Plated Meals Week April 18th and 50% Off Code (Two Meals FREE!)

Plated sends you the fresh ingredients to make meals at home, all sent directly to your house! It's so convenient and even on the busiest nights, it's so easy to make a home cooked meal in about 30 minutes.

Plated lets you pick your delivery day, Tuesday or Friday, and in some locations they also offer Monday delivery. It's overnighted via FedEx, and usually arrives fairly early in the day, plenty of time to prepare it for dinner that night.

I decided on the Basil Beef Bowl with Quinoa Stir-Fry, and the Roasted Lamb with Agrodolce Pearl Onions and Mashed Potatoes.

Lasagna Recipe

I went up to Lake Tahoe this past weekend for a little last minute getaway with B and his brother. While, they were out snowboarding I was in the hotel getting some work done (I'm a terrible snowboarder and I get too frustrated, so I've given up long ago), and making lasagna for dinner! It was a little weird that there was no snow at the hotel ground level, the guys said the snow on the mountain was pretty good. They went to Heavenly, but last time we went to Squaw and they had much more snow at the hotel, but less on the mountain! I think next time the plan is Kirkwood, they always seem to have tons of snow, even with the drought, and low snow levels.

Luckily our hotel had a kitchenette and I brought all the necessary ingredients. Other than forgetting to bring the egg, and the pan with the sauce filled to the top while it was cooking, I didn't have any big problems cooking it in our suite. I brought a cooler with our ingredients, and an aluminum pan for the lasagna. I cooked and put it all together before the guys came back, and just popped it in the oven once we were ready for dinner. You can serve it with a Casesar salad or garlic bread, or beer like we did!

Plated Meals Week February 18th and Promo Code

My mom's birthday just past, and I never know what to get for her for her birthday, so I had the idea I'd make her favorite hot wings for birthday dinner, and order some Plated meals for this week. We decided on 2 plates of the Maple Brown Sugar Pork Chops with Brussels Sprouts Hash and 2 plates of the Skirt Steak with Compound Butter and Pear Gorgonzola Salad.

Plated always takes 1 day to arrive, it's shipped via FedEx.

Superbowl Dinner - Braciole

We were going to make wings for dinner today for the Superbowl, but we had a flank steak in the fridge and I found this recipe for it. Definitely not a very traditional Superbowl meal, but it was very easy to make and you can let it simmer in the oven for an hour and a half so you could make it ahead of time for the game, or have it cooking before the game starts. I served it with some roasted parmesan asparagus, which was tossed in some olive oil, salt, pepper, and parmesan cheese, then roasted in a 400 degree F oven, for 15-20 minutes.

Simple Sesame Noodles with Steak

For Christmas, I got a Pioneer Woman cookbook, she's one of my favorite bloggers and one of the few Food Network shows I (try to) watch every week. Occasionally I flip through the cookbook to figure out what to make for dinner. We decided on this, which is a alternate recipe to Pioneer Woman's Simple Sesame Noodle recipe, with added marinated steak. It's a very delicious, simple meal to make for dinner or lunch.

Christmas Dinner

Once again, I decided to take charge of dinner, this time Christmas dinner. I also made breakfast, which was a breakfast sandwich, made from eggs, sausage, jalapeños, and cheese. We had several dinner dishes including, prime rib, garlic hasselback potatoes with herbed sour cream, store-bought rolls, and a salad I made. The prime rib and the potatoes were the highlight of the dinner, they both turned out delicious! I received a nice cast iron pot for Christmas, so I was able to use that to brown the meat in. And dessert was a pear and berry crisp, which was actually better as leftovers! Here are the photos...

Dinner, all plated up 

Cowboy Breakfast Sandwiches

Browning the prime rib

Prime rib right out of the oven

Garlic Hasselback Potatoes before they went in the oven

Pear and Berry Crisp with Vanilla Ice Cream

Cowboy Breakfast Sandwiches

Here's the recipe adapted from Pioneer Woman

Ingredients:

8 Breakfast Sausage Patties
8 Eggs
¼ cup Half-And-Half
Salt And Pepper, to taste
1 Jar Pickled Jalapenos
Butter
8 Slices of Texas Toast
Mayo
Shredded Cheddar Cheese

Directions:

1. Start by frying patties of breakfast sausage.

2. While the sausage is frying over medium heat, crack a few eggs in a mixing bowl. Splash in ¼ cup half & half. Whisk together and then add plenty of salt and ground black pepper.

