This post may contain affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
This Fresh N’ Lean review was last updated on September 22, 2021. I have personally used Fresh N Lean meals delivery service and everything in this review are my own honest opinions.
Let’s cut to the chase: Fresh N’ Lean offers by far the best-tasting meals of all the meal delivery services I’ve tried (and trust me, I’ve tried a LOT).
The meals are delivered to your doorstep cold (in an insulated box), but never frozen. This makes Fresh N Lean meals, in my opinion, retain their texture compared to the soggier texture of reheated frozen meals.
And honestly, that alone is worth trying. So if you want to skip the lengthy review, you can go ahead and see everything Fresh N’ Lean has to offer HERE. And while you’re at it, don’t forget to snag the extra 10% with the coupon code below.
FRESH N’ LEAN DISCOUNT CODE: Use the code DWELL10 to get 10% off your order!
But if you want to hear more about my experience (everything you need to know about Fresh N Lean), keep on reading this review and we’ll cover it all! 🙂
By the end of this comprehensive review, you’ll have everything you need to decide whether or not Fresh N Lean is right for you.
Quick Overview of This Fresh N Lean Review:
Don’t have much time to read everything? Here are the main points you need to know about Fresh N Lean:
- Fresh N Lean offers both weekly meal plans and a la carte options, in addition to bulk meal, sides, and snack add-ons.
- FREE shipping / nationwide delivery: to your house, office, or even the gym!
- They have 5 lifestyle meal plan options: Protein, Keto, Paleo, Plant-based, and Low-carb/low-cal plant-based,
- Their meals are prepared fresh and is never frozen.
- Phenomenal flavors! I’ve tasted over 20 different meals and snacks from Fresh N Lean, and there was not a single one I didn’t like. I can honestly say Fresh N Lean is the best tasting meal delivery service and my favorite that I’ve tried so far.
- Price point is comparable to other meal delivery services (the cost per meal is higher than cooking your own food of course, but Fresh N Lean definitely has larger servings compared to other meal delivery services)
- All their meals use organic ingredients and are gluten-free and non-GMO. Most of their meals are also dairy-free and soy-free. With their non-vegan plans, Fresh N Lean meals feature grass-fed meat, free-range poultry, and sustainable fish, all of which are antibiotic-free and hormone-free.
- You can get 10% off your order with the code DWELL10
About Fresh N Lean
Fresh N’ Lean is a fairly new meal delivery service that focuses on making healthy eating accessible to everyone. The founders believe that people should be able to eat plenty of fresh, organically-grown, whole foods no matter how time-constrained they may be. No artificial ingredients here!
And so Fresh N Lean was born.
The Fresh N Lean meal prep team prepares the healthy meals fresh in Anaheim, CA, and ships it out directly to your doorstep based on the plan you choose. Always refrigerated, never frozen though!
(keep reading for a breakdown on all the different Fresh N Lean plans below)
It is truly one of the most customizable meal delivery services I’ve ever tried! You can choose the frequency of your order, choose the plan that fits your dietary lifestyle best (they have 5 options), and you can even note your allergies so they can send you the meals without those ingredients!
How Does Fresh N Lean Work?
I’m a big fan of bullet points, so let me outline how the Fresh N Lean subscription process works with an easy 1, 2, 3 🙂
1. Pick Your Meal Plans
First, you’ll get to choose between a weekly plan or a la carte ordering.
If you choose the weekly meal plan, you can further choose between 5 lifestyle meal options:
- Protein + : Includes a generous serving of high-quality animal protein with every lunch and dinner meal, with a side of organic vegetables and whole grains.
- Keto: keto-friendly meals focused on low carbs, high proteins, and lots of healthy fats.
- Paleo: Includes high-quality animal protein and organic vegetables, but without grains or legumes (perfectly compliant for those on the paleo diet).
- Standard Vegan: features plant-based proteins, with a side of organic vegetables and whole grains.
- Low-carb/low-cal Vegan: Inlcudes one “regular” plant-based meal with whole grains + one plant-based meal without grains per day.
