Food is important to me! Not only do I enjoy eating but without food I am unable to train, get stronger and keep improving my fitness. You’ll have seen that from my recent post on the FASTer Way to Fat Loss. I have really enjoyed being more focused on the food I eat over the last few months since I started my first round of the program in March, but sometimes it can be tough to fit in work, training and cooking.
Enter Everdine! I have been chatting to some of the team on Instagram recently and they offered me the chance to review the service to see how it fits in with my attempts at a healthy lifestyle. This post is written as a result of me having received a free meal selection via the team at Tornado, but all views are my own.
So what is Everdine? It’s a subscription food service, sign-up and get a selection of frozen, ready made meals delivered to your door ready to whack in the microwave (or oven if you prefer) and be ready to eat healthily in under 10 minutes (assuming you took the microwave option!). This sounded great to me! The Boyf and I often do our own meal prep and fill the freezer that way, but recently with weekend races we haven’t had the time to keep things topped up and it has to be said our freezer was looking a bit on the bare side!
The ordering process is simple, you choose the box you want (8 or 12 single person meals, classic or vegetarian) and then the date you want them to be delivered. Deliveries currently take place on Friday’s and Saturday’s and you can easily update your delivery schedule if you need to. You can then adjust your choices within the box picking from the latest menu offerings to suit your needs. Each menu item on the site gives clear details of nutritional content and ingredients.
This is essential for me, as I need to balance my food choices dependent on whether it is a low carb day or standard day for me on the FASTer Way To Fat Loss* schedule (they have a guy’s version now too* – donuts still allowed). It also means if you do have any allergies then you can check out the dishes before you confirm your order and avoid getting caught out.
Once your order is placed you just sit back and await delivery on your designated day! Make sure you clear some freezer space though! When the parcel arrives it is well packed in sustainable, recyclable cooling packs. They use a mix of frozen water pouches and wool insulation to ensure that your dishes arrive frozen and remain that way until you can unpack and get them safely frozen away. It was great to unpack and see how everything was put together. Each meal is clearly labelled and again has all the nutritional information on the back, perfect for logging in My Fitness Pal! Even more exciting I discovered that all the Everdine meals I had ordered were already in MFP so that is making it even easier come meal time.
Let’s talk about cooking them! It really is dead easy….remove the pack you want from the freezer (choosing can be tricky, I will almost be glad when I am down to my last meal), remove the outer sleeve and pierce the film on top. Microwave for the designated time, stir halfway through if required….pop onto a plate and then get stuck in!
It really is that simple, but the joy of eating the Everdine meals rather than standard supermarket frozen meals is that you know they have put thought into the meal, that it’s been cooked by chefs trained in Michelin starred restaurants, and they care about the food being healthy and sustainable. Not only does it say this on the website, but it comes across in everything that they do! The team that share updates on Instagram are all awesome! They clearly have a love of food and being healthy, and regularly share the workouts they do and the food they eat. They really seem to get that just because you are busy doesn’t mean you don’t care about what you eat, or that you don’t care about remaining as fit and healthy as you can.
I have to say that I have been seriously impressed with the quality and flavour of the food I have eaten. I admit I was a little worried about some of the dishes (Cajun Salmon as a microwave meal sounded good but I was worried how the salmon would taste), but they have all been delicious. Each meal has had a good mix of protein, fast and carbs and has allowed me to fit meals both into low-carb days and regular carb days as they really seem to have thought about the carbs they use in each dish. They have been quite high in fibre, which is perfect for me as that doesn’t count on low carb days and has meant I can eat an Everdine dish whenever I have wanted to. They have also fitted in well with my training, if I come back from a run and am really hungry I have been able to get a meal ready by the time I am showered. Much better than having to trek to the supermarket or start again from scratch.
I think my favourite so far has to be the King Prawn Miso Ramen, but in all honesty it’s tough to choose just one meal and there hasn’t been one that I haven’t liked yet.
I have really enjoyed my Everdine experience and am looking forward to getting my next box and seeing what other tasty dishes they have up their sleeves. If you like good food and don’t always have the time to start from scratch yourself then I can highly recommend Everdine! You can be eating tasty, healthy food in minutes without the stress of any of your own meal prep and it definitely reduces the washing up…..I know the Boyf is happier on days I eat Everdine as it mean s a lot less kitchen chaos for him to sort out after I have finished!!
If you are interested in trying Everdine yourself just click here and you can get £25 off your first Everdine box! Let me know which you favourite dish is.
Oh and in answer to the question asked in the post title….you bet it can!
*indicates affiliate link, it doesn’t cost you any extra but I get recognition by way of a small bonus if you sign-up