subscription meal box – Lisa Preziosi

Marley Spoon: Keema Curry & Greek Poutine + $30 Off

It’s time to head into the kitchen again with another Marley Spoon review. If you’d like to try out this weekly meal subscription service for 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.

Keema Curry with Buttered Naan
Download the recipe here.
I love curry and I’ve never made a beef version, so I figured I’d give this one a shot.

Our Fresh Ingredients:

So we start with really simple prep, just some chopped onion and grated ginger.

Next we sauté some onion in oil until golden brown, then ginger goes in, and finally beef and salt.

After the beef is browned, we spoon of any excess fat and stir in the curry powder, followed by tomato paste, salt and pepper. Then some water and coconut milk go in.

Now we get to the Naan. Okay, this is some sad, sad Naan. It’s broken and there is only ONE Naan. Maybe I’m just a fatty McFatty, but I figure 1 Naan per person is the minimum. Anyway, I butter it up and then give toast it in a pan. It ends up looking really nice, but I just wish there was a bit more of it.

The last step for the curry is to stir in the peas and cook them through. We pick some cilantro leaves off the stems and top the curry.
We end up with this:

Taste: Okay
This felt less like a curry and more like an Indian spiced chili. I also found the flavor to be more subdued than what I’d expect from a curry. This dish didn’t come with rice and each person only got ½ a piece of Naan so you just end up eating a bowl of seasoned ground beef. Disappointing.
Portion Size: Skimpy. Without rice or lots of veggies to “beef” (pardon my pun) the curry, the portions come out looking pretty stingy. And you know my feelings about the minimalist Naan.
Good for Entertaining?: Nope, not interesting or flavorful enough.

Greek Poutine with Spiced Pork & Cream Feta Sauce
Download the recipe here.
This recipe looked so intriguing that I figured it had to either be awful or amazing.

More fresh ingredients:

We slice up some potatoes, and coat them in olive oil and some salt and pepper. They get roasted in the oven until golden brown.

Meanwhile, it’s ingredient prep time. This comes with fennel and coriander seeds that need to be crushed. I’m not a fennel fan, so I skip the seeds and grab some coriander from my pantry to use instead. I also peel and finely chop some garlic and zest and juice an orange.

Next we heat some oil with coriander and garlic, then brown the ground pork in it.
We add orange zest, juice, red wine vinegar, dried oregano and water to the pork and deglaze the skillet.

We make a feta sauce with the cheese, water and some pepper.

Our roasted potatoes come out of the oven and we assemble our platter. Potatoes, then meat, followed by cheese sauce and finally topped with baby arugula. The recipe calls to drizzle the dish with olive oil and then season with salt and pepper, but I omitted the olive oil since I didn’t think it needed it.

The finished product:

Taste: Love!
This was so delicious and fresh. It had a great Mediterranean flavor and wasn’t too difficult to prepare. The meat makes the dish really filling and I found it perfect for a Netflix and chill evening. After making this, I thought that the ingredients and flavors would work really well in a pasta dish. I swapped out the potatoes for some rigatoni and the pork for ground chicken. The end result was a tasty and healthy dinner. Definitely give this one a try.
Portion Size: Excellent
Good for Entertaining?: Yes. I’d use this as part of a fun girl’s night menu where we camp out in front of the TV and watch movies about totally unrealistic relationships – basically the kind of food you can nibble on while you gawk at Ryan Gosling’s abs. In addition to the poutine, I’d serve Coconut Shrimp and some mini quiches. Dessert would be my “Heavenly” cream cheese brownie recipe. The drinks would be champagne cocktails – just the bubbly plus some elder-flower liquor & a few raspberries.

OVERALL
Verdict: Mixed
The curry was disappointing to me because I thought it was a very unbalanced dish. It’s just a bowl of meat and a tiny piece of bread to go with it. It needed more – more flavor, vegetables, rice, bread–something. On the other hand, the poutine was exactly the kind of thing I’m looking for in a meal subscription – a unique dish that can inspire me to be more creative with my own dishes.

I can’t wait to get my new kitchen finished so I can try out some more recipes.

What other food subscriptions should I try?
I’d love to hear your suggestions!

THE BACKSTORY
Marley 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.

Monthly Cost:
Varies by number of servings and number of meals.
Check here for the configuration of your choice

COUPON CODE: COOKSMART

Marley Spoon: Beef & Parsnip GHOULash and Jamaican Jerk-Spiced Chicken + $30 Off

For throwback Thursday, I’m going way back to Halloween 2016 and one of my stockpiled Marley Spoon reviews. If you’d like to try out this weekly meal subscription service for 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.

Beef and Parsnip GHOULash with Caraway Spaetzle
Download the recipe here.
They labeled it “spooktacular!”, so how could I resist?

