When we first locked down, I lost about 20 lbs (of the 40 I could stand to lose). I guess I thought this would be over soon and I felt challenged and energized and all that crap. Since then I’ve put it all back on. I haven’t been walking, as it’s 78-80 degrees (91% humidity) at 6:00 am, and with the Delta surge, walking at the mall has been feeling like a not-so-good option.
Even though I’m a household of one (human, that is) I struggle with meal planning. First World Problem, big time-- I know. I admire those of you who are feeding households of multiple humans.
This service got a great review in March 2021:
so I just signed up for the Keto (low carb) option. Best for blood sugar control and also for weight loss (for me). I chose a plan with 10 meals per week. I’ve been doing Intermittent Fasting so I didn’t want breakfast. The net cost was $109 (which includes $20 off that I found by googling “Fresh-n-Lean discount code”).
I have faced the fact that I can’t be trusted to make good choices for myself. And there’s no one here to police me. Not proud of that, but I’m being realistic.
Back in July, @needscoffee posted that they knew someone who used F&L. Anyone else know about this one or use another meal delivery service? I read extensively about Nutrisystem, but it seem like it would not fit me.
Went to their page and tried to set up allergies, as I have MUSHROOM, shellfish and palm/coconut. Only allergy excluded they would let me set was shellfish so apparently they don’t understand that shrooms and palm/coconut are extremely common allergies … so right off the bat, a no go.
If one has no allergies, one may set up to 3 ingredients that one dislikes, so it is perhaps not a service for those who have more than 3 dislikes or are not adventurous.
And third strike, I am very picky with my ingredients, I like to pick and choose my ingredients.
If I were a dazzling urbanite, I can feed my husband and myself for the $24 a day 2 meal per day plan cost [actually I crunched the menu budget for next week and it came out to $22, last week was $27 so it all depends on how we menu plan.] or as a solo act, I could go out to eat for that price if I stuck to diner style eating instead of fine restaurants =)
I personally use Hungry Root, and I like it pretty well; it’s plant heavy and their own pre-made items are good. It’s one where you have to do a little assembly, but not as much as something like Hello Fresh. I consider it an extravagance, but it makes meals easy for me (I also hate meal planning and cooking).
I can’t use it for all dinners for the reason @aruvqan mentions, which is that my partner has a lot of severe allergies (nuts, peanuts, shellfish, legumes) and those are too hard to avoid. I wish more meal shipping services had the ability to filter by allergy, but I understand why they can’t. I do think the strike method sounds interesting!
I find elk and venison are more or less identical [bison is different, more like beef but not exactly, and horse is different from all 3] The very lean aspect of it does change ones cooking style, but all things considered, I would be happy with a freezer full of javalina, venison/elk and horse [ok, roast me now, but horse has a long history as food even in europe. In many wars, the main benefit to cavalry is self portable food supply.]
One has to find some way to evaluate choices, 3 strikes is as valid as pro/con list making or even flipping a coin if both options are equal.
I can understand being not as choosy as some people are, I am very particular about my meats as an example many cuts of steak have a nasty thread of gristle running through it, and I have TMJD which makes trying to gnaw my way through gristle painful. I like good marbleing, and a decent thickness [sometimes we end up buying a primal cut and cutting it down ourselves. ] Veggies and fruits are also something that I prefer to choose, one can tell a lot about a fruit with respect to ripeness and overall quality that doesn’t happen if some picker is just grabbing 12 pluats and 3 mangos off a stack.
My overall rating: good to quite good. Compared to excellent home-cooking or a great restaurant meal? Nah, they don’t reach those heights. Compared to average grocery-store frozen entrees? Much better. About the same level as what I consider the best grocery-store frozen entrees, e.g., Stouffers lasagna and stuffed green peppers, Michelangelo’s eggplant parmesan. The entrees are flavorful – not bland or dull. Even the one called “chili” had flavor that was acceptable to this Texan.
I chose the Keto plan and below is a link to next week’s entrees, which will be delivered to me Friday (day after tomorrow). They don’t look this good, because they’re mashed and shrink-wrapped into plastic-ish trays, but the pictures are an honest representation of what you get. (Click on “keto” at the top of the page.)
I’m going to stick with the plan for… I don’t know how long, but for the foreseeable future.
Plusses:
The kind of food I need to be eating to lose my 20 pandemic pounds
Taste pretty good
AMPLE portion sizes (even though it may not look like it in the pictures). I have had to push myself to finish each one
I can supplement with fruit and salad, but otherwise don’t have to think about meal planning.
They’re not frozen and heat up in microwave in 2 mins 30 secs! That’s fast. They keep for 11 days after delivery.
It’s strictly month-to-month with no commitment or contract.
I’ve had occasion to contact customer service a couple of times when my phone number was out of order, and I got immediate help from a real person.
They come packed in a box lined on all sides with recyclable insulation, and frozen, non-toxic gel packs are scattered among the items inside the box. Packing is completely adequate.
Minuses:
10 meals is $130, which is not cheap, and each one is definitely not worth $13. But the convenience factor, the streamlined grocery trips where I just get fruit, household/toiletries, dairy, dog stuff is overall saving me money (I think).
I’m feeling some guilt and even shame over the fact that as a financially secure household of one human (+ dog and two cats), I can even DO this without considering the cost. But that is the case.
I’m sure it will get boring, but then so does cooking for myself. (A first world problem, I know.)
All things considered, I recommend this meal service.
Do you get to choose which meals you get?
On that menu page, there are 14 options. Do you get to select the 10 you want? Or do they pick the 10 for you after they’ve eliminated the 3 dislikes?
I’m really glad you asked that! I don’t know the specific answer to your excellent question, but I’ve emailed Customer Service to ask.
I have now explored the site more fully and have downsized my weekly order from 10 entrees to 8. Apparently you can create your own order a la carte, but I haven’t found the a la carte option yet.
This is the type of website design that I HATE – very photo-heavy (which makes sense on a food-ordering site), but not organized in a clearly hierarchical way. It’s like wandering through the Winchester Mystery House.
Anyhoo, if you’re in the mood, visit the FAQ section and maybe you’ll find the answer and can post it here before I hear back from the CSR.
ETA: One of the upsides to this ordering process is that I don’t want any choices.
Our menu is chefs’ choice, to keep prices reasonable and dishes varied, our weekly menus are created based on the availability of local fresh ingredients and their seasonality. To allow for some sort of customization we allow exclusions to be added to your subscription. Ingredients are not substituted. If you choose to exclude an item your order will not contain any meals with listed exclusions. I do want to let you know that the more exclusions you list the higher the likeliness of receiving duplicate meals. Your order is packed based on availability at the time of packing and of course any exclusions you may list!
