Anyone tried the FRESH 20 plan?

theguy12

Anyone ever tried this FRESH 20 website? It provides each weeks meals, recipes, shopping list, etc and it's all fresh (no frozen or canned items).

I am trying to eat better but lose track when I have to come up with meals and recipes and shopping lists -- this seems like it might take all that guess work out of it and keep me on track.

Thoughts? Opinions?

(and please don't just say you can do the same thing yourself - of course I could but I don't)

theguy12

Nobody?

wheird

Not familiar with it, sorry.

Greenrun99

So you pay money for them to put together a meal plan for you.. which you then have to go out and buy and cook.. just go to a recipe website, pick something and go make it.. Or look in your grocery store ad's and buy what is on sale. Sounds like a waste of money.

theguy12

Well when I don't have a plan laid out for me I end up ordering out or going to a fast food place. If I have to go to a cookbook or recipe website then I get lazy and eat out instead.

Trying to take the work out of it for myself and thought this might be a good option. If there is a free version I would love to check it out.

On top of that the recipes are all fresh items (most of my cookbooks as for cans of this and a frozen bag of this). They provide directions on how to prep everything on Monday so it's ready to cook the rest of week, They also provide all calorie and nutritional info for you (no scanning all the bags and dividing my how many servings I might have).

bko722

Sorry, old thread, but I've been using it and love it! I got the Black Friday 50% off deal and have made about 4 weeks of meals already. I've enjoyed learning new ways to prep food and am a pro at zesting lemons. My sister has been using this plan for a year so she recommended it to me. It answers the old question of what is for dinner. I really like having a shopping list and trying new things. Who knew this baked radish and sausage dish would turn out to be one of my favorites. Plus it is good for the kids to see the actual fresh food rather than the canned variety. I did have to you tube instructions on how to cut a turnip and other odd things, but I like it. If you made the recipes from a few weeks earlier someone has already entered it into MyFitnessPal which is really handy. Anyway, I recommend it!

handyrunner

I love it as well...Though since I started paleo i dont use it exclusivly anymore...but it has definitly been a jump start to eating right. The best part is that it has helped me plan and pre prep for the entire week.

Lisa75z

I have and I freaking LOVE it! I first signed up with the vegetarian plan. my thought was that I could always add meat to it but I wasn't too impressed with the vegetarian plan. I just don't think Im a true vegetarian. I stopped the service for a few months and thought Id give it one more try but under the gluten free plan. Its amazing! I love it! What I love is that everything is fresh. Nothing is processed. all natural ingredients and I feel the difference. Its eating clean. I like that they use things only in season and usually go by whats on sale at the grocery store in that particular week. The recipes is what really makes this company shine. Ive been cooking such great things! I've only had a handful amount of times where the meal turned out just okay. Mostly the meals are phenomenal. I sound like their spokesman or something but I guarantee I do not work for them. I just really love them. They take the time I'd sit for at least an hour, going over what to make for dinner. I forget how much they charge but its worth it. There is prep time you need to make every week. I usually do mine on sunday and takes about an hour but the meals during the week are super fast to put together.

As far as diet wise. Some meals are lower calorie/fat than others. If I have a good breakfast (oatmeal & fruit) and a healthy lunch (salad) then yes, you will loose weight.

lexicalo

I'm brand new to the fresh 20 (did grocery shopping and prep yesterday, cooking my first meal tonight) but I really like the concept. The two most appealing things are 1) the liberal use of fresh ingredients and 2) the way the 5 recipes tie together so you use everything you bought for the week. When I am really on top of my game I have meal planned on my own, but it almost always means using a lot of processed shortcuts or buying fresh only to have the leftover ingredients go bad before I can use them. I'm looking forward to using a lot more fresh ingredients in my cooking, and getting out of my recipe rut of always making the same tried and true dishes.

I am kind of picky about some things (some seafood, pork, mushrooms, cucumbers) but I was pleasantly surprised that a lot of the plans offer substitutions-- this week I'm using chicken in place of shrimp in an Asian dish. I also think the cost is reasonable-- the plan I'm using projected $80 for the fresh ingredients, but I spent $60. I also had to buy some pantry staples and took advantage of the opportunity to replenish some of my spices, but a lot of those items are multi-use and will only have to be replenished as needed. The plan is for a family of 4 but there are only 2 of us, so I'm expecting to have leftovers for lunches as an added bonus!

I bought a year membership during a sale ($35) and got access to the full archive. I took a few days to download and organize everything to make it as easy as possible to pick a plan-- my setup in Evernote allows me to see a table of contents for a given month (fresh 20 has been around a few years so there are 16 plans for the month of May) and give my SO a choice of what sounds good for the week. This way we're still eating seasonally (one of the objectives of the plan) but we've also got more options in case the plan for the current week doesn't appeal to us at the moment.

Some of the ingredients and cooking methods are unfamiliar to me, but I'm viewing it as an opportunity to expand our kitchen skills!

manderson27

It looked quite good but then they wanted money. Nope nope nope not going to happen.

I can google all the the low cal, fresh food, healthy, low fat, low carb, high fat, high carb, high protein, etc etc recipes for free and save them in my own recipe folder.:drinker: