When I was pregnant with A my plan was to prep a ton of freezer meals so I'd have a ton of healthy (and easy) dinner options postpartum. While this sounded like a great idea in my head, it ended up proving to be more complicated than I planned.
I found myself just too tired in the last weeks of my pregnancy to make all these meals, on top of the regular meal prepping I was doing. It got overwhelming so I ended up stopping after I made 3. After A was born and we started using the 3 meals I had made I quickly found I got so sick of the same leftovers every night and was craving something more.
Now that I'm 30 weeks pregnant I've started to plan for postpartum but this time around I'm going to have help. I started googling around for prepackaged healthy meals and discovered Icon Meals. I've been trying them out for a few weeks now and in this blog post, I'll share my experience, review, and how I plan to use them postpartum.
Table of Contents
What are Icon Meals?
First off- what are Icon Meals? Icon Meals is a company that sells pre-made, healthy freezer meals that are delivered to your house.
Icon Meals doesn't offer a subscription plan - which was especially appealing to me! I am the worst at canceling subscription plans so I like the idea of being able to buy meals whenever I want to (and avoid surprise deliveries!).
Unlike plans like Blue Apron or Hello Fresh, these meals come prepackaged and fully cooked in individual servings - all you need to do is reheat when it's time to eat! The fresh food is vacuumed sealed and frozen before they're shipped to you so everything will stay fresh.
Ordering Icon Meals
After asking around a few Facebook groups and doing my research, I decided to order a few of Icon Meal's entrees to do a test run before it really gets to crunch time before baby arrives.
The first thing I noticed on Icon Meal's site is that you don't need to enter in a credit card to actually see their meal options! That's one of my biggest pet peeves about meal delivery companies lately - I want to see what my options and meal plans actually are before signing up for anything!
Icon Meals had a few different options for ordering:
- Signature Meals - There are over 30 main dishes that change weekly. These are individual portions and include breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. These range in price from $7-$12. If they don't have a premade option you like, they also have an option to make your own custom meal where you can select your protein and 2 sides (plus quantities of each!) that have a similar price range as the premade options.
- Meal Boxes - Chef Boxes are premade boxes that have 12 signature entree options.
- A La Carte - This option is where you can buy just the proteins or sides, already cooked, and make meals yourself.
They also sell seasonings, protein snacks, and more too.
For my first order, I decided to go with a few of the signature meals. I really liked how easy it was to shop on their site and they made it easy to find the macros and ingredients for all the meals. I try to stick to high protein and lower(ish) carbs for my meals so I ended up ordering:
- Chicken Stir Fry, Rice and Kyoto Blend
- Pulled Chicken Bowl with Cilantro Lime Rice
- Salmon, Saffron Rice, and Green Beans
- Southwest Brisket Quesadilla
- Cheesy Ravioli and Beef Marinara with Broccoli
- Bacon-Wrapped Chicken, Saffron Rice, and Roasted Vegetables
- Cranberry Chipotle Turkey Dinner
- Cheeseburger Mix-up
- Chicken, Sweet Potatoes and Broccoli
- Chipotle Lime Chicken
I also ended up ordering one of their seasonings, Buttery Herb seasoning so I could hit the threshold for free shipping (I'm a sucker for deals like that!). They were running a deal for 10% off their meals as well but the website doesn't allow for stacking codes so I stuck with the free shipping deal (the promo code I used was SAVETIME). The free shipping ended up saving me over $50 while the 10% off would've only saved me $10.
Related Post: Wildgrain Box Review
Delivery
About a day or two after I put in my order I got 2 e-mails that my order was ready to ship - one shipment for the meals and a separate one for the seasoning. This kind of bugged me because I purposely ordered the seasoning to eat with the meals, and I'd like for it all to come in one package.
