Sign up for Freshly starting at $8.99 a serving
The best part about Freshly is that all of the meals are premade. You don't have to measure, chop, or saute. You can pop the premade meal in the microwave, and it's ready in minutes. Freshly is an attractive option for parents who don't want to cook. The portions are reasonable, and everything is sealed so it won't spoil or make a mess in the microwave. You can have it delivered on Monday and still enjoy it on Friday.
How does Freshly work?
Like most meal subscription plans, you choose a certain number of meals per week to be delivered on a particular day. The upside to this method is that everything is automated. You preselect your meals each week, and they are automatically shipped. While this is convenient, if you want to skip a week but forget to update your subscription, you'll get the meals anyway.
Updating or changing your weekly subscription is easy with their app. It has a simple interface, and customer service responds quickly. One time they delivered my meals to the wrong address, and within seconds, I was able to speak with a customer service representative. I got my meals plus they gave me a free week of food.
What does the food taste like?
As far as premade food goes, it's pretty tasty. What I love is that most of the meals are under 600 calories, and they have a lot of healthy options. The food was never frozen and always tasted fresh to me and my family. The meal options vary from week to week, but for the most part, the menu stays the same. There are some pretty good vegetarian options and ones for meat lovers as well.
My favorite was the Buffalo chicken. It's a chicken breast slathered with creamy Buffalo wing sauce. It is spicy but not overwhelming and comes with cheesy, bacon cauliflower mash. I also really enjoyed the cod cakes. My kids are picky, so I relied on the kid-friendly options of spaghetti and meatballs or mac 'n' cheese for them.
One downside of these otherwise convenient meals is the plastic seal on the container. The thin plastic is difficult to remove, especially when hot. However, you can easily remove the cold food and heat it in the oven.
What is the cost?
Freshly costs anywhere from $8.99 to $12.50 per meal. The company offers different meal plans, and this determines the cost. If you order four meals per week, each meal is $12.50, but if you order 12 meals per week, each meal is $8.99. Shipping is always free, helping to reduce the cost.
Pros
- Saves time: Coming home to premade meals makes my life simpler. There's nothing better than not having to worry about cooking when I'm tired.
- Kid-friendly options: While my kids are picky, I did find that I could always serve a few Freshly dishes without too many complaints. Also, the meals are nutritious — Freshly offers zucchini spaghetti and pasta with vegetables.
- Outstanding customer service: Every time I spoke to someone from their customer service team, I was satisfied. As mentioned above, they gave me a free week of food because of a delivery mix-up. Another time, my meals were delayed, and they gave me $20 off.
- Tasty choices: I really loved a few of the dishes and relied on them week after week to satisfy my cravings.
Cons
- Expensive: Fresh, premade food is not cheap. If you purchase a larger plan, the price goes down, but sometimes you only need a few premade meals per week. I did find other meal subscription services are more expensive than Freshly, so it is, at least, cheaper than other options.
- Plastic seal: Removing the plastic seal each time was bothersome. But this could be more of a personal pet peeve than an actual con.