Marley Spoon 1st Delivery Review & $30 Coupon

Lemon Thyme Pollock with Broccoli Rabe & Pea Couscous 

Ingredients (click on photos to enlarge)

Chipotle Chicken Chowder with Corn, Bacon & Potatoes

Ingredients

Deconstructed Pork Dumplings with Bok Choy

Ingredients

This is a review of a weekly food subscription box called Marley Spoon that costs $61.50 per week. Each box includes three recipes and all the ingredients needed to make them for two people. They also offer a box for two adults and two children for $106.80 per week. For two people, they offer seven recipes to chose from per week which include three vegetarian, three meat and one seafood recipe. For four people, they offer five recipes three of which are meat and two are vegetarian. They have an offer for $30 off your first box, see coupon link below. After you have received three shipments they offer a free box for you to give away to a friend. They deliver via FedEx on Tuesdays. It's shipped in a cardboard box and at the bottom of the box there were three large ice packs which were placed under and over the meat, seafood, dairy and frozen peas. Then cardboard was placed over it with the rest of the ingredients placed on top. The rest of the ingredients were separated into three large paper bags and all of it was wrapped in a foil bubble wrap bag. All of the ingredients arrived in great shape. Out of our three recipes we gave one recipe five out of five stars and two recipes three out of five stars.

Lemon Thyme Pollock with Broccoli Rabe & Pea Couscous

I'm always nervous ordering seafood during the warm months since it doesn't always arrive in good shape. I'm happy to report that due to them placing the ice packs above and below, the pollock it arrived in perfect shape. The competition tends to place ice packs only on top which doesn't work during warm and hot months. I was also happy to see a recipe with seafood other than shrimp, salmon or tilapia which seems to be all the competition sends. While we enjoyed this recipe, we were wowed by it. The combination of garlic, anchovy paste, peas, couscous and broccoli rabe was very good. We didn't like that the anchovy paste was both in the vegetables and on top of the pollock. We would have preferred they pick one or the other. The topping on the pollock was just so so. It was made with anchovy paste, lemon juice, lemon zest, thyme, shallot, mayo, salt and pepper. I would definitely not repeat that part of the recipe since we've had so much better seafood sauces and topping previously. This recipe took about thirty minutes to prepare and it had 690 calories. It was a healthy and satisfying portion.

Chipotle Chicken Chowder with Corn, Bacon & Potatoes

I had high hopes for this recipe but it landed up receiving only three out of five stars from both of us. There were only two slices of bacon which wasn't enough to flavor the soup enough. The chipotle en adobo wasn't spicy enough. Plus, they sent us sweet corn instead of regular corn which would have had added more flavor in this soup. They suggested poaching the chicken which made it very bland. Also, we felt they used too much heavy cream and it gave us both a bit of a stomach ache. The addition of some spicy sausage and cheese or something else would have made it not so bland. It was a generous portion. It took longer than the thirty minutes indicated to prepare. This recipe had 725 calories.

Deconstructed Pork Dumplings with Bok Choy

Hubby gave this recipe five out of five stars while I gave it three. There was too much carrot since we were sent the largest carrot I've ever seen, see photo above. I didn't care for the way the Bok Choy was cooked, I prefer it less limp. The wontons were a nice addition and not having to shape them into dumplings was a relief. It really need more pork since it was lost in the sea of vegetables. I found the rice vinegar tart, but I'm very sensitive to most vinegars since they upset my stomach so it's my body's way of saying not to eat it. Hubby loves crushed red pepper, but for me I don't tend to like dishes that include it since it tends to overwhelm the dish and that's all I can taste. This recipe took a bit longer than the thirty minutes indicated and it had only 420 calories. There was more food than I could eat, so one could have easily saved enough for lunch the next day.

While we enjoyed our first box from Marley Spoon, I'm not anxious to order another one anytime soon. It was tasty, but not exciting and delivery on Tuesdays isn't a good day for us since Hubby is often out of town. The portions were generous except for the amount of pork in the one dish. The ingredients were shipped with care and arrived intact and fresh. The 8 1/2" by 11" recipe cards had instructions that were easy to understand. Also, their price is very competitive especially for the quality of the ingredients. I suggest you take a look at their current recipes and see if there are three that you like and give this one a try using their $30 off coupon below. I recommend giving their service a try, they just aren't my favorite. My current favorites in order of preference are Green Chef, Green Blender and Sun Basket.

Be sure to check out my reviews of Blue Apron, Green Blender, Green Chef, Hello Fresh, Home Chef, Plated, Sun Basket and Terra's Kitchen. Do you subscribe to any meal delivery services? If so, which one is your favorite?

Bargain Alert:

Green Blender - 20% off 1st box, coupon code "GREEN20"

Graze Box - Free 1st & 5th boxes, click here.

Green Chef - Four FREE organic meals, click here. Choices: Paleo, Gluten Free, Vegetarian & Carnivore

Hello Fresh - $40 off your first box, use coupon code "YVWF79", one Jamie Oliver recipe per week. 

Home Chef - $30 off your 1st box, click here, west coast delivery started this spring.

Marley Spoon - $30 off your 1st box, coupon code "DELISH"

Sun Basket - 3 FREE Meals ($34.47 value), click here. Affiliate Link

Terra's Kitchen - $50 off, coupon code "TRYTK"

Share this blog post with friends by clicking on the Google red box (G+1) at the very top of this page or via Twitter and Facebook by clicking on boxes below: Tweet

Have a PEACEful Day!