meal boxes – phonakins

We got a Marley Spoon meal box last week after trying QuiteLike the week before (back onto Everyplate this week since that’s what my budget allows). A six meal box like this with Marley Spoon is about $125, while the Everyplate I usually get is just below $90 a week. They’re certainly a step though.

Like QuiteLike, the non-chilled ingredients for the meals come bagged by the meal. I said last week that I didn’t really like this, even though it’s good at reducing confusion, I prefer to sort which of the vegetables and dry ingredients go into the cupboard or fridge, while with the bags I end up just putting them into the fridge – taking up more space and chilling items I’d rather work with or store at room temperature. Since it’s winter and my kitchen doesn’t get above 15 degrees, I could have gotten away with keeping them in the cupboard, but there was a cucumber that wasn’t happy when I used it, and it would have been worse without being in the fridge.

Marley Spoon has a mix of their yellow-packet generic items and some branded items, like Birch and Waite aioli and dressing.

The meal cards were easy to understand and there was no inconsistency between stated amounts and the number of items given. They have a thing for sesames seeds it seems to fancy things up a notch.

Five of the six nights I was feeding 3 of us and the meals easily stretched to three for all of those given there was rice and noodles in abundance along with plenty of veges. I’m still happy padding out my Everyplate meals with cheap and free veges to make them stretch to three of us more easily, hoping for some goodies in the $2 Ozharvest bag tomorrow at the local foodbank after they were closed last week.

Garlic-Pepper Beef and Snow pea Stir Fry

The chicken katsu was certainly a favourite – it used mayo instead of an egg to help stick the crumbs on which seemed pretty smart! I also quite liked the pork steaks, but wouldn’t put dressing on the spinach next time, there was already a lot going on with the acidic veges and butter taters.

“Pickled” veges for a couple of the dishes which worked better than I expected. I’m a fan of salad radishes, but never think to buy them!

Sweet and Salty Olive Pork Steads with Caper Potatoes

Which of these would you be most likely to try? I rarely get any of the burgers any more and tacos rarely since they’re really made for two, and we usually have three. Also the boys eat a lot of burgers during the week anyway.

Here’s a food post, which is good because my political advocacy brain went off last week and I’m tired and it was NOT a good week to try a more intense meal box, and change is hard and the meal box was tasty, but out of my budget, so we won’t get it til the next awesome offer comes through.

So, clicked on an offer somewhere which meant I got four QuiteLike meals for less than the price of six EveryPlate ones, when it’d normally be twice as much. The box arrived while I was out so my partner unpacked it into the fridge – the meats, sauces and yoghurt were in a chill pack, while the rest of the ingredients for the meals were in separate bags for each meal. This is definitely more approachable than them all being together like in the EveryPlate box. It did mean we just put them into the fridge though, whether the ingredients were needing to be chilled or not, as the experience with these boxes is some veges don’t last the week if you don’t. I could have gotten away with them going in the cupboard since it’s winter and my kitchen won’t be above 15 degrees, but no way I’d risk it in summer.

The first meal I made was the Sesame chicken and stir fry veges and rice. The recipe listed two sticks of celery, but as there was one, and it was rather large, I assume that was on purpose. But it threw me a little. Later in the week there was one potato listed but two sent so I used the two. Another thing I ran into was using the wrong sized sachet of sesame oil – probably wouldn’t have done that if I’d unpacked everything, or those had been in the dry ingredients bag since they really didn’t need to be in the fridge?

Look at me prepping ahead! I read and re-read the recipe steps for these, since they were new to me, and I wanted to follow them sat least for the first time. I do take liberties now with the EveryPlate meals as I’ve made some of them so often, or I’m adding in veges to stretch them to three people – These all easily went to three people, which would have annoyed me if I was cooking for two, that’s one of the issues I had with HelloFresh when I was last getting it – most meals were huge servings, easily for three in some cases, good I guess if you want leftovers for lunch the next day, but I have to be expecting that for it to be a good thing for me.

Three white bowls of chicken story fry and rice with forks and spoons — Sesame chicken – yum!

The quality upgrade of the meat was the most noticeable part over the EveryPlate meals. The Chicken Thigh was incredibly juicy and still had bone (though I didn’t cut out all the gristle, sorry Bruce!), and the little vacuum sealed packs were peel open, so less messy. There was paper lining the mince, which I didn’t notice the first pack so fished out of the frypan.

Beef mince biryani with a wedge of lemon and yoghurt in white bowls — Beef mince biryani

The three-hour musamum beef was a novelty, and very tasty. Again, not the week for me to be doing a three hour meal, but I chose it and it was delish. The fresh ginger for a change in the meals was noticeable over the crushed ginger that usually comes packed with my regular boxes. I should have simmered this down more before serving but it is what it is 🙂

Three white bowls of mummamum beef and rice — Mussamum beef

I found it odd to pack a portion of cabbage and then list in the ingredients as “1/2 wedge of green cabbage”. I really wasn’t certain what that meant so I just trimmed it and chopped it and threw most of it in. Since I was dishing up for three, extra cabbage wouldn’t help and what else was I gonna do with any leftover? My reckoning is if you’re going to send a certain cut portion of something why ask for less of that? I also didn’t like that I’d had the onion in the fridge, while I was cutting it up, I’m used to it room temp. I’m sure it doesn’t matter but add.

All very “Asian” meals, they do offer more western options but these are what appealed to me. I haven’t ordered a second week, I’m actually doing a Marley Spoon box this week since they also had a coupon that meant 6 of their meals were the same as an Everyplate box, so I’ll let you know how that goes too. Again, the QuiteLike meals are very nice, better quality than the EveryPlate (and they’d better be at the price), but out of my price range for now.

Do you use meal boxes like these? Which is your favourite or suits your family best?

Tag: meal boxes

Marley Spoon Meals

QuiteLike Meal Box