SJMitch

Thanks lindag! We're hoping it'll be a quick fix Monday. Dinner today was Quinoa fried with yellow beans and snap peans and a kohlrabi salad from Purple Carrot They emailed earlier before the box arrived to say that they were unable to provide kohlrabi and made suggestions for what you could use instead (but did not provide a substitute). The kohlrabi was the whole point of this dish, since I haven't actually made dishes with kohlrabi before and my husband has never had kohlrabi at all. I felt much better about it when they said the were giving a $20 credit (out of the $26 cost of the meal). Also, the advance notice gave me time to go buy kohlrabi, so no big deal. Although the grocery had them priced in bundles of 3 and I only needed one. We doubled the kohlrabi salad when we made the dish, but still have one leftover. Really nice dish, tho! I love being able to make something like this with a wide variety of fresh ingredients. Quinoa is fried with garlic, ginger, tamari, edamame, yellow beans, and snap peas, and is flavored with a charred scallion vegan butter and togarashi spices. Besides the raw kohlrabi (which we sliced in our food processor in seconds), the salad had almonds, tamari, rice vinegar, and sesame oil for flavoring. Because we doubled the salad, we added walnuts as well. Multi-color sesame seeds are provided for garnish.

A repeat dish from Sun Basket (this is our 4th time ordering it) Thai Turkey Lettuce Cups It's very flavorful. Ground turkey is cooked with their awesome lemongrass paste, you quick pickle the carrots, and serve with cashews and lime. Our dishwasher broke yesterday with a full load in and more waiting to go in so I spent the evening washing and drying dishes, while my husband quickly dished up the meal. Ingredients for the lettuce cups: And cup ready to eat:

I remember importing from the webpage into Paprika, I think. Or just save the webpage, screenshot, or copy paste? PlateJoy didn't really work for us, though I did find it interesting when we told it we had Whole Foods available and they'd include recipes with pre-shredded brussels sprouts, pre-cooked beets, etc, that are available there. And now there are even more pre-prepped ingredients in supermarkets, some in smaller amounts. I did like the idea of PlateJoy. If I weren't cooking for two, the mealkits would be a pain for me as well. I think I'd go for mixing up steam-table grocery foods you can buy in small amounts with pre-prepped ingredients for fast meals. As an example, I bought just a cup worth of pre-cooked okra and shallots from Whole Foods to add to one of the meal kits as a little side dish earlier.

I don't think I posted this one. liamsaunt made this one earlier, replacing the lentil puree with queso fundido. This one was somewhat of a cooking disaster -- my fault, tho. I usually throw grains in my 20 year old mini rice cooker which can only do a max of 18 floz dry rice, but can do as little as 1/4 cup! These recipes usually have just 1/4 to 1/2 cup of grains, so perfect. Even if they have a few lentils in with the rice it all works out. Except this was just lentils and a full 1/2 cup of them. I wasn't thinking straight and just dumped them in the rice cooker and let 'er rip. Then cleaned the stove top down to the burners. A few hours later, when ready to make the meal, I noticed the rice cooker had boiled over and was blinking error. of course! They were, however, about 3/4 cooked. So into a pot and onto the just cleaned stove. But oops! The burners still wet didn't want to light the gas properly, except the one in the far back. So I use that one. Tiny pot. Long reach. Sticks to bottom of pot. Stir hard. Oops again -- beans flip out of pot onto clean but now very hot burner cover. Jeeeeeeez. Salvaged most! But have to clean stove again! The piri piri sauce/salsa was mostly raw garlic and shallot. We love garlic. But not this much raw! Should have cooked some a little first. It was an OK dish, though.

Another parchment fish dish from Sun Basket: Sole and spinach with date and apricot salad We've had this one several times and do like it. Comes with sole, spinach, shallots, lemon, apricot, dates, almonds, parsley and sumac. We added walnuts and more dried fruit (blueberries, currents) and more sumac. The fish in parchment after baking: And the full dish:

Oh, this reminds me. See that specification: 12 oz, 1lb portions? That meant 12 oz for me and 1lb for my husband. You can set up info on PlateJoy for each person so it adjust serving size/calories for each person.

Good plan! Also, to get best experience out of the trial, regenerate the meal plans as frequently as they allow, first saving the info (recipes, shopping list). Then you can see many sets of recipes to try beyond 10 days to get a better idea if it is worth it.

