With the kids back in school, it’s tempting to sacrifice health for convenience. But with hectic schedules there is no better time than now to be planning ahead when it comes to your real food meals. Studies show the fastest path to a healthy family food culture is planning! So today, I’m sharing a fantastic resource (that I know many of you already use and love) to help you along the way.
The Fresh 20, started by my friend (and fellow mother) Melissa, is a meal planning service that helps take the guesswork out of what to have for dinner. You’ll love that it’s based around just 20 fresh ingredients, ensuring that there is not a lot of waste or unused items. Each Friday you’ll receive a meal plan via email along with a shopping list and prep ahead tips for 5 dinner recipes. You shop and chop and prepare to whatever extent you desire – our team member Kiran recently did a review of the service and ended up preparing 2 meals during the weekend since she knew she’d have very busy days in the beginning of the week. Or you can just do each day’s “prep work” (which is pretty minimal) as needed. The Fresh 20 is very much in line with our real food “rules,” and has been a long-time partner of ours.
The Deal
Sign up for an Annual Subscription from The Fresh 20 for just $35!
(35% off of the regular price)
Recipients can choose from the following options:
- Classic
- Vegetarian
- Gluten Free
- For One
This deal breaks down to just 67 cents/week over the course of the year … 67 cents each week to not have to sift through recipes, write up grocery lists, or wonder if your recipes will align with your real food goals. Sounds good to me. A typical sample menu (with pictures) can be found at the bottom of this page.
This deal is for new subscribers only.
This offer will end on Thursday, September 18th at noon EST. Enjoy!
Video: A Tour of my Real Food Refrigerator
“Studies show the fastest path to a healthy family food culture is planning!” How interesting. This looks like a great service.
What is the average cost of groceries for the weekly plans? Obviously this will vary based on which stores a person shops at, sales, organic or not, but is there an estimated average cost?
They always aim for $100 or less per week, and they even give you the price per meal for each recipe. Fresh20 has changed our lives for the better!
Do they make the plans seasonal at all to take into consideration what you can get fresh locally or on sale?
I’m not a subscriber now but was in the past (and am considering signing up again) and I own the Fresh 20 cookbook. The menus are very seasonal and focus on produce that is available during that time of year. I like making my own menus which is why I am not a current subscriber but I use Fresh 20 recipes often in my own weekly menus.
Keep in mind that seasonal ingredients will vary depending on where you live but I’ve used Fresh 20 menus while living in South Carolina and after I moved to Massachusetts and found they worked well in both locations. You may need to shift a few weeks back or forward depending on where you live, but otherwise they matched up pretty well!
Sarah,
I am curious about the cookbook. Would you recommend it over the meal planning service?
Thanks!
I think it just depends what you’re looking for. There are just two of us in our house so I like have some flexibility to use leftovers, make meals for two, etc. And I like trying recipes from other books, websites, etc so I like to use the cookbook more for the individual recipes and less for the meal plans (although sometimes I do follow the full week plans).
I learned about the Fresh 20 from a friend who has a young family and they loved using the service. It was perfect for them because it made the right amount for one meal for their family each night. They would usually pick 3-4 meals from the weekly plan to make each week.
If you’re looking for a meal planning service that uses whole foods and real ingredients, then I think it’s an excellent resource. But if you just want more ideas for real food recipes and prefer to plan your own weekly menus, then I would recommend the cookbook (although you can save all the meal plans and menus you receive through the service and build your own “cookbook” of sorts!).
I just bought the year membership. I hope it works. I had a membership with Deliciously Organic. I wasn’t a fan. The recipes more often than not relied on heavy cream, bacon, and other artery clogging ingredients; some entrees took an hour or more to make. I want a light, fresh meal that’s easy to prepare.
I have a large family (5 kids 2 adults) I’m curious of the meals will be enough to feed my whole family…
You would probably need to adjust for a larger family, by maybe doubling each recipe. I have a family of four with kids ages 16 and 2 and it works for us with an extra serving for me to take to work for lunch the next day.
Christine – I think you would at least need to double the recipes.
I feed a family of 7 – 3 adults and 4 kids (ages 14′ 12, 9 & 5). We vs been subscribers for over a year now, and I love it! When meat is a main part of the meal (steak, whole chicken, etc) than I usually end up using more meat than the recipes call for – but it’s very easy to grow the recipes as you need them. Most of the meals are kid friendly, and there’s always substitutions if there’s stuff you don’t like. I can say enough about how great the service is – easy meal plans, real foods, and stuff you find at your regular grocery stores!
I was a past subscriber and that experience guided me on how to meal plan. I am now a current subscriber because I like the recipes she offers.
Being an annual member gives you access to a year’s worth of past menus.
The meals are designed to feed four(4) adults.
It’s a 5-nights-a-week menu.
For only a couple of weeks, I made exactly the meals she put together, but now, since I have so many recipes, and ones that my family and I like, I just go through my files on Sundays, pick out seven recipes (we eat at home a lot), make my grocery list, and go from there.
I’m on the Vegetarian plan.
I’ll make a new dish and my kids will ask, “Is this a Fresh20?” :-)
Just started with The Fresh 20 last week and I love it! Too bad I missed out on this deal! Either way, I’m excited and glad to be using it now! Thanks for promoting it.
