Melissa Joulwan Quarterly Subscription Box Review #EAT03
Melissa Joulwan is one of the newer Quarterly curators, and since her box has a paleo theme, I had to try it out. (I avoid dairy and gluten in my diet, so almost all paleo items work for me!)
If you aren’t familiar with Melissa Joulwan, here’ is her Quarterly mini-bio:
Melissa Joulwan is the author of two best-selling Paleo cookbooks and a healthy lifestyle blog called The ClothesMakeTheGirl.com. The theme of her boxes is eating clean, training hard, and living loud.
This box was sent to us for review purposes. (Check out the review process postto learn more about how we review boxes).
The Subscription Box: Melissa Joulwan for Quarterly
The Cost: $50 a box
The Products: A care package of paleo goodies plus a new recipe in each box.
Ships to: US and Worldwide.
Check out all of my Melissa Joulwan Quarterly Box reviews!
Melissa includes a handwritten/drawn letter with each box – the theme for this box is Spice Up Your Life.
Recipes included: Chicken Mole Meatballs, Cocoa BBQ Potato Chips, and Chicken Balti Curry.
King Arthur Flour Black Cocoa – Value $10
This cocoa is very strong and they recommend using it as an accent with regular dutch processed cocoa to get the flavor of the dark cocoa without overwhelming the dish. Melissa uses it sparingly in two of her recipes: The Chicken Mole Meatballs, and the Cocoa BBQ Potato Chips. She also includes more recipe suggestions on her blog, The Clothes Make The Girl.
Himalaya Spice Shakers – Value $29
I have purchased a few paleo cookbooks, and all of them include a section on making your own salt and spice blends, so I think this is a very appropriate inclusion in the box. Melissa also included 4 different spice blend recipes and suggestions for which types of dishes to use them on.
Spicely Organic Balti Seasoning – Value $13
This spice mix is organic, certified gluten-free, and also free of any fillers. Melissa uses it in the Chicken Balti Curry recipe, but it could work for pretty much any meat or poultry dish. And the box also came with a $10 gift certificate code to Spicely:
Simple Squares Organic Nutrition Bar in Chili Pep – Value $2.50
Spicely $10 Gift Card
This Chili Pep Bar was really good! I was expecting it to be pretty spicy, but it just had a hint of chili pepper, and I love that it is made with all organic ingredients.
Verdict: This box has a value of about $64.50. That’s in line with what I would expect from a food and food related items box, and I think that Melissa’s recipes add to the value. If you follow the paleo diet or just need to avoid some of the foods that are avoided on the paleo diet, I recommend this box. With my food intolerances, I sometimes feel like I’m making the same meals every week, so it’s nice to have new recipes and spices to mix things up!
What do you think of #EAT03?
Not sure if you already got the update Liz, but Melissa posted on her blog that the next box will be her last.
It is NOT a $10 gift card — it’s $10 off a $20 purchase.
Because of this tackiness, I won’t be purchasing anything from Spicely. If it was $10 off, I would probably spend quite a bit there. But don’t call something a gift and then make someone pay to receive your so-called gift.
Am so disappointed in this box, as I was in the last one. I missed her first one, which looked great. I don’t need the spice jars, which are rather hard to open.
Since I have free shipping on my next box too, I’ll stick with her one more time. But then will probably drop and purchase the few items I’m interested in separately after seeing your post 🙂
I use that black cocoa and add about a tablespoon to every recipe I have that involves chocolate. I confess to being a chocoholic.
I’m another one that loves King Arthur. I need to try the black cocoa. I didn’t subscribe, but would had enjoyed this box. I grow some of the spices we use and the shakers would had been put to use.
So glad you posted this review. My box was missing both the spice mix and the cocoa — what’s up with that? I was so unhappy I didn’t even read the recipe card that thoroughly which probably would have clued me in to the missing items!!
I continue to be conflicted by this box.
I keep going back and forth between subscribing or not. There’s always really great stuff but also always something I’m just not interested in. This box it’s the Himalaya salt shakers and last box it was the brass knuckle coffee mug. If these cheeky items weren’t so weighty in terms of the box’s overall value I would subscribe and just re gift but I can’t justify it. The salt shakers are useful but just not my style. They would sit in my cupboard and for $30 I’d rather something to display.
I also understand her style is fun and quirky so kudos to Melissa for putting together a box that personifies her so well.
Re: the black cocoa, I can’t second the SPARINGLY enough. That stuff is shockingly strong. As a Chocolate Lover, I made the mistake of being too heavy-handed with it the first time I tried to use it and it killed the dish. There are more recipes with it at the King Arthur site as well, and they now carry gluten free flours along with their regular products. (I’m a total King Arthur fan-girl. If they had a box, I would be 1st in line…)
It’s such a big bag for something that you only use sparingly!
I’m going to have to dole this out to my non-Paleo friends that bake.