Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Cook by the box II: Marley Spoon

April 15-19, 2017

In the past two months, we've tried three different services that home-deliver ingredient boxes for home cooking. This week we're running short reviews on our experiences with each one.
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Friend of the blog @pfctdayelise gifted us a one week free trial of the Marley Spoon two-person box that they subscribe to. We received two serves each of three dinners; this would usually cost $69.90. The Marley Spoon MO is eating well without too much effort, curbing the temptation to order takeaway on work-late weeknights.


What we made: warm roasted mushrooms with basmati & quinoa salad, roasted Dutch carrot salad, hearty pearl barley and sweet potato salad.

Pros:
  • Although I started with some skepticism, it was possible to prepare the meals in around 30 minutes as advertised
  • Everything tasted good and felt nutritious
  • Minimal food waste, since all ingredients are portioned to fit the recipe
  • The recipes were detailed enough that we could recreate the ones we liked on our own later.

Cons:
  • One of the meal packs was missing a crucial ingredient (luckily we had some couscous in the cupboard to use in place of the freekeh)
  • No leftovers! This won't be an annoyance for everyone, but we like packing lunches from last night's dinner (perhaps we'd prefer the family box)
  • Substantial amounts of packaging (though they do offer some nice recycling tips on their website).

Conclusions: This service is likely to appeal to busy bods who want to make healthy dinners at home while minimising the time spent meal planning, shopping and in the kitchen.
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In our final post in this series, we'll return to our old faithful delivery plan.

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