Facebook Foods: Texas Lonestar Tamales

This company definitely lives up to it's name.  I have not had Tamales this good since the last time I was in Texas.

The price is reasonable.  They come in frozen packages of 6 tamales in a variety of flavors.  There are a variety of combinations and flavors.

I bought a combo pack that included beef, pork, chicken and jalapeno, and cheese.  I also added a package of the Chocolate tamales.  In case you are skeptical of sweet tamales, one of my favorite restaurants in Houston served a sweet tamale that tasked like it had white chocolate and cream cheese in that was amazing, so I thought I would give these a try.

Of all of the different instructions, I boiled my in the package.  I let it boil for 25 mins, then I let it sit in the pan of hot water since the middle ones were still cold where they were pressed together. They were moist and full of flavor.  Very, very good stuff.

Then I tried the chocolate ones for dessert.  I did not really expect much, but I was cautiously optimistic.  I was pleasantly surprised.  While it had a little of that Masa meal texture to it, which I don't care for but it is a tamale after all, the chocolate flavor was intense.  It was almost like eating a lava cake or a brownie.

Two thumbs up on this one.

Facebook Food: Eastern Standard Provisions

 I am expanding my food selections to food ads that I see on Facebook.  The first one that I tried were pretzels from Eastern Standard Provisions

These warm pretzels came frozen with the salt in a separate package.  They offered different flavors of Salt, but I chose to get just the basic pretzel salt.  I ordered the Bites and the Turnbuckle Sticks.  I cooked them according to the directions - kind of.  I did a small batch, brushing them with a little butter and sprinkling the salt as directed.  Then I did a small batch brushing them with butter, then coating them with a mix of cinnamon and sugar.

Both versions came out very good.  The pretzels did not have a "frozen" taste to them like you find when you buy soft pretzels in the grocery store freezer section.  They were soft and chewy and very enjoyable.  It reminded me of ones from bakeries.

They are a little pricey (Unless you compare them to Auntie Annie's in the mall), but definitely worth trying.  Plus, if you have ever tried to make homemade soft pretzels, it is worth not going through the pain and effort.

Meal Delivery Service: Freshly

This is the first service I tried that was a Pre Made service.  Overall, it was good, not great, but it was a pre-made meal, so it is not going to be able to compete with home made.

Pros:

• Very convenient
• Healthy quality food
• Much lower in sodium and preservatives than a typical frozen meal

Cons:

• Price
• Instructions on the package were incorrect.  Most had instructions such as "Microwave for 3 mins, let sit for 2 mins" when what it should have said was "Microwave for 3 mins, break up large chunks, microwave for 2 mins, then let sit for 2 mins"

I don't think I would "subscribe" to this service, but I would definitely consider a box every now and then to have a good selection of frozen meals for lunch or when I don't feel like making dinner.  Definitely not a good choice for a family plan.

Meal Delivery Service: Gobble

I really liked this service.  It was a little more expensive than every plate, but the food satisfied a wider taste palette.

Pros:

• Packaging - each meal came in individual packages, so no figuring out which ingredients you needed from a box full of ingredients
• Some parts of the meal were pre-made, great for saving time and making sides that you would not normally make
• Meal choices ranged from familiar home flavors to a more international palette, such as Lemon Shrimp with Romanesco
• Good quality and fresh food

Cons:

• Packaging - not environmentally friendly with all of the extra plastic
• Some parts of the meal were pre-made, so it was more difficult to customize the flavor
• Cost - not a deal breaker, but it is not the lowest cost on the market

Meal Delivery Service: Everyplate

 Everyplate offers what I consider to be "homestyle" foods.  Things such as Pork Chops with Gravy, Meatloaf, etc.  

Pros: 

• Their portions are nicely done and really helps to judge appropriate portion sizes even when when not eating one of their meals
• They have a nice balance of meat, vegetables and carbs.
• The meals were easy to prepare with most taking about 30 mins.
• I saved the recipe cards so I could use them later
• One of the best priced of the services

Cons:

• They only offer 2 and 4 person options.  I was going to send this to a family of 6, so I created 2 accounts - one for 2 people and one for 4 people - based on the recommendation of the person I spoke with on their support chat.  However, when I did this, they cancelled my 4 person order and only sent the 2 person order because the 4 person order was a "duplicate account" - and they did it after the last date for me to change the order, so I had no chance to call them and try to fix it.    This was huge for me and even though this was my favorite of all I have tried so far, I cancelled my account.
• The meals are not "healthy" in the sense that some of the other services are healthy.  Their recipes do call for things like butter.  However, for me, I found myself eating more vegetables and less meat because of the way they had their portioning. 