Our Fresh Ingredients:

We start with making our spaetzle dough. Now there was just one itty bitty problem. I hate caraway seeds. Hate them so, so much. They are the reason I don’t care for sausage and everything bagels. I’m leaving them out. If you like them, just pretend my spaetzle is filled with little death pods, er seeds.

Next we get to chopping. At this point I was supposed to dissolve a beef broth packet with water, but alas there is no beef broth packet included. Luckily I have chicken broth in my pantry so I use that instead.

Next we cook the onion and ground beef until brown, and then stir in tomato paste and paprika.
We add in the parsnips, beef broth, salt, and pepper, then cover and cook until the parsnips are tender. We remove the lids and then cook until thickened.

Now the tough part. We’re supposed to spread the spaetzli dough on to a cutting board over a pot and then scrape it into boiling water. This dough is sticky and I can’t express how stressful this was for me.
In the end my spaetzle was really sad looking. It gets tossed with some oil, and then divided between two plates.

We top our spaetzle with goulash, sour cream and chives:

Taste: Like
This dish had a lovely flavor, and despite the ugliness of my spaetzle, it tasted excellent. The recipe is just a bit fussy for a weeknight with multiple bowls and pots, plus getting the spaetzle right was tricky (at least for me). I was also missing the beef broth packet, so that detracted from the recipe. I’m not sure if this was “spooktacular” enough but it was hearty and the parsnips paired very well with the beef and paprika.
Portion Size: Generous
Good for Entertaining?: No. It’s a bit too homely a recipe and the spaetzle is just way too stressful to get right.

Jamaican Jerk-Spiced Chicken with Coconut Rice and Cucumber Salad
Download the recipe here.
I can never say no to Jerk Spices and Coconut.

More fresh ingredients:

We do some slicing and zesting, then marinate our chicken in lime zest, oil and salt.

The chicken gets cooked while we make rice with scallion whites, coconut milk and water.

Thinly sliced cucumbers turn into a salad with the remaining lime zest ½ the scallion greens and a bit of salt and lime juice.

We toast some coconut and then plate our ingredients.

Our finished dish:

Taste: Hit!
The chicken had a nice flavor and I loved the coconut rice. The cucumbers were refreshing and this dish didn’t require extensive prep or a lot of clean-up. It was well balanced and worked nicely for a weeknight.
Portion Size: Excellent
Good for Entertaining?: With some tweaking. I’d turn the bone-in chicken thighs, into boneless jerk spiced kabobs and do everything family style. For drinks I’d serve pitchers of pina coladas and mint iced tea. I’d add on another main dish of Thai Mango Salad with Shrimp. Appetizers would feature an Asian inspired dip, like this Thai Peanut Hummus served alongside tortilla and veggie chips, and some beef curry puffs. Dessert would include a tropical fruit salad and a light, fluffy Coconut Cake.

OVERALL
Verdict: Hit!
I thought both dishes tasted great and had interesting elements. The only real downsides were the missing broth packet and the challenging spaetzle. Without those two issues, this box would have been a “love”. I’ve been on a break from Marley Spoon for the last two months because I’m in the process of moving and renovation, but I’ve still got one review left to finish up.

Once I’ve got my new kitchen up and running, I’ll be trying out some new Marley Spoon boxes as well as some other food subs.

What other food subscriptions should I try?
I’d love to hear your suggestions!

THE BACKSTORY
Marley Spoon creates delicious, easy to follow recipes.
They deliver fresh, pre-portioned ingredients and you select your recipes from their changing weekly menu.

Monthly Cost:
Varies by number of servings and number of meals.
Check here for the configuration of your choice

COUPON CODE: COOKSMART

Marley Spoon: Chimichurri Steak & Moroccan Lamb Stew + $30 Off

For throwback Thursday, I’ve got one of my stockpiled Marley Spoon reviews. If you’d like to try out this weekly meal subscription service for 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.

Chimichurri Steak with Cilantro Rice & Sautéed Collards
Download the recipe here.
Marley Spoon’s steak is always amazing so I had to give this one a try.
Our Fresh Ingredients…

We slice and dice our veggies and herbs.

Then we cook the shallots and cilantro stems in oil, and add our rice.

We make a chimichurri dressing from the rub, vinegar, oil and water.

The steaks get seared and then are allowed to rest.

We cook the collards in the same pan the steak was seared in.

We finish steaks by tossing them with dressing, fluff our finished rice and then we end up with this:

Taste: Love!
The chimichurri dressing was wonderful and gave so much flavor. This recipe was incredibly easy and very flavorful. It came together fast and tasted well balanced. The side dishes were simple and fresh and allowed the steak to be the rock star of the meal. I adored the Elvio’s chimichurri seasoning and would love to add some to my pantry.
Portion Size: Excellent.
Good for Entertaining?: Yes, for a dinner party. For cocktails, I’d pair this with a Mint Juleps and a Blackberry iced tea. My appetizer would be a marinated seafood salad and I’d serve some herbed focaccia bread on the side. My dessert would highlight fruit and I’d go with something like this Grape Galette and espressos.

