Initially when I checked the website everything was sold out. I think that is because it was the end of the month because a little less than a week later things on the site started coming up as available. Not wanting everything to sell out, I ordered the Turkey Meatloaf Sliders meal for my mother and I.
I set the delivery date for October 24th and it came on that day at 10 am via FedEx. Since the confirmation email they send you says you have to put everything in the freezer by 3 pm, I immediately unpacked it all......
... and then I put it in the freezer. I had it there for about 2 days. Life was just too crazy for me to find the time to even make dinner, isn't that terrible?
Included in the box, there was an envelope with my invoice, instructions for cooking, and a card thanking me for for my order.
Finally on Friday the 26th I found some quiet time with my mom and we tackled making this dinner. On the menu we had Sweet Potato Bisque with roasted corn and poblano, Turkey Meatloaf Sliders with mini brioche and cranberry relish and for dessert a Pear & Blueberry Crostata.
I read the instructions and 3 of the packets are cooked in the bag. I thought at first that this was "sous vide" but that would mean the bags were air tight and cooked for a long period of time. These bags were not all air tight and cooked for 18 minutes at the longest. I preheated the oven for the crostata and started boiling a large pot of water. When boiling I threw in the sliders pouch and after 3 minutes I threw in the soup pouch.
While watching these boil away, I checked to see how frozen the cranberry relish was and discovered that the pouch had split on the side. Uh oh! So then I decided to check on the soup....
...just as I thought. The soup bag had the same problem and was leaking in to the water. Upon closer inspection of the sliders, they were taking on water too. I had to hold the soup pouch up the remainder of the time so that it didn't take on water or leak. I figured the sliders would be ok if they got wet.
While holding the pouch, I completely forgot to throw in the brussel sprout salad :( So I had to throw that in by itself. That gave me time to remove the crostata and toast the brioche.
Getting the soup out of the bag was a little more challenging than I thought it would be. I managed to get most of it in the bowls but some did escape and land on the counter. The soup tasted delicious. It had a nice thick texture, the roasted corn was a nice touch and the poblanos gave the soup some depth. 
Here are the sliders, cranberry relish and brussel sprout salad. Mom and I put the cranberries on top of the sliders and they were pretty good. Good texture, lots of flavor and the relish was sweet and enhanced the meat. The brussel sprout salad was a let down. It had brussel sprout leaves, potatoes, and onions. Neither my mom nor I thought it had much flavor and the texture of the potatoes was a bit off.
Last up was the crostata. This smelled like buttery deliciousness when it came out of the oven, but it was kind of bland. The blueberries in the center were nice and sweet and tangy, but everything else was really like cardboard. I would have been happier if they had included some of the sugar cookies that were in the PopSugar Box for September! That might have been the best cookie I had ever had :)
And there you have it! Over all I think this is a wonderful idea, I mean, who would not want to have dinner just sitting and waiting for them at home when they don't want to cook? However the execution fell short for me. The holes in the bags made me think unsanitary thoughts and it made it a pain to cook in the boiling water and serve. The flavors were 50/50 for me. The soup and sliders were great, the salad and crostata missed the mark.
We chose not to continue the membership and cancelled. The prices for the food actually aren't bad! Better than a night of eating out and the portions are just big enough to fill you up and be satisfied. Maybe if the mood strikes us again we will give it another shot with a different meal plan, but as of this moment we are not completely sold on a monthly deal.
Customer Service: I attempted to cancel repeatedly, and thought that I had, until I got billed the next month. I emailed customer service and told them about my multiple attempts and they were very helpful and got back to me with in 24 hours and let me know they refunded my charge.
Jenn
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