Fresh Realm: 4 meals for two
Beef Stroganoff Over Egg Noodles Ingredients
Price:
For FreshRealm there is no subscription and you can choose all your own meals out of the widest selection of menus compared to the other boxes. (I'm not sure when or if they update or change this menu, though.) After adding 90% of items into your vessel, shipping is free... otherwise it is $10! I filled mine up 100% and they also included a free tote bag which took up some space for me. I was able to choose 4 meals. Each meal was priced differently and came with enough ingredients for two portions. I received an e-mail for $35 off after checking out their website and entering my e-mail address and zip code! I went on the website right away to redeem this coupon because unlike most of the other boxes this coupon isn't automatically added for you as a first time customer. I paid $84.50 for my first box with the coupon.
Citrus Salmon w/ Garlicky Greens Ingredients
Delivery:
Their website was very easy to understand. You just go on and pick which meals you want delivered to your door, watch your percentage on the top right corner of the screen... that's how much you're filling up your vessel! Once you need a second vessel it will notify you but it does still add on the second box! Sometimes when my box became overfilled I would switch out a few recipes so I could still receive 4 meals instead of just 3... and I also really wanted my box at exactly 100%!! I ordered my box on a Thursday and chose the closest possible date to receive my box which was the same Saturday. This was the earliest shipping date compared to all the other boxes! They use FedEx so you can track your order the whole time and they e-mail you themselves when the box has been dropped off. I live in an apartment with our own doors to the outside but it was still dropped off in the office, probably to keep it safe so it was nice that I got the e-mail right when it was dropped off so I knew to go grab it right away. It's ETA was anywhere from 9am-9pm that Saturday and it arrived around 1pm. I was so glad it didn't show up as late as 9pm. It weighed 33lbs, I was still able to carry it home, but it was definitely heavy!
Steak & Broccoli Stir-Fry Ingredients
Ingredients:
Ok, number one thing I LOVED about this box were the already diced onions, pre-chopped ginger, pre-sliced scallions, etc. It made everything SO easy and quick!! When we first tried cooking on our own it would take us HOURS to chop, dice, slice, mince and everything else you can do to veggies with a knife. With FreshRealm, all we had to slice was the meat and cherry tomatoes. All of the liquids and spices were pre-measured which was awesome but you do need measuring spoons for oil, (which you need to have at home) and measuring cups for water. Oil, milk, salt, pepper, cooking spray, and flour were needed in my recipes but not included. We had everything except milk. I think they measured way too much apple cider vinegar for the garlicky greens, I added half but it was still inedible. I also think they measured too much white wine vinegar for the steak stir-fry, it was too sour.
Everything looked and smelled fresh except the cherry tomatoes for the beef stroganoff. There were a few completely black ones and most of the rest of them were smooshy and they all smelled pretty sour. All of the meat was organic and had no hormones or antibiotics. The steak was grass-fed, really meaty, and delicious. We had two recipes that called for skirt steak, luckily, because it was the best meat we received. I'm a little concerned about the chicken we ate because the package states it was packaged in 2015!
Everything looked and smelled fresh except the cherry tomatoes for the beef stroganoff. There were a few completely black ones and most of the rest of them were smooshy and they all smelled pretty sour. All of the meat was organic and had no hormones or antibiotics. The steak was grass-fed, really meaty, and delicious. We had two recipes that called for skirt steak, luckily, because it was the best meat we received. I'm a little concerned about the chicken we ate because the package states it was packaged in 2015!
Also, on the website and recipe card the chicken is a beautiful, large bone-in chicken thigh and these were small, baby boneless chicken thighs.
Recipe and Taste Test!!:
1. Beef Stroganoff
This recipe was very easy to follow and I feel like everything went well. This was the recipe that called for the grape tomatoes and I'm kinda glad they were inedible because this was really good without them and the few grape tomatoes that I was able to use... I wish I had omitted as well. This was my boyfriend's favorite FreshRealm Meal. It was delicious and we definitely kept the recipe!!
2. Steak & Broccoli Stir-Fry
The rice was pre-cooked which was a little weird. I just tossed it in a skillet to heat it up a bit. It still tasted good, just weird! The recipe was easy to follow but like I said in the "ingredients" section, I wish I hadn't added all the white wine vinegar that was given, and I also wish I would have let it all cook just a little bit longer. It might've been our fault but this one definitely could have been better.
