If you’re a busy person, like most of us tend to be in this fast-paced, technology-rich age, chances are you’ve tried meal prepping or at least know several people who have. Meal prepping is the process of preparing meals for multiple days, at one time, in order to reduce time spent in the kitchen on a daily basis, and frequently with the secondary purpose of keeping portion sizes and meals healthy. By pre-planning what you’re going to eat, not only can you select healthy foods for your meals, but you also significantly reduce the chances that you’ll make a snap decision to eat something less-than-healthy (i.e. swing through the drive thru) because you’re hungry, it’s late, and you didn’t plan anything specific for dinner.
Meal-prepping can be convenient for some, however, for those who hate cooking altogether, or who have to cook for multiple family members who struggle to agree on food choices or have different dietary requirements, it can be a struggle. Recently, while scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed, I discovered there are actually two local businesses, who specialize in preparing custom-order, prepared meals and deliver them to convenient local pick-up locations! And, the thing that really surprised me, was that the food looked really good, was made from healthy, locally sourced ingredients, free of preservatives and affordable! With high-quality, lean protein-rich meals starting around $6.45, these local businesses caught my eye.
Activemeals
Activmeals offers one breakfast option (Mornin’ Queen’oa – quinoa breakfast sliders with sugar-free syrup) and five different lunch/dinner main courses, with customizable vegetable and carb sides. The main course entrees include chicken breast, top sirloin, lean ground beef, salmon bites and lean ground turkey. All are well-seasoned but low-sodium, and can be customized using a notes section when you place your order (i.e. no salt, no pepper, etc.). The chicken breast meal is the least expensive, at $6.45, and the salmon bites are the most expensive, but still only $7.49. Activmeals accepts orders Sunday through Thursday at 12pm, then delivers all the meals to a convenient central location (Oh Baby! near Riverpark on Blackstone near Alluvial) for Sunday pickup, and you receive a text when your meals are ready for pick up.
Reviews on Activmeals’ Facebook page are promising, including this one, “Salmon is excellent. Reheats beautifully. Broccoli was perfectly cooked.” from Chantelle Crossland and this one, “When I’m too busy or lazy to cook and don’t want to spend a fortune eating out, I look toward a company like this. Very reasonably priced for such high quality fresh food. They really care about delivering a great product.” from Edgar Perez. Activmeals has a minimum order of 5 meals, and they promise a 5 day shelf life for each of their meals (assuming refrigeration of course). To try Activmeals, visit their website, and place your order before Thursday at 12pm, for Sunday pick up.
EZ Fit Meals
EZ Fit Meals, started by Fresno State senior, Chris Garcia, also offer healthy, locally prepared and tasty meals for pickup in Fresno as well as Madera. With seven Fresno Nutrishop and gym pickup locations, some may find EZ Fit Meals more convenient for their schedules, as there’s likely a pickup location within a few miles of most Fresno residents. EZ Fit Meals start at $6.95 (though most are closer to the $8 range) and also customization options including protein portion size adjustments. According to a Fresno Business Journal Article, Garcia’s business has grown quickly, operating out of a commercial kitchen and employing a team of six, EZ Fit Meals prepares and delivers over 800 meals each week.
Facebook fans of the business rave about the food, too. “Thanks to EZ fit meals I’ve been able to go through my days with the best tasting and fresh meals around! They’re super convenient and super easy! If you haven’t had any yet, you need to give them a shot!” says Edgar Sahakyan. Evetta Martirosyan says, “These meals are so delicious and healthy they’ve helped me loose 8lbs already!! The best part is that they’re cooked for me for the week so it saves me so much time and money not having to eat out!” EZ Fit Meals also accepts orders Sunday through Thursday, and offers Sunday pick up. To place an order with EZ Fit Meals, visit their website here.
It’s really great to see local entrepreneurs with a passion for preparing healthy food, find a way to make it not only tasty and convenient, but affordable, too! This type of service is one I’ve always assumed celebrities likely use for most of their meals to stay in shape, but I never would have thought it would be affordable for the typical person. I’m really interested to try both companies, and plan to in the coming weeks. If you’ve used them, or plan to, I’d love to hear about your experience too!
Photos used with permission. Photos property of Activmeals and EZ Fit Meals.
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