If you choose the a la carte ordering, you can select whatever meal(s) you want individually and add it to your cart based on your dietary restrictions or preferences.
2. Customize Your Order
Once you choose your meal plan, you’ll be prompted to further customize your order. In my opinion, this is the key feature of Fresh N Lean that makes it different from a lot of other meal plans I’ve tried before.
Everything on their rotating menu is already organic, gluten-free, and dairy-free (except the Keto meal plan, which may contain dairy in some of the meals). However, you can customize this further to meet your dietary preferences.
The good this is: excluding ingredients doesn’t mean you’ll receive smaller portions.
Modifying your meal plan is super easy too. In yet another round of bullet points, here’s what you can customize:
- The number of meals you want per day and how many days per week
- Any food allergies
- Option to add additional meals or snacks
- Add on optional bulk meals or sides
3. Receive Delivery, Heat, and Eat!
Once you place their order, your meal will be queued for prep and shipping. Fresh N Lean will send you an email when your box ships, so keep an eye for that.
You can choose to have it delivered to your home, your office, or even the gym!
I detail my experience in full detail below, but basically, once you get your box delivered, here’s what you need to do:
- All Fresh N Lean meals arrive fresh and ready to eat. They are never frozen, so make sure to refrigerate your meals within 24 hours of arrival to ensure freshness.
- Meals can be refrigerated for up to 10 days. If you don’t eat all of them by their “best by” date, just pop them in the freezer and thaw as needed for future meals.
- When ready to eat, you can heat the meals directly the microwave (they use microwave-safe packaging) or open the BPA-free plastic film and heat the meal on the stove until thoroughly heated.
- The snacks are ready-to-eat, so just open a bag and enjoy!
My Review of Fresh N Lean Based on My Personal Experience
In the course of this month alone, I’ve eaten over 20 Fresh N Lean meals and snacks. I’ve tried everything from salmon to beef to chicken to shrimp dishes – and most of them were in the “Paleo” category with several non-paleo snacks and add-ons.
So while I can’t fully review Fresh N Lean’s keto or low-carb or plant-based meal plans, I can tell you my experience with their Paleo plan and non-paleo snacks. You might find that most of these points still apply to the rest, since packaging, delivery, and several of the ingredients used (i.e: organic vegetables, animal protein, and whole-grain snacks) overlap with some of the other plans.
Delivery Review
Nothing to complain about here. My Fresh N Lean box came super quickly within a few days of ordering. I loved that they sent me the notification of shipment so I can excitedly see where the box is using the tracking number!
When my box was delivered, I was glad to see the box was still fully intact (I’ve had a previous experience with another company where the box arrived completely torn open lol). There were a few dents in my Fresh N Lean box, but that’s to be expected with meal delivery service providers in general. And because the cardboard box material was super thick, it didn’t damage anything inside.
Packaging
Let’s talk about the box first. Again, the material was thick and sturdy, so it protected everything inside from spilling out during shipment.
Inside the box were thick insulation and a TON of ice packs! (see photo below). I thought they went a bit overboard with the ice packs (lol it was a lot) but it did keep my food cold, so better safe than sorry, I guess.
I appreciate that all the packaging is recyclable, too!
Then there’s also packaging with the microwavable meals themselves. I’m always hesitant about putting plastic in the microwave, so knowing that all of Fresh N Lean’s meal containers are BPA-free makes me feel better about the times I’m in a rush and just pop a meal in the microwave for 2-3 minutes while I go brush my teeth or put on shoes or whatever.
All Fresh N Lean meals are vacuum-sealed in BPA-free, recyclable trays. Even the plastic seals are recyclable too.
Though I will say, the plastic film does get really hot and I usually need to use a scissor or a knife to cut it open before eating. It does heat up the meals well, though!
And as far as the snack packaging, it’s pretty standard 🙂 You know, like any other snacks you buy at Albertsons, Sprouts, Safeway, or Tom Thumb.
Menu Variety
They have a TON of options and their weekly menu changes every week (based on the ingredients they source seasonally).
Click here to see this week’s menu!
Besides the 2 packages of apple cinnamon muffins I got in