3. Citrus Salmon w/ Garlicky Greens
I don't know about this one. Everything turned out pretty bad. The pictures above are from my Instagram story (@foodiecouple_lv - follow to watch us while we cook some of the meal kits!!) We never plated this all. We just ate the salmon, which we might have left in the oven too long, so it was dry and flavorless but when we checked on it at the suggested time on the recipe card, it wasn't done yet... and maybe we added too much milk to the potatoes... but we did nothing wrong to the spinach which was the worst part. We added half the apple cider vinegar because I could already tell it was way too much for the measly amount of spinach and it was still so very sour. We actually cooked the beef and broccoli like two hours after eating the salmon because we needed a real meal. I think that even if we cooked everything exactly right it still wouldn't have been filling and it still would've tasted bad. This recipe was by Cooking Light. FreshRealm has recipes from a variety of chefs and popular websites. I would never choose another Cooking Light recipe, if I were to buy this box again. All of my other recipes were by Real Simple and they were much easier to execute. This Cooking Light recipe was very hard to follow and doesn't tell you when and how to cook things so that they'll all be done at around the same time. This was a very frustrating meal.
Sheet Pan Chicken & Sweet Potatoes Ingredients
4. Sheet Pan Chicken & Sweet Potatoes
This meal was my favorite! The bacon was supposed to be crumbled over the arugula but it just looked so good and made the house smell so amazing the whole time it was cooking, I kept it on the side and took big bites out of it instead of making small crumbles. This recipe was SO easy! I had to do practically nothing besides open the packages, lay everything all down on one sheet pan then, drizzle it with olive oil, sprinkle it with salt and pepper, stir, toss, and set it in the oven. (This was the meal with the chicken packaged in 2015 but it still tasted, smelled, and looked fine... I'd still rather not have a chicken that has been dead for 3 years!) I added a little more olive oil than the recipe called for and I don't suggest doing that!! I think the amount of olive oil they suggested would have been perfect, mine were a little oily and soggy but they were still wonderful... then again, when are sweet potatoes not wonderful?! The arugula salad and the lemon vinaigrette we made for it, was good but small and I wished for more of the wonderful freshness on my plate the whole time.
Would we get this box ever again??
I don't think that we would ever get this box again:
• The price is very high and the ingredients were not all fresh. I do not want to risk ordering and receiving another piece of meat from 2015!!
• Not all of the recipes were simple and easy to follow.
• The Sheet Pan Chicken was misrepresented on the recipe.
• I don't know when the menu changes but there are, at least, three different broccoli stir-fry recipes. (I bet they all taste the same, too!)
• There really are no recipes from other cultures or cuisines, they're all very American, plain, simple... recipes any American family knows how to make and has probably already developed their own for.
I did love the vessel it came in and that the Fed Ex man picks it up the next day for it to be used again and again. It is much better for the environment (and your home!) than the boxes, insulation, and ice packs BUT the insulated ice-packed cardboard boxes arrived with a colder gust of wind when I opened them.
The reasons you might want to order this box:
• It doesn't require a subscription and you can receive your order in 2 days after ordering, including Saturday.
• If you're not an adventurous eater.
• You're considering ordering a box only to help you minimize your cooking time.
• You hate chopping, slicing, dicing,
• The price is very high and the ingredients were not all fresh. I do not want to risk ordering and receiving another piece of meat from 2015!!
• Not all of the recipes were simple and easy to follow.
• The Sheet Pan Chicken was misrepresented on the recipe.
• I don't know when the menu changes but there are, at least, three different broccoli stir-fry recipes. (I bet they all taste the same, too!)
• There really are no recipes from other cultures or cuisines, they're all very American, plain, simple... recipes any American family knows how to make and has probably already developed their own for.
I did love the vessel it came in and that the Fed Ex man picks it up the next day for it to be used again and again. It is much better for the environment (and your home!) than the boxes, insulation, and ice packs BUT the insulated ice-packed cardboard boxes arrived with a colder gust of wind when I opened them.
The reasons you might want to order this box:
• It doesn't require a subscription and you can receive your order in 2 days after ordering, including Saturday.
• If you're not an adventurous eater.
• You're considering ordering a box only to help you minimize your cooking time.
• You hate chopping, slicing, dicing,