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.

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.

4th of July: Macaroni Salad and Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

I was able to go visit the boyfriend for 4th of July, so him, his brother, and a friend got started on making some pulled pork for pulled pork sandwiches ahead of time. I wouldn't be able to get there until late, but I made some macaroni salad and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies ahead of time. I love this macaroni salad recipe, it's so good! For the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, I just took my normal chocolate chip cookie recipe, and added about 2 cups of oats. Turned out great, and 4th of July was a lot of fun!

New Years Eve

My family and I have a New Years Eve tradition. My parents never seem to make it remotely close to midnight, but they always seem to have some tasty food for dinner and champagne to drink. This year, I was in charge of the cooking. We had planned on crab, but the store was out by the time we got there. So instead, lobster! I also made some mini shrimp tacos, that were amazing, and I'll be making them again coming up soon. The 3 of us shared 2 lobster tails, and a mess of these tacos, plus a bunch of other appetizers and peach bellinis!

Mini Shrimp Tacos
Here's the recipe adapted from The Food in My Beard

Ingredients: (Sorry for lack of measurements, the original recipe doesn't have them. It's not too hard to eyeball it.)
Shredded cabbage
Mango
Onion
Garlic
Cilantro
Lime Juice
Tortillas
Mayonaise
Sriracha

Directions:
1. A cookie cutter works, but so does a 12-oz can. I brushed these rounds with vegetable oil.

2. Stick a toothpick through the ends of the tortilla round, to keep it into a loose bowl shape. Consult photos above. Cook them at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. Then pull out the toothpick, they will keep their shape after being cooked.3. The slaw was shredded cabbage, mango, onion, garlic, cilantro, and lime juice. The shrimp were lightly coated in mayo and a little Sriracha. Yum!

Lobster Tails with Clarified Butter
Here's the recipe adapted from Giada de Laurentiis
(Honestly, I could have done without the lemon in the butter, it would have been a little more savory without it. It's up to you, but it does produce a strong lemon flavor with every bite if you're ok with that)

Ingredients:
4 (each ½ to ¾-pound) Lobster Tails, thawed if frozen
¼ cup Clarified Lemon Butter, plus 1 cup, recipe follows
Clarified Lemon Butter:
3 sticks Salted Butter, cut into ½-inch pieces
3 Lemons, zested

Directions:
1. Light the coals in a fire pit 1 hour before cooking or preheat a gas or charcoal grill.

2. Using kitchen shears or a sharp knife, cut through the top shell lengthwise. Cut a slit through the meat lengthwise taking care not to cut through the bottom shell. Gently pull the shells apart. Thread a skewer, starting at the underside base of the tail, along the inside of the bottom shell. Brush the meat with ¼ cup of the clarified butter. Wrap the lobster tails in heavy-duty aluminum foil. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until the lobster meat is opaque.

Butter:
1. Place the remaining clarified butter in a butter warmer or dipping bowl. Remove the meat from the lobster shells and dip in the Clarified Butter.In a small, heavy bottomed saucepan, heat the butter over medium-low heat. Pour the mixture into a 2-cup glass measuring jug. Let the melted butter stand for 5 minutes. Using a spoon, remove the foam from the top of the butter. Place the lemon zest in small bowl. Pour the clarified butter over the lemon zest and discard the milk solids left in the bottom of the jug.

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.

Thanksgiving!

I decided to try and tackle Thanksgiving myself this year, and it wasn't too bad considering I only had 3 people to make food for. It wasn't too stressful, but I was getting a little worried when I had 3 dishes to go in the oven after the turkey, but I just stuck them all in there at the same time and it worked out. I tried to make homemade rolls, and they didn't quite rise as I had hoped, but they weren't bad tasting. They were just kind of heavy instead of being light and airy. I ended up brining the turkey, making rolls, mashed potatoes, roasted cauliflower and broccoli, and an apple, pear, raspberry crisp for dessert. We also have an appetizer tradition of cheese, vegetables and crackers, and onion dip and chips. Everything turned out wonderful! Here's everything for you!

Turkey in the brine

Appetizers: Rosemary Crackers, celery, carrots, and cranberry goat cheese

Onion dip and salami

Cheese and cracked pepper crackers

Pears, apple and raspberries went into the dessert crisp

Gingerbread martini

Vegetables before they went into the oven

Roasted Turkey right out of the oven

Dessert with the crisp topping on it

Roasted Cauliflower and Broccoli

Mashed Potatoes

Turkey, light and dark meat

Apple Pear and Raspberry Crisp out of the oven, hot and bubbly

Gingerbread Martini
My mom had this recipe and so we sent my dad out for Kahlua and I made these for us. Quite strong, but taste just like gingerbread. Maybe add a sprinkle of cinnamon on top as a garnish. Makes one drink.

Ingredients:
3/4 oz. vodka
1.5 oz. Kahlua
1.5 oz. Irish Cream Liquor
1.5 oz. Goldschlager, or cinnamon liquor

Directions:
Fill martini shaker with ice. Add all the liquors. Shake well. Pour into martini glass. Enjoy!

Roast Turkey
The turkey turned out delicious, but because we had a deeper pan it cooked in, it didn't get very brown on the sides. And we ended up having to carve off the white meat and put it back in for about 30 min. to cook the dark meat. Another technique we've used for keeping the turkey moist is cooking it upside down. We did it by accident one year, and it ends up keeping the light meat extremely moist, probably because the juices flow to the breast meat.

