Meal Planning Made Painless and Fresh! {Review & Giveaway}

 

I don’t know about you mamas but when it comes to meal planning I struggle. I have a hard time coming up with new and delicious recipes instead of the same old repeats. I too easily settle for the frozen pizza or the quick and easy spaghetti! I strive to make healthy and full meals for my family but don’t love the expensive ingredients or hours upon hours of prepping and cooking.

This is where the awesome The Fresh 20 comes in handy! I had the privilege of reviewing this meal planning website and can I just tell you we were spending less money, eating filling gourmet meals and spending less than an hour prepping AND cooking the meals! I work in the late afternoon/evenings so I need to know what I am making for dinner and have it made by 1pm otherwise my dear hubby comes home to an empty house AND and empty belly! I try to make crock pot meals or casseroles so he isn’t forced to eat take out or frozen foods! One thing I loved about these meals is they were large enough to have left overs (good leftovers) but small enough to not take over the fridge and grow mold if not eaten in time!

Fresh 20 is an online meal planning service that sends you 5 dinners a week with a complete grocery list, meal prepping list, and essentials list of 20 FRESH ingredients, 20 pantry items and 20 kitchen utensils. Fresh 20’s goal is to provide families with healthy, unprocessed meals based on seasonal and fresh produce and ingredients! Fast, East and healthy YES PLEASE! As soon as I subscribed I started browsing their website. They offer a couple of different eating plans to accommodate any family.

The Classic
Gluten Free
and Vegetarian/Vegan

I browsed the vegetarian but in the end too much tofu swayed me to the classic meal plan. They sent me the weekly meals and the shopping list. Each item had a estimated cost and number coordinated to which meal of the week it was needed for. I started at Fry’s but quickly realized that since all is fresh produce Sprouts was the cheapest way to shop! We go to Sprouts weekly anyway so this didn’t add any extra trips to the store at all. In the end I ended up spending less than what the list budgeted for which is always nice with a family of four. If you don’t care for the 5 choices they give you for the week with a yearly subscription of  only $49 you can also access the archives many many recipes you can pick and choose from that will appeal to even then pickiest of eaters. Along with the yearly subscription you get the lunch plans too which are so filling and super healthy as well.

After looking over the meals for the week my husband decided on 2 or 3 of our favorites and I began to prep the produce. I love that Fresh 20 sends you a food prepping guide so you know what to chop, cook, make ahead of time to shave down cooking time on the day you actually make the meal. On this particular week we had Stuffed Red Peppers with Tomato Sauce and sauteed zucchini , Mediterranean Lemon Chicken with Dill and vegetable couscous (we substituted a spinach salad), and delicious Taco Salad with creamy Avocado Dressing and homemade tortilla chips!

To show you just how cheap the meals are here is a sample of the Taco Salad I made which was definitely one of our favorites!
2 heads Romaine lettuce $3 (spent $2)
2 tomatoes $2 (spent $1)
2 avocado   $2 (spent $1.40)
large bunch of cilantro $2 (spent $1.79)
1 lime $.50
1 cup low fat greek yogurt $1
2 cups mexican blended cheese $4 (spent $2)
2 cans organic, no salt added kidney beans $4 (spent $1.80)
3 cans organic, no salt added black beans $6 (spent $3)

Total $14.49 and it was better than any purchased taco salad in my opinion!

The best part about this website is you know each and every ingredient going into these meals! You are serving your family good, healthy delicious food and that is definitely something that every mama should be proud of!

Go to Fresh20 and check out their sample plans and recipes!! If you are interested in their fabulous healthy recipes then you can purchase the cookbook from Harper Collins on Amazon starting next month! They also have a giveaway right now called The Great Pantry Giveaway where a few lucky homes will have their pantry stocked!!! Such a fun treat!

Giveaway time!!!

…you can win an annual subscription (worth $49 / year). The winner can choose one of the three plans (Classic, Vegetarian, or Gluten-Free). To enter comment below which meal plan would best suit your family. Good luck! 

We will announce the winner next Friday, March 29th

**images taken by Trent Lanz Photography