Mail Order Meals-Hungryroot

On our journey to find the best meal subscription box service for two my husband and I recently discovered Hungryroot. The first box cost us $32 and it came with  4 meals, 3 desserts, and two breakfasts. I have since cooked all of the meals sent and will review my experience with Hungryroot, below.

Coconut Chia Seed Carrot Cake Pudding

From their web

This was gross. The flavor was okay but the texture was terrible. And I love chia breakfast oatmeal but not this. Just no.

Black Bean Brownies

From their website

These are chewy and amazing. Taste just like the real thing. My husband and I love them! We've already bought more! If you like harder brownies though these might not be for you!

Almond Chickpea Chocolate Chip Cookies

Just the dough, from the website

These are alright. A little too much like hardened dough. You can taste the chickpea and that isn't great. Will not buy again.

Sweet Potato Chicken Cashew Alfredo

From their website

For our first box we paid an extra $2 to add chicken. It is NOT worth it. Just buy a chicken breast and cook some yourself. This dish ROCKS! We have bought it again. My husband loves it too! What is great about all of their meals is that they can be cooked in 7 minutes or less AND they are all gluten-free and 500 calories or less. I would HIGHLY recommend Hungryroot to anyone else. Another thing I like about Hungryroot is the abundance of coupon codes, the regularly low prices, and the fact that you don't have to tie yourself down to a subscription.

Tangy Carrot Sriracha

From their website

This is my FAVORITE! Totally delicious and filling. With a small amount of protein though you do get hungry soon after. Pickled onions add a lot to this dish. We've bought it again and will continue to buy it!

Celery Root Noodles with Basil Gremolata

From their website

This dish tasted just like a giant bowl of celery. It even contaminated the chicken bites. Gross. Just no.

Sweet Potato Cacao Mousse

From their website

This stuff is AMAZEBALLS. Holy crap. Tastes AMAZING and it dairy-free! Would SO buy again. Only 111 calories per serving as well! 

Carrot Cake Bites

From their website

AMAZING! My husband even likes them and he doesn't like carrot cake. Also dairy-free and DELICIOUS. Will most definitely purchase again.

Beet Noodles with Savory Thai Sesame and Chicken

From our kitchen

This dish was pretty good but 2/3 of the way through the dish, I got tired of eating beets. The flavor becomes tiresome after a while. Will probably not purchase again.

Cauliflower Couscous

From our kitchen

This dish was okay at best. A lot of food for only 121 calories but I don't like cauliflower enough to like this dish. Will not get again.

Hungryroot is unique with their gluten free, dairy-free, vegetable-based, low prices, non-subscription, creative, and quick meals. I also like that the meals are for one person, not two, so I can eat something different from my husband. Everything is fresh without having a ton of preservatives. You can use coupon codes of every order! I LOVE HUNGRYROOT. I do hope that their menu cycles/grows, however, because I do feel it may become boring after a while.

Hungryroot Rating:

New and innovative flavors/recipes: 10/10

Healthy, low-calorie, & delicious: 10/10

Accessible to everyone, including my husband: 10/10

Lowest prices out their compared to all similar boxes $7/portion: 10/10

Delicious desserts: 10/10

Overall Rating: 50/50

WOULD RECOMMEND TO EVERYONE.

***Google coupon codes before you order, they are always available but forever changing!

Mail Order Meals-PeachDish

On our journey to find the best meal subscription box service for two my husband and I recently discovered Peach Dish. The first box cost us $48 and it came with 2 meals of 2 servings each. I have since cooked all of the meals sent and will review my experience with Peach Dish, below.

Tangy Pork Burger with Roasted Root Vegetables

From Their Website

This dish was excellent! The root vegetables were rutabaga, carrots, and white turnips. The slaw was made of those same veggies and placed onto the burger. Absolutely delicious! Keeping recipe to try again. My only complaint was portion size. The entire meal for two consisted of 3/4 a ground pork, 1 rutabaga, 2 carrots, and 1 turnip for TWO MEALS. It was not two meals, but it was very good!

Virginia Smothered Chicken with Grits and Celery Salad

From our kitchen

This dish was good and had a much larger portion, however, we had to add cheese to the relatively tasteless grits. Celery salad was not for my husband and honestly, I only thought it okay. The chicken was good but not epic. There wasn't enough thickness to the gravy so chicken came out smothered in onions more than gravy which wasn't too great. I will not make this again but it was nice to try something different (celery salad being different for us!)

Peach Dish locally sources all of their stuff which is cool. They also send dessert with every box. We got two clementines and two yummy cookies. That was a nice touch, but not worth the cost.

