Finally! I bring the final review of the Dinnerly meal kit. The onslaught of August’s wall-to-wall, packed schedule of events has passed and I am seeing the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. And hopefully now I’ll have more time for writing… Hopefully.

The final meal in our recent Dinnerly meal-kit delivery box was Ginger Caramel Chicken with Steamed Green Beans and Rice. This meal was not only incredibly delicious, it was fairly simple to execute. That’s the great thing about these meal-kit delivery services. They offer a variety of meal options for a reasonable cost geared towards a busy professional or family.

These meal-kit delivery services allow the home cooks, novice or semi-pro, to put a great meal on the table for dinner without worrying about spending precious time finding recipes, planning, shopping, and prepping ingredients for meals week in and week out. Besides this, some people (one sweet teacher I know comes to mind) don’t even like all of the aforementioned, so it provides a way for them to get out of their pre-packaged/fast-food dinner rut. It’s like having takeout, only better!

This recipe is billed as a “low calorie” meal, but “low calorie” is… subjective… This meal comes in at 568cals, but every one of the elements of this meal has a place. One could argue that the rice could be supplanted with riced cauliflower or oodles of zoodles, but there’s just something about a healthy pile of fluffy jasmine rice to seal the Chinese carryout meal! The one improvement I made to the recipe is that I cooked the rice in Better Than Bouillon Roasted Chicken Base instead of the “pinch of salt” requested. Yes, it may be sacrilegious as I’m told it’s not an authentic way to prepare Asian rice, but it produced a full-flavored bed for our sticky, salty, umami ginger chicken and green beans.

The other advantages I had in my arsenal to ratchet this meal up a notch, were Lee Kum Kee Sesame Oil and Nakano Rice Vinegar. I used both of these in place of the standard oil and vinegar ingredients listed. Both helped to really send the “takeout” flavors over the finish line to victory. The meal would have been amazing having been made per the recipe instructions, but it’s also ok to bend the rules and play around a bit. The whole point is to successfully bring a delicious, satisfying meal to the table. No matter which avenues you take to get there, the point is to arrive at that destination.

Minus the crab rangoons we usually order, it was really good and incredibly filling! What are some of your favorite Chinese takeout orders?