Here's the recipe adapted from Alton Brown

Ingredients:
1 (14 to 16 pound) Frozen Young Turkey
For The Brine:
1 cup Kosher Salt
½ cup Light Brown Sugar
1 gallon Vegetable Stock (4 32oz. boxes)
1 Tbsp Black Peppercorns
1 ½ tsp Allspice Berries
1 ½ tsp Chopped Candied Ginger
1 gallon Heavily Iced Water
For The Aromatics:
1 Red Apple, sliced
½ Onion, sliced
1 Cinnamon Stick
1 cup Water
4 Sprigs Rosemary
6 Leaves Sage
Canola Oil

Directions:
2 to 3 days before roasting:

1. Begin thawing the turkey in the refrigerator or in a cooler kept at 38 degrees F.

2. Combine the vegetable stock, salt, brown sugar, peppercorns, allspice berries, and candied ginger in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally to dissolve solids and bring to a boil. Then remove the brine from the heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate.

3. Early on the day or the night before you'd like to eat:

4. Combine the brine, water and ice in the 5-gallon bucket. Place the thawed turkey (with innards removed) breast side down in brine. If necessary, weigh down the bird to ensure it is fully immersed, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area for 8 to 16 hours, turning the bird once half way through brining.

5. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Remove the bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard the brine.

6. Place the bird on roasting rack inside a half sheet pan and pat dry with paper towels.

7. Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and 1 cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Add steeped aromatics to the turkey's cavity along with the rosemary and sage. Tuck the wings underneath the bird and coat the skin liberally with canola oil.

8. Roast the turkey on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F for 30 minutes. Insert a probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Set the thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees F. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 ½ hours of roasting. Let the turkey rest, loosely covered with foil or a large mixing bowl for 15 minutes before carving.

Creamy Mashed Potatoes
I had planned to make these roasted garlic mashed potatoes, but it the craziness of getting everything done at the same time, I forgot to roast the garlic. These turned out delicious without the garlic, but would have been even better with it. It's up to you what you want to do.

Here's the recipe adapted from Pioneer Woman

Ingredients:
2.5 pounds Yukon Gold Or Russet Potatoes
¾ Sticks Softened Butter, plus more for baking
¾ (8-ounce) Packages Cream Cheese, softened
¼ cup Half-And-Half
¼ cup Cream
Salt And Freshly Ground Black Pepper
Milk, if needed, for thinning

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Peel the potatoes and rinse them in cold water. Chop the potatoes in fourths. Place the potatoes into a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook until fork tender, 20 to 25 minutes.

3. Drain the potatoes, and then return them to the pan. With the burner on low heat, mash the potatoes with a potato masher; the more steam that's released while you mash, the better. Mash for about 5 minutes. Turn off the burner.

4. Add the butter, cream cheese, half-and-half, and seasonings. Stir to combine, and if the mixture needs thinning, add milk. Check the seasonings, adding salt and pepper, to taste. Using a hand mixer, beat potatoes until light and fluffy.

5. Pour the mashed potatoes into a large casserole pan. Dot the surface with butter. Cover with foil and bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Remove the foil and continue baking for 10 more minutes. Serve immediately.

Roasted Cauliflower and Broccoli
I had originally planned on spice roasting these, but opted instead for a drizzle of garlic olive oil and some cayenne pepper before roasting. I was never a fan of cooked broccoli and cauliflower when I was younger because they always turned out mushy, but these were still crisp and delicious! I adjusted the temperature on this recipe though, because when I cooked them at the original temperature, they just didn't brown before they were cooked. Enjoy!

Here's the recipe adapted from Anne Burrell

Ingredients:
1 Head Cauliflower, cut into bite-size florets
1 Head Broccoli, cut into bite-size florets
Garlic Infused Olive Oil
Kosher Salt
½ tsp Cayenne Pepper
Grated Parmesan Cheese, for sprinkling

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

2. On a sheet pan, combine the cauliflower and broccoli; toss them generously with olive oil and salt. Sprinkle them with the cayenne pepper.

3. Roast 15-20 minutes, then stir the veggies so they have the chance to brown all over and rotate the pan to ensure even cooking.

4. If they aren't lovely and brown, let them continue to roast for another few minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning, if necessary.

5. Remove the veggies from the oven, sprinkle with cheese and transfer to a serving dish. Serve immediately.

Apple Pear Raspberry Crisp
I found some delicious looking raspberries at the store while getting all the ingredients for Thanksgiving dinner, so I decided to add raspberries to this crisp. It was originally just apples and pears. Tips for making this: make sure your pears are ripe, and choose an apple that isn't too sour or it makes the dessert too sour.

Here's the recipe adapted from Ina Garten

Ingredients:
2 pounds Ripe Bosc Pears (3-4 Pears)
2 pounds Firm Macoun Apples (4-5 Apples) (I used Granny Smith's and they were too sour and didn't get soft. Find something firm but sweeter)
2 Packages of Raspberries
1 tsp Grated Orange Zest
1 tsp Grated Lemon Zest
2 Tbsp Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice
2 Tbsp Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice
½ cup Granulated Sugar
¼ cup All-Purpose Flour
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
½ tsp Ground Nutmeg
For The Topping:
1 ½ cups All-Purpose Flour
¾ cup Granulated Sugar
¾ cup Light Brown Sugar, lightly packed
½ tsp Kosher Salt
1 cup Old-Fashioned Oatmeal
½ pound (2 sticks) Cold Unsalted Butter, diced

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Peel, core, and cut the pears and apples into large chunks. Place the fruit in a large bowl and add the zests, juices, sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Pour into a 9 by 12 by 2-inch oval baking dish.

For the topping:

3. Combine the flour, sugars, salt, oatmeal, and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed for 1 minute, until the mixture is in large crumbles. Sprinkle evenly over the fruit, covering the fruit completely.

4. Place the baking dish on a sheet pan and bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, until the top is brown and the fruit is bubbly. Serve warm.