Exploring Freshly: The Gluten Free and Peanut Free Home Delivery Service

This month I had the great opportunity to partner with a company named Freshly. They sent me a total of 6 meals to try out. They did not ask for a review, but I wanted to write up a review for my subscribers and offer you guys a $20.00 off coupon code which will be at the end of the post. As many of you know before I found out I had Celiacs Disease my weight shot up to 186 pounds over a 2 year period because I was having allergic reactions to gluten and was unaware. It wasn't  until I went on a totally clean diet that gluten was almost eliminated from my diet and I lost 72 pounds in 10 months just by eating one Lean Cuisine for lunch, a clean dinner, and walking a few miles a day or doing pilates. My main reason for bringing this up is that the Lean Cuisines were a key reason I lost weight. At that time I knew very little about nutrition and how to make a healthy meal. When I think back on it now I can remember so many things I did completely wrong thinking it was healthy. So having these pre-packaged meals where I didn't have to think about the nutrition was an integral part of my weight loss. 

Now, many times since I first lost weight I have had to go back to this method of weight loss to lose 5 to 10 pounds (usually after the Holidays or a vacation) and it's very very hard to do that because Lean Cuisine only has like 10 gluten free dinners and they aren't that tasty and it's touch and go on what you can find in the stores. So, when I saw Freshly was gluten free and processed in a completely gluten free facility I was like... well OK. Someone finally did it!

HOW IT WORKS: Freshly is a membership service where you can choose a meal plan and pick out what meals you want for the week. If you only want lunch you can get meals for lunch, if you want breakfast you can do that also and if you want both you can do that. It's $60.00 for 6 (very large) meals. With Freshly, skipping weeks or canceling your plan is easy. You can skip a week or cancel anytime as long as you notify them by your weekly deadline before an upcoming delivery. All of the meals are pre-portioned and complete with nutritional information on the back as well as online and the heating instructions and a full ingredient list is on the back of the box.

What I found to be great is that Freshly can accommodate a variety of dietary preferences and their entire menu is free of gluten and peanuts; and their facility is gluten and peanut free to limit cross contamination. If you don’t eat red meat, fish, shellfish or pork - you can find meals to accommodate your lifestyle.

The meals are delivered fresh and never frozen and packaged in a refrigerated box and shipped with ice packs to keep your package cold during transit. When you get your box, simply unload and place your meals directly in the refrigerator and almost all the contents in the Freshly box are 100% recyclable!

After looking through the website's nutritional information, almost every meal (excluding breakfast which I did not check) ranges from 400 to 600 calories per serving. For me, the serving size is pretty large so each meal was actually two servings which did make it a little harder since the food arrives fresh with a expiry date. I am a pretty picky eater and the slightest thing can turn me off from a meal. I was not sure what to expect, but to be honest, I eat Lean Cuisines and the Healthy Choice meals so I was like I am sure this is much better than that stuff. So, on Thursday I opened my first meal: The roasted turkey with quinoa stuffing and green bean and mushroom casserole. The directions and nutrition info are printed on the back of the box.

roasted turkey with quinoa stuffing, and green bean and mushroom casserole 560 calories

This is how the meal looks in the package and the company actually advises to heat it up and re-plate it for a better eating experience.

So, I must admit, re-plating the food makes it feel like real food that you cooked. It completely negates the "microwave dinner" vibe. Also, re-plating the food gave me a sense of this is my own creation. It's hard to explain, especially if you are not a foodie, then the plating probably won't matter to you.

So, I did notice this food is high in sodium and I almost grabbed the salt before I sat down and I remembered one, I didn't taste it yet. And two, its already high in sodium so regardless I won't be adding more salt. Surprisingly, the salt levels were perfect; the food was enjoyable and it tasted great.

A few years ago I tried Hello Fresh and although the food was fresh, it didn't taste fresh to me. With this meal I did not feel that way.

Braised Rosemary pork with kale and red potatoes 490 calories

Grilled chicken risotto with butternut squash 600 calories

Steak peppercorn with sauteed carrots and french cut green beans 510 calories

Chicken Provencal with roasted cauliflower mash 420 calories

Chicken Livorno with white beans and kale 560 calories

In closing, every single meal was enjoyable. They (for me) made two meals per one box and they reheated well the second time. The ingredients were fresh and none of the meals were too salty. I have never had quinoa stuffing or cauliflower mash before and found them both to be rather enjoyable. The only meal I was not 100% wowed by was the chicken risotto with squash - my husband really liked it though. I ordered mostly chicken meals since I wasn't sure what to expect and I don't really eat a ton of pork or steak. All of the meals containing chicken were all cooked at the same consistency. They chicken was never dry or overcooked. The turkey was the same way. As for the steak my husband who loves steak said even though he had to reheat it twice it still remained tender; it helped that the container explicitly said only to heat it for 15 seconds.

This 6 day meal plan was way better than any microwave dinner I have ever purchased and I did not have to think about what I was eating for lunch for almost 10 days.  My only regret is not ordering that buffalo chicken breast with cauliflower mash!

Use my coupon code style639, which will give first-time users $20 off their 6 meal plan!

*Not a sponsored post, meals c/o Freshly