For Sunday, we’re going to have some fun with food as I review my weekly Marley Spoon subscription box. If you’d like to try it out yourself, use the coupon code COOKSMART for $30 off.
My meal plan is for a weekly delivery of 2 meals (2 portions each), which costs $48.
Caramel Chicken with Steamed Bok Choy and Rice
Chicken is the go to protein in my household and the caramel sounded intriguing.
Our usual fresh ingredients:
This recipe was relatively simple. We cook the rice, clean the bok choy and chop up some garlic and scallions.
Then we brown our chicken, remove it from the pain, make the sauce then finish the chicken in the pan, while we steam the bok choy.
The sauce gets reduced to something syrup and caramel-like and
voila:
Taste: Hit!
I liked the simplicity of this recipe and the flavors were quite good. I’ve never made bok choy myself and I found it easy to work with and quite tasty. Despite the name, the chicken sauce isn’t too sweet. I think this is a great weeknight recipe. Not overly fussy and a well rounded meal.
Portion Size: Good
Good for Entertaining?: Not really. It wasn’t special enough for entertaining.
Flat Iron Steak with Oven Fires and Blistered Potatoes
Marley Spoon always delivers amazing meat so when they offer steak I usually grab it.
More fresh ingredients:
So we slice up some potatoes and peppers, drop some garlic on the aforementioned peppers and toss them in the oven on a baking sheet. We mix up some mayo with garlic and set that aside.
Meanwhile we sear the steak and remove it from the pan. We add some thyme springs and butter and the steak back in and finish it off.
Now we need to finish off the vegetables in the broiler, and this is where it gets tricky for me. My oven is very old and the broiler is a drawer at the bottom with a tiny tiny square shape. I can’t fit a standard cookie sheet in there (nor can I control the temperate). So I pile all our vegetables into a tiny square baking dish and hope for the best.
While the vegetables burn cook, I sauté some shallots, add in water, red vinegar, salt and pepper, then create the sauce.
We grab the vegetables from the broiler, unevenly cooked, but thankfully not charred and our finished plate looks like this:
Taste: Excellent, except the mayo
Portion Size: Problematic
I didn’t get the mayo at all. We already have butter for richness and I didn’t know if the mayo was for the steak or the vegetables (or both). It didn’t add anything special to the dish. I also didn’t care for dealing with the giant pieces of pepper on my plate. The steak itself tasted great and the sauce was simple but not too heavy.
Good for Entertaining?: Yes, with tweaking. I’d change the mayo sauce to a chipotle sauce using either sour cream or Greek yogurt as the base. I’d turn the peppers into more of salad by slicing them thinly after cooking and mixing them up with the shallots. For entertaining, I’d serve this in more of a dinner party setting. So I’d probably start with a wild mushroom soup served with some fresh bread and end with chocolate lava cakes and fresh berries. For alcohol I’d probably go with a cabernet.
OVERALL
Verdict: Hit!
I thought both of these recipes had great flavors and my issues with the steak dish were very minor so they didn’t sway my overall opinion too much. The meat that came with the box was very high quality and I can really taste the difference from the Marley Spoon meat versus what I pick up from my grocery store.
Have you ever tried a fresh meal subscription service? If so, what did you think?
THE BACKSTORY
Marley’s Spoon creates delicious, easy to follow recipes.
They deliver fresh, pre-portioned ingredients and you select your recipes from their changing weekly menu.
They are dedicated to sourcing organic and sustainable whenever possible. Building relationships with environmentally aware farms and producers ensures that the highest quality ingredients arrive at your door each week.
Using trusted delivery partners, your Marley Spoon boxes come insulated and chilled, staying cool for 30 hours! After delivery, all the ingredients are guaranteed to stay fresh for up to 4 days – allowing you to decide when to cook.
Marley’s Spoon donates any leftover ingredients to City Harvest. City Harvest exists to end hunger in communities throughout New York City through food rescue and distribution, education, and other practical, innovative solutions.
Each week you’ll automatically receive great dishes, but as a flexible subscription, you can skip a week or pause your subscription anytime. You can also change delivery frequency, recipes, and the number of portions you’d like to receive.
Marley’ Spoon delivers to the mid Atlantic and New England regions: most of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, and Washington D.C.
Monthly Cost:
Varies by number of servings and number of meals.
Check here for the configuration of your choice
COUPON CODE: COOKSMART
Lisa Preziosi 