Our Place Always Pan Review; The Only Pan Needed for Meal Subscription Green Chef
Our Place Always Pan Review for One Pan Meal
Does the Our Place Always Pan live up to its hype and Instagram ads, especially for a one pan meal? When having a boxed meal subscription service like Green Chef, do you need more than one pan or can it all be accomplished with a single pan as a one pan meal? I’ll answer all of these questions throughout, and more.
I’ve tried a few meal subscription services like Plated, Green Chef, Blue Apron, Chef’d, and Hello Fresh. The one that I’ve come back to and been the most loyal to is Green Chef. The main reasons are (1) the meals take under 30 minutes. (2) Green Chef has options for paleo and keto and my husband and I have done keto (him more successfully than me) and I generally think paleo has some benefits even though we’re not fully paleo. I can also switch to vegan and vegetarian when I want to be less meat centric, which I do eat 50% less meat than the average omnivore. Green Chef has provided me with a lot of flexibility, and the pressure to cook these meals before they go bad instead of making another pasta based dish which I would much rather eat.
The overall case for a meal subscription service like Green Chef is that my husband isn’t much of a cooker, but he’s an Engineer, and therefore, he can follow steps and read directions very well. We’re on the every-other week plan and he usually cooks a Green Chef once a week, relieving us of another night of unhealthy delivery food or of me going crazy trying to wedge cooking into another evening schedule. It helps with the delineation of the cooking responsibility. Plus, we’re only a two person house (+dog) so the cost isn’t very high with Green Chef when you don’t have to prepare meals for children too.
One thing I’ve learned is that if you have the right pan, you really only need one stove-top pan that’s capable of going into the oven, plus one baking-sheet pan. Those plus a couple knives, a cutting board, a couple mixing bowls, and tongs and/or large stirring spatulas/spoons… That’s all you need to successfully cook a Green Chef!
If you’re a bachelor/bachelorette or someone living a life with a few quality kitchen items vs having a full robust kitchen, then the Our Place Always Pan provides 80% of what you need to cook with Green Chef! The Our Place Always Pan comes with a spatula/wooden spoon that rests on the handle, it can go in the oven, has a lid, and even comes with a metal steamer basket. Knives, a cutting board, an oven baking sheet, and a couple mixing bowls are literally the only other items you’ll need! Yes, the Our Place Always Pan can be your one pan meal solution.
Let me tell you about my discovery journey with the Our Place Always Pan. Just like everyone else that fits into my demographic on Instagram, I was bombarded with ads from Our Place with cute displays of food in the pan, with all the cute ceramics and dishes they sell to go with the Always Pan. I also googled reviews and saw the price at $145. This wasn’t completely extreme for a good pan, but it was more than my Circulon pans, which I’ve actually been quite a fan of since I started using Circulon pans 13 years ago. I’m still using the majority of the original ones I purchased 13 years back. Circulon pans average $40-$80 per pan, and there’s a steep discount when purchasing a whole set, especially on sale or at a place like Costco when lucky enough to see them there.
The major difference between my Circulon pans and the Our Place Always Pan comes down to the non-stick. Circulon used to have the top-tier non-stick, and it’s still quite amazing. The Our Place Always Pan does have a ceramic non-stick that’s even better than other ceramic non-sticks. The non-stick is truly the most outstanding part of The Always Pan. In the below picture, this was one very delicate swipe and the pan comes clean. Even when items have been caramelizing for a while in the pan, the caramel stays on the food and the pan wipes clean. I was cooking a Green Chef in this picture. :)
Our Place Always Pan Review for One Pan Meal
“”The non-stick is truly the most outstanding part of The Always Pan. Even when items have been caramelizing for a while in the pan, the caramel stays on the food and the pan wipes clean.” ”
After viewing the Always Pan so many times on Instagram, especially during 2020 when we were cooking so much at home and spending more time than ever on social media… I continued to wonder if it was truly as wonderful as the ads made it out to be. Then, my husband and I visited his sister for Thanksgiving (don’t worry...we all quarantined before). My Sister-in-Law is a renowned Sommelier and a fantastic cook (check out our podcast episode together here). Liz is way better than the average home chef by far, both her and her husband are. I saw the Our Place Always Pan on their stove, and I had to ask what they thought! They both said it was remarkable and they highly recommended it.
Because it was Thanksgiving weekend, I decided to cave and check out Our Place to see if they were having a sale, and of course they were. I purchased the Our Place Always Pan. We stayed for a couple more days, where I witnessed my Sister-in-Law and Brother-in-Law both using the Always Pan way more than any other pan, sometimes even washing it to use it instead of grabbing an already clean pan. I knew I made a good purchase.
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When it comes to using the Always Pan for my Green Chef meals there are a couple major features that stand out. The pour spout and the spoon rest. With the lid on, I can line up the steam hole to the pour spout and strain any liquids from the pan without using a colander. The sides of the pan are also high enough to be used as a sauce pan. I wouldn’t boil pasta in it, but I would usually make pasta sauce. The pan is completely deep enough for that and it has pot-like characteristics too. Again, answering the question regarding whether or not the Our Place Always Pan can be your go to one pan meal solution. Yes it can!
Here are my two pieces of critical feedback of the Our Place Always Pan. One of them I knew before purchasing it. The second I learned from use after only one time. I have a pot rack and I hang all my pots and pans except my deep large pots from it. I can’t hang the Always Pan. There is a hook, but it’s on the opposite side of the handle and if I were to hang it from there, it would take up too much space on my pot rack. It would’ve been such a simple design addition for Our Place to have added the proper hook or place for one.
The second thing is that the handle is boxy, mostly to hold the spatula/wooden spoon. This boxy handle though hakes it hard to hold the weight of the pan when lifting it up to pour etc. This feature makes me think a man designed the Our Place Always Pan, because it’s hard on little hands. I ultimately give the pan 4 out of 5 stars.
I seem to grab the Our Place Always Pan more than any other pan, not just when making a Green Chef meal. If you are looking for one pan to inhabit your kitchen for your meal subscription plan, then I highly recommend the Our Place Always Pan. I have a hunch that Our Place will be around for a while. If they listen to their customers, I think the next iteration will be a solid 5-stars. Either way, I don’t recommend waiting.
If you’re interested in Green Chef, it’s the only meal subscription service where you can prepare the meals yourself with ingredients delivered to your door for Paleo. They also offer Keto, and even combine Keto and Paleo into 3 meals a week! Pro-tip… we order our Green Chef to be delivered every other week, and we usually save one meal for the following week. We’ll peek in the bags to determine what will save the best, and freeze the meat and pull it out the next week. So, our Keto and Paleo meals are as follows… Week 1 is two meals… Week 2 is one meal… Week 3 is two meals… Week 4 is one meal. This example is only two Green Chef deliveries.
These are not exclusive of each other. The Our Place Always Pan can be used for advanced Chefs and beginner cooks. I wanted to provide some guidance to those novice cooks using a meal subscription service that may be exploring a good pan to pair with the service, to make the experience much easier. If the Our Place Always Pan is out of budget, then I can’t recommend Circulon enough as well as I’ve been using them for 13 years. The Always Pan has had a few harsh critics, but I’m not so sure why. maybe when the hype gets too big, expectations get too high.
Green Chef has options for Keto, Vegan, Vegetarian, Paleo, Low Carb, Omnivore and Pescatarian. You can even combine a couple of these dietary restrictions into a few meals a week to curate your box.
Happy Cooking chefs and cooks! I hope you enjoyed this Our Place Always Pan Review and how I use the pan with almost every single Green Chef as my Always Pan and my Only Pan. I do believe it can be the only pan needed for meal subscription services like Green Chef, Blue Apron, Hello Fresh etc.
If you’re looking for a healthy food delivery service for your doggo, check out this review I did here on fresh doggy food deliveries!
Our Place Always Pan Discount!
For and exclusive $30 OFF the Our Place Always Pan, click the below link and enter the promo code BACK30 at checkout!
Green Chef $135 OFF Discount!
Typically, the referral discount for Green Chef is $55, but for a limited time, you can get a total of $135 OFF your first 5 boxes! You can of course cancel at any time, even before the promotion series has completed.
