“This post is a fun Plated themed experience. I received some fresh, locally grown ingredients and recipes from the company and wrote this review. No compensation was received.”
Coming from a long line of great Italian cooks you would assume I would have acquired some mad cooking skills. My Grandma was a master in the kitchen; whipping up mouthwatering breads, meats, and homemade pasta dishes in minutes. The whole family reflects back and raves about the meals she made, trying to reproduce her secret recipes! Another incredible example of a fantastic cook is my aunt. I always look forward to the holidays just to taste ANYTHING she has created! My mom is also a fabulous cook when she actually takes the time out to enjoy it. Her Italian minestrone soup is to die for! Unfortunately, cooking talents are more of a behavioral trait than inherited and somehow I missed the -learning to cook like a pro boat- along the stream. Everything I know about cooking is self-taught from watching late night cooking shows, YouTube videos, foodie blogs, and thumbing through magazines. I am no culinary expert, but I do have a remarkable eye for detail and a supreme passion for learning cooking techniques, so I can hold my own in the kitchen.
As a loving mom, I feel it is my parental responsibility to show my teen how to cook. She will be leaving the nest to go to college in a year and I want to ensure she is able to cook healthy meals for herself while she is away from home. Not to mention, spending time in the kitchen together is an awesome memory maker that can be cherished for a lifetime. Some of the best memories are created in the kitchen preparing food! However, I wanted to make this cooking event especially fun to get her really interested in learning how to cook, therefore I invited two of her closet friends to share in the Plated cooking experience.
Plated
If you never had the pleasure of trying Plated they make cooking healthy, locally produced fresh meals really simple. Within days of ordering online the chef-designed recipes and fresh ingredients arrived at my doorstep. What I love is how convenient the service is. The order came with pre-portioned ingredients, in individual bags which are clearly labeled, and a step-by-step recipe card with really easy-to-follow instructions and photos. The great thing about this is that the kit makes it so even a cooking novice can prepare a delicious meal. I thought Plated.com would be an excellent fun choice to introduce my teen to the pleasures of cooking, since she could concentrate more on the techniques involved instead of worrying about finding the ingredients needed to complete the gourmet dish.
We sat down and ordered the meal together, from the weekly menu to be delivered at the selected available calendar dates for our area. The choice included seven recipe options both vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes. I thought this was fantastic, because my teen could choose exactly what she wanted to make and eat. Their menu options change weekly, though we found exactly what we liked. If you can’t find what you like there’s always next week. The entrees roughly contain approximately 600-800 calories, and are designed to be low in fat, contain a plentiful helping of fresh vegetables. The whole ordering and delivery process with the company was a cinch! It was very convenient and was great since the week had been rather hectic. Having a busy week where going to shop for fresh foods would have been a challenge, being able to do this was really convenient.
When my box was delivered on the selected date everything inside was cold and fresh. I did not have any concerns of the meat being too warm. The company takes super care in packing the ingredients, and as long as you are able to transfer them to the refrigerator the day of the delivery the ingredients would definitely remain fresh for between 4-5 days.
For our Plated experience I chose the Korean traditional dish Beef Bibimbap and Plated Risotto with Roasted Radicchio, Mushrooms, and Lemon. Both dishes are wonderful for teaching different techniques needed in the kitchen including knowing how to cook rice, fry eggs, marinade and cook steak, slice and roast vegetables, and have extreme patience. The three teens did an awesome job preparing both dishes and I have no doubt they will be able to make these gourmet meals on their own. I am so proud of them!
As far as the meals, they really enjoyed preparing the Beef Bibimbap the most and thought it was delicious! The Risotto meal took a lot of patience to make and they did not care for the bitter taste of the Roasted Radicchio. The honey was just not enough to cut the overall bitterness of the dish.
The entire Plated experience was fantastic! The teens had tons of fun cooking together and sitting down to enjoy their gourmet creations. I highly recommend trying the dinner kit delivery service! It is a fun and an exciting means of getting your teen interested in cooking!
Do you have a teen ready to leave the nest? How do you get them interested in learning how to cook?
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Hey there, I noticed your review from plated.com and I wanted to reach out on behalf of Peach dish. We would love for you to check out our products as well. Lmk your thoughts.
Best,
Matthew
I never learned how to cook from my family, and now I totally regret it! My husband does the majority of the cooking so I just make sure the kitchen in well stocked — and clean after the meals!
This is a neat and seemingly convenient service! Using it to help teens learn to cook sounds like the perfect solution! The recipe and ingredients are given so there’s less complications and time needed to find and purchase them! And the meals seem to cover a lot of variety, so there’s something for everyone!
What a unique way to learn how to make great healthy dishes. I am far from a gourmet cook and there is much I could learn. I like how every thing is prepackaged and ready to go.
I learned through self-teaching as well….which included a lot of trial-and-error. I grew up in a house where cooking is a magical quality that somehow comes with being born (or so it seems), and most of the meals don’t come with clear instructions, so everything is an approximate…a pinch of this, a handful of that. Thank goodness we live in an era when information is readily available at our fingertips. I can’t imagine having to bake something not knowing anything going in.
