Meal Delivery Services

Veestro – Meal Delivery Reviews

Meal Delivery Programs: Part 3

(Scroll down for links to Part 1: Sakara, and Part 2: Freshly)

*I was not compensated for these reviews, all opinions expressed are my own*

 

Veestro

veestro.com (Disclaimer: If you order through this link you will get 15% off and I will get “reward points” to use towards future orders)

Veestro offers organic non-GMO plant-based meals which you can order a la carte or as a “meal pack”. Veestro’s meals include breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, and juices. I ordered 13 items a la carte, including breakfast, dinner, and dessert items. A la carte breakfast and dinner entrees cost about $10-12 per meal. You get a slight discount with a subscription but I chose the a la carte option so I didn’t have to worry about skipping weeks or cancelling my account. The meals arrive frozen and can be kept in the freezer until you’re ready to eat them, so it is less structured than other programs but you can place one big order instead of getting weekly deliveries. I liked the meals from Veestro a lot, especially as another option to add variety to my groceries. The meals were really good as well as healthy and they had items that I would normally have to make from scratch to be gluten and dairy free. The meals have specific thawing and heating instructions listed on the packaging as well as calorie and nutrition information.

One drawback is that not all of their meals are GF so you have to be careful when ordering. I also felt like I needed to clear space in my freezer in preparation of receiving my order because I wanted to save money on shipping and get a lot at once. Because there doesn’t seem to be much seasonal variety I don’t think I could use Veestro for my meals exclusively without it becoming very repetitive. Although I like it as a supplement to my usual groceries, Veestro can’t provide 100% of my meals because I wouldn’t be getting enough variety or fresh vegetables.

Pros: all vegan non-GMO and organic, large variety of meals, meals can be kept in freezer, calories listed, less/no commitment

Cons: not all gluten free, not a lot of leafy greens, unstructured

Tips:

  1. Follow thawing instructions listed on packaging, since ovens vary you may need to microwave the meal to give it a boost
  2. Watch out for some extremely high calorie items
  3. If you’re looking for more structure check out the subscription and juicing programs

Favorite Meals: Enchilada Casserole, Mushroom Risotto, Spanish Torta, Eggplant Casserole, Veggie Lasagna

Summary: I would order these again, they’re super convenient and add variety to my usual grocery store purchases

 

You can read my reviews of other meal delivery programs at the following links:

Part 1: Sakara

Part 2: Freshly

Part 4: Splendid Spoon

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Meal Delivery Services

Freshly – Meal Delivery Reviews

Meal Delivery Services: Part 2

(scroll down for link to Part 1: Sakara)

*I was not compensated for these reviews, all opinions expressed are my own*

Freshly

freshly.com

Freshly works a bit different from Sakara; you choose a 4, 6, 9, or 12 meal per week subscription and then pick out the specific meals you want on their website. Depending on the subscription you choose the cost ranges from $8.99-$12.50 per meal. All of the meals are gluten free and free from refined sugar, and their facility is gluten and peanut free. Freshly seems to focus more on Paleo customers and they stress that their meals are packed with protein. All of the meals list calorie information and specific heating instructions so that was a plus for me; the meals come in microwaveable packaging so they were much easier to prepare than the Sakara meals. Freshly’s meals are all hot meals and this was a welcome change after eating a lot of soggy, cold salads. The meals arrive refrigerated and can be frozen if you don’t want to eat them within a week of delivery. Freshly also seems to do a good job of offering foods that re-heat well in the microwave and travel well without getting soggy or wilted. You can skip a week or cancel your subscription at any time, but if you don’t actively go on the website to skip/cancel you automatically are “opted-in” each week so you have to remember if you want to skip a week.

Although there were some positives to this program, I was not a big fan. I am not used to eating a lot of meat and these meals were very meat-heavy in my opinion and just didn’t seem very healthy.When I was selecting meals I got frustrated because there weren’t very many dairy free options. This was an issue for me because the selections don’t change much from week to week and there were maybe 5 dairy free options, so I knew if I continued with this program I would be eating the same things nearly every week. If you can eat dairy you will have a lot more options than I did so you might like it better. The meals also seem to focus more on dinner rather than breakfast or lunch, although I believe they are adding more breakfast options.

Pros: easy microwave meals, heat up well, hot meals, calories listed

Cons: not a lot of fresh veggies, not a lot of dairy free options, meat heavy IMO

Favorite Meals: Chicken Livorno with white beans and kale, Ancho Chicken Quinoa Lentil Pilaf

Tips:

  1. I would recommend Freshly to people who eat a lot of meat and dairy
  2. Set up your weekly order in advance because they do run out of certain meals

Summary: I cancelled this service during the second week and I think I still have one of the meals in my freezer months later – despite the convenience this was not a winner in my book.

 

You can read my reviews of other meal delivery programs at the following links:

Part 1: Sakara

Part 3: Veestro

Part 4: Splendid Spoon

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Holidays, Product Recommendations

Gluten Free Halloween Candy

Halloween can be a tough time for those of us on a gluten free diet – thankfully there are many candies that are safe to include in a gluten free diet. Some of my favorites are Swedish Fish, Sour Patch Kids, and YumEarth Candy Corn. Other candies like Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups(original only) and Hershey kisses are gluten free but contain other allergens. A quick online search will tell you if a candy is gluten free – when in doubt, Google it. (There’s a great list on celiac.org)

 

Be sure to use caution as some candies have special holiday varieties that are not Celiac-safe(for example, Holiday shape Reese’s are subject to cross contamination) and some may change ingredients.

Don’t worry if some of your old favorites aren’t gluten free, many gluten free and allergen free copycats of popular candies have become available in recent years. GoMaxGo Foods makes gluten free and dairy free versions of many popular candy bars, and Enjoy Life Foods makes allergen free chocolate bars in a few different varieties.

When Trick-Or-Treating make sure to check everything carefully before consuming – and check out The Teal Pumpkin Project. The Teal Pumpkin Project promotes inclusion for trick-or-treaters with food allergies – look for teal pumpkins in your neighborhood to denote that a house has allergen free or non-food treats available. If you want to participate in the Teal Pumpkin Project by providing allergy safe items to your Trick-or-Treaters be sure to add your home to the map on their website. You can get a Teal Pumpkin Project yard sign or inflatable teal pumpkin on Amazon, and Amazon also has some great options for non-food treats to give away. Glow sticks, Halloween themed party favors, crayons, bouncy balls, and stickers are treats that all kids can enjoy – you can find more ideas on the Teal Pumpkin Project website.

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Meal Delivery Services

Sakara – Meal Delivery Reviews

There are tons of meal delivery programs that have been gaining popularity recently – and many of them offer gluten free options. A meal delivery program can be great for someone who is transitioning to a gluten free lifestyle or anyone who wants the convenience of not having to grocery shop, plan, and cook all of their meals. These programs can help to take the guesswork out of going gluten free and can add more variety for anyone who is overwhelmed by gluten free cooking. But are they any good? I wanted to find out for myself so I tested out 4 different companies: Sakara, Freshly, Veestro, and Splendid Spoon.

I will post my thoughts on these in the order that I tried them, starting with Sakara –

*I was not compensated for these reviews, all opinions expressed are my own*

Sakara Meal Delivery Service Review skinneebs.com

 

Sakara

sakara.com (Disclaimer: If you purchase through this link you will get $50 off your order and so will I)

Sakara offers a 3 day per week program and a 5 day per week program of breakfast, lunch and dinner. I chose the 3 day per week program which was delivered by mail on Tuesday afternoons. They deliver throughout the US by mail(you get all 3 days of food in one delivery) but if you live in NYC or LA I believe they deliver your food daily. The total cost per meal with shipping comes out to about $46 per meal(the most expensive of the programs I tried). However, the food is all vegan, gluten free, and organic – so I know they are using high quality ingredients. You can skip a week or cancel your subscription at any time, otherwise you are “opted-in” automatically to receive the meals each week. Their website does have a calendar feature that allows you to schedule a skip week a few weeks in advance.