Has anyone done this using the Gluten Free plan? If so, are they meals minus breads and pastas, or have you purchase gluten free breads and pastas? And are the recipes good.
I was wondering the same thing…
We are a family of 9 and I double the recipes. My husband and I plus 7 kids ages 11, 8, 7, 6, 4, 2, and 8 months. We don’t feed the baby our dinners yet, though we could. I love that my whole family will eat the dinners I make and I an confident in the nutrition I’m giving them. It has made for some adventurous meals, but everyone loves it.
I am casein free (milk products) so I am curious how many meals utilize milk products, such as milk, cream, butter, cheese, etc. Would the meals be easily altered to include substitutes for milk products? I note that you do not have a vegan plan, do you?. Because of my intolerance to milk related items, I am finding that vegan recipies makes it easy and safe for me to cook. I just add the meat! Thoughts?
My experience with the classic plan for 2+ years is milk and/or cream are rarely used and I can’t think of any time that I’ve used butter (or margarine). Non-fat greek yogurt is used moderately and I would say various types of cheese are included often though mostly as a topping as opposed to a necessary ingredient. Almond or Soy would work as milk substitutes and I’ve seen cheese substitutes that utilize pea protein but haven’t ever tried them. Most, if not all, of the dairy should be easy to substitute.
They offer a dairy free plan. I wonder why it isn’t included in the deal? It might be worth asking about.
Hi,
I am intrigued by this, but we have several food allergies in our house. Is this something that can be accommodated in the fresh 20 plans? That would be a deciding factor for me.
Thanks.
I have the “For One” plan (wish I had waited for this deal to order it!) so I’m not sure if this is the case for all of them, but on my recipes on the bottom it will list how to adapt the recipe to make it vegetarian, dairy-free, or gluten-free.
Juice plus may help you get over those food allergies and then you wouldn’t have to figure out substitutions for this very convenient menu planning. It’s raw whole food nutrition at the MICROnutrient level. Proteins or “macronutrients” in food is what people have reactions to.
What do you do when your husband is pickier than your children? Doesn’t like pesto, salmon, tomatoes, spinach…and the list goes on. Anyone else with this issue?
I signed up for this with the same hesitation, but found that they offered a Picky Eaters Club with a cool substitution pdf to help with ingredients that might not be popular at your house :)
I used a once-a-month meal prep place for a few years (out of business now – boo!), and what I liked most about it was that I didn’t necessarily know the ingredients until I was there making the meals. That got me to try new things, whereas before I might have rejected them after reading the ingredients list. My family enjoyed trying them too.
I’m looking forward to having the ease of a fresh meal plan with the freedom to prep ahead (or not) depending on available weekend time. We moved this year, in the middle of competitive softball season, so it feels like we’ve been off-kilter all year long. And I have the extra pounds to show for it.
I say go for it and see what happens :)
My husband and I are empty nesters. Because it’s just the two of us for most meals, I’m wondering whether to try the Classic plan – or the For One plan and double it.
I’m really enjoying the site and like your concept. I also saw the comment above about food allergies, suggesting that vegetarian, dairy-free, or gluten-free alternatives are listed. However, we have a peanut allergy and I notice there are a lot of nuts in the recipes that I’ve read so far. Any plans to list food allergy alternatives?
I have a question regarding the Fresh 20 offer. Is the year subscription per calendar year, or a year from the date the subscription starts? THanks!
Hi Maggie. Here is thier FAQ page: http://www.thefresh20.com/how-it-works/faq/. :)
This sounds so great! Too bad I get paid Friday, I would love to take advantage!
Would love to take advantage also. Just read this. My husband and I try so hard to eat clean. We seem to be eating the same things every week. He does alot of the cooking since I work such crazy hours. Is it possible to be an “add on?”
Hi Pam. You will need to inquire here: http://www.thefresh20.com/. ~Amy
Is there any other way to pay other than PAYPAL. My acct is pending PAYPAL verification.
Hi Stephen. You may need to inquire on their site: http://www.thefresh20.com/. ~Amy
I have not received anything yet after paying with paypal, unless it didn’t go through. Can you check on it for me. Thanks
Hi Teresa. We don’t have info on the that. You will have to inquire through their website: http://www.thefresh20.com/. ~Amy
augh! I just read my email with the link for this in it… boo! That’ll teach ME to let emails sit in my Inbox for two days. :(
Hi Rachel. If you click on the link there is still a $5 off offer available. ~Amy
I really like your blog. I am trying to eat healthy so this has helped me with what kinds of foods i shouls be eating and the quantity of foods. I also like how you have food listings and the price with the quantity.
I purchased the 100 days of Real Food book. I also subscribed to Plan to Eat. Is there a place online that I can find the 100 days of Real food recipes that are in the book so I can import them to Plan to Eat? The only other option is to input each recipe individually :(. I tried to find some of the recipes on the website but I’ve noticed some recipes vary from the ones in the book.
Hi there, Kim. It is true that some many of the recipes that are in the book are not available on the blog and that some recipes available on the blog are slightly different than those that are in the cookbook. We don’t have a way for them to be accessed differently at this time. ~Amy