I checked and I do have one photo of a dish we made from PlateJoy: This was Baked Tilapia with Beet and Apple Salsa. Ingredients were: 1 ¾ lbs tilapia fillet (12 oz, 1 lb portions) 2 ⅔ tbsp olive oil 14 oz cooked beets 1 ¾ apples ½ cup walnuts 1 ¾ shallots 1 jalapeno pepper 1 ½ limes 3 ½ cups arugula I did like that you could choose whether you wanted more variety in your weekly recipe or less food waste.

Would love to see some of the dishes -- they don't have to look pretty! We tried them a year or so ago so I'm curious to see what you think as you continue with them! They imported pretty well into the Paprika recipe manager, too. One thing I remember about them was that it was very easy to regenerate menus if you didn't like what the current selection by "removing" a recipe. But sometimes I wanted to 'remove" a recipe just temporarily and be able to get back to it later. At the time they had no way to view your removed recipes or un-remove a recipe. Is that still true?

So what will we be ordering for that week? Not completely sure yet! We will have two teenaged guests visiting. We might do the usual: go to the grocery, let them pick ingredients to make their own food (they like chicken tenders and mac&cheese). So we'll get what we like mostly (they aren't here to select from the offerings yet -- the following week they'll get to help pick). I'm liking the Purple Carrot regular menu. That okonomiyaki (I do love okonomiyaki) and the strawberry tomato gazpacho is calling me. The TB12 ratatouille verde looks good, but the other two, eh... Sunbasket is less interesting; not a fan of chicken breast or pork chops. The steak tacos, sausage, and bean nicoise sound kinda boring. I could possibly do the shrimp creole and either or both of quinoa dishes. But probably will skip because: Gobble! I want the pork&peaches, the gnocchi (love their gnocchi!), the salmon cakes, and the shrimp red curry. So 4 dishes! Also, for the kids: add cookies, mac&cheese, and garlic bread and for us, 4 servings of the thai chicken soup. Gobble is also good because they are the fast-prep service with most things pre-cooked, pre-chopped, pre-mixed when possible. Blue Apron? Only the gnocchi and the spanish eggs seem like winners to me, and you can't get just 2. So, probably 3 dishes from Purple Carrot, 4 from Gobble and several sides as well.

