Cooking for one can be difficult. While yes, I’m married, my husband is often gone or working at odd hours. So that leaves me on my own for dinner. I’ve experimented with many different meal services throughout the years, but they are often too time-consuming, complicated, or taste like garbage.
Factor Meals is none of those things. I sound like I’m high maintenance, but I don’t want to spend a lot of money on a time-consuming meal. My ideal meal is healthy and easy. It’s like the unicorn of meal services to find.
Why Factor Meals?
The tag line of Factor Meals is Healthy Eating, Made Simple.
Sounds ideal to me!
Factor Meals provides fresh, already prepared, and microwaveable meals. They are shipped straight to your house and stay fresh for up to 7 days in the fridge. To keep fresh, they use an innovative packaging called Modified Atmosphere Packaging (or MAP).
What does that even mean? They lower the amount of oxygen in the container, which slows down food products’ natural breakdown. MAP allows food to last longer without the use of preservatives. Grocery store products like fresh salad mix use the same technology.
What Makes Factor Meals Different?
- It only uses fresh ingredients from a network of trusted partners.
- Free of hormones, antibiotics, gluten, refined sugars, and GMOs.
- Designed by dieticians: Dieticians work with the kitchen to ensure meals are packed with science-backed nutritional quality.
- All subscriptions include a 20-minute consult with a registered dietitian.
Diet-Friendly:
I don’t follow any special diet, but Factor Meals has several options if you follow a specific diet, including plant-based, low carb, keto, and low calorie.
What kind of options can you expect?
It changes every week but a few options include:
- Pork Tenderloin with Cabbage Casserole
- Grilled Chicken with Goat Cheese Polenta
- Cajun Shrimp Bowl
- Chickpea Curry
If you are interested in seeing the current menu, you can here. I always appreciate meal services and menus that change with the seasons.
So Now to My Experience with Factor Meals:
Factor Meals arrived at my doorstep in perfect condition. The meals were still cold, and I put them into my refrigerator for use during the week. During the week, nothing spoiled, and everything tasted like it arrived yesterday.
I found most of the meals to be foods I don’t typically make for myself. Usually, I get into a routine of having similar, quick, and easy foods, so it was fun to mix it up.
Here are a Few I Tried:
Chicken Enchilada with Rice and Sauteed Peppers:
I don’t eat a lot of chicken (I don’t know why I just don’t make it a lot). The chicken tasted good and not like it was overly cooked or overly salted. One of my worries with microwavable meals is the amount of salt or preservatives that some brands and companies use. The chicken enchilada didn’t taste too salty. The peppers tasted good, although I would have liked more.
Vegetarian Bowl:
The vegetarian bowl was, surprisingly, by far, my favorite meal. I wasn’t expecting to like it as much as I did. It came with quinoa, peppers, and corn. It wasn’t overly salty, and I was full after the meal. It was nothing I have ever cooked myself (honestly, it feels too fancy and complex even though it’s not).
Ricotta Meatballs with Broccoli:
The Ricotti meatballs took a little longer to cook. I think about 5 or so minutes. For no reason, I don’t eat a lot of meatballs, so it was fun to have something I don’t usually have. It was good, but I do wish the pasta portion was slightly bigger.
Cost:
One of the most important factors is cost. Are Factor Meals worth it? Depending on the route you take, they cost between $11.50-15 per meal.
If you choose 12 meals a week, it’s 11.50, whereas 4 meals a week is 15. I would think a lot has to do with shipping. I believe the meals are worth the $11.50 per meal, but I think $15 is slightly high. I could go out to eat and get a healthy bigger meal for the same price. If you choose Factor Meals, I would probably go for 12 meals a week.
Conclusion:
I like Factor Meals, and I think it tastes good. Obviously they are easy to prepare. I appreciate they Factor Meals doesn’t have a lot of sodium or isn’t too watery, which makes me feel good about eating it. I like the quality of the food and ingredients. As someone with no children, I struggle with the $15 per meal if going the four meal route, especially since I was still hungry with a couple of meals. But, I think the 12 meals are good to have on hand too.
In all, I would recommend Factor Meals, the quality is good, and it’s a fast, healthy, and easy meal to make.
You can see more product and gear reviews here.
Questions for you:
Have you tried Factor Meals?
Have you tried any meal service?