TS to You by Tastefully Simple Subscription Box Review – Spring/Summer 30 Meals & More

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 summer 2015 box

TS to You is Tastefully Simple’s new subscription! Subscribe to one of the eligible collections and get products to make your meals, a meal planner, and recipes automatically every other month. I actually get a lot of questions about food subscription boxes for larger families so we thought we would give this one a shot! While you can order extra meals on any of the dinner kit subscription services (which we do sometimes if the inlaws are in town), the meals on those services are probably more gourmet than what you think of for a family dinner, and we don’t think that the cost is feasible for family meals. There are multiple options for this subscription: 30 Meals & More (1 box), 10 Meals & more (currently 3 boxes), and the Holiday Fun collection (currently 3 boxes). The 30 meals and more box is all three of the 10 meals & more boxes together. All of the boxes are available without a subscription, but you earn rewards on the subscription and can swap out/change the dates if you need to.

summer 2015 unboxing

  • You will receive free shipping on all orders after your third order.
  • Earn 10% rewards on all subscription purchases.
  • There are no annual membership fees when you subscribe to TS to You, no long-term commitments, you can cancel or delay whenever you’d like.
  • You can make changes to your subscription, if you want to try a new collection, you can.
  • The selection changes seasonally on these items and you will get different recipes if you get the same box twice.
  • Recurring TS to You orders are processed and shipped on or about the 15th of the month, every other month, automatically.
  • Subscriptions can be modified up to the 10th of the month that the order is scheduled to ship (if it’s a weekend or holiday the deadline is the next business day following).
  • All of the products are backed by the TS Satisfaction Guarantee, if you don’t like a product, you can let them know and they will send something else!
  • This is a bi-monthly subscription by default, so no product overload.

Tastefully Simple Spring/Summer 30 Meals & More Review

summer 2015 tastefully simple 30 meals and more

I subscribed to the “30 Meals and More” collection for this review. This collection includes 26 products, meal planner, grocery lists, recipe sheets and a free Strawberry Daiquiri Mix.  This is a LOT of meal making supplies.

summer 2015 meal guide

The meal guide. For this review we cooked week A. We spent about $80 at the grocery store on the items (no coupons, nothing on sale, and my husband bought really pricey steak and ground beef). Based on what we spent, it’s about $36 per week of 5 meals ($30with the coupon – these numbers include shipping), including groceries it’s $116 for 5 meals, or about $4.50 per person per meal. This is not beans & rice prices but it’s not takeout or fast casual prices either. Because my family also uses Hello Fresh & Plated, it will take us longer than 6 weeks to cook our way through this box. I have a family of 2 adults and 3 small children (including a baby). These meals fed us dinner and lunch the next day. They make quite a bit of food. If you have older kids or teens they will probably not make leftovers but it will feed the family.

summer 2015 recipe books

The codes in the meal guide correspond with these 3 different sets. Every recipe you can make as a freezer meal or cook it right away. You can also prepare the whole thing, cook half, and freeze half.

summer 2015 IMG_6548

This is sort of a list of what you can use the extra things in the box to make. It’s 30 meals “and more” because there are extras!

summer 2015 sweets breads

I actually went through every single recipe and these are the extras that are included that aren’t used in any recipe. This is nice because you’ll have stuff on hand for making a sweet treat or taking a something-something to a party.  I buy the almond & chocolate pound cakes to have in the cupboard for when we do a neighborhood thing. Everyone loves them and we do next to nothing.  We don’t have a photo of it but we mixed up the Nana’s Apple Cake Mix with a zucchini from the garden. YUM.

summer 2015 beer bread

Everyone loves Tastefully Simple Beer Bread. I posted this on my personal facebook page and someone already commented about it!

summer 2015 almond pound cake

We used the almond pound cake mix to use up our spices from I think a RawSpiceBar review.

summer 2015 shopping list

Every week on the meal guide has a corresponding shopping list. You can cross off what you have and just take it to the store with you! My husband & I use Wunderlist (because we can share our to do lists) so he checked the pantry and I popped everything into our list on the computer so it shows up on the phone!


summer 2015 seasonings mixes

I made my husband put the rest of everything else in the basement – this is what we used for the first week of meals. We had lots of the 2 seasonings left, another package of the each of mixes (used in another week), and part of the honey teriyaki sauce. The salsa was the only item that was used in its entirety for the first week.
summer 2015 strawberry daiquiri

Strawberry Daiquiri Mix is probably my favorite extra!!

summer 2015 Grilled Mushroom Swiss Burgers

Grilled Mushroom Swiss Burgers: This recipe used the burger seasoning mix and the steak seasoning mix, and they were absolutely delicious! I mixed them up while holding the baby and my husband took care of the rest! I think the recipe on this one wanted the mushrooms in the burger (remember everything is freezer meal friendly) but my husband wanted them on top!

summer 2015 Honey Teriyaki Vegetable Stir-Fry

Honey Teriyaki Vegetable Stir-Fry: This was absolutely delicious and I couldn’t believe how well it turned out with frozen veggies. The flavor for this was totally on point – a mix of sweet and savory with the Honey Teriyaki sauce. We subbed peanuts for cashews and just picked up a handful from the bulk section (I don’t know why – he could’ve just bought a whole jar!).

summer 2015 IMG_3583

Scrumptious Stromboli: This recipe used a cheeseball mix to make the cheese inside super gooey. I think we had four different fillings going on inside the stromboli. I especially loved the parmesan on the outside. For me personally I would reserve a little of the dip filling because I prefer a bit more mozzarella.

summer 2015 Scrumptious Stromboli

summer 2015 Baked Chicken Chimichangas plated

Baked Chicken Chimichangas: My husband is a stay at home dad and actually does most of the cooking, but I threw these together when I came home from work. This is stuff that a working mom can put together in a few minutes and get on the table. While it was baking I played with my baby 🙂 The sauce is salsa and chipotle seasoning, and we left out the chipotle for 1/3 of the filling for the kids’ chimis. I tasted the chipotle seasoning (which is sort of like a season salt with chipotle in it) and immediately fantasized about roasting potatoes with it. It’s really quite delicious. As I’m writing this review I see it’s actually on the “extras” sheet! The recipe called for shredded chicken and we just bought chicken in a can for it!

summer 2015 Baked Chicken Chimichangas

These were so good! My kids complained a little about beans but ate them anyways.

summer 2015 Herb-Seasoned Greek Steaks

Herb-Seasoned Greek Steaks: I think the recipe for this one had greek yogurt instead of feta, but we had some feta hanging out, and with the Greek Herb Beer marinade for the steak, it was a no brainer. We added the beer bread to this night and some canned green beans. The seasoning was absolutely delicious and I stuffed as much steak in my mouth as I could.

FYI – my kids (6.5, 4.5, and 11 months) ate all of these meals, with the exception of the baby and the chimichangas.

What I liked about this box:  I loved the time savings on this one. We are honestly not that used to grocery shopping any more because we do review meal kit subscription boxes, and it made it super easy to pick up the groceries for the week, especially as the shopping list is sorted by area of the store. I didn’t see anything in any of the products with high fructose corn syrup, which was also great. Everything was really quick to put together and cook, and there were no time-consuming knife skills required. We did not try doing freezer meals with these, but that is a huge plus. I have done freezer cooking in the past and very much enjoyed it.  Another great thing is that if a recipe just isn’t for you, the website has tons of recipes available for each product.  I personally liked that there is only one seafood recipe in this whole box (that we will skip) but others may prefer more fish & shellfish.

One huge plus – for most of the items that we bought at the store we typically used the entire container. There are a few things on the lists where you only use a tiny bit (like 1/3 cup chopped dried apricots)  but most of the partial items are pantry items (like cornstarch, olive oil, parmesan cheese). I thought that was really value focused in terms of coming up with the dishes because what I definitely don’t want to do is buy $300 worth of items and have 2/3 of a container left of everything. I also liked that the meals are protein (meat) focused. This is not a subscription for a vegetarian, but it matches how I like to eat. There’s also quite a bit of flavor variety, which is great, because I cannot stand eating the same thing all the time.

I am looking at the Fall/Winter catalog right now and they have a Family Reunion spread that is part of the Backyard Bash Holiday Fun Collections and I think that will be my next choice for my subscription. I think it would be perfect to make everything for my baby’s first birthday party! My entire family is rolling into town. I like how I can switch between the day-in day-out of feeding the family and pick up some party supplies instead!

What I think can be improved on or didn’t love: I would like to see more definite quantities of what’s left over, because I’m honestly not sure. I know for sure the items I picked out that aren’t used in the recipes I can use at any time. I suspect that quite a bit of the shaker jar seasonings will remain after we’re done with 6 weeks, but I’d like to see how much so I can incorporate them in my other cooking! I would like to see more side suggestions included that match up with the extra products you’ll have. That being said, we’re not big on cooking sides. We don’t think every dinner needs to be a full on production, and we prefer to have a snack at night or dessert so we don’t tend to cook very large dinners 🙂 Tastefully Simple has a lot of gluten-free options in their products and I’d like to see them develop a box for the subscription that presents all gluten-free meals. The shipping (which I included in my meal cost breakdown) is around $20 for the box, so that’s a little spendy, but after your third collection you get free shipping. I would always prefer free shipping all the time, but it’s a giant box and arrives quickly. Right now you can add on items only to your first order, but not subsequent orders, although that seems like it’s coming soon. Finally – vegetables aren’t the centerpiece of any of the meals. This is probably a plus for a lot of people, but I do like my vegetables, and I would like them to be more mindfully incorporated into the meal plans. Even if it was just a list of suggested veggies (bag of broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, etc) and seasonings for each week, that would work for me in terms of the effort I’m willing to put in and add only minutes and a few dollars to the weekly cost and make it a little easier to shop.

Overall my verdict is that this box made meal planning, shopping, and preparation a lot easier than doing it myself. I really have no time to do any of that and if I leave it up to my husband things can get pretty weird (like having Nachos for dinner 3x a week). If you like to hunt down all the recipes and plan all your meals and figure out your shopping list you probably wouldn’t enjoy having it all set for you, but for everyone else it’s great. None of the meals were out there in terms of flavors or ingredients, but they incorporated a variety of American-centric tastes. As much as I like my dinner kits delivered to me, sometimes when you notice I don’t review them for a week or two, it’s because the meals were just too weird for me. If you are a middle of the road eater you will like the flavors! Everything was kid friendly and we didn’t end up making something extra for the kids to eat any night.

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  • Sara
    08.11.15

    I LOVE Tastefully Simply, especially the beer bread it’s to die for. This looks like a fantastic box, but those seasonings and mixes do last a long time.

    • Brandy
      08.11.15

      Everyone really is nuts about it! Now I want some. I think I’m mixing up some dip tonight. I’m having a snack attack. We are planning to not use anything except on the boxes and when we fiiiiinally work our way through this box, I will have an idea of how much is left.

  • Sunday
    08.09.15

    Regarding most of the items in your kit…
    How are the sodium levels?
    Also are the products low or do not have partially hydrogenated oils?
    This seems like a great idea we love their beer bread but I believe it had bad saturated fats in it so it would be an indulgences.
    Please let us know thank you so much for the review and code!

    • Brandy
      08.09.15

      Well the salts have a lot of sodium. Most of the products have lower than I expected (especially the sauces). The burger mix is the one that I would say has too much sodium but I guess it’s really like a season salt. The marinade had a lot less sodium than I expected. The beer bread doesn’t have any saturated fat or any fats in the ingredients. If you check out the kit page you can click on every item. On the item pages click “see more details below” and you will find ingredient and nutrition info. We don’t need to watch sodium like someone with a heart condition for example but we are generally mindful of how much is in our food – especially as we review a lot of snack boxes!

      I didn’t see anything with hydrogenated oils at all. I didn’t look at each item but I looked at the ones I expected I might them in – sauces and breads. The items aren’t considered 100% natural (some have artificial flavors ) but they fit my “I will eat that” criteria. Nothing weird or gross in anything.

      If you have any more questions just lmk. I do need to note in the review that I calculated the prices based on 5 people. I think it was supposed to be 6 but I figured five was more realistic for a regular family with one or two hearty eaters. One of the things I liked is it didn’t pretend you were going to feed an entire family with only a little meat. The recipe for pork roast calls for 2-3 lbs! We just bought what things called for so we could figure out how much it cost in realistic prices.

  • Jenny
    08.08.15

    Oh my goodness. I saw this picture and about flipped out. I got a little bit too excited with all the pretty packages and can just imagine it in a pantry. I understand your food dilemma. I don’t mind cooking but I by no means love it and I have a hard time coming up with ideas on what to eat. Therefore we end up doing a ton of the same things over and over. So baked chicken of some kind and a pasta or rice. LOL my boys pick tacos and hamburgers as their favorites but I’m so tired of all of those.

    • Brandy
      08.08.15

      LOL I never even thought about that but yes, my pantry is super pretty!!! You are definitely my visual girl! The thing is when Tom was in VT working I cooked *everything* and now I can count two meals I have cooked since he came home. One was a Plated meal in the fall, and the other was those chimichangas. I’m a very lucky woman!! I also have a very hard time meal planning. I don’t think we are going to get to week two of this box until 2 weeks from now (traveling again next week…) but my grocery list is already set up – and I used Amazon Prime Pantry for a few of the dry goods. One of the things I know that stresses Tom out is grocery shopping with 3 kids. He has 3 stores he likes to go to – Wegman’s, TJs and Sam’s and we keep a little list for each one, but if I can pick up some of the items online, it makes his shopping a lot easier. Fortunately he doesn’t read anything after he writes his posts and never looks at the comments, but he has a tendency to overdo the meals he makes on his own. He has a good flavor sense but goes overboard with seasonings or ingredients. So I liked this because I knew that he couldn’t mess it up!!

      Also, I’m thinking I need to add potatoes to the list.

      • Jenny
        08.08.15

        I’m with him and shopping with kids. I can’t wait until C starts back to preschool so I have a morning to do shopping without my helper 🙂 Do you have the stores there that you can order online and have them bring it out to your car? A couple of our big stores here have that and while it says a $5 fee it is usually waved if you spend at least $50. I’ve only used it a couple times but I have some friends that use it each week. They can set up their normal buys and add them all in at one time and then just add in the stuff that is different week to week. Then they drive by and never even have to get out of the car. They love taking their doggies on the ride too.

        • Brandy
          08.08.15

          No we don’t!!! I used Peapod all the time in DC but Wegman’s doesn’t offer it (which is crazy, because they have an iPhone application where you can make your list – they could just use that and turn it into a shopping service!). Sam’s Club does but that’s so easy and we buy so little there.

          There is a student-focused delivery service but they charge by the item and don’t operate in the summer. Ha.