This is SO cool! I think it is awesome that you are teaching your teen to cook. I made my daughter cook one dinner a week for us. She learned a lot!
This is so neat, and yes what a great way to get the teens started on cooking. I have two tweens in the house, and I am slowly teaching them how to cook, as I want them to be prepared for the real world with real cooking, when they are ready to leave the nest.
I never learned to cook from my parents but wish I did. It was hard the first year that I was living on my own, didn’t know the first thing about cooking besides microwaveable meals. I think what your doing is great, the recipes look simple but delicious.
I did a Plated meal and OMGOSH they were amazing! I love the simplicity and everything already picked out for you. It’s really great when wanting to try new foods too I think.
This is a wonderful company! I tried them out a couple months ago in time for my anniversary. The meal was so scrumptious!
I am impressed on the details that you showed them and the dishes. Yummy looking for sure. I think this is quite a fancy way to learn to cook and they should be so happy with Mom showing them how in such a sweet way!! I didn’t have any girls but my son can cook and we made chilli together for his father on fathers day years ago. He knows the basics and I think you have to want to cook and that is the secret!
I glanced at the uploaded recipe card and was delighted to find the simplicity of the instructions. I also liked how there’s a glossary giving descriptions of the unique ingredients as well as cooking tips for each meal! What’s even better is how each step includes a photo so you can compare each step with your own experience!
Oooh, how delicious! I have good memories of cooking with my mom when I was younger. 🙂
my mom showed me how to cook the basics when i was younger and i am thankful for that. i started to experiment on my own as i grew older, but her fundamentals are what started it all.
I’ve been wanting to try Plated for some time now and your experience makes me want to try it even more. The food looks delicious and I’m sure it was a great learning tool and fun for your teen as well. I love how fresh the food looks and how much care they take in packaging.
I don’t have a teen ready to leave the nest, but I have had my kids in the kitchen with me from about age 2. All three can use the kitchen to some extent and we enjoy cooking meals together. My oldest is 11 and a great baker.
This is really a neat idea. I have a daughter that will graduate from high school this year. She has helped a lot in the kitchen through the years. So I know she is prepared to be on her own. But she has mentioned many times she would like to take some cooking classes to learn how to cook different kinds of food.
You are so lucky that your family is Italian. The food that you get to eat. My famiky is Irish. While I’m proud if my Irish heritage. Cooking, especially with any kind of spice was unheard of.I consider myself I pretty good cook. I like the idea of this.
The fact that you involved your child’s friends, coupled with the structured approach this system uses makes a lot of sense. I am so happy that I involved my two sons in kitchen follies in their very early formative years. I also never cease to be surprised that their girlfriends often have no more culinary skills than using the drive-thru at Burger King.
My son is pre-teen, and he is just starting to learn cooking
I’ve always wanted to try this subscription box but was afraid to take the plunge! Thanks for the pics and info!
so i taught the kids how to make a few things and it went pretty well. they know how to take care of themselves just in case i am not there but now it is on to more complicated dishes besides pasta.
My son is a junior in high school who cooks on occasion but nothing like that. I have been cooking since I was young just learning through trial and error. My wonderful husband is a chef and his cooking is delicious. I love the idea of teaching healthy cooking.
I’ve never tried bibimbap, but going by the recipe shown here, I think I would like it a lot! The cooked rice topped with the mushrooms and spinach, cucumbers and egg looks like a very satisfying and hearty meal! I think I’d also enjoy the flavor due to the mix of the brown sugar, soy sauce, rice vinegar, garlic and Sriracha! Yum!
I love risotto, so I think I would enjoy the Risotto recipe with the radicchio and lemons. Risotto is so buttery and rich, it’s like a heart-warming meal in of itself. I’m not sure if the taste of the roasted radicchio would not be to my liking, but I’m sure I could add seasoning to cover it if that was the case.
i have never tried plated but now i totally want to
I like to include my kids when I cook and bake, they are young but its good to start them off at an early age I say. They love to be in the kitchen with me, and if im baking even better cause they like to be rewarded by licking the spoon and bowl and stuff like that. They even have little chef outfits that they use in there toy kitchen that they put on for real cooking time. And those mushrooms look so good.
What a neat idea! I have heard of Plated before but never thought of using it as a way to teach my kids to cook. My son could really use the help! He only know a few basic dishes.
This is an excellent idea, because it takes the hard part of planning an entire meal out of the equation, and also makes it fun to select your choice! Less work for mom, more fun for the teen. I wouldn’t wait until they are almost an age to move out, something like Plated might help pique their interest maybe even with their friends, to start as young as you think they can handle it!!!
I sure wish I had known about this when my son was a teen! It sure would his learning a whole lot easier! Not just for him but for me. I love how this takes the guesswork out everything needed to plan and cook a meal.