RealEats is a ready-to-heat meal service that lets you get chef-prepared meals onto your table in record time, without using a microwave! The meals are vacuum-packed into food-safe recyclable pouches to lock in the freshness, flavors, and nutrients of never-processed non-GMO ingredients. For anyone pressed for time, this is a game changer.
DEAL: Get 50% off your first week! Use coupon code MEALSIN6.
A small note greets you as you open the box. It reminds us that the recipes are the product of chefs and dieticians collaborating to create delicious meals that tastes great, have a healthy balance of nutrition, and are well-suited to heating by submersion.
Within the outer box is an insulated sack with all of the food and several ice packs.
Here’s a welcome note from RealEats. Their freshly-prepared food concept works because it leverages the unique qualities of the sous-vide (or “under vacuum”) cooking technique. The vacuum within the pouches draws the flavorful juices into the food, and the lack of air space provides a longer fridge life and faster heating, plus a better result.
There’s also a weekly menu with instructions on how to preserve your food for the week. Ain’t that cool?
There’s a guide on how to prepare the food, plus plating tips! Each dish is packaged in multiple bags. The entrée gets boiled for 6 minutes, most sides for 3 minutes, and some items are meant to be served after warming on the counter.
This week’s menu! Everything looks yummy! The card is a great resource for plating inspiration and making sure that you have gathered all the components of each meal.
Everything in my box!
Unlike some prepared meals, where everything shares a single bag, Real Eats packages each meal component separately. This keeps the flavors distinct, allows you to heat each item appropriately, and it makes for a neater presentation when plated. It also means, however, that you may have to hunt around to gather the three bags needed for each meal. I suggest having a tray to store everything in an orderly way.
They are carefully sealed under vacuum to preserve their freshness. Each component is labelled with the name of the item, the meal to which it belongs, and heating instructions.
Each wrapped food contains a label on how long to warm the meals up — most mains are 6 minutes in boiling water, and most sides are 3 minutes.
Once the water is boiling, you can place in your longer-heating pouches.
The 3 minute pouches can go in the same pot, and you can even heat up multiple meals at the same time, provided you have a sufficient volume of water.
Afterwards, you can remove the meal pouch using tongs or a spoon.
After cooling for a moment (just long enough to allow you to pick up the pouches by the edges), you can open them, drain any excess liquid, and begin plating.
Pesto Shrimp with Spinach Pesto, Carrots, Red Bell Pepper and Pine Nut Rice. This meal doesn’t just look fresh, it tastes fresh too. I like the smokey taste of the shrimp which blends well with the pine nut-studded brown basmati. It’s rich in vitamin K and C, plus low in sodium and fat too. I was thoroughly impressed with the shrimp in this dish — it was perfect, neither mushy nor rubbery, and was truly better than what you would expect at many restaurants. The rice remained very firm, and it could’ve used an extra minute in the hot water, as it cooled quickly.
On to the next meal!
Grilled Bistro Filet with Bok Choy, Peppers and Potatoes. We love steak and this one didn’t disappoint us. The marinade was rich and tasty, and of course it pairs perfectly with roasted potatoes. Meanwhile, bok choy with peppers and onions made a nice vitamin C-rich side dish. It was a filling meal overall! The texture of the steak was superb — it retained its moisture and the hint of pink in the center, and it was very tender. The veggies were good, and I appreciated the forewarning to drain excess liquid, as they had created much in their bag.
The next meal is high in Omega 3!
Cumin Lime Roasted Salmon with Coconut Black Rice, Sesame Carrots and Herbed Yogurt Sauce. Moist and juicy, I couldn’t really ask for more from this salmon dish. It had a wonderful texture and was well-complemented by the cumin-lime rub and herby yogurt sauce. The black rice was so good too, and it was a bit sweet because of the coconut milk. The carrots were a bit firm, but the flavor was nice. This meal is low in sodium and low in cholesterol.
The slow roasted salmon is so tender. It melts in my mouth! I couldn’t have been happier with the texture of the sous-vide proteins.
Lastly, we have a hearty meal for chicken lovers!
Chicken Adobo with Coconut Rice and Kale. This meal includes cage-free organic chicken thighs in a tamari-based sauce. Sweet coconut rice and sautéd local kale finish the dish. The flavors are great in this dish, and the chicken thighs are perfect for fans of the darker adn more flavorful part of the bird.
Real Eats just made meal preparation a whole lot easier. It’s perfect for any busy person who simply doesn’t have time to cook or chop ingredients but still wants a healthy and delicious meal. Everything comes pre-prepared and all you really have to do is heat it up and eat. It’s also vacuum packed so you’re ensured it’s safe and fresh. The variety of meals is not bad either. This week, we even received a steak meal and a roasted salmon meal. I wouldn’t really have time to prepare such kinds of dishes if I would cook them from scratch, not to mention having to clean up after cooking fish. To sum it up, the food is tasty and the preparation is super easy, so this subscription is a win!
Are you getting RealEats too?
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