For those who are on maintenance or who (like me) occasionally like to incorporate your own meals...

I'm not sure if any of you have tried this out or not, but I've been using Plated for a couple of months now. It's a great way to try out some new recipes, and they send you all of the ingredients (with the exception of things like salt, pepper, and olive oil) to do it with. These are great recipes using fresh ingredients, and all of the nutrition information is listed.

Each week, you check out the menu and select the dishes you want to try. It lists what they'll send, what you'll need, how difficult the recipe is, and how many calories are in each Plated serving. If you don't like anything that week, or if you want to skip for whatever reason, you simply select the option to skip that week. While it's under the category of subscription box, you do not have any obligation to buy something from week to week. You choose when you buy and what you buy. They'll send you email reminders to check your menu and skip if needed. Once you've selected what you want, they ship it to you (either on a Wednesday or Sunday), and you cook it up. Shipping is free if your order is over $50. Otherwise, it's $6.

Most of what I've tried through them so far has been a huge hit with only a few new things being a miss. The seasoning on the steamed fish we had last week was a little too bland, for example, but I figured out some ways to make it work next time I make it with ingredients from the grocery store. I love cooking, and it's been fun using this as a tool to help my daughter learn how to cook and how to eat good food.

One thing I will mention is that the serving sizes they list are restaurant size servings. You'll need to cut many of them in half to get the same portions you'd get in a typical NS-size meal, so where you see "2 plates" you'll often think of it as four NS servings. (Those of you, particularly men, who have to fit in more calories into your dinners might find that one plate works better for you, depending on the dish, so adjust accordingly.)

The downside... There's a lot of waste. A lot of the packaging is reusable, but if you live in an area that doesn't have a lot of recycling options you'll probably end up throwing a lot of it away. It can also get a little pricey. The regularly priced plates (there are some premium ones, if you're interested) are $12/each, so if you're budgeting, this is something to consider maybe for replacing a restaurant meal. It is one meal you won't purchase from the grocery store. I typically will order 2 meals (4 plates, $48) per week and tack on a dessert ($4 per plate) to put my order over $50. It's $2 more than if I just pay the shipping, but I do get a dessert. So about $54-56 per week out of my grocery budget usually makes dinner for three that night and a lunch or two the next day.

As with all fresh meat and produce, you will need to plan out your dinners to make sure you cook the food before it goes bad. The food you're sent should stay fresh for a few days, but I don't recommend ordering more than three meals at a time and only if you can cook them in the next 3-4 days. I've also had one order get to me where the leafy greens had gone bad. It is after all a service that ships to you, so this is bound to occasionally happen as with all services. If this happens, take pictures in case they ask for them and contact customer service THAT DAY. For me, I was not asked to provide any pictures, but they credited my account for the meal it affected.

So has anyone else tried this? If you're interested in trying it out, let me know. I have some referrals I can send that will make your first box (6 plates, $72 value) free, if anyone is interested.