I will update this post if there are any changes based on what i hear from Customer Service.  Customer Service said I opened the second subscription incorrectly.  Because I was paying for it, even though I was sending it to someone else, it was not allowed to be subscribed to as a new customer under the new person's name and using the new person's email.

Summary:  Food is really good.  Cost is reasonable.  Customer Service is severely lacking.

I have been taking pictures from services after this one, so you can see what comes in a box.

Meal Delivery Service: Daily Harvest

I tried this meal service before actually doing any research.  I like the idea of what they offered.

They offer soups, bowls, smoothies and flatbreads.  

The smoothies were good, but because of the seeds and such they used as ingredients, they ended up tasting gravelly to me.  They did not taste bad, I simply did not like the texture.

The flatbreads were good and had some interesting flavors

The bowls were Ok, but I had to do a good bit of trial and error with adding water because the instructions did not seem to work for the actual bowl.  Once I got it right, the bowls were good, but I wasted money getting there.  In general, I found that you need a good bit more liquid than called for in the instructions.  Also, and I know this kind of goes against what they do, I often used vegetable or chicken stock to improve the flavor.

The soups were much the same as the bowls - especially around trial and error and flavor.

The meals were decently priced, and with the fact that they are mostly free made and frozen, it makes the service very flexible because you can stock up and order again when you run out.  The meals were also filling and healthy - I actually lost a noticeable amount of weight during the week that I used their products.

The downside for me is the taste/texture.  The smoothies, which were definitely my favorite, I didn't like the texture, and the other items were good, but not to my taste - not that they would not be to yours, but they were not to mine.

Meal Delivery Services: Sun Basket

To be fair, it was years ago that I tried Sun Basket.  Meal delivery services were fairly new, and I was excited about not having to go to the grocery as often and eating healthier without having to worry about getting too much and having groceries go bad.

Pros:

• The food was excellent quality.  
• The recipes were diverse and delicious.  
• They often included ingredients I had not tried before, but being able to cook them and discover their flavors was great.

Cons:

• It was expensive.  
• Even though I consider myself a pretty good home chef, some of them were challenging for me.  
• Most of the meals had a long prep time with an hour being about average.

Choosing a Service

First, I just tried Daily Harvest because I liked smoothies. :) We will talk about that in a later entry.

Second, I eliminated Yumbles from my list because I don't have children.

After that, I eliminated limited delivery area options. This excluded:

• Fresh Direct
• Amazon Fresh Meal

Next, I eliminated the Vegetarian options. I am not vegetarian. However, if one of the companies want to send me a free box so I can review it, I would be happy to do that. That eliminated:

• Splendid Spoon
• Daily Harvest
• Purple Carrot
• Hungryroot
• Sakara Life
• Veestro

Then I eliminated the high cost services (anything over $12/meal). That removed:

• Factor_ (borderline high cost)
• Sun Basket
• Martha and Marley Spoon

So here is what was left in the "Try these first" list:

• Gobble
• Everyplate
• Green Chef
• Fresh and Lean
• Snap Kitchen
• Dinnerly
• Freshly (borderline on the cost)
• Home Chef's Fresh and Easy
• Home Chef
• Blue Apron (borderline on the cost)
• HelloFresh

Of these, I read a number of articles with descriptions of the different services and decided to go with:
Everyplate
Gobble
Freshly

Everyplate because it was described as having the kind of food that is part of most peoples normal meals.
Gobble because it was similar to Everyplate but had more pre-work done (like vegetables being pre-cut)
Freshly because it was one of the pre-made choices that had the kind of meals that appealed to me.

Meal Delivery Service Experiment

With everything that is going on, I decided to try out some of these meal delivery services that have become so popular. I have to admit I was a little hesitant because several years ago, I tried Sun Basket when they were first starting out, and I was less than impressed. The meals were difficult to prepare and took alot of time. To be fair, they may have changed since then, so it may be worth giving it another try.

