This is a sponsored post, all thoughts and opinions are my own
Okay so riddle me this, it’s a weeknight and you just got home from work. Do you really feel like doing any of the following?
1) Think of a meal
2)Find the ingredients for the meal
3) Prep said ingredients for the meal
4) Cook aforementioned ingredients for the meal
5) Eat and wash dishes for the meal
I would venture to say more often than not, unless you are a professional food blogger who cooks all the time, you don’t want to do this to simply feed yourself on a weeknight without having to resort to fast food or delivery. While the latter is supremely tasty, it is not supremely tasty for your waistline.
I recently tried Marley Spoon, which allows you to pick what recipe you want to make, they prepare all the ingredients (sourced from organic and seasonal suppliers) for you in the appropriate quantities, and then they ship it to you in a food safe container with the recipes on a handy card. DIY meal kits are all the rage now, I can’t speak for the others but I can speak about Marley Spoon.
I was hesitant that it would make things easier, but much to my snarky chagrin it made things super easy. I didn’t realize how mentally draining it is having to think of a meal idea. With Marley Spoon my inner cooking robot overlord was satisfied I could just input the recipe data and I could output a dish. Marley Spoon’s Culinary Director, Jennifer Aaronson, has spearheaded their culinary operation and brings a wealth of experience from her days as a Editorial Director of Food and Entertaining at Martha Stewart Living. If she’s good enough for the Original O.G. of Food Entertainment Martha Stewart, then she’s good enough for The Unmanly Chef.
The first night I got the box dropped off at my doorstep (another perk no groceries), it came in a large container with tons of freezer packs to keep everything fresh. Then each meal was in a big sealed paper bag. Inside each paper bag is all the ingredients you need to pull together a 5 star meal.
The first night we tried the bone-in chicken thigh with creamed corn recipe, I’ll do a full post about this dish in the future. But this is how it turned out, it was delicious and easy to make. All I had to do was cook the corn and to cook the chicken, everything else was already prepped, measured, and ready to go. It made the cooking process SO much easier and more enjoyable quite honestly. I didn’t have to worry about having the right ingredients or putting too much of anything in the dish. Everything was perfectly portioned.
A few days later we tried a dish I would never think to make which was a sort of zucchini lasagna bake. It was GOOD.
Which leads me to one of the real reasons I love this product, it brings new recipes/ideas into your cooking repertoire that you wouldn’t normally think to make.
Now you don’t have to be a food blogger to enjoy Marley Spoon, honestly it’s probably more useful if you’re not a food blogger. The only downside I saw to this product was the fact that at times the ingredients can run a little under, but if you have any semblance of a stocked kitchen/pantry you can usually fix that problem.
So let’s get down to what you are all curious about, how much does this actually cost? It depends.
Currently, if you’re cooking for just two people you have the option of receiving 2 or 3 meals, which will run you $48 or $61.50. You can go up all the way to feeding 8 people. Depending on the amount of people you select you can get 1, 2, or 3 meals shipped to you. 3 meals for $61.50 is honestly pretty decent if you factor in the time you save for not having to go to the grocery store, prep, or plan anything. We had left overs from both meals, so really the two meals we received turned into 4 or 5 after we were done with the leftovers.
If you like the idea of cooking but are overwhelmed by the thought of planning out a meal, Marley Spoon will put you at ease.
If you’re interested in joining, click on this link. Use promo code: UNMANLYCHEF_2015 for 30% off your first order.
