My Secret Recipe

I have always enjoyed cooking, but never did much of it. Cooking for one hardly seemed worth the effort or the leftovers. Finding recipes that were varied without having to buy the entire grocery store to make them, food going bad, too many leftovers -- the list goes on for reasons not to cook. The bottom line: cooking wasn't important to me.*There must be some "nesting" chemical that was released in my brain after I said "I do" almost a month ago. Seemingly suddenly, I had a desire to have a home-cooked meal on the table each night. I've made lasagna, baked a turkey, made turkey gumbo. We have also made Asian Duck Tacos, Beef Moussaka, Curried Redfish Roti, Brown Butter Chicken with Apple Celery Root Slaw and Redfish with Harissa. On the menu for later this week: Turkey Sausage with Squash and Squid Ink Pasta with Calamari.Yes, we have made all of those complicated-sounding dishes on weeknights at our house. I think I have found the perfect solution to meal preparation that addresses all the issues that have kept me from cooking in the past: Plated.I fell victim to Plated after seeing it as a "suggested page" in my Facebook feed many times over. It looked promising: complete meals for two with all the ingredients pre-measured and ready to cook. Two plates worth for $24. Going to the grocery store to buy ingredients to make a meal for two comes in close to that amount. I pick the dishes from a menu, a box arrives at my door (on either Wednesday or Saturday for my zip code),  and I order two meals at a time. I am addicted. The recipes are easy to follow. The food is good. And my friends are jealous of my dinner photos and have even asked "where are you?" as if I had ordered from a restaurant. So at least two nights a week for the last three weeks, we have been eating Plated meals. We are now planning our meals around Plated deliveries and our schedule each week. Planned home-cooked meals may not last forever -- we are still newlyweds, after all -- but Plated will continue to be a delivery if I am in charge of meals.*It should be noted that my husband is a fantastic cook and has been cooking for me; I have not been eating fast food every night.