3. Flip the sausage and let it continue cooking.

4. Next, drain some jalapeño slices on some paper towels. (Warning: if you grill the jalapenos as demonstrated, make sure your stove has proper ventilation/exhaust.)

5. Dump the jalapenos onto a very hot skillet or griddle. Let them sizzle for a couple of minutes and then add a couple tablespoons of butter for flavor. Continue cooking for a couple more minutes and then set aside.

6. In the same skillet or griddle, melt a couple of tablespoons of butter and place a few slices of Texas Toast on top. The key here is to use plenty of butter as you grill the bread. When you flip the bread to the other side, go ahead and butter up the pan again.

7. Remove the sausage from the skillet when it’s completely cooked, then drain most of the grease from the pan and set sausage aside. Pour the eggs into the skillet and with a spatula, gently fold the eggs around, allowing them to cook.

8. When the Texas Toast is nice and grilled, spread whatever sandwich spread you’d like to use onto the bread. Top with a sausage patty, eggs, jalapenos, and cheese.

9. Finally top with another slice of Texas Toast and then return the sandwich to the warm griddle to thoroughly heat everything.

Prime Rib with Rosemary Salt Crust

Here's the recipe adapted from Pioneer Woman

Ingredients:

1 Whole Boneless Rib Eye (Ours was about 5 pounds and had bones in)
Olive Oil

2 Tbsp Tri-Color Peppercorns
3 Sprigs Fresh Thyme
2 Sprigs Fresh Rosemary¼ cup Kosher Salt¼ cup Minced Garlic

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.

2. Heat some oil in a large skillet over high heat. Sear rib eye until a nice dark golden color, 2 to 3 minutes per side.

3. Place the peppercorns into a bag and crush with a rolling pin. Shred the leaves from the thyme and rosemary sprigs. Mix the salt with the crushed peppercorns, rosemary leaves, thyme leaves and garlic. Pour olive oil over the rib eye and pour on the rub mix. Pat slightly to get it to stick to the meat. Roast for 20 minutes, then reduce the heat to 275 degrees F and roast until a meat thermometer registers 135 for rare/medium-rare, about 20 more minutes (the roast will continue to cook slightly after removing from the oven). Remove from the oven and let rest for 15 to 20 minutes before slicing.

Garlic Hasselback Potatoes with Herbed Sour Cream

Here's the recipe adapted from Sunny Anderson

Ingredients:

16 ounces Red New Potatoes
3 - 5 Garlic Cloves, thinly sliced
4 Tbsp Unsalted Butter, melted
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
Kosher Salt And Freshly Ground Black Pepper
Herbed Sour Cream, recipe follows
Herbed Sour Cream:
½ cup Sour Cream
½ tsp Garlic Powder

1 Clove Garlic, minced
1 Tbsp Finely Chopped Fresh Parsley Leaves
Kosher Salt And Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Using a wooden spoon as a cradle, place each potato in the spoon and make several parallel slits into each potato top making sure not to slice completely through. Place garlic slices between every slit. Toss in a medium bowl with butter and olive oil. Place on a baking sheet and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Bake until tops are crispy and potatoes are cooked through, about 1 hour. Transfer to a platter and top with Herbed Sour Cream.

Sour Cream:
Combine ingredients in a small bowl. Season, to taste, and refrigerate until use.

Pear and Berry Crisp

Here's the recipe adapted from Pioneer Woman

Ingredients:

Filling Ingredients:
4 Whole (To 5) Large Pears (Bosc Work Well)

1 cup of Mixed Frozen Berries
⅔ cup Sugar
¼ tsp Salt

Topping Ingredients
1-½ cups All-Purpose Flour
⅓ cup Sugar
⅓ cup Firmly Packed Brown Sugar
½ tsp Cinnamon
½ cup Pecans, Very Finely Chopped
1 stick Butter, Melted

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Peel, core, and dice pears. Place into a bowl and stir together with berries, ⅔ cup sugar and ¼ teaspoon salt. Set aside.