The delivery with my meals was overnighted via FedEx and arrived the next day - this explains why shipping would've been so expensive! The box arrived and all my meals were carefully packed with dry ice so they stayed frozen. I was impressed with the minimal amount of packaging they used and yet all the meals arrived perfectly. This also explained why the seasoning was shipping separately since I don't think it would've been good to ship it in dry ice. The seasoning ended up arriving the next day so I didn't have to wait long at all.
I unpacked the meals and they all looked fresh and delicious! They all had an expiration date for a week later, so I ended up freezing half of the meals I got and putting half in my fridge for lunches and dinners that week.
Icon Foods Review
I was so excited to try a meal that I ended up making the Cranberry Chipotle Turkey Dinner for dinner that night. Reheating was super easy - just remove the label, place it in the microwave for about 3 minutes and that's it!
I followed the instructions and in 3 minutes I had a perfectly cooked turkey dinner. The food tasted extremely fresh - like I had made it that same day. I did think the turkey was a little dry (in all fairness, I always think turkey's a little dry without gravy) so I ended up shredding it and mixing it into the sweet potatoes and cranberry mix and it was delicious.
The food portion was also extremely generous. It was hard for me to actually finish the package because I was getting full. I actually had to check the package again and was surprised that this huge serving was only 340 calories.
The next day I decided to try the Chipotle Lime Chicken. Once again, the meal reheated perfectly and tasted incredibly fresh. The seasoning was a little bland on the chicken so I think next time I'd sprinkle a little more on but overall it was a really delicious meal.
Icon Meals Benefits
It's been a little over a week since I ordered my first batch of Icon Meals and I'm already a big fan. My favorite things about the meals are:
- No Subscription - this is a huge factor for me when I'm ordering things online because I constantly forget to cancel. With Icon Meals, there's no issue because you order as you go.
- Lots of Meal Options - I like that they have so many options available, and even an option to create your own meal too. They also change the menu weekly so there's always something new.
- No leftovers - I've never been big into leftovers so this is a big benefit for me. I like being able to have something different every night.
- Healthy Portions - I really like that the meals generally are 250-600 calories a serving. Some of the other meal plans I've tried in the past have crazy high calories per serving. These ones are more in line with the meals I'd normally cook at home.
- Macro Savings - All the meals are already portioned and macros calculated so they're easy to track!
- Easy to Make - The name of the game for me postpartum is easy and these meals are as easy as it gets. In 3 minutes I have a perfectly cooked meal that's already portioned. Win!
- Not a Lot of Waste - The meals are shipped in minimal (but effective) packaging so don't have a lot of waste when you compare to other meal kits.
- Low Sodium - One of my biggest concerns with frozen food is the sodium but these meals are much lower sodium than you'd find in regular freezer food.
Icon Meal Downside
While there are a lot of benefits to Icon Meals, I did find a few downsides.
- They're pricey- this isn't exclusive to Icon Meals, but you definitely pay for the convenience of prepackaged fresh meals. To me, it's worth paying a little extra since it's a healthy option that I know I'll actually eat.
- Limited Plant-Based Options - Right now they have a limited selection of plant-based options (Beyond Meat), so my husband isn't able to order meals. They are coming out with new plant-based meals in the future though!
My Postpartum Meal Plan
Now that I've tried a few of the meals, my plan postpartum is to stock my freezer full of these for lunches and dinners. For breakfast, I'm planning to make my own Overnight oats, and then use these throughout the day.
I'm also planning to continue to maco counting so these meals will help me stay on track with my goals since everything is already calculated and portioned.
Conclusion
Icon Meals is the perfect option for people who want to eat healthily, but don't have a lot of time to prep and cook. They are a little pricey but I've found that they're comparable to other similar meal services and you do pay a small price for the convenience. Overall I'm a fan of Icon Meals and am excited to use this service for the rest of my pregnancy and when I'm postpartum.
Ready to try Icon Meals? Click here to order and use the code SAVETIME for free delivery when you order $115 or more!
Icon Meals Promo Code
The best promo code to use for Icon Meals is for free delivery. Click here to order and use the code SAVETIME for free delivery when you order $115 or more!
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