Meal kit meal planning. Since we're heavy meal kit users of multiple US services, I thought I'd give an idea of what ordering and selection is like. We currently are using 4 different vendors: Blue Apron, Purple Carrot, Sun Basket, and Gobble. For all of them you have to order or skip about a week in advance. I used to just go and skip for as many weeks in the future as possible, but in several services (Gobble and Sun Basket) some dishes can sell out. So now I pre-pick favorites as soon as possible and only skip if there are none. Then double-check a week in advance and make a final decision. They usually list common diet restriction/allergens and have cooking times and calories listed. You can usually check out the recipe and menu card for all the details of the dish in advance (TB12 you have to do a google search for it -- they have it but don't link in advance). Here is what's on offer for week of July 24th. SUNBASKET -- our delivery day is Monday, can skip or pick 2 or 3 dishes, OK to double-up. They also have a separate "family menu" you choose 2 dishes intended for 4 people (4 "servings" each dish), but you must select either from just the regular menu or the family menu, you can't mix and match between them. Regular menu, 2 dishes ordered, $12.49/serving or $24.98/dish. Regular menu, 3 dishes ordered: $11.49/serving or $22.98/dish. Family menu, 2 dishes ordered: $9.99/serving or $39.96/dish Regular menu dishes, 2 servings each, choose 2 or 3 dishes Chile Verde chicken breast stew with jicama salad (paleo, dairy-free) Grilled salmon and veggies with chimichurri (paleo, gluten-free, dairy-free) Harissa pork chops with tomato salad (paleo, gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free) New Orleans shrimp creole (gluten-free, dairy-free) Chicken breast with tomatoes and olives (gluten-free) (Williams Sonoma recipe) - SOLD OUT White bean nicoise salad with romesco (gluten-free, vegetarian, dairy-free) Sausages, peppers, polenta (gluten-free) Steak tacos, zucchini salsa, lime yogurt Quinoa penne with moroccan chickpeas, almonds, tomatoes (gluten-free, vegetarian) Quinoa corn salad with squash, hazelnuts, ricotta and mint (gluten-free, vegetarian) 2 breakfasts: mango smoothie and arugula frittata and salsa (gluten-free, vegetarian, dairy-free) Family Menu dishes, 4 servings each, choose 2 dishes Beef and broccoli teriyaki with jasmine rice (gluten-free, dairy-free) Mango chicken lettuce cups with rice noodles (paleo-friendly, gluten-free, dairy-free) Hodo Soy tofu burgers with sweet chile mayonnaise (vegetarian, dairy-free) Chicken breasts with salsa verde and sweet potato fries (paleo, gluten-free, dairy-free) Masala turkey kebabs with cashew chutney (paleo-friendly, gluten-free, dairy-free) Corn and black bean tacos with avocado and queso fresco (gluten-free, vegetarian) PURPLE CARROT -- our delivery day is Tuesday. Can only skip or pick one of 3 set menus. There is a regular menu for 2 people, a regular menu for 4 people, and a TB12 menu for 2 people. All dishes are vegan. Regular menu, 2 people: $11.33/serving or $22.66/dish. Regular menu, 4 people: $9.25/serving or $37/dish. TB12 menu is $13.00/serving or $26/dish. Regular menu dishes, 2 servings each Sweet potato and cabbage okonomiyaki and vermicelli noodle salad Chopped grilled veggie salad (kale, chickpeas, cabbage zucchini) with orange-ginger-miso dressing Strawberry Cherry Tomato Gazpacho with Avocado Toast & Balsamic Reduction Regular 'family' menu dishes, 4 servings each Sweet potato and cabbage okonomiyaki and vermicelli noodle salad Chopped grilled veggie salad (kale, chickpeas, cabbage zucchini) with orange-ginger-miso dressing TB12 menu (higher protein, larger portions), 2 servings each Mango "poke" bowl with sea lettuce dressing Ratatouille Verde with Basil Gremolata and Polenta Niçoise Salad with Walnut Lentils & Warm Tarragon Vinaigrette GOBBLE -- our delivery day is Wednesday. Can skip or pick 2 or more main dishes (as many as you want) and then you can add add'l soups, sides, drink mix, cookies available too. Can double, triple, or more up. Gobble labels common allergens in each dish (wheat, nuts, shellfish, dairy, etc). Each dish or side comes in units of 2 servings, so if it says $1.95/serving, the minimum cost is $3.90. Cost for main dishes: if you choose 2: $13.95/serving or $27.90/dish. If you choose 3 or more: $11.95/serving or $23.90/dish Main dishes, choose at least 2 meals, or as many as you want, multiples OK (in units of 2 "servings") Grilled Pork Tenderloin & Peaches with Almond Wheat Berry Salad Grilled Chicken Breast & Peaches with Almond Wheat Berry Salad - SOLD OUT Thai Red Curry with Shrimp & Brown Jasmine Rice Thai Red Curry with Beef & Brown Jasmine Rice Pan-Seared Salmon Cakes with Poached Yukon Potatoes & Gribiche Sauce Pan-Roasted Chicken with Poached Yukon Potatoes & Gribiche Sauce Ricotta Gnocchi with Fava Beans & Pomodoro Sauce Seared Flat Iron Steak with Carrots & Braised Green Lentils Vegetable Karma Korma with Turmeric Rice Bibimbap with Korean Marinated Vegetables & Crispy Brown Rice Side dishes, you can only order these if you order main dishes. As many as you want in units of 2 servings. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough +$1.95 per serving Triple Chocolate Chunk Cookie Dough +$1.95 per serving Refreshing Mint Mojito Drink Mix +$1.95 per serving Honey-Ginger Lemonade Mix +$1.95 per serving Roasted Red Bell Pepper Bisque with Garlic Croutons & Goat Cheese +$4.95 per serving - SOLD OUT Mulligatawny Curry Soup with Lime Yogurt +$4.95 per serving - SOLD OUT Spicy Moroccan Lentil & Sweet Potato Soup +$4.95 per serving Thai Coconut Curry Chicken Soup +$5.95 per serving Baked Conchiglie Mac & Cheese +$5.95 per serving Baked Ciabatta Garlic Bread +$2.95 per serving Mixed Greens Salad with Blue Cheese & Pecans +$5.25 per serving Vietnamese Salad with Cashews & Chili-Lime Vinaigrette +$5.25 per serving BLUE APRON -- our delivery day is Thursday. You can either skip or choose exactly 3 different dishes, no doubling up. They also have a family plan that serves 4 with either 2 or 4 recipes/week. Regular plan is $9.99/serving or $19.98/dish. Family plan is $8.99/serving or $36.96/dish. Regular menu, 2 servings each, choose exactly 3 different dishes Shrimp & Fresh Gnocchi with Corn, Basil, & Charm Tomatoes Spanish-Style Eggs with Summer Squash, Piquillo Peppers, & Aioli Coconut & Lemongrass Wonton Noodles with Mushrooms, Bok Choy, & Peanuts Marinated Beef Pitas with Sugar Snap Pea & Radish Salad Seared Chicken & Vegetable Ragoût with Charm Tomatoes, English Peas, & Potatoes Spicy Beef Tacos with Charm Tomato Salsa & Creamy Corn Roasted Chicken & Panzanella Salad with Sweet Peppers & Summer Squash Summer Vegetable Tartines with Cubanelle Pepper & Charm Tomatoes Family menu, 4 servings each, choose exactly 2 different dishes or all 4 Chicken Marbella with Roasted Potatoes & Summer Squash Seared Salmon & Soy Vermicelli Noodles with English Peas White Cheddar Pork Burgers with Charm Tomatoes & Roasted Potato Wedges Summer Squash Pizza Paninis with Cucumber & Pickled Pepper Salad

