Plated

The latest trend in home cooking is ordering boxed meals and have them shipped right to your front door.  I have seen a few companies adds and pictures of plated food on Instagram and most bloggers I follow have tried either Plated or Blue Apron. And it looked fun and intriguing.  For months it has had me really curious if it is something I would like.

I decided to go ahead and order a box through Plated.  The reason why I chose Plated is because their food is described as Farm to Front Door.  Their website states that their ingredients come from local sources whenever possible, and that their beef is antibiotic and hormone free. They also use carbon-neutral packaging, and their boxes are made from 100% recycled material.

Now that I found a company to use...my trouble was finding a meal that was somewhat adventurous and out of the norm for me to make.  To make this a true learning experience. But the meals also had to be appetizing for my family of three...well two and half...and that posed an issue that they only will deliver plates for four servings or more.  This to me was too much food, or so I thought... The food quantities was actually not a whole lot.

My choice for my first box was Indonesian Beef Randang...which is basically a beef cooked in lime and coconut curry.  (I love curry!!)

My box arrived on the date it was promised.  (a great start)
And the packaging was just as promised.

Organized, clean, and refrigerated with dry ice.

Here is the layout of what was inside the package:

I found the ingredients to be all very fresh and high quality with the exception of the beef.  I was not impressed with the cut of beef they included in the meal.  It was an inside round??  Whatever the beef cut was, I found it to be tough and not full of flavor.  And this dish is meant to cook for a while...so when I googled this cut of meat the first thing I noticed is that it states to NOT overcook that cut of beef.

The recipe and steps were all included and very easy to follow.

I am a girl who likes picture cookbooks.   So I love that they gave you a picture of what it should look like when its done.  As well as on the back of this card there was all steps broken out and pictures above each step.

The meal itself smelled glorious in the home when cooking.
However the cooking time which was posted was not accurate.  It took me longer than what was anticipated.  (which could have resulted in the tough meat).

Here is my end results...photos of what I made:

And the plating:

Sorry for the messy plating...but I actually sat down and started to eat and forgot to make a pretty plate up...so here is a rushed one I took after a few bites in.

I walked away feeling like it was a fun thing to try.  But the pre-made box meals are not for me.  I did not like being able to choose the cut of meat and the food outcome was just ok.  I was not blown away by the actual end result.   (would have been cheaper to order takeout!)

On a positive note...I will say I am making turmeric rice more often!!! This was a simple one step of adding turmeric to my jasmine rice to give my rice more flavor.  Who knew?!

Happy Cooking and Love,

Stylish Mama

A little R&R in New Hampshire

So this past weekend my friends and I had the crazy idea to go up North to see more snow!! Trust me, the same day we took off we were all questioning ourselves why we didn't make plans to go to Bermuda or the Bahamas instead of heading up North into colder temperatures. Crazy I know! But after three days of being all together, having a fun and relaxing weekend, no regrets here! The focus of our trip was to go snowmobiling. Have any of you done it? It was on my bucket list after I tried jet skiing in Miami a few years ago so I figured snowmobiling had to be as fun.  

First of all let me tell you, if you are going to try this sport out, especially in 2 degree weather, to wear many layers of clothing and a face mask.  Second, take nips for after the ride to warm up quickly! Did I just say that? No way! Hey, no judging! It was 5 o'clock somewhere and when you can't feel your extremities, you need to take some type of measures.  Might as well be a tasty one. 

The experience was awesome! But I do have to admit it can be scary.  You need to have the upper body strength in order to control the snowmobile, if you don't, you can easily loose control and have an accident.  Just like anything, drive with caution.  Know your limits and you should be fine.  We did a self guided tour so we were able to stop whenever and wherever we wanted on the path.  

Side note: read the fine print when signing away in order to ride the snowmobiles.  Make sure YOU inspect your machine before mounting, take pictures of it. DO NOT rely on the staff doing it for you.  We learned this the bad way. Once you return from your journey, all vehicles are inspected by the staff and they found a broken part in one of our snowmobiles.  We were told we had to hit something hard in order to have that break but we didn't hit anything.  So to us there was some shady stuff going on there but we did sign the paperwork and we had dish out the money to cover the broken part.  So learn from us, do your homework, inspect the machine yourself, take pictures with your cellphone.  It can save you money.  

Despite of that small incident, we had a blast and would do it again.  Here are some images from my trip.  

Here's a short video of me in action!!  

We finished at a good time so we decided to make the best of our day.  We went for an afternoon stroll and I wanted to snap some shots with my DSLR.  My friend Marie took a picture of me while I was playing with my settings.  Weird to be in front of the camera instead of behind it.  

Proven fact: never too cold for ICE CREAM!!  So yes, we couldn't help it but stop for an afternoon snack.  Ready to drool?! Keep scrolling down! 

My group of friends waiting patiently for our treats while I was snapping away.  You know you have great friends when they pose for you willingly after a hundred pictures.

If that wasn't enough, we ended our night visiting this magical place, Ice Castles in Lincoln, New Hampshire. This was beautiful! These images don't do any justice.  The images below were taken with our cell phones.  It was way too cold for my DSLR. It resembled Elsa's castle from the movie "Frozen".  

Peek-a-boo!!! Can you see me? This is how cold it was! I was only exposing my eyes!

This was a very needed mini vacation and I'm so happy that things worked out for my friends and I to enjoy.  Major shout-out to my HB and friends for making this weekend happen and for letting me photograph our moments together.  When is our next trip?

Hope you all enjoyed your long weekend.  Stay warm friends!

Love ~ Organized Chica xox

Stylish Mama Fashion Picks for February

Zara
There are some beautiful new pieces to Zara's website that has me drooling!

Combined Tulle Jumpsuit

Love the feminine look of the lace tulle accent on the collar and sleeves.

Leather Bucket bag with Tassels

The perfect winter white bag that can carry you right into spring!  If you want to get two seasons out of your purse, this would be the right one to invest in.

J. Crew

Did anyone else know that J.Crew now offers a fine jewelry line??  I was taken back when I saw this the last time I was on their website doing some browsing.  

Maya Brenner 14K Gold Asymmetrical Initial Necklace

I am in love with this delicate everyday piece.  And by the way Maya Brenner also has initial earrings for those of you who can't get enough!

Kate Spade

5 O'Clock Metro Kate Spade Watch

How adorable is this?!  One of my favorite sayings is "It's 5 O'Clock somewhere!"  ok don't you dear judge me for that one!  But to have a pretty watch that has a martini perfectly sitting on the 5 O'Clock hour is genius!!!

So there you have it...my fashion picks for February.

Just curious, did you notice our new blog page?!?  What do you all think?  We wanted a more modern, fashion forward look to our page.  We hope you like it!!

As always, Happy Shopping!

Love,

Stylish Mama

A New Look!

We are so excited to announce that we are working on revamping our blog!!!! It’s hard to believe that we have been blogging for over a year now. Time really does fly…even if you are not always having fun.

These last few months we cannot really say we that we were religiously blogging; but our hearts have been fixated on what changes we envision for our blog. Recently our lives were somewhat stressful and overwhelming. And funny enough with all our stresses and exhaustion we both agree that we really missed blogging. So we are trying to get back to what we love to do!

We cannot wait for you to see the beautiful new page we are working on! It’s simply gorgeous!

We love our readers and we hope you will like what you see.

Stay tuned for the new and improved Stylish Mama Meets Organized Chica website!