We tried 3 different prepared vegan meal deliveries so you didn’t have to. My partner and I are both nurses who work night shift. While we love to cook, we found that we were scrambling to pack lunches last minute. Or if we prepared ahead, we were creating a lot of food waste when we ended up not eating the food we prepared. We wanted a healthy and not outrageously expensive option to make sure we were eating good, satisfying food.
The criteria I was looking for was simple:
- Ready-made meals that just need to be reheated
- This ruled out things like HelloFresh & Purple Carrot, which send you the ingredients that you prepare.
- Decent amounts of protein
- I’ve found that some meal plans that offer a vegan meal program (but don’t focus on it), lack calories or protein. We need protein to stay full on our long shifts!
- Affordable(?)
- This is all relative, and I don’t know that any of these services save us money compared to the grocery store. However, we are saving in terms of food waste and time, and those are valuable to us!
Pros:
- You select each meal you want, so you can pick exactly what’s appetizing to you and return to your favorites
- They are always running a sale or promo code. I get emails constantly advertising a 30% sale!
Cons:
- Some are oven-only, so they’re not ideal to pack in your lunch for work or school (which is the whole point I’m buying them!)
Overall review:
If you can get these meals for a better price than the others and picking exactly what you want, I would go with this choice. I appreciated being able to choose the meals I wanted, and if I did it again, I would know not to pick meals that had to be cooked in the oven.
Pros:
- Small packaging makes it easier to store in our small freezer
- Meals are high protein, filling, and delicious!
Cons:
- You don’t pick which meals you get, so it’s up in the air which meals are delivered to you.
- The packaging is difficult to open, and I would resort to scissors to cut off the plastic wrap.
Overall review:
These meals are delicious. I was excited to try each new meal. They were filling, most were protein-dense, and I liked all of them!
My top choice, and I will be ordering more of these. Even though they’re difficult to open, I do appreciate the packaging because of how easy they are to stack in the freezer and pack in a lunch bag!
Pros:
- Small packaging makes it easier to store, just like Trifecta.
Cons:
- Meals are refrigerated, not frozen. Some people might see this as a pro, but for me & my desire to have meals that last, I would prefer frozen meals!
- Again, like Trifecta, it’s up in the air which meals you get delivered.
Overall review:
These were my least favorite meals. While they were filling, there wasn’t one meal where I thought, “Wow, that’s so good, I need to eat that again!”
I had one meal with chickpeas where the chickpeas weren’t even soft… they were cooked crunchy chickpeas. Very strange, and really not for me. This could be related to the fact that they make vegan meals, but aren’t vegan-focused. Trifecta is non-vegan as well, though, and they made amazing meals…
In conclusion…
Trifecta would be my top choice for meal deliveries, with Veestro coming in a close second. I would not order Fresh n’Lean again. I think meal delivery is worth it for the convenience and the quality of meals.
I recommend looking into the nutrition of the meals from Veestro vs. Trifecta to determine what is right for you!
In the future, I would like to try local meal deliveries and consider lower waste options, too!
Do you use a meal delivery service? How do you make sure you’re eating balanced meals?
