Dinner Contem-Plated!

Discovering the weekly gourmet meal kits from Plated.com is one of the best things that ever happened to me. Not only am I discovering new recipes and techniques, but my family is finally getting a real variety of dinner foods and dishes each week! Most of their recipes only take 30-40 minutes from chop to finish, and the directions are so concise and easy to follow! Plus the recipe cards have step-by-step full-color photos as well. So simple!

You can get your first four plates for only $20 shipping with code member4plates, or 30% off your first order (which might be a better deal if you're ordering a bunch more) with code fb30! Plated sends you all the fresh ingredients you need to make easy gourmet meals!

Check out my first month of Plated meals, and then the meals from weeks 5-7. Here are weeks 8-10!

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Roasted Vegetable Tostadas with Mexican Street Corn

 

This meal was naturally gluten-free, and I subbed vegan mayonnaise for the queso fresco in the chipotle crema for the Mexican Street Corn and topping the tacos to make this dish dairy-free for the girls and I. I also skipped the chipotle and jalapeno entirely, and only used a tiny amount of the adobo sauce. (I roasted the jalapeno up for Hubby, and made sure it never touched anything I'd be eating - I'm very sensitive to capsicum!)

Spring Vegetable Tart

 

I had Hubby get a gluten-free crust for us at Whole Foods, since there's one near his office, but he forgot and brought home ones with butter in them. So I ended up getting a tub of gluten-free pie crust dough br Pillsbury at the grocery store! It tasted great with these savory pies, and wasn't too hard to work with!

Since I'd be using up the gluten-y crust for Hubby as well as some gluten-free crust me, I added some rutabaga and green garlic from my veggie drawer to bulk up the wild mushrooms, golden beets, leeks, shallot, green beans, and asparagus that came in my Plated kit. I had plenty of filling for Hubby's whole tart, plus a smaller one for myself.
I made a simpler more kid-friendly version for the girls, with just carrots, potatoes, green beans, peas, green garlic, and leeks.

Roasted Carrot and Chickpea Salad with Quinoa

 

This dinner was surprisingly good. Even the girls liked it, although theirs was "deconstructed" with the quinoa and roasted carrots served separately. And some mint and crumbled goat cheese on the side for them as well.

Cheesy Quinoa Stuffed Tomatoes

 

Hubby was headed out of town for almost a week, which meant that there'd be no point making anything fancy while he was gone, unless I wanted to eat it all myself! So I managed to squeak this dinner in as a lunch before we had to leave to take him to the airport. This dish was naturally gluten-free, and came with goat cheese, which I'm not intolerant to, so everything was good as-is.

Z had her packed lunch at school, but E sat down with us for some tasty stuffed tomatoes!

When quartering the romaine hearts, I had loads of little lettuce scraps that fell off, so E got those as a little salad instead of the big lettuce wedges that Hubby and I ate.

Black Bean Burgers with Lime Cabbage Slaw

 

I made smaller "slider" burgers for the girls and I to fit on these gluten-free rolls, but Hubby got big ones on the gluten buns that were sent in the kit. I also subbed gluten-free breadcrumbs in the patties, and vegan mayo for the Greek yogurt in the slaw and roasted pepper spread. Another winner! Hubby has enjoyed all the veggie and bean patties so far.

Pastaless Spring Vegetable Lasagna

I waited a tad bit too long to make this dinner after my box arrived, so the leeks were a little tough. Everything tasted great though! I made some dairy-free spinach ricotta to use instead of the cow-milk cheese they sent in the Plated kit to make this dairy-free, and the zucchini ribbons and leek strips made for naturally gluten-free noodles.

I've had to make several alterations to keep our meals gluten- and dairy-free, but if you aren't vegetarian too, it's easy to find at least two gluten- and dairy-free Plated options each week. Most weeks I can get away with very minor substitutions with ingredients I have on-hand for yummy meals without any gluten, cow dairy, or meat. They always show you every ingredient that will be included when you order online, so it's easy to plan ahead and make or buy special substitutions as well.