This meal was AMAZING.  It was delicious, nutritious, and easy.  It’s something I plan on making in the future without Plated, and that can easily be modified to include different meats or veggies.  It did take me almost an hour though, 57 minutes when Plate said 30-40.  However most of that time was spent waiting for water to boil and I was able to do other things.  The grossest part of this was removing the sausage from the casings.  I know how sausage is made, I’ve seen it done.  But something about squeezing the meat out of the casing just really got to me.  I did it though, and it was worth it.

There was a lot going on at the end right before I popped it in the oven.  In the third picture you can see I have the first layer of meat and sauce in the pan, then the boiling potatoes, then the ricotta mixture, then the remaining meat sauce.

I was a little worried that my lasagna pan was too big, but I just moved everything together and it worked fine.  The recipe said it served 3 people, which is quite rare for Plated, the first time I’ve seen it serve more than 2.  But there were no leftovers, my husband and I just divided it up and at it all.  🙂

If you are interested in Plated, please use my referral code so we both get free meals!! https://www.plated.com/invites/0363c7

This was just an okay meal in my opinion, it was good, but nothing that special.  And definitely not worth $12 a plate!  My husband had to add more Sriracha to make it nice and spicy, I just used what Plated had provided.  The meal only took 34 minutes, which might be a record for me, and it BEAT Plated’s recommendation of 35-45 minutes.  🙂  I also enjoyed that I only dirtied my knife, peeler, cutting board, spatula, pan, and a bowl.

Not much else to say about this, it was an okay dish, it was easy, but I wouldn’t order it again.

If you are interested in Plated, please use my referral code so we both get free meals!! https://www.plated.com/invites/0363c7

The full name of the recipe is Pan-Roasted Mustard Pork with Spaetzle and Carrots.  I’m not a huge mustard fan, so was a little worried, but ordered this meal anyway for the spaetzle.  It’s just a type of noodle, but I love it and don’t get to eat it very often.  Plated said it would take 45-55 minutes, it took me 64 minutes from start to finish for the meal, but I also made the chocolate cake during that time.  It took a long time for the water to boil, so I was able to work on washing dishes and do other things around the house.  I was a little sad about the mustard topping, it broke in a couple pieces when I flipped the pork.  Also, I need to remember to always cook longer than Plated recommends on my stove.  Maybe my stove just isn’t as hot?  The pork was not done after the recommended amount of time, after I had served it I realized that and had to toss it back in the pan.  Everything was delicious, I even liked the mustard part, and could see myself making it in the future.

Oh my goodness.  The Molten Chocolate Cake was AMAZING.  A dangerous recipe to know, it shouldn’t be this easy to create delicious chocolatey desserts!  Plated said it would take 20-30 minutes to make.  I had it ready to go in the oven after 21 minutes, and I was working on the carrots and pork marinade at the same time.  Then after I plated the pork dish, I popped these babies in the oven for 15 minutes.  SO delicious!!  I can’t believe I’ve been paying over $5 for these babies in restaurants, they require such little effort.  This would be the perfect dessert for a dinner party.

If you are interested in Plated, please use my referral code so we both get free meals!! https://www.plated.com/invites/0363c7

Every week I order from Plated, there’s always the option to order 1 or 2 desserts, at $4/serving.  After 2 months of Plated, I finally decided to try out a dessert!

The gumbo first.  This was a yummy and filling meal.  My dad’s mother grew up outside of NOLA, and I’ve always enjoyed the food.  I also like things spicy, and used all of the hot sauce and added more.  Pretty easy recipe, it took me 57 minutes, but there wasn’t a lot of active time.  Plated said it would take 45-55.  This is definitely something I could throw together with a few ingredients on hand.  Now I know how to make a roux!  It took awhile for the gumbo to thicken up, I was about to add more flour or corn starch, but decided to just wait a couple minutes, and it worked out well.

I loved making the Caramelized Apple Tartlets with Crème Fraîche.  It was easy and delicious, and only took me 21 minutes, during which I was able to wash dishes.  The little tart cups were premade, and this was a no bake dessert.  All I had to do was cut and slice the apple, cook it in butter and sugar (and a pinch of salt), then spoon it in the tart cup when it was ready.  Amazingly simple and easy, and something I will probably do in the future with and without the tart cup.  I loved having a sweet and (somewhat) healthy dessert.  That being said, I do not think the two desserts together were worth $8.

For the first time ever, my husband did all of the Plated cooking!  I came home a little late from work and he had already started heating up the butter in a pan.  He’s a lot faster than I am, he only took 28 minutes, beating Plated’s 30-40 minute suggestion.  This photo shows everything except the butter, and I’m going to start including Plated’s recipe cards in my posts in case people want to duplicate or expand on them.   This was a fairly easy meal, he had to chop the mushroomies, chives, parsley, and garlic. Also not too much to wash, just the pan and the pot used to boil water and cook the pappardelle.  According to the internet, pappardelle is like wide fettuccine.   It’s name comes from the Italian verb “pappare”, which means to gobble up.  My husband and I definitely gobbled this recipe up.  He said it was a 9/10 on his scale, and he would eat again maybe with some chicken.  I really have enjoyed having more vegetarian meals.  I used to think that dinner always required a meat.  Plated has shown me that vegetarian meals can be quite filling, and delicious!!

If you are interested in Plated, please use my referral code so we both get free meals!! https://www.plated.com/invites/0363c7

Sorry for the delayed update, I was traveling for work and paused my Plated shipments.  Happy to be back in the kitchen cooking!  Have you ever had just a magical weekend with your loved one(s)?  That’s what I had with my husband this past Valentine’s Day weekend.  We cooked together, watched Game of Thrones together, and laughed (a lot) together, and just enjoyed each others company.  He also got me these flowers.  🙂   You can see all of my Plated recipe cards in the back!  The front is a Caramel Apple Tart dessert, which I haven’t made yet.

Anyways, we also made Plated’s Brown Butter-Seared Scallops with Root Vegetable Puree.  It was a pricier selection, $30 a plate, but we chose to cook this together instead of going out for Valentine’s Day.  This meal said it would 35-45 minutes.  My husband helped the whole time and it took us 41.  We were really impressed with the quality of the scallops.  It’s hard to find fresh, non-frozen scallops in Toledo, OH this time of year.  Hubby has mad knife skills, so he did all the peeling and chopping, and also made the root puree, while I focused on the scallops.  The root puree was delicious, I don’t believe I’ve ever had celery root before, and it tasted like mashed potatoes.  I liked the texture, but my husband would have preferred to use a mixer to smooth out more of the lumps.  I like lumpy mashed potatoes, because the lumps mean they were homemade!  But that’s just me.  🙂  It was also a little runny, we were given a container of milk and told to use half, and I accidentally poured too much.  I’ve also never had roasted sunchokes before, which I forgot about in the oven and burnt a little, but they were still tasty.

Overall, this was one of our favorite Plated meals.  It was very expensive, but worth it for a special occasion meal.