PeachDish Rating:

Price is outrageous at $48 for only two meals: 0/10

Portions not large enough for one of the meals: 5/10

Different recipes but not healthy and not always good: 6/10

Not nearly as 'Southern' as advertised: 7/10

Very high quality products: 10/10

Overall rating: 28/50

WOULD NOT RECOMMEND. OVERPRICED.

***Coupon codes are useless because shipping costs cancel out any discounts and there is a minimum for free shipping. No way to try this one for a great price.

Mail Order Meals-Purple Carrot

On our journey to find the best meal subscription box service for two my husband and I recently discovered Purple Carrot. Since we used an introductory offer, the first box cost us $48 and it came with 3 meals of 2 servings each. I have since cooked all of the meals sent and will review my experience with Purple Carrot, below.

'Fried Pearls:' roasted pearl couscous with shitake mushrooms, tofu, scallions, celery, carrots, pine nuts, & chili paste.

From our kitchen table.

This dish was extremely good. A great start for purple carrot. All of their recipes are vegan which also rocks. However, I had to make a special version with half the ingredients missing for my husband and cook chicken to add to it. Were it me alone, I could eat this more often, but being as it isn't, long-term this can't be a plausible option. 

Spanish Tortilla with Garlicky Escarole

From their website

This dish was terrible. The 'tortilla' was SUPER bland and escarole is gross. We even tried to make it into a Caesar salad instead of wilted lettuce and it just was awful. Could not finish it. Terrible!

Carrot-Tomato-Basil Linguine

From our kitchen.

This dish was okay at best. Very pretty, healthy, but pretty bland. It was actually better the next day with the addition of a fried egg and chili paste. Purple Carrot really needs to utilize herbs and spice more effectively to grab me as a customer. I like my food to HAVE FLAVOR and for the most part, Purple Carrot dishes have not had enough.

Purple Carrot Rating:

All Plant-Based: 10/10

Reasonably Priced at $68 a week but not the cheapest: 8/10

Menu largely inaccessible to my husband: 2/10

Lacked flavor: 1/10

Make me appreciate shitake mushrooms: 10/10

Overall rating: 31/50

WOULD RECOMMEND TO INDIVIDUALS TRYING TO EAT HEALTHY OR ON A PLANT-BASED DIET

***Code EARTH25 gets you 25% off your first order!

Mail Order Meals-Plated

On our journey to find the best meal subscription box service for two my husband and I recently discovered, Plated. Since we used an introductory offer, the first box cost us $48 and it came with 3 meals of 2 servings each. I have since cooked all of the meals sent and will review my experience with Plated, below.

Roasted Chickpea Bowl with Brown Rice, Broccolini, Cauliflower, Butternut Squash, and Tahini sauce

This was our photo, keep in mind this was a very large mixing bowl.

This dish was basically cooked for me, specifically, to eat for lunches throughout the week as my husband did not like anything in this bowl. Holy crap it was easily 4 servings and was absolutely delicious! The roasted vegetables were perfect and while this dish was a bit time consuming, it was a perfect meal! Broccolini is amazing and everyone should try it. Also, roasted cauliflower is food for the Gods.

Steak Fajitas with Roasted Tomato Onion Salsa

I forgot to photograph ours, here's their picture.

This dish was pretty good albeit kind of generic. Nothing about it was spectacular or unique and my husband didn't eat any of the toppings so he ended up with steak and cheese fajitas. The amount of steak provided was not enough, we doubled it using a unwanted recipe's steak from a Home Chef box and it was enough. The ingredients were high quality (for the most part) and I liked the topping just fine I would have liked a more original recipe though. I would have also appreciated a higher quality steak. None of these boxes ever send anything but sirloin which is not the best. At least not how they instruct you to cook it.

Skillet Roasted Chicken with Caramelized Fennel & Onions with Roasted Potatoes

We forgot to photograph ours. This was taken from: http://hellosubscription.com/2016/03/march-2016-plated-subscription-box-review-coupon-2/

This dish was amazing! I was thrilled to work with fennel and all of it was delicious! Even my husband ate most of the caramelized fennel and onions. Potatoes were perfect. This dish was exactly what I want in a dish. Something new, yet approachable and delicious!

Plated Rating:

Creative yet delicious and approachable recipes: 10/10

Price higher than Blue Apron at $72 with no added benefits:1/10

Got me to appreciate cauliflower for the first time: 10/10

High quality overall but still uses sirloin steak: 7/10

Portions are generous and calories low: 10/10

Total Score (out of 50): 38/50

WOULD RECOMMEND TO COUPLES WITH HIGHER INCOME THAN US!

***Use this code: b9cef6 to get your first box for $48.