Moroccan Lamb Stew with Farro, Carrots & Apricots
Download the recipe here.
I love Moroccan flavors and how they mix fruit into savory dishes so I opted for this recipe.
More fresh ingredients:

We start with some chopping and zesting.

Then we move on to cooking our ground lamb with some salt and pepper.

Spices get added, along with the carrots, apricots, tomatoes, farro and ½ cup of water.

We finish the stew by covering it and transferring it to the oven. It bakes until the carrots and farro are tender.

We make a parsley salad with some oil, salt and pepper.

Our finished masterpiece:

Taste: Love!
First, this all takes place in one pot! That alone can win me over. Second, the flavors were delicious and even though the seasoning mix included some cumin (the spice I hate above all others) it was well balanced enough that it didn’t overpower the dish. I’ve discovered that I really enjoy farro and I thought the parsley salad added a nice fresh component to the dish. Stew is perfect for a cold night and this recipe was a great variation on the typical stew.
Portion Size: Generous
Good for Entertaining?: Yes. I’d add this as part of a family style meal. For drinks, I’d experiment with a rosewater punch and offer an alcoholic and non-alcoholic version. The appetizer would be a Middle Eastern style platter with some dips like hummus and baba ganoush, nuts, cheese, dried fruit and some fresh pita. I’d include another main dish option that highlights poultry, like Harissa Roasted Chicken. As an additional side, I’d add a simple platter of roasted veggies. Dessert would feature a Moroccan fruit salad and a Honey cake like this amazing one at Cake Crumbs and Beach Sands.

OVERALL
Verdict: Love!
These dishes were flavorful, interesting and easy to make. I made both on weeknights and it worked out just fine. Both meals were healthy and balanced with really fresh meat and excellent portion sizes. This box was definitely a win.

Have you tried any food subscriptions?
If so, what were your expectations and did the box meet them?

THE BACKSTORY
Marley Spoon creates delicious, easy to follow recipes.
They deliver fresh, pre-portioned ingredients and you select your recipes from their changing weekly menu.

Monthly Cost:
Varies by number of servings and number of meals.
Check here for the configuration of your choice

COUPON CODE: COOKSMART

Marley Spoon: Picadillo-Style Chili with Olives & Currants + $30 Off

Since today is supposed to be a day about love, and the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, I thought I’d feature one of my Marley Spoon reviews. If you’d like to try out this weekly meal subscription service for 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.

This week included a repeat recipe of Fried Chicken Sandwiches with Root Vegetable Fries that I’d already reviewed fully before. Since this was my second time with the recipe it came out even better. The breading stayed on and it was delicious. It’s one of my fave Marley Spoon recipes and one I could easily replicate on my own. Definitely consider trying out the recipe for yourself.

Now for the other recipe in my box:

Picadillo-Style Chili with Olives & Currants
Download the recipe here.
I love Cuban style recipes and when beef is mixed with things like raisins and currants, so I decided to give this one a try.

Our Fresh Ingredients…

We get some rice cooking and then prep our ingredients.

We cook the aromatics and spices in oil and then add ground beef. After it’s browned, we add in vinegar, tomatoes, water and salt. Then cook until thickened.

We slice up some olives, then top our chili with them and the currants.

Our finished dish:

Taste: Like!
I’m not the biggest fan of olives so I went light on them. I thought this had a nice flavor and was a unique spin on chili. I do wish that the olives and currants were cooked for a bit with the chili, rather than just added on as a topping. I think it would have added a lot to the flavor. This recipe was easy to put together and didn’t require a ton of prep or clean-up. Overall, a nice twist on a familiar recipe.
Portion Size: Generous (there were leftovers)
Good for Entertaining?: While the flavors are interesting, it’s probably not something I’d entertain with. It’s more of a cold Sunday indoors type recipe. I do think that some fried plantains would pair well with it as a side.

OVERALL
Verdict: Hit!
The chicken dish was even better now that I’d gotten the hang of the recipe. I liked the creativity of the chili and the ease of preparation and clean up.
Both recipes called for easy to find ingredients, so they’d be a snap to recreate on your own.
Overall, a great box.

Have you tried any food subscriptions?
If so, what were your expectations and did the box meet them?

THE BACKSTORY
Marley Spoon creates delicious, easy to follow recipes.
They deliver fresh, pre-portioned ingredients and you select your recipes from their changing weekly menu.

