Classic Shepherd’s Pie with Carrot
Need help with dinner? Who doesn’t? Enter the meal delivery service! Meal kits are a new concept in the U.S. Some companies deliver completely cooked meals that you heat and serve; while others provide fresh, pre-portioned food with chef-inspired recipe cards to guide you step-by-step in making dinner prep easier and less stressful. So, can these services solve the problems of meal planning, grocery shopping, and cooking? Some are convinced they do.
Introducing Ellie Beck, who uses the home meal delivery service, Plated, whose motto is “Cook More. Live Better.” Ellie posts her delicious looking meals with the moniker elliebcooks on Instagram, and we are going to get her thoughts on this particular service. Then, in the end, we can decide if Plated is worthy of our mouths too.
Nanci: Hi, Ellie, thanks for sharing. First of all, what was your motivation for trying a home delivery system?
Ellie: I work a very hectic schedule. I’m a project manager in the legal industry, and I’m expected to be available at a moments notice every day of the week. When I first started with meal kits, I was putting in very long office hours, and that left very little time/energy to eat healthily. We were doing take out or ordering in almost every night, which was not good. When I discovered meal delivery services, it opened up a world of opportunities for us to eat better and be more healthy.
Nanci: Sounds like a good reason for trying these kits. Do you consider yourself a foodie?
Ellie: In a way, yes. I’m not stuck up about food, but I do have a lot of knowledge and strong opinions about it. Eating and cooking are two of my reasons for living, and I do get great enjoyment out of trying new places and having a wide variety of culinary experiences. I’m a bit of a picky eater, so no seafood or mushrooms, but I’ve come a long way from what I would and wouldn’t eat ten years ago. A good part is because of meal kits!
Nanci:. At first, I thought I was going to ask you about Plated, but I see on your Instagram feed that you have tried other delivery services.
Ellie: Yes, indeed. At this point, I’ve been active with four different meal kits.
Nanci: Let’s concentrate on Plated for now. Maybe you can give your opinion on the others later.
Ellie: Certainly.
Nanci: First of all, where are you located?
Ellie: We are in Westchester County, NY. About 40 miles north of New York City.
Nanci: How and when did you discover Plated?
Ellie: I discovered Plated back in 2017, as one does on the Internet. I would see the ads, and I would get things in the mail, I think. I didn’t ultimately sign up until June of 2018. I had been curious, but also reluctant to add a second meal kit into the rotation. I wasn’t sure how difficult that would be to manage.
Nanci: Did you start using Plated right away, or did you consider other meal kit delivery companies? There’s a bunch of them out there.
Ellie: I waited awhile. I was very interested in what Plated was offering, and I had a friend who spoke very highly of them, but I wanted to make sure before I dove in that it was the right move.
Nanci: Do you get the meals through their delivery service?
Ellie: I do. I get deliveries several times a month directly from Plated.
Nanci: Plated says they deliver to over 95% of the U.S. I like how you can choose the day of the week for delivery. Other companies only tell you which day they deliver to your area.
Ellie: I like the organic nature of the settings as well. I currently get our box delivered on Friday, but I can change the date weekly as needed. That helps when scheduling multiple meal kit deliveries in one week.
Nanci: Yes, right. I see that Plated allows you to choose the number of servings (2, 3, or 4) per meal. What do you generally choose?
Ellie: By default, I have the 3-servings meal plan, but I can choose to go down to 2 servings or up to 4 servings if I want. I also add on the dessert option very frequently. Plated always offers two dessert options per week, which is very fun.
Nanci: Yeah, that’s good if you want to take one serving for lunch the next day. Or add one more serving if you have company. How many Plated meals do you make in a week?
Ellie: If I receive a Plated box that week, I usually make two to three dinners and one dessert.
Nanci: Plated offers 20 dishes and two desserts each week. Do you feel you have plenty of choices?
Ellie: I do; they have a great variety. Plenty of variations in protein, and I love the different ethnic and cultural options.
Nanci: I like how the website allows you to apply filters depending on your preferences. If you are vegetarian, the filter quickly directs you to those meals.
Ellie: Exactly. I don’t eat seafood, so it is a great help to be able to jump straight to what interests me.
Nanci: Very true. Are you satisfied with the quality and quantity of the ingredients?
Ellie: This is the area where I have the most constructive criticism for Plated. I used two other services before signing up with Plated, and I had a lot of experience with what the quality possibilities could be. Plated has fallen short in my eyes on quantity and quality many times. Plated is not the cheapest of the meal kits, and the fact that the steaks they send are almost paper thin has always bothered me. I have to cut the cooking times in half or by even more to get them to come out anywhere near medium rare. When you see the steaks that Home Chef send especially, this is just frustrating. The vegetables can be very anemic, especially green onions, and I find I am always supplementing things like shredded cheese and BBQ sauce. We like cheese, and we love sauce in this house, and just a dusting won’t cut it here. I feel like they could reduce the quality of the recipe cards, and put some of that savings into beefing up the deliverable.