The big positive feature of this program for me was that there were a lot of unique flavor combinations and they utilized ingredients that I wouldn’t have thought to purchase. There were a lot of leafy greens and the menu changes weekly so I definitely got the variety I was looking for. I found most other meal services do not change their menus weekly so this set Sakara apart. Some meals are repeated within a season(especially if you do the 5 day program) but I did not have many repeat meals.  Sakara also includes some products with your subscription in addition to the meals; for each day that you have meals ordered you also receive their detox tea(2 tea bags), beauty water, and detox water. The beauty water has rose and silica and is meant to start off your morning; the detox water has chlorella and is supposed to aid with sleep. The detox tea is caffeine free and intended to help with digestion after lunch. I enjoyed the bonus products although I found it difficult to get in the habit of drinking all 3 every day and often missed at least one(I now have a stockpile of their tea bags and water concentrates). I also ordered some of their other snack products including their trio of popcorns(sea salt, kettle corn, and cheezy) and beauty chocolates; the cheezy popcorn was my favorite but I felt it was overpriced so I have started making my own. Another bonus of this program is that they really cater to social media; their packaging is beautiful and they often include “swag” with your subscription delivery.

I felt Sakara started off strong but then I noticed a decline in the quality as time went on, particularly after they were featured on a large platform. This makes me think they might have grown too quickly and couldn’t keep up. One issue I had with this program was that the meals would get rather soggy by the 3rd day since they had been prepared 4-5 days in advance. Salads are not particularly suited to sit for days at a time especially with the components already assembled, so this made some of the meals unappetizing. This is a difficult problem to solve with meal delivery programs, particularly with so many leafy greens involved. However I felt they made some avoidable mistakes and I wasn’t fully satisfied with how they were handled. For example, one of my deliveries arrived with the interior covered in chili and upon further inspection I realized the lid of the soup container just hadn’t been screwed on properly. When I emailed Sakara about this they only offered to refund that one meal, even though the rest of my meals for the week had been soaked with chili. I also wasn’t a fan of how they prepared avocado – the avocado was covered in seeds to try to cover up the browning, I found this gross and would have preferred the avocado be left out. Another issue I had with this program was that they don’t allow you to choose any of your meals, you just get whatever is on the menu. If you don’t like the menu your only option is to skip that week entirely, so it’s a “take it or leave it” system. I also was disappointed that the best breakfast items(ie. Cinnamon rolls) seemed to always fall on the weekend so only the 5 day per week subscribers got to try them. Additionally, the ingredients are listed on the packaging but no calorie/nutritional information is provided for the meals. While at least 1 meal per day was a salad, often breakfast or dinner would need to be heated up(or vastly improved by heating) and Sakara does not provide specific instructions for the best way to do this so I was often left guessing about how long I should heat something and what temperature to set my oven/wok etc.

Pros: All GF vegan and organic, lots of variety and interesting combinations, leafy greens and fresh vegetables

Cons: dominated by salads, many meals were soggy, can’t choose your meals, calories not listed, confusing to heat up different meals

Tips:

1. A wok is useful for heating up many of the meals

2.  For nearly all of the dishes too much dressing is provided, to the point where your meal gets very soggy if you use all of it, so have some extra greens on hand in case you over-dress.

3. If you live in the NYC or LA delivery areas you will probably be happier with the freshness of these meals

Favorite Meals: Zen Zucchini Muffin, Sakara Bibimbap, margherita flatbread, and patatas mas bravas(a savory breakfast dish)

Summary: This program kept me motivated for the first few weeks but seemed to decline in quality after that. I would consider ordering again for a detox/reset but I don’t think I would do it long-term again.

 

My reviews of other meal delivery programs in this series will be available at the following links:

Part 2: Freshly

Part 3: Veestro

Part 4: Splendid Spoon

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