Monthly Cost:
Varies by number of servings and number of meals.
Check here for the configuration of your choice

COUPON CODE: COOKSMART

Marley Spoon: Crispy Fried Fish & Steak and Potatoes + $30 Off

I find myself needing some comfort on this most difficult of Fridays, so I thought a food subscription review would be in order. Today we’ve got some more recipes from Marley Spoon. If you’d like to try out this weekly meal subscription service for 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.

Crispy Fried Fish with Collard Greens and Radish Salad
Download the recipe here.
My boyfriend and I don’t eat nearly enough fish so I thought I’d try out this recipe.

Our Fresh Ingredients:

As usual, we start with some chopping. I slice the shallots in tiny rings and pickle them in salt and vinegar then set them aside. I sliced the collard greens and radishes thinly and added them to a large bowl. (Somehow, I forgot to take a picture of that.)

Next we have the, oh so fun batter station, where we get to prep our fish for frying.

The fish gets fried in some oil and then drained on paper towels.

We make a dressing for out salad with the leftover picking vinegar, olive oil, and pepper and toss the greens and radishes.

And this is our finished dish:

Taste: Not great
We’ll start with the positives. The fish was really fresh and I’d never tried uncooked collards before and I thought they were very nice. Unfortunately, the pickled onions took away some of the fish’s crispiness and the flavor was overall lacking. It was just so bland. When I have to go to the effort of making batter and frying something, I expect it to be delicious and this was just mediocre.
Portion Size: Adequate
Good for Entertaining?: Nope, too bland.

Steak and Potatoes with Green Bean Vinaigrette
Download the recipe here.
I love the quality of steak Marley Spoon sends so I had to choose this one for my second recipe.
More fresh ingredients:

We start again with some chopping. First our potatoes and then shallot sand green beans.

The potatoes get boiled and the green beans get thrown in with them in the last 3 minutes of cooking.

We make our vinaigrette by chopping up our green beans and mixing shallots, mustard, vinegar and oil plus salt and pepper. Then we toss the potatoes in it.

The steaks are just seasoned with salt and pepper then grilled to the time listed on recipe card and are allowed to rest.

But when I cut them, they are pretty much still mooing. I had to throw the cut strips back in the skillet to cook for a few more minutes. I frequently find that the cooking times from Marley Spoon for steak tend to be a bit low.

Our completed dish:

Taste: Love!
I really loved the flavors of the potato salad. It’s a great alternative to the mayo based recipes. I could see it working alongside a variety of dishes. The steak still tasted lovely even after I had to cook it a little extra. I like rare/medium rare steak but that was just a bit too close to raw. This dish also didn’t involve too much fuss or prep.
Portion Size: Excellent
Good for Entertaining?: Yes. The steak part isn’t much of a “recipe”, but I’d definitely use the potato salad for entertaining. It could be a great side at a BBQ or a sophisticated potato dish for a dinner party. For the latter, I’d pair it with chicken cordon bleu as the main dish with a wild mushroom soup as a starter. Dessert would be a lemon ricotta cake with fresh raspberries. For cocktails, I’d serve different kinds of spiked iced tea, like Peach Whiskey and Blackberry Bourbon.

OVERALL
Verdict: Okay
The fish entrée was just mediocre but the steak dish was wonderful, so I guess that evens out to a decent box. I’d love to see more creative sides like the fancied up Potato salad and less of the “greens with oil, vinegar, salt and pepper”. I think all of us can come up with the latter on our own. I think most of us who subscribe to these services do so in order to try new dishes and get out of a cooking rut. For me, I’m particularly interested in easy, but flavorful veggie sides, so the constant “lettuce with a vinaigrette” is disappointing.

Have you tried any food subscriptions?
If so, what were your expectations and did the box meet them?

THE BACKSTORY
Marley Spoon creates delicious, easy to follow recipes.
They deliver fresh, pre-portioned ingredients and you select your recipes from their changing weekly menu.

Monthly Cost:
Varies by number of servings and number of meals.
Check here for the configuration of your choice

COUPON CODE: COOKSMART

Marley Spoon: Braised Mustard Chicken & Turkey Meatballs + $30 Off

To kick off another Foodie Friday, I’ve got another Marley Spoon review. If you’d like to try out this weekly meal subscription service for 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.

Braised Mustard Chicken with Brussels Sprouts and Whole Wheat Orzo
Download the recipe here.
I love mustard and Brussel Sprouts plus this recipe was from Martha Stewart’s new Vegetables cookbook, so I thought I’d give it a shot.

Our Fresh Ingredients…

We start by prepping our vegetables and preheating the oven.

Next, we season our chicken with salt and pepper, heat some oil in an oven proof skillet and brown our chicken.

The chicken gets transferred to a plate and we pour off all but 2 Tablespoons of the drippings into a small bowl and reserve them. Then, we add the shallots and Brussels sprouts and cook those.

