Unless you’re a very organized person, dutifully shopping for the week’s groceries and prepping meals so you (and your family) can enjoy fresh, thoughtfully put together meals throughout the week, you’re always looking for some sort of magic bullet when it comes to dinner. (Or lunch. Or breakfast. But we digress.)
This is why I’m excited to tell you about Healthy Fresh Meals: a service where you can order meals prepared by a professional chef, with your needs in mind. The meals are delivered to your home and you don’t have to belong to a member program to order the meals: You just sign up on their website, pick what you want to eat, pay for your meal and an additional $10 for a delivery fee, and come Sunday, you have a fresh and tasty meal delivered to you! You can keep the meals in your fridge for at least a whole working week. The best part is that they are really, really good.
Healthy Fresh Meals recently contacted me so I could give several options on their menu a try. Ahead of time, they asked me if I had any dietary restrictions; in our household, we don’t eat much gluten, so I stated that as a preference. On Monday, I received five pre-packaged meals: a turkey chili, a salmon filet served with mashed potatoes and string beans, a gluten-free shepherd’s pie, a sweet potato stuffed with barbecued pork, and a vegetable tikka masala.
Each meal came with a label that stated the ingredients; the calories in the meal along with the carb, protein and fat content; as well as the heating instructions. The portions as packaged are meant to be for one person. However, the portions are generous: For instance, the blackened salmon I was sent appeared to be a 6 oz. piece, but the mashed potato portion was generous enough for two people to eat. The turkey chili, if you mix it with a salad, would make a nice meal for two people. The barbecued pork stuffed inside the sweet potato was massive: the sweet potato was a rather large one to begin with, and there was enough pulled pork to make two sandwiches. On the other hand, the vegetable tikka masala was the most diet-portioned of the offerings.
I heated all of meals following package directions and they were well heated and the taste was excellent. The standouts among my meals were the salmon and the barbecue pork. The salmon was perfectly cooked and blackened. It was impressive how well the fish held up to microwave reheating, which can dry out food. The flavors were bold and yet unfussy. Same goes for the pulled pork: the meat shone on its own, with very little need for the BBQ sauce that came with the packet (which was nice and tangy). My least favorite of the meals was the vegetable tikka masala, which while it was nice and full of veggies and served with nice jasmine rice, it lacked some of the authentic curry flavors. Still, the dish had very nice heat.
Want to try Healthy Fresh Meals? Head over to healthyfreshmeals.com and order. Live on the Hill? Use code CAPHILL! to waive the delivery fee! Bon appétit!