fresh BOX is sort of like Dream Dinners with delivery service. Each fresh BOX contains three meals for two, ready to cook, with detailed instructions. Ordering is simple - check out the menu posted on the website and order online by Friday for delivery on the following Tuesday. Membership price of each meal is $12, non-member price is $15, and monthly membership fee is $10. For a limited time, fresh BOX is offering their meals at the member price, so your first fresh BOX will cost $72.
The menu for our fresh BOX:
Orange pistachio crusted fish with sweet potatoes and spinach
Spiced pork loin salad
Chicken with cherry salsa and dirty rice
The chicken with cherry salsa and dirty rice was by far the most flavorful and interesting meal of the three, followed by the spiced pork loin salad with apples, which was the easiest to prepare. Although we enjoyed the combination of orange, pistachio, and mustard with the fish, it wasn't something that we'd prepare again.
PROS:
Ultimate time saver - food is delivered via UPS to your door in an insulated box, and all the ingredients are pre-portioned and ready to prep.
Easy to follow recipes with pictures and detailed instructions - if you still manage to screw this up, then I don't know what to say.
Discovering fun and interesting flavor combinations that I never would have explored on my own - orange pistachio crusted fish and cherry & avocado salsa on chicken and dirty rice, anyone?
It's healthy! - Each meal contained lots of veggies and protein, and the recipes only called for a little added cooking oil. Overall, I thought the meals were nice and definitely well-balanced.
Decent portion sizes - our fish entrée was reasonable but not enough to make us full, but the pork salad and the chicken portions were generous and could probably feed three people. I had the leftovers for lunch on the following days.
CONS:
Mushy and slimy greens - I think it's just the nature bagging fresh greens and then putting them in a box with ice packs, so it can't be helped. When we opened our box and we had to toss about a third of a spinach portion because it had turned into slimy goo.
Mystery fish - I couldn't find any information from the recipe, box, or website about the white meat fish included in our fresh BOX; it could have been tilapia from a gutter in industrial China for all I know.
What about the rest of the components? - It would be nice if the fresh produce were from local farms, but like the fish, there was no information available.
It's spendy - $12 per person for each meal, not including the membership fees and not including time spent cooking and cleaning. Yes, this is much cheaper than eating out, but with a little time and effort, one could prepare the very similar fresh BOX menus for a fraction of the price.
BOTTOM LINE:
If you love to prepare playful and interesting healthy home-cooked meals at least three times a week, yet you don't want to deal with the grocery shopping, and it fits into your budget, then yes, fresh BOX is a wonderful service. Unfortunately, fresh BOX doesn't fit my lifestyle so I don't see myself signing up for a regular subscription in the near future. Is it worth a try? Oh, absolutely! Even though my bf and I won't be subscribing to fresh BOX, we had a ton of fun and we were glad that we took a chance to do something new and different. We would be open to ordering another fresh BOX if the menu for the week appeals to us. I also think a fresh BOX would make an awesome gift as well. read more