Meals Delivered?

Do you ever struggle with picking out a meal for the night? To tired to go to the store, shop and figure out what you are going to make?  How about you don't even know what things to pull together for a meal.   

Allow me to introduce you to plated.com and blueapron.com

Plated and Blue Apron both look to bring local sustainable meals to your table.  How do they do this?  By letting you select meal options and having the ingredients delivered right to your door.  They eliminate the guesswork of planning a meal and remove the hassle of going to the store to shop.  Thanks to Facebook and my news feed that is how I came across this service.  Which as a New Yorker I think takes regular grocery delivery and steps it up.  Now I can pick preplanned meals have it shipped (in a BIODEGRADABLE box) and eat healthy.  WHAT WHAT!

Here is what Entrepreneur had to say about the start up plated.com

New York City-based Plated.com is on a mission to help Americans eat better. Each week, seven recipes are featured on the Plated menu, including four healthy meat and fish options and three unique vegetarian dishes. You pick the recipe you want to prepare and eat, and Plated will deliver all of the pre-portioned meat, fish, spices, proteins, and produce -- plus a chef-designed recipe card.

So, no more having to buy too much meat or spices for your simple dinner for one or two. "Plated.com uses tech and data-driven operations to remove waste from the broken American food supply chain," the company says. Plated already delivers to 90 percent of the lower 48 states and is "doubling the business" every six weeks.

So if your looking to eat healthy but don't have the time or energy to shop and think about meals, this might be the best way to go.  I'm going to give it a try and I'll report back on it.  Between work and school I don't have the time to shop or even the energy to think about meals.  And yea, I'm tired of having to buy food for one meal and then tossing it, so this may just be what I've been searching for. The biggest draw back with plated is that it is a yearly membership where blue apron appears to be on a weekly basis.

Check them out and let me know what you think!

http://www.blueapron.com/

http://www.plated.com/

The little things

So on Saturday the BF and I decided to walk around Brooklyn.  We started at the Fort Greene park, ended up along Fulton and finally ended up here at Pequena. Its located on Vanderbilt and Lafayette in Brooklyn.  Its cash only so make sure to stop at an ATM first.  So its about the size of a standard NYC apartment but decorated with mobiles depicting the Dia de los Muertos figurines and other oddities.  The menu is straight forward and you can order the main courses as side dishes.  We started with the chips and salsa, which what chips covered in a chili powder and fresh tomatoes as the salsa.  I ordered the pulled pork tostada, which is a fried corn tortilla piled with toppings.  The BF ordered the veggie quesadilla, which was made with Oaxaca cheese.  We ordered them as mains so they came with beans and rice.  The pulled pork was well seasoned and juicy.  The quesadilla had summer/fall vegetables layered between two crispy corn tortillas.  The service was ok, but the food was better.  Overall 4 out of 5 forks just for the taste.

The Boil

So Friday night my BF surprised me by taking me to a place that I had pointed out a couple weeks ago located on Chrystie St down on the LES.  The overall ambiance is cozy and efficient ( i mean your peeling shellfish lol) but down in woods and reds.  The table has butcher paper on it for easy clean up and they give you buckets to put the shells into.  The service was ok, I think that our waitress was getting annoyed with us, maybe its cause I was hangry lol.  To start we got the gumbo which was ok but needed some hot sauce. We ordered the crayfish and lobster bucket done in old bay (there really is no other way to eat it) and it came with baby crayfish, a lobster (whole), potatoes that were over cooked, a earn of corn and andouille sausage.  The food was coated in the old bay and I made my own dipping sauce which the waitress looked at me crazy when I asked for mayonnaise.  Overall something you should do once but having grown up on the bayou in Louisiana i know how crayfish need to be cooked and this was over done.  I would give 2.5 out of 5 forks.

http://www.theboilny.com/

Memorable chicken and waffles

So I know I've been a bit remiss on posting and I apologize. Today I decided to meet up with my fabulous artist friend mr. David Antonio Cruz and head to the black swan for a late lunch. It's located on the corner of Nostrand and Bedford in Brooklyn and is an English gastropub. It's dark and cozy inside with a small outdoor area. We ironically both ordered the chicken and waffles along with a tall glass oh German beer. The waffle was light and fluffy served with whipped butter and maple syrup. The chicken was nicely fried but a bit bland. It was mostly dark meat so I wasn't all that thrilled.  Service was great so overall I'd say 3 out of 5 forks.

Sunday dinner

I don't want it to be said that I haven't shared my cooking prowess with the world. So here is what I made today for Sunday dinner. Jerk chicken, fried plantains, Mac n cheese and veggies.