#healthycooking

Trying EveryPlate’s Dinner Kit Service

I’ve tried a few meal prep kit services, but have found them to be too expensive for the amount of food you receive. I wasn’t planning to subscribe to another one, but I came across a great deal for a dinner kit service called EveryPlate. This service has the lowest serving cost I’ve seen, so I wanted to try out the quality of the ingredients.

EveryPlate offers a two-person and four-person plan with three meals per week. Recipes are healthy and menus can be customized to minimize pasta and gluten. You can choose your three meals from a selection of five. Selections include old-fashioned favorites, like Steak Frites, Bistro Burgers and Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, as well as exotic flavors like Balsamic Steaks with Bruschetta Toasts and Roasted Zucchini and Beef Banh Mi Bowls.

The preparation for each meal was relatively quick and easy. All the vegetables, meats, sides and spices were included, as well as recipe cards with a few quick steps. The recipes from my first box were Garlic-Rosemary Chicken with Roasted Root Veggies, Skillet Apple Pork Chops with Sweet Potatoes and Lemony Green Beans and Beef Banh Mi Bowls with Sriracha Mayo and Pickled Cucumber. Each recipe card walks you through all the steps of preparation, although in some cases I found that my own method of multitasking in the kitchen was more time-effective (i.e. chopping vegetables while meat or pasta is cooking).

The ingredients were very good quality and everything was packed with cold packs to keep the items fresh. The only things needed were occasionally some butter, oil, milk, etc.

Here’s a taste of my first EveryPlate box:

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Stay tuned for a cook-through and review of my next box!

 

The Chesapeake Goat Omelette

This delicious breakfast was created by my husband, who mixed one up for me this weekend 🙂

You can use egg whites (which is how my husband made ours) or whole eggs.

Ingredients:

5 eggs or equivalent amount of egg whites

8 oz. crab meat or imitation crab meat

4 oz. crumbled goat cheese

dash of salt

dash of pepper

1 tsp. Old Bay seasoning

Preparation:

Heat a saucepan over medium heat. Add eggs or egg whites and cook for 1-2 minutes until the egg just begins to set. Add the crab or imitation crab and goat cheese, spreading both evenly throughout the pan. Cook another 1-2 minutes until nearly set. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and Old Bay seasoning, then fold one side of the omelette over the other and flip it gently to the other side to cook. Cook another minute or two until done, then slide it onto a plate. Cut in half and serve to your better half!

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Meal Prep Hack

As a busy mom, my meal planning and prepping is constantly evolving. I find that it’s hard to prep too many days of the same meal at one time because I like variety in my meals. I’ve also spent whole Sundays cooking food for the week and then ended up making a frozen pizza for dinner because I’m so over being in the kitchen. What’s a girl to do?

For this week’s meal prep, I used three recipes to make enough food to both feed my family for Sunday dinner and prep four lunches for the week – two for me and two for my husband. Combined with a couple of salads and one meal out during the week, these meals will get us through the workweek eating healthy.

First, I prepped my sweet potatoes by dicing them into chunks about 1/2″ wide, then tossing them in vegetable oil and salt. I roasted them in a 450-degree oven while I went to work prepping my proteins. I cut a pound of chicken breasts into about 1″ chunks then tossed in oil and cajun seasoning before arranging them in one layer in a glass baking dish. Next, I peeled a pound of shrimp and placed them in one layer into a different glass baking dish, then drizzled with oil and topped with salt and pepper. I popped the two baking dishes into the oven and grabbed a couple heads of broccoli. I chopped the broccoli florets into small pieces, drizzled with some oil and sprinkles with salt and pepper, then into the oven they went!

While everything was cooking in the oven, I sliced my leftover broccoli stalks and made a quick slaw with some diced almonds, chopped grapes, 1/4 cup of mayo and 2 tbsp. of apple cider vinegar.  I put a package of Green Giant zucchini noodles in the microwave to cook, then mixed up my sauce for the shrimp and zucchini noodles – 2 tbsp. mayo and 1 tsp. diced chipotle peppers in adobo.

Once everything was cooked, I packed up four lunch containers with a little bit of everything in each, then we enjoyed a delicious dinner from everything that was cooked. The kids enjoyed the cajun chicken, roasted sweet potatoes and the shrimp and zucchini noodles (they aren’t big on green vegetables – more roasted broccoli for us grownups!).