I started by making a list of all of the meal delivery services I knew about and their pros, cons, and costs based on a variety of articles, not based on experience. I used this information to decide which ones I wanted to try first. Additional note, while I am showing a cost per serving, most of the services have a weekly minimum.

Service	Description	Prep	Availability	Cost per meal
Gobble	Focused on easy prep and good quality	Easy, ~15 mins	Continental US	$8
Everyplate	Easy to follow, well rounded recipes	Easy, 30-45 mins	most of the Continental US	$6
Green Chef	Focused on eating well no matter what nutritional plan you are on. Certified USDA Organic company that uses high quality, sustainable, clean ingredients	Moderate, ~30 mins	Continental US with limited availability in Louisiana	$10
Fresh and Lean	Fresh and ready made meals that allow you to order as many meals as you want - even if it's just one	Pre-made	Nationwide	$8
Fresh Direct	Limited resource online grocers. Most meals serve 2, some serve 4.	Easy, ~15 mins	NYC, some areas of New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Washington DC	$9-18 plus delivery fees
Snap Kitchen	Highly customizable service. Meals are gluten-free, no artificial preservatives, antibiotics, added hormones, or artificial colorings or flavorings	Pre-made	Continental US	$8-$10
Factor	Focused on easy prep and good quality. Meals are grass-fed, pasture raised, gluten free, antibiotic free, hormone free, soy free, non GMO, and no added sugars.	Pre-made	Continental US	$10-15
Dinnerly	A branch of Marley Spoon. Boasts simplicity with fewer ingredients and less steps than other meal kits	Easy	Nationwide	$5-6 plus $9 shipping
Freshly	Prepared meals delivered in a recyclable, refrigerated box for each meal. Free of artificial ingredients, preservatives and added sugar	Easy	Nationwide	$12
Amazon Fresh Meal	This offering started after Amazon acquired Whole Foods Market. Amazon can send it's meals one a time, or can set a date/time for drop off.	Easy	Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington DC	$8-10, have to be a member of Amazon Prime ($99/year) and Amazon Fresh($15/month)
Home Chef's Fresh and Easy	Fully prepared meals that come in oven safe trays, grill safe bags, and dinner worthy salads	Pre-made	Nationwide	$9
Home Chef	26 chef designed recipes to choose from each week as well as add ons such as smoothies	Moderate, ~30 mins	Available almost everywhere	$10/per meal - discount to healthcare providers and first responders
Sun Basket	Healthy, Sustainable, many diet options	Advanced, ~1 hr	almost everywhere	$19
Blue Apron	Unique, seasonal or hard to find ingredients. Everything is included. Add on programs and wine delivery options	Easy, quick	nationwide	$12.50
HelloFresh	Limited information on their site about their meals unless you pay for a subscription.	Easy, ~15 mins	Continental US	$9 - discount for healthcare workers
Splendid Spoon	Vegetarian meals. High quality, nourishing grain bows, soups, flatbreads and smoothies. GMO and Gluten free.	Pre-made	Continental US	$13 (5 bowls) with discounts based on quantity ordered ($10 for 10 bowls)
Daily Harvest	Healthy and filling pre-made smoothies, soups, and bowls. You can order 9, 12 or 24 items that you can mix and match. There are specific costs for different types of items.	pre-made	Continental US	$7
Martha and Marley Spoon	Started in Europe by Marley Spoon, it partnered with Martha Stewart for the US venture. Focus on meals with sustainable, organic ingredients. Variety of diets supported	Advanced, ~1 hr	Most of the continental US	$18/per meal
Purple Carrot	Vegetarian meal kits	Moderate, ~30 mins	Available almost everywhere	$10/per meal
Hungryroot	Vegetarian meal kits with a questionnaire to help personalize your kit	Easy, ~10 mins	Available almost everywhere	$8-$10/per meal
Sakara Life	Founded by Witney Tingle, yoga instructor, and Danielle DuBois, a holistic health coach. Vegetarian meals.	Pre-made	Available almost everywhere	$28/per meal
Veestro	Vegetarian meals. Order a la carte or chef's choice, or optimized for weight weight loss	Pre-made	Available almost everywhere	$10/per meal
Yumbles	Service catering to families and people cooking for children. Meals are delivered in sustanable packaging and include kid friendly activities.	Pre-made	East Coast, Texas, parts of the West Coast and MidWest	$6-8 per meal based on amount ordered