3. In a separate bowl, combine flour, sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, and pecans. Stir together. Drizzle melted butter gradually, stirring with a fork as you go until all combined.

4. Pour pears into a baking dish; top with crumb topping.

5. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

6. Place pan on top rack of oven for an additional 10 minutes, or until topping is golden brown.

7. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Enchiladas

We had a bunch of canned enchilada sauce around the house, so I gathered up the ingredients to make enchiladas. You may remember I made white chicken enchiladas previously, which I think I liked better than these. I made this recipe with ground beef, but I think the white sauce makes for a more flavorful enchilada, but these would have been better with maybe rice or something else.

Recipe adapted from The Pioneer Woman

Ingredients:
For The Sauce:
1 Tbsp Canola Oil
1 Tbsp All-Purpose Flour
1 Can (28 Ounce) Enchilada Or Red Sauce
2 cups Chicken Broth
½ tsp Salt
½ tsp Ground Black Pepper
2 Tbsp Chopped Cilantro
For The Meat:
1-½ pounds Ground Beef
1 Whole Medium Onion, Finely Diced
2 Cans (4 Ounce) Diced Green Chilies
½ tsp Salt
For The Tortillas:
10 Whole (To 14) Corn Tortillas
½ cup Canola Oil
To Assemble:
3 cups Grated Sharp Cheddar Cheese
½ cup Chopped Black Olives
1 cup Chopped Green Onions
½ cup Chopped Cilantro

Directions:
Step #1 – The Sauce

In a large saucepan over medium heat, add oil and flour and whisk together to make a paste, cooking for one minute. Pour in the red sauce, chicken broth, cilantro, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 30-45 minutes.

Step #2 – The Meat

Brown the meat with onions in a skillet. Drain off fat. Stir in 2 cans diced green chilies and seasoned salt. Set aside.

Step #3 – Tortillas

Heat canola oil in a small skillet over medium heat. One by one, using tongs, fry tortillas in oil until soft, not crisp – about 30 seconds per side. Remove to a paper—towel lined plate. Repeat until all tortillas have been fried.

Step #4 – Assembly

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour ½ cup red sauce in bottom of baking pan. Spread to even out. Dip each tortilla into red sauce, then remove to work surface. Spoon meat, a little grated cheese, a little black olives, and green onions in the center of tortilla. Roll up and place, seam down, in baking pan. Repeat until pan is filled. Pour extra red sauce over enchiladas. Top with remaining cheddar cheese.

Bake for 20 minutes or until bubbly. Sprinkle cilantro over enchiladas before serving.

Sliders

If you have never made sliders, I highly recommend this recipe. You may look at the ingredients and think "heavy cream?!" but trust me, it's exactly what ground beef needs for this recipe. It keeps it moist and adds that little bit of extra fat to make the burgers juicy and tasty. I also attempted to make caramelized onions to top the sliders with, but I walked away for too long, and ended up burning them. I think my favorite way to top these is with some gorgonzola cheese, sliced red onion, and some Sriracha mayo. Just mix a couple tablespoons of mayo with a few squeezes of Sriracha (adjust to your heat tolerance level), stir and spread on the slider buns.

Recipe adapted from The Pioneer Woman

Ingredients
1 pounds Ground Beef
2-3 Tbsp Heavy Whipping Cream
6 Dashes Worcestershire Sauce (Less If You Prefer)
1/2 tsp Kosher Salt
Freshly Ground Black Pepper
8 Whole Dinner (Or Slider) Rolls, split
Carmelized Onions, to top with
Gorgonzola Cheese, to top with
Sriracha Mayo, to top with

Directions:
1. Preheat the grill to medium heat.

2. Mix the ground beef, heavy cream, Worcestershire and the salt and some pepper in a bowl. Use your hands to thoroughly mix the ingredients. Form ¼ cup of the meat mixture into patties, making 12 patties total. Make an indentation with your thumb to keep the patties from plumping too much when they cook.

3. Grill the sliders until just cooked through, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Remove from the grill and pile on a platter.

4. Toast the halved buns on the grill. Place the sliders between the buns and serve immediately.