Tonight was the vegetarian version of the Gobble scallop dish: Chickpea pancakes with cauliflower, zucchini, and fava beans Unlike the scallop version of this dish, this was filling enough to be a meal on its own. The chickpea fritters (more like pancakes, really; the provided batter was liquidy) were more substantial than the scallops. It also had added fava beans and tzatziki sauce. I don't usually order both the non-veg and the veg version of a dish but I love both scallops and fava beans so got both.

We made the Purple Carrot Thai Style Cauliflower that liamsaunt made the other night. We served it as-is, with romaine and used them to make lettuce cups for the rice and cauliflower. The vegan Worcestershire was really good! I was also impressed they included fresh kaffir lime leaves for it. The flavor was excellent; this dish was better than I expected. Also, I read the instructions too fast and missed where they wanted you to rough chop the cauliflower, roast, and then chop finer. I just chopped it fine straight away and roasted it that way (tossing as-is into a skillet to heat up with the sauce before mixing into the herb seasoning mix. Worked fine.

Well, dinner is over in the cooking with mealkits topic, but dessert is here: A prior mealkit oops resulted in a trip to the asian grocery, so we also picked up some dessert fixings. That's roasted black sesame soup with boiled taro balls and shredded coconut. Warm.

So we made the Purple Carrot Mujaddara tonight. Using liamsaunt's advice, I added seasoning the lentils+rice (some Penzey Singapore spice mix and dried fruit). I just threw it all in the rice cooker long before dinner. Misjudged the recipe, tho! I thought the rice+beans was the only long cooking item, but they have you fully caramelize and fry the onions, too. So didn't save too much time doing the beans+rice earlier! We got 8 oz of beets and without any addition, this meal was filling for us. It was tasty, but like liamsaunt, we'd probably not get it a second time (unless the other 2 dishes are enticing). The simple topping of thin sliced beets and herbs did work well, and I'll have to remember that when I have extra herbs lurking in the fridge. And we DO have two prolific pomegranate trees. Our mujaddara:

Thanks for the heads-up, we'll be making this, too. And what I should have done tonight is just make the quinoa salad from the 2nd Gobble dish and served the salmon from it later with the Purple Carrot dish like you did! As it was, Gobble is still arriving late in the day which means the meats/fish do not arrive frozen solid, and unless they are very icy, I don't throw them in the freezer but put the seafood first in queue for meals from the fridge.

