsible farming practices.

Promo used: They have a running promo on their website that makes trials $12/plate
Other Codes?

Shipping: This wasn't quite a bag and a protein, but it was basically 3 pieces per recipe (a bag, a protein, and 1 something else- The something else was always something easily damageable, like lettuce or buns) Like everyone else, it's eco packaging and cooler packs.

The Recipes: We chose Beef Bolognese Sliders, Shitake Bimbimbop, and Thai Lettuce Wraps.

Prep/Time: The first i prepared by myself in 25 minutes. The second (50 minutes) i chose to prep the night before and finish the following day, and the third DH made in about 20 minutes. The instructions were easy to follow, and explained in the "tips" section why they had you do something if it seemed weird (like drying off your ground beef or using a slotted spoon to pull it from the pan). While they recommend reading through the whole recipe first (because it's a common good practice), I like that the vast majority of these boxes are so blatantly step by step that it doesn't matter if you read through it first or not. They were on point with that. Most of the ingredients were pre-washed and instructed you to just give it a rinse.

Price: This is mid-range at $72/week shipped. The trial was $48.

Portion: These were good portions. I've come to think of it as "the taco test". Some boxes give you 2 tacos (or sliders in this case) and some give you 3. 3 is always better. In the sliders recipe, it made 3 sliders per person with meat leftover and a good sized salad. Not all of the boxes have side dishes, so i appreciate when they do.

Variety: We could choose from ~12 recipes, 6 that change weekly and 6 that change monthly, as well as 2 dessert options.

Cancelling: This has a button on their website. easy peasy.

Overall: I enjoyed this box, though i did have to use their FAQ section to find some things. The portions are great and the bag/protein approach is one i'm coming to expect. This one didn't really have an allergen flag, and as someone with a food allergy, i appreciate my allergen flags, so that was a bummer.

Extras? When we signed up, it took me through a little questionnaire of proteins (if there's a protein you don't care for, they won't recommend it), and a thumbs up thumbs down survey of meals to get an idea of your preferences.

Next Week, we'll be trying out HomeChef!

Lemon Mug Cake

I'm usually super underwhelmed by mug cakes- they just fall short 90% of the time. They end up dry or eggy or super dense and they just don't end up worth the expectation. I use my microwave so seldom that we keep it in the basement. BUT...tonight i wanted something sweet and there was just 1 egg in the fridge, so i decided to give mug cakes another shot. This Lemon Mug Cake from Life Liz Love came out spongey and delicious, and was exactly what I wanted.

Lemon Mug Cake

Ingredients:

• 3 Tbs Flour
• 3 Tbs Sugar
• 1/4 tsp Baking Powder
• Zest of 1 lemon
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1 Egg
• 2 Tbs Vegetable Oil (we use peanut oil in our house)

Instructions:

• Grease a 16oz mug (my cake DID rise all the way to the top of the cup during baking, and settled out maybe an inch below the rim)
• In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients
• Add in wet ingredients
• Blend it really well, pour it into the mug, and microwave it on high for 90 seconds

Glaze:

The original recipe didn't call for glaze, but i like glaze with my lemon cakes, so i pulled up this nearly identical recipe for Lemon Mug Cake w/ Glaze from The Hungry Hedgehog (They add 2 Tbs of milk to their cake instead of an egg)

• 3 Tbs Powdered Sugar
• 2 tsp Lemon Juice