Nanci: Oh, that’s too bad. Do the ingredients come well packed and cold?
Ellie: Yes, they do. I’ve never had a missing, warm, or destroyed order from Plated. The boxes always arrive in good condition.
Nanci: That’s good. Do you feel it is a good value?
Ellie: Ultimately, I do because we enjoy the meals. My husband cleans his plate every time and thanks me for the delicious dinner. The variety is fantastic, and the ability to order favorite meals over and over across a season is a great reason to come back. If they could work out the cost to ingredient issue and boost things up a bit, it would be a perfect bet all around.
Nanci: Glad to hear your husband loves your cooking. Have you ever had an issue where you had to call customer service? How was the experience?
Ellie: I did once. I had a box missing several ingredients, and I did have to report it. The experience with customer service was very positive, and I believe I rated them five stars for the interaction. Missing ingredients happen with every service, but there was a period in 2018 when it was frequently happening. As I work long hours and do all of the cooking for the family, I depend on these kits to come fresh and to come complete. It can be devastating to find out at 9 PM that I’m missing a necessary ingredient and don’t have a replacement on site. If I can’t cook the meal, and the store isn’t open, or the ingredient isn’t readily available, then we may have to resort to fast food, which we don’t want to do. Plus, with the cost of these services, you want what you are paying for. That said, I’ve modified what I grow in my garden to help with the most common offenders. I grow tomatoes, lettuce, cilantro, basil, and green onions now, which makes life a bit easier, at least seasonally.
Nanci: Yeah, they should give you everything you need. But good for you, a gardener as well as a gourmet cook! Did you know Plated also sells kits in local grocery stores?
Ellie: I’ve never seen them in the store, but I know that is a thing they are trying.
Nanci: Plated launched their meals in stores back in early 2018. I used to buy Plated at the Tom Thumb (Safeway) in Dallas, TX. I thought it was excellent. Unfortunately, they are only offering the kits in northern California and Dallas, TX at this time. The website allows you to type in your zip code to see which stores carry it, but they need to change their store locator page to make it more user-friendly. In time, I’m sure Plated will add more store locations around the U.S.
Ellie: I think it would be a great option for working families to be able to grab a kit and have everything they need. It removes a lot of the stress in meal planning.
Nanci: Yes, that’s what we all want; less stress. So, what else do you like about Plated?
Ellie: I like the meal variety, and especially the creativity in the recipes. I don’t think any of the other kits I’ve tried have had as impressive a range in meals. I also love the dessert option. Other meal kits offer basic add-ons like a fruit basket or premade cookies, but this is a dessert you make from scratch, and I also find that very rewarding.
Nanci: What do you not like about Plated?
Ellie: I wish the meat were of better quality. I’d like to see thicker and juicier steaks come through. I want better quality chicken breasts, though all the kits are suffering in that area right now. That’s it, we’ve been pleased with the service otherwise.
Nanci: Well, I hope they get that corrected. What are your favorite meals from Plated?
Ellie: Too many to list! But I think the ‘Braised Chicken, Apricots, and Currants.’ the ‘Duck Ragu Rigatoni,’ and the ‘Seared Steak over Goat Cheese Polenta’ have all been pretty perfect.
Seared Steak with Goat Cheese Polenta, Charred Poblano, and Tomato
Nanci: Those all sound delicious! Your plating, by the way, looks incredible. Now, what about the desserts?
Ellie: I love their desserts. Especially anything they design with grapefruit or citrus. Also, their cookies are amazing.
Peanut Butter Cookies with Sea Salt
Nanci: Ooh, I love citrus too! Now, you mentioned you had used other home delivery meal kits. Tell us about that.
Ellie: I started with Blue Apron back in 2013, back when meal kits weren’t really a “thing” yet. We loved it, and honestly, it changed our lives for the better. I will say with Blue Apron I learned so much about technique, and it helped get me out of my comfort zone as a picky eater. There were issues though, so ultimately we left Blue Apron after a few years and took up with Home Chef, which was a better fit meal wise. Less educational, but significantly more satisfying. From there, we expanded to include Plated, and then Hello Fresh. Currently, we are active users of the three last ones, but not every week, I try to stick to two boxes a week, max. Though I can admit, I’ve had a few accidental three box surprises….
Nanci: Ellie, it sounds like you have benefited from using Plated as well as other services.
Ellie: Yes. I’d say six out of seven dinners every week are cooked at home by me now. We rarely go to the grocery store, and we’re in better shape than we’ve been in years. The icing is that we also eat delicious and exciting food almost every night. No Hamburger Helper or Shake ‘n Bake in this kitchen! And I get non-stop accolades from friends and family.
Nanci: Don’t we love it when our friends and family thank us for our cooking? Your thoughts are much appreciated, Ellie. You’ve given us a comprehensive look at the pros and cons of Plated. Keep up the great work, and keep posting those beautiful plates of food on Instagram!
Well, folks, there you have it. Ellie loves Plated. Will you try it too?