Next we prepare the braising liquid buy adding Dijon to the skillet and cooking. Then we add vinegar and ½ cup of water, while we scrap up the brown bits. The chicken gets return to the skillet, skin-side up along with any juices. We bring the ingredients to a simmer, then transfer to the oven and braise the chicken thighs until they are cooked through.

Next we cook the orzo and mix it with 2 teaspoons of the reserved drippings.
To finish we remove the skillet form the oven and transfer the chicken to a plate. Sour cream gets added to the vegetables, and then they are seasoned with salt and pepper.

Our finished product:

Taste: Like
I liked the flavors in this dish and I thought it had a nice balance of vegetables, carbs and protein. For me it was just a little fussy for a weeknight, since the dish needs to sit in the oven for 20-25 minutes which doesn’t include all your chopping, browning and so on. I’d love to see a spin on these flavors that maybe uses a different technique then braising and boneless chicken. Perhaps something like a warm orzo salad with Brussels, chicken breast and the shallots?
Portion Size: Adequate
Good for Entertaining?: Not really. Bone-in thighs are too fussy for most gatherings and this isn’t fancy enough for a dinner party.

Turkey Meatballs & Mushrooms with Polenta and Spinach
Download the recipe here.
I love mushrooms and I’d never paired meatballs with Polenta before.

More fresh ingredients:

We prep our ingredients and then sauté our aromatics (onions, garlic & oregano). We divide the onion mixture between two medium bowls and wipe out the skillet. We also whisk our turkey broth packet with cup of warm water to dissolve it.

Now it’s time to make our balls. We add turkey, salt and pepper to one of our onion bowls along with ½ the Parmesan and mix until evenly combined. It said we were supposed to get 16 balls. I got 12. (Honestly, I feel like if you divided the meat up into 16 balls, they would be as tiny as Donald Trump’s hands).

Next we brown the meatballs on all sides; then transfer them to a plate.

After that, the mushrooms get browned. Then, we add meatballs, turkey broth, the second batch of onions and bring that to a simmer. This cooks until the meatballs are cooked through. Then the spinach gets added until it’s wilted.

Meanwhile, we cook our Polenta.

Our completed dish:

Taste: Meh
This recipe was far too fussy for the flavors it offered. And who wants to roll out over a dozen meatballs on a weeknight? It certainly wasn’t a bad recipe, but just not worth the effort involved. I would have changed this into a turkey meatloaf and then just served the veggies and Polenta as sides. Just cutting out the rolling and browning of the meatballs, would have saved so much time.

As a funny anecdote, Polenta seems to pop up in lots of fancy restaurants and recipes. As an Italian kid, I grew up with it and it’s considered poor people food. I guess it’s how back in the day, in New England, they used to serve lobster to prisoners. I wonder if we can trick rich people into paying a ton for Chef Boyardee?
Portion Size: Excellent
Good for Entertaining?: No. Not flavorful or interesting enough. There are a lot better meatball recipes out there.

OVERALL
Verdict: Okay
Both recipes were fine flavor-wise, but I just didn’t think they were easy enough to prepare for a weeknight dinner. On the plus side, I thought they were healthy and very nutritionally balanced. I tend to expect more exciting flavors from a meal subscription service, otherwise I can just come up with my own recipes or search through the 20,000 pins on my Pinterest boards. And for the record, if they want me to do something like roll 16 meatballs; I expect those meatballs to taste amazing. Like so amazing, word of my balls will spread across the internet and they will get their own trendy twitter hashtag and they will top all the Buzzfeed lists about bucket-list foods. People will come from Australia and Mogadishu and Cleveland, just to get a taste of my balls. (Okay, that sounded really, really wrong, but you get what I’m saying). So basically my message to Marley Spoon is – less work, more flavor.

Have you tried any food subscriptions?
If so did they ever leave out any important ingredients?

THE BACKSTORY
Marley Spoon creates delicious, easy to follow recipes.
They deliver fresh, pre-portioned ingredients and you select your recipes from their changing weekly menu.

Monthly Cost:
Varies by number of servings and number of meals.
Check here for the configuration of your choice

COUPON CODE: COOKSMART

Marley Spoon: Pork Dan Dan Noodles & Broiled Steakhouse Salad + $30 Off

I’ve been furiously trying to get caught up with my regular (super boring) job and my manuscript editing (my way cooler job), and have finally found minute to talk to you all. I thought we’d have another Foodie Friday with one of my Marley Spoon reviews. If you’d like to try out this weekly meal subscription service for 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.

Pork Dan Dan Noodles with Mustard Greens
Download the recipe here.
I adore noodle dishes so I figured I’d give this one a chance.

Our Fresh Ingredients…

This is the fanciest ramen I’ve ever seen. I wish I could find this in my grocery store instead of the hard blocks with seasoning packages.

Our meal prep starts with some chopping and setting a large pot of water to boil.