It was a Gobble Feast this evening. I first made the Scallops with zucchini and cauliflower couscous . This was a very quick dish to make, since all the veggies came pre-chopped. The zucchini was just precious: However, as I was plating the dish, it was clear it would not be enough food -- even for me: I checked another of our Gobble dishes and Salmon with Quinoa and Mizuna salad was even faster to make (pre-cooked quinoa and raw veggies for salad, premade dressing, premade rub for the salmon) so I quickly cooked it up as well. We ate like kings! My husband commented there was no way any restaurant around us would serve such a decadent plate like this for under $35, if you could even get it (Gobble cost: $23.90). Two dishes WAS too much, but it was so good we both ate it all! Only one little lemon as leftovers. What would have been perfect, tho, is both sides and one of the meat portions (scallops or salmon). Oh Gobble -- when you are good you are very, very good! (latter part of the rhyme applies as well, alas). Scallop dish came with: scallops, cauliflower, zucchini, golden raisins, curry butter, garlic-ginger confit, a fresh lemon, fresh dill, fresh parsley, and sliced almonds (I added Penzey Singapore seasoning to the scallops as well as some mixed dried dark fruit). Salmon dish came with salmon, dukkah seasoning, precooked quinoa, mizuna, radishes, grapes, a fresh lemon, fresh mint, fresh parsley, crumbled feta, and a premade cumin-orange vinaigrette. We only used one lemon. Here is the almond-dressed scallop dish: And the Salmon, with extra dressing on the side: And the complete decadent plate of both dishes: Hey Gobble: again, again!

Goodness! Look at the ingredient list for their hoisin sauce: "Sun Basket hoisin (pumpkin puree - prunes - coconut aminos - almond butter - molasses - sesame oil - coconut vinegar - granulated garlic - salt)" No wonder it was tasty!

And the last meal from last week's mealkit bounty: Five Spiced Tofu and Walnut Lettuce Cups This one is from Sun Basket. We prepared a day later than planned (Purple Carrot box arrived today, so we have a new set already), because when I went to make it, they had shipped the wrong kind of tofu. Plain firm tofu instead of braised five-spice tofu. I called them since this didn't seem to be an intentional substitution (no note in the box and plain tofu would cook up very differently and be missing a lot of flavor). Sure enough, it was a mistake. They were particularly generous, though, and gave me a credit for the full meal. Even though the recipe called for Hodo brand tofu (a local brand we can find in Whole Food and now sold nationwide), we decided to go to the local Asian grocery and do some grocery shopping we can't get done elsewhere (e.g. chrysanthemum greens! 茼蒿, fermented rice, preserved vegetable, ..) and picked up this brand for our Sun Basket dish (it's even partially chopped already, though most 5-spice prepared tofu is not): And here it is all chopped up before mixing and cooking with the other box ingredients. You can see that plain tofu would have a very different result. Our tofu lettuce cup dinner ingredients ready for eating: And a prepared portion: And, oh, but their prepared hoisin is fantastic! Way better than any bottled stuff I've had.

As I mentioned, I was intrigued by the carrot socca recipe in this week's Purple Carrot options, but the other dishes didn't excite me so I didn't order Purple Carrot for this week. However, I did just make the recipe on my own. It's a winner! The recipe called for 8 oz carrots, 3/4 cup garbanzo bean flour and 1/2 cup water. It seemed to me it would benefit from at least a little something else and since the mealkit was intended to be served with a salad containing sunflower seeds, I added about 3 Tbsp toasted sunflower seeds to the batter. Also, Whole Foods didn't have a pure garbanzo flour but did have a garbanzo+fava bean flour mix (even better, IMHO). I also made their mayo-shallot-dill-lemon dressing to go with it. Very tasty! I had never heard of a 'socca' and looked it up. Ah, learned something new! So they are calling it a 'socca' because it uses the garbanzo bean flour and is fried. Seems closer to carrot latke/pancake than a carrot socca, but hey! I'll totally be making garbanzo flour based veggie pancakes again! Although delicious with sunflower seeds in them, it could also use some more seasoning and one of the common socca seasonings would be perfect: za'atar. Or just, say, cumin. Of course, since I made this not from a mealkit box, I'm left with extra mayo, fresh dill, about 1/4 cup garbanzo flour, half a lemon, and two shallots (all the things I couldn't buy in small enough quantities for this dish). They used the other half of the lemon for the salad, which I did not make.

