For the past few weeks, food delivery service advertisements have popped up everywhere. I have seen them on Google ads, Facebook ads and even on social media, such as vine. These food delivery services are very different from take-out or  grocery store deliveries and use the subscription box model.  You sign up and set your food preferences and then they deliver 3 complete dinners (for 2, 4, or 6 people) a week, from the meat and veggies down to the seasonings. Right to your doorstep! They deliver fresh ingredients with a recipe for you to make your own gourmet meal. Not only am I the queen of laziness, but I am also a young professional with a busy schedule, which means my eating and grocery shopping habits are horrible. Also–shopping for one person is sometimes difficult. I end up wasting or throwing away food because I don’t eat it by the expiration date.  Sometimes, I do not even grocery shop and just eat take-out. So these awesome companies, like BlueApron, HelloFresh and Plated, sounded like a great idea. And because I am such a consumer (aka sucker), I knew I had to try one. But which one? Well, because I am such a consumer (aka sucker), I tried all of them.

The first one I signed up for was Plated. While Plated is the most expensive of the three options that I tried, at $12 a plate with additional chef selections that are up to $24, it also boasts more weekly selections to choose from as well as the flexibility to add or subtract servings on a weekly basis. As long as you order 4 plates, which is 2 servings of 2 different dishes for $48, you are good to go. The plan I chose came with 3 meals of 2 servings each and is delivered weekly for $72. And don’t worry; if you decide you do not want a delivery, you can skip it with no fee or penalty. You can also cancel at anytime with no penalty.

I was able to select from 7 regular choices which were a mix of meat, poultry, fish and vegetarian dishes. There were also two additional chef selections I could pick from for a higher price. I chose two vegetarian dishes and one beef:

*Seared Steak with Garlicky Potatoes and Greek Salad

*Creamy Tahini and Roasted Red Pepper Spaghetti

*Roasted Lemon-Shallot Halloumi Cheese with Jeweled Israeli Couscous

Plated entrees range from 500-800 calories, and the dishes I chose were 600-700 calories. There were other selections such as Crispy Fish with Bok Choy, Chorizo and Rice and a tofu dish. Anyways, I signed up for Friday delivery and all day I was checking the tracking number on OnTrac. I even signed up for the notifications and still kept checking because I was paranoid I would somehow lose the package. I got the email around 4:30 pm (they deliver between 8am and 8pm) and sped home to make sure my package was still on my doorstep. Not to  kill the suspense, but it was there and I was relieved. Upon first glance, the box seemed a little small for basically 6 meals.

Unfortunately I had dinner plans that night and I wanted to test the insulation that is supposed to keep the food cold, so I left the box in the kitchen until later that night. In hindsight, that was probably not my finest idea. If it didn’t keep my items cold, I could have lost them. Anyways, when I got home I all but tore the box apart.

Each dish comes with a set of recipe cards and the best part is that they give you the measurements so you can recreate them on your own.

At this point I was still concerned that this small box could not hold all the food that I was supposed to receive.

I was actually kind of shocked. I had read other reviews that said the cooler keeps the items cold and fresh but goodness, these felt like they came out of the fridge.

It was around this point that I noticed the lack of meat. Two of my dishes were vegetarian options but one was definitely meat. I looked around the bags and while I found some good looking produce and sundries, I did not see any meat.

At this point I was ready to tear the cooler out of the box.

I am an idiot and there was a whole other layer of food! And in my meat induced fury I had forgotten about the cheese!

It all looked so good! I decided to cook the meat first because I did not want to freeze it.

I put the box and the insulation in my recycle bin and put the ice packs in my freezer. I heard a lot of negative feedback about the packaging. While I agree that it does seem like waste, I live near a recycling center and can recycle almost anything. And the ice packs I will use for my lunch.

Then I filled my fridge with all my goodies!

First Thoughts: It all looked so good but somethings definitely caught my eye. The vegetables looked huge! The meat looked small! I mean these meals are supposed to be about portion control  but still, I was worried about that meat portion.

Second Thoughts: Am I actually going to be able to cook all this? Will I even like any of this? Thank god I used a promo code.

Third Thoughts: Ok–I can do this.

And did it I did! Stay tuned for my Plated Taste Test!

Disclaimer: All opinions are my own. This post is not sponsored by Plated nor did I receive any compensation.