We mix the pork, five spice seasoning and salt in one bowl and combine the tamari and mirin in another.

We saute the mustard greens and then cook the pork in the same skillet until it’s brown and crispy.

Next we make the pork sauce by adding ginger and garlic to the skillet and then stirring in our tamari and mirin mixture, plus tahini and ¾ cup water.

We add the ramen noodles to the boiling water. They only take a couple minutes to cook.

We pile our greens and pork over our noodles and voila:

Taste: Love!
I was concerned that this recipe would have too many flavors, but they came together beautifully and it was delicious. It was light, flavorful and healthy. It also had easy prep, used minimal dishes and came together very quickly. This is a perfect weeknight recipe. To lighten it up even more, I’d swap out the ground pork for ground turkey. I think it would work just as well with the other ingredients. The only downside to this one was I thought they could have included a few more greens.
Portion Size: Good, but we could have had a few more greens.
Good for Entertaining?: Not really my style choice for entertaining, but great for a healthy easy meal.

Broiled Steak House Salad with Shallots, Blue Cheese & Spinach
Download the recipe here.
I’m a sucker for the quality of steak from Marley Spoon so I gave this one a try.

More fresh ingredients:

We prep our vegetables and then mix the beef, tamari, crushed red pepper, garlic, shallots and 1 tablespoon of oil in a bowl.

The beef and shallot mixture gets poured onto a rimmed baking sheet and broiled.
BEFORE:

Now here’s where it gets dicey. If you’ve read a lot of these Marley Spoon reviews, then you know my ancient oven has a broiler that does not accommodate regular size sheet pans. It also doesn’t allow you to adjust the placement of the rack in relation to the heat source. Therefore, I had to “broil” this in my regular oven.
AFTER:

It obviously keeps me from getting that lovely caramelized broil, but it still cooked the dish adequately.
We transfer the cooked food from the baking dish and then add red wine vinegar to the sheet pan and scrape up any browned bits. The vinegar mixture gets transferred to a bowl and mixed with oil, salt and pepper to create our dressing.

We build our salad, starting with spinach, half the vinaigrette, beef and shallots, the remaining vinaigrette and then top with crumbled blue cheese, salt and pepper.
Our completed dish:

Taste: Love!
Even without being able to use my broiler, it still came out delicious. I’d also never thought to make dressing using the leftover meat and vegetable juices. I’m definitely going to use that trick in the future. The meat for this recipe already came in strips and it was a super quick and easy recipe. Minimal prep and only a few kitchen tools–exactly what I’m looking for in a weeknight recipe. This is also a low carb dish, which is always nice to have in your rotation.
Portion Size: Excellent
Good for Entertaining?: Yes. This would be an easy main dish to put together. Just prep the beef in advance and toss it in the oven right before meal time. The salad can come together in minutes. To go with the steakhouse salad, I’d do baked potato soup with lots of toppings and some fresh bread. Drinks would feature a plum sangria. For an appetizer, I’d serve goat cheese stuffed mushrooms and dessert would be a caramel apple pie.

OVERALL
Verdict: Love!
Both recipes this week were delicious and easy to make. For once, I felt like all the recipes in my Marley Spoon box were suited for weekday meals, plus the steak salad had easy to find ingredients so you could recreate that at home without too much effort. This week was definitely a win!

Have you tried any food subscriptions?
If so did they ever leave out any important ingredients?

THE BACKSTORY
Marley 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.

Monthly Cost:
Varies by number of servings and number of meals.
Check here for the configuration of your choice

COUPON CODE: COOKSMART

Marley Spoon: Pasta Carbonara & Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad + $30 Off

Time to head back into the kitchen with Marley Spoon. If you’d like to try out this weekly meal subscription service for 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.

Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad with Ciabatta Croutons
Download the recipe here.
Caesar Salad is a pretty straightforward dish and it seemed like something easy to make for a weeknight.

Our Fresh Ingredients…

Except we are missing a bunch of them. I didn’t have nearly any of the the ingredients for the dressing. I was missing the Grana Padano, sherry vinegar and Dijon mustard. I subbed out from my own pantry and used white wine vinegar, my own Dijon mustard (which is sadly never as good as the Marley Spoon kind) and some grated parmesan.

We make some croutons, and marinate the chicken.

Next comes the dressing made from what I could scrounge from my cupboards.

Then we prep some lettuce, grill some chicken and build our salads.

Our half Marley Spoon/half Lisa’s Pantry salad:

Taste: Good
The taste on this was good and it was an easy healthy weeknight meal, even if it wasn’t too exciting or special. I’m sure it would have been better with the fancy pants Marley Spoon ingredients, but you gotta work with what you have. I contacted Marley Spoon about the issue and they gave me credit toward a future order. Unfortunately, when the box is missing key ingredients it takes away from the recipe, even if it tastes really good.
Portion Size: Excellent
Good for Entertaining?: Nope. A bit too ordinary.

Pasta Carbonara with Prosciutto, Leeks & Lemon
Download the recipe here.
This recipe was from “Martha Stewart’s Vegetables” cookbook and sounded amazing, so I opted to give it a try.

More fresh ingredients:

This time everything is included so we’re already ahead of the game!

We prep our ingredients and boil some water.
We need to broil some broccoli which is always a bit worrisome in my ancient oven. I just pop it in and hope for the best.

We cook the prosciutto in some oil and transfer it to a slotted spoon. We add leeks,salt and pepper.

We finish the pasta by making a sauce with egg, lemon zest, Parmesan, reserved pasta water and lemon juice. We mix it up with the pasta, prosciutto and leeks and toss until creamy.

We stir in some parsley as a finishing touch, season with salt and pepper and serve our broccolini on the side. It gets garnished with our remaining Parmesan cheese.
Our completed dish:

Taste: Love!
This was very delicious. Even with the prosciutto it was light with a subtle creaminess. All the ingredients blended well together and it was an easy dish to put together. I don’t think the broccolini was even necessary for this. I think the pasta was fine on its own. The ingredients in this recipe are easy to find out in the real world and this is definitely a Marley Spoon recipe I want to make again.
Portion Size: Enormous (we had leftovers!)
Good for Entertaining?: Yes. I’d omit the broccolini side and instead, serve this with some lemon chicken and sautéed wild mushrooms. For an appetizer, I’d go with a fancy cheese board like this one from Half Baked Harvest. Drinks would include lemonade and white wine, and dessert would feature a cheesecake tart topped with berries.

OVERALL
Verdict: Good recipes, but points taken for missing ingredients
Both recipes this week were tasty and the carbonara will definitely make an appearance in my kitchen again. The only reason this one wasn’t a “Love” was because of the missing ingredients. And it wasn’t just one item missing, but nearly everything for an important component of the dish. Putting that aside, I loved that both of these recipes were relatively straightforward and didn’t require tons and tons of dishes and prep. I’m hoping for more recipes like these, but you know, with all the ingredients.

Have you tried any food subscriptions?
If so did they ever leave out any important ingredients?

THE BACKSTORY
Marley Spoon creates delicious, easy to follow recipes.
They deliver fresh, pre-portioned ingredients and you select your recipes from their changing weekly menu.

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

Marley Spoon: Broken Spaghetti with Chorizo & Cowboy Steak & Pinto Beans+ $30 Off

Today I’ve got an episode of Mondays with Marley Spoon. If you’d like to try out this weekly meal subscription service for 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.
Sometimes Marley Spoon throws in a free treat. This package came with a free cookie. Yeah for free cookies! (I didn’t even need to go to the dark side.)

Broken Spaghetti with Chorizo, Manchego and Scallions
Download the recipe here.
I chose this dish because I love Chorizo and Paella (which they claimed this dish was based on).

Our usual fresh ingredients and this time they included extra Chorizo that we could add to the recipe or use for something else. (I reserved mine for my rice cooker Spanish style red beans & rice recipe.)

So we start with lots of chopping and what I hadn’t realized was that this recipe contained fennel…lots and lots of fennel. I was concerned as it didn’t seem to be the best flavor to go with the other ingredients and there was just so much of it. But I decided to go on faith.

First, we cook the Chorizo in some oil and then transfer it to a plate.

We add garlic, scallion whites, and the aforementioned 80 pounds of fennel to the Chorizo oil and cook until golden. We remove the vegetables, then add more oil to the skillet and toast the spaghetti.

Next we add tomatoes and their liquid with 3 cups of water, salt and pepper. We cook until the liquid reduces and the pasta is tender.

We finish it with a shave of Manchego and top with Chorizo.
This is the finished product:

Taste: Never again
This was awful. The fennel had no place in this dish and was an awkward texture while you ate the spaghetti. It’s flavor really detracted from the lovely cheese and delicious Chorizo. I kept trying to remove the fennel pieces and just eat the rest. This could have been a great recipe, by just omitting the fennel. There are lots of other better choices for vegetables in this dish (red peppers spring to mind). This one was a huge disappointment.
Portion Size: Generous (too bad it tasted terrible).
Good for Entertaining?: Nope. Never. Ever.

Cowboy Steak and Pinto Beans with Summer Tomatoes
Download the recipe here.
Steak from Marley Spoon is always great quality so I opted for this entrée.

More fresh ingredients:

We start with prepping our ingredients, and unlike most recipes we don’t have too much slicing (which is a nice change of pace).

We make a rub for the steak and then cook them in an oiled skillet.