And this week's fish dish from Sun Basket: Cod with leeks, tomatoes, and olives This dish made a very tasty leek-heavy sauce. The sauce was made from leeks, cherry tomatoes, olives, lemon zest and juice, garlic, parsley, and red pepper flakes. We had add'l cherry tomatoes and I added those as well (doubling the amount) as well as a few capers. I also replaced 1/2 cup of the 3/4 cup with chicken stock. Easy, delicious sauce. It also came with some pre-cooked white beans to make a small mashed bean side (I added some of the lemon-parsley vinaigrette they had you make for the salad to the beans) -- a nice touch to bulk up this light meal slightly. The provided salad was a bit skimpy on ingredients: just escarole and the lemon-parsley vinaigrette. So I added some sliced almonds and mixed dried fruit. The fruit sweetness helped to balance the bitter escarole. We got a 1/4 head of escarole -- just right, and another example where mealkits can cut food waste. I wouldn't want to eat escarole 4 times this week if I'd had to buy a whole head! An excellent dish, would definitely get it again.

Another Gobble meal: Quinoa Vegetable Chili Very fast meal, came with pre-cut squash to saute and then add to the rest of the chile and heat. Bread and flavored butter to toast. And quick pre-made garnish of salsa and sour cream. Nothing special, but very flavorful. We've gotten it before and will get it again. My portion below (less than my husband's). We do sometimes add to it, but if time is in short supply we just serve this simple dish as is.

Next dish is the one we doubled up on from Gobble: Lime Coconut Steamed Barramundi with Green Beans and Brown Rice so we will be having it twice this week. I'll start by saying this is a really good dish and if it comes around again we'd likely double-up on it yet again. It's very quick to make, comes with a pre-made lime-coconut broth, and great flavoring ingredients in smaller portions than you can usually buy (making it an ideal mealkit): toasted garlic flakes, at least 3 kinds of fresh herbs, a two inch piece of fresh lemon grass, and a cut chunk of ginger. But now the nitpicking. Keep in mind we really like Gobble, we've had at least 216 meals/sides from them over the past 2 years, including 16 dishes two times, 5 dishes 3 times, 3 dishes 4 times, and a pre-made soup side dish (thai coconut chicken curry soup) 14 times. I know how to adapt their instructions to work for our tastes and work with any ambiguities, no problem. But for a new cook? This recipe card has issues. The name of the dish says "lime", the photo has a fresh cut lime in it. The beginning of the instructions say "slice the lime in half". Is there a fresh lime provided? No. Is it in the list of ingredients? No. Beyond the instructions to slice it, are there any other instructions on what to do with the absent lime? No. Likely what happened is that an earlier version of this recipe had an actual lime and they didn't update the photo and they missed taking out the "slice the lime in half" instruction. They may have added lime juice to the provided coconut broth, but you know what? This dish would have benefited from fresh lime juice -- it needed to be a bit more bright and the fruitiness of fresh lime just before serving would have made this dish better. Heating the broth for 6-8 minutes dulls any aroma and fruitiness from lime. We had no lime, but I'll get one before we make it a second time. Another instruction says: "Place a deep saute pan on the stovetop and add the ginger, green beans, serrano pepper (omit if desired), green onions, and lemongrass into the pan. Cover the aromatics with the coconut broth and place the barramundi fillets into the pan." Later you are to remove the "aromatics". Suppose you are a novice cook (as many who use the mealkits are). What are the aromatics? The green beans? The serrano pepper? They had you "pierce small pieces" of the serrano pepper. Does that make it an aromatic to be removed later? Oh, and keep in mind before you later leave the "aromatics" out the dish you add the fresh herbs too! As it was, I tailored the dish to our tastes slightly by sauteeing all those ingredients listed above before adding the coconut broth, mellowing the serrano pepper. Which later after simmering in the broth was quite delicious so were left in for serving (only the tough lemongrass and ginger "aromatics" were removed).

I'm just happy that the dark meat is cheaper than the white (since I rarely buy whole chicken). However, in a few years we may move to Shanghai and then it'll be the reverse: white meat there is 30% to 70% cheaper than legs/wings! But don't cry for me: Shanghai food is incredible, I sure won't miss the meal kits!

Here is the finished dish. I mostly picked at my chicken -- leftovers for my husband. As expected, the cauliflower and sauce were really good, tho.