Plated Subscription Box Review + Coupon – July 2017

Plated is a weekly meal kit delivery subscription that delivers you pre-portioned ingredients and recipes to help you make chef-designed recipes at home. They offer different weekly menus and randomly pick recipes for you based on preferences you submit when you sign up. If you'd rather pick your own recipes from the weekly menu, it's easy to hop in and change your order on their website or their handy-dandy app.

I've tried a couple of other meal kits thus far and it's really made me love cooking, which I previously didn't like doing. I don't think I have the creative mind to come up with things that'd be tasty, and even though I'm good at following recipes, I always end up spending so much money gathering all the ingredients to make one meal I may have found on Pinterest. Being a single lady whose roomie (who normally eats all of my leftovers) is gone for long periods at a time, it takes forever for me to get through a normal-sized box, bag, or package of anything. Produce usually spoils by the time I can use all of it, and I hate being wasteful! What I'm trying to say is that I love how many meal boxes are available because they're perfect for me.

Plated is committed to using sustainably sourced seafood, seasonal produce, and meat that’s free from antibiotics and added hormones. Like most meal kits, Plated won't include standard pantry items (think salt, pepper, olive oil). They will, however, email you to let you know what pantry items you should have on hand for that week's box. Prep time and dietary details are listed with each recipe. And if you love a recipe, you can rate it and download a digital recipe card via your online account. (Highly rated recipes sometimes come back as "Encore" recipes for you to order again, so don't forget to leave your star rating each week!)

My Subscription Addiction pays for this subscription. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)

This review is for the 2 recipes (4 plates)= $48 per week (+ $6 shipping), plan. I chose to have chicken, beef, shellfish, and fish as options to include in my recipes. 

The Subscription Box: Plated

The Cost: Recipes begin at $12 per plate.

• 2 recipes (4 plates)= $48 per week (+ $6 shipping).
• 3 recipes (6 plates)= $72 per week (with free shipping).
• 4 recipes (8 total plates)= $96 per week (with free shipping).
• Dessert costs $4 per serving (available after your first order)

ACTIVE DEAL: Get 25% off your first four weeks (up to $159 in savings). No coupon needed - just use this link.

The Products: All of the pre-portioned fresh and seasonal ingredients you need to make chef-designed recipes at home in your own kitchen.

Ships to: 95% of the U.S. (Currently, Plated does not ship to Hawaii and Alaska, and there are also a few cities in Texas, including San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Laredo, and Midland, where they don’t yet ship.)

Check out all of our Plated Reviews and discover more meal boxes in the Meal Subscription Box Directory!

Keep Track of Your Subscriptions: Add this box to your subscription list or wishlist!

Salmon Poke Bowls with Avocado and Brown Rice

Calories per Serving: 830

Total Prep and Cook Time (listed): 30-40 minutes

Actual Time: 35 minutes

I went with heavy comfort foods the week before this in my Home Chef review, so this week with Plated I decided to keep it light with some healthier fish options. It's all about being able to decide for yourself what you want to eat, and they make it pretty easy. I have 16 recipes to choose from, looking at my next delivery!

I'm always trying to lure men to my house by cooking for them, and this week it worked! I gave my romantic interest the choice of this week's two recipes and he chose the Salmon Poke Bowls, even making a cute joke about how to pronounce "poke" (the info card states it's POK-ay). We basically ended up calling them "pokeballs" all night, regardless. The only bummer was that the avocado included was looking a little TOO ripe, so I had dude pick up a new one on his way over. My hero!

I made him help, which is actually a super fun date night since you have to work together (or bark orders at someone, as I seem to do) and exercise those essential communication skills.

After I made him do all the boring vegetable prep work and put him in charge of the rice, I patted the salmon dry and seasoned the fillets with salt and pepper.

We kept remarking on how gorgeous the cooked fillets looked in the pan with sesame oil (my more recent favorite cooking oil). When they were finished, I flaked them into bite sized pieces with a fork.

While the salmon cooked, we prepared the soy sauce with garlic and then the mayo with Sriracha.

Once the rice was done (which took the longest), we sprinkled it with furikake (another fun word). The recipe then wanted us to add the sliced cucumber, scallions, and salmon to the garlic soy sauce and toss. Almost done!

We combined everything in a bowl in the following order: rice, the salmon poke mixture, then seaweed salad (came already made in a packet), and the fresh avocado we had sliced up moments before. We then drizzled the Sriracha mayo on top to make it FANCY.

The pokeballs (er, Poke Bowls) were a real hit! We both love salmon, and it was perfect to eat outside on my porch on a warm summer day. The avocado really brought a cool, tasty punch to the rest of the bowl!

Grilled Fish Tacos with Avocado Mash and Lime Crema

Calories per Serving: 840

Total Prep and Cook Time (listed): 40-50 minutes

Actual Time: 40 minutes

I don't eat fish tacos enough, so I chose this recipe in hopes to remedy that. The calorie count on this is a bit alarming, but I'm guessing the crema is the culprit for that. I'm not too worried about it!

So, with the directions here, it actually called for a grill, which I have, but don't always feel like dragging out of my garage and dealing with (charcoal n such), unless I'm going hard on Memorial Day or something (though I recently went through the trouble to cook one burger and one hot dog for myself as a sad BBQ party for one). This day I wasn't trying to mess with the grill, so the recipe tip said to use a grill pan instead. Thank goodness I bought a grill pan about six months ago (even though there were nonstick pan directions too). That being said, I got a little confused as to when the directions wanted me to do what, between the grill, grill pan, and nonstick directions, but I figured it out because I am a high functioning adult (not really).

I was like "whoa- full corn" when I saw the ingredients here and was a little intimidated because I've never de-corned a cob before, but it went rather well. I shucked those babies, tossed their husks in my compost can, and got down to business.

I then prepped the tilapia by combining oil seasoning, salt and pepper, and then pouring it over the fillets on a foil lined cooking sheet.

Next, I whisked together the sour cream, lime juice, and water.

I then smashed up an avocado with a bit of lime juice, but did NOT include onion, because it is my sworn enemy.

Thumbs down, you foul beast. (Don't worry, it went to a good home)

The corn was done, so I transferred the tilapia fillets in their foil to the grill pan to cook. No flipping required.

Hello, my pretties.

Just like the salmon for the poke bowls, I chunked up the fish to be able to fill the tacos more easily.

Favorite part? GRILLING THOSE TORTILLAS! I normally do this straight on the burner, but the grill pan was nice n hot. Look at those PRO grill lines. I'm so proud of myself. Can you tell?

Here is the rest of the filling crew.

I took a gratuitous amount of taco assembly pics, but I don't wanna bore you, so I will just tell you the order: Avocado mash, cabbage, tomato, tilapia, corn, cilantro, lime crema, lime squeeze.

Oh yeah, baby. I was alone this evening, so I went hog wild with these three, and still have three to eat as leftovers.

These were super tasty and I was really impressed with the sheer volume of ingredients here. I wasn't left hungry at all and enjoyed every last bite. Again, a really easy recipe that I can make again on my own with no problem.

Verdict: Plated continues to deliver quality recipes that I enjoy. I was able to choose the healthier options this week, but have the option to go a bit heavier if I feel the need. At about $12.00 per serving, it's a bit more than some of the other popular meal kits (like Home Chef, Hello Fresh, and Blue Apron; all just under $10 per serving), but the same as Green Chef, which is organic and runs $11.99 per serving. I will continue to enjoy making Plated meals at home and just filled out a survey to help them serve me better meal choices.

What do you think of Plated, compared to the others?