After the steak is done, we remove it from the skillet and add some more oil. We cook the onions and season them with salt. Then the pinto beans go in and are simmered and cooked until the liquid has thickened. Then we stir in some mustard.

To finish we slice the steak and dress the tomatoes with oil, salt, pepper and chives.
When all is said and done, this is our dish:

Taste: Love!
This was a tasty fresh dish that was super easy. Not a ton of prep or dishes and really nice flavors. The mustard in the beans really added something special to the dish and I loved the dry rub on the steak. This is something I could see myself making on a weeknight.
Portion Size: Excellent with tons of beans
Good for Entertaining?: Yes. I could see this for a casual dinner with some close friends. For an appetizer I’d do a warm seafood dip, like crab or shrimp with pita chips and veggies for dipping. As dinner sides, I’d add make my Outback Copycat Bread and add some creamy mashed potatoes. Drinks would include soft drinks, beer and a spiked Iced Tea – probably something like a Blackberry Bourbon Iced Tea. Dessert would be my “heavenly” brownies which have an amaretto cream cheese topping.

OVERALL
Verdict: A Mixed Bag
I absolutely hated one recipe and loved another so it’s hard to come up with an overall verdict. I did like that that both dishes were “one pot” and I’d love to see Marley Spoon continue that trend. Right now, most of their recipes are ones I reserve for the weekend because there is just too much prep and clean-up for someone with a small kitchen and no dishwasher.

Have you tried any food subscriptions?
If so which one, and what did you think?

THE BACKSTORY
Marley Spoon creates delicious, easy to follow recipes.
They deliver fresh, pre-portioned ingredients and you select your recipes from their changing weekly menu.

Monthly Cost:
Varies by number of servings and number of meals.
Check here for the configuration of your choice

COUPON CODE: COOKSMART

Marley Spoon: Broiled Beef Stir Fry & Grilled Sausages & Baked Navy Beans + $30 Off

So to ease myself back into my writing routine, I thought I’d spend Monday in the kitchen with one of my Marley Spoon reviews. If you’d like to try it out this weekly meal subscription service for 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.

Broiled Beef Stir Fry with Broccoli, Rice and Sweet Onion
Download the recipe here.
This looked easy and perfect for a weeknight.

Our usual fresh ingredients:

We start with cooking some rice and preheating the broiler.

A bit of ingredient prep and then we make our marinade with garlic, ginger, tamari, mirin, sesame oil and water.

We coat our meat and veggies and then add them to a baking sheet.

Now here’s where it gets tricky for me. I’m supposed to broil this, but my oven is older than I am and can’t accommodate a full size cookie sheet. You also can’t adjust the distance of the item you are broiler from the heat source. I opted instead to roast it in the oven. This of course, made it less brown, but I figured it shouldn’t impact the overall taste too much.
Our finished product:

Taste: Love!
I loved how easy this recipe was. You used minimal dishes, and the prep was very straightforward and not time consuming. It had a nice savory flavor and would work perfectly for a weeknight. I can see myself adding this into my regular dinner rotation.
Portion Size: Excellent
Good for Entertaining?: Probably not. While this tasted great, it’s not as unique or fun as I’d normally go when entertaining.

Grilled Sausages and Scallions with Baked Navy Beans
Download the recipe here.
I let my boyfriend choose the other dish from this order and this was his selection.

More fresh ingredients:

We start with prepping our ingredients.

We heat oil in a large ovenproof skillet and then add onion, garlic, salt and pepper. We add honey and mustard, then beans and chicken broth. The skillet gets transferred to the oven where it continues to bake.

We roast the sausages and scallions in a grill pan and then dress the kale to make a salad.

When all is said and done, this is our dish:

Taste: Not my favorite
I’m not a huge fan of beans, but I thought the mustard and honey added a nice flavor component. This dinner wasn’t bad, but it just didn’t wow me. I also thought the kale salad was an afterthought and didn’t really add much flavor to the dish. The beans seems to take a bit longer to cook than the instructions listed, but the prep was easy and not half as involved as most Marley Spoon recipes.
Portion Size: Excellent with tons of beans
Good for Entertaining?: No. Not interesting or flavorful enough.

OVERALL
Verdict: Like!
I loved the stir-fry recipe and feel like I got something new to add into my weeknight rotation. Even though the sausage dish wasn’t too exciting, it was easy to prepare and there weren’t any offensive flavors. I’d love to see more recipes like the Beef & Broccoli – tasty, quick and don’t require you to clean eleventybillion pans.

Have you tried any food subscriptions?
If so which one, and what did you think?

THE BACKSTORY
Marley Spoon creates delicious, easy to follow recipes.
They deliver fresh, pre-portioned ingredients and you select your recipes from their changing weekly menu.

Monthly Cost:
Varies by number of servings and number of meals.
Check here for the configuration of your choice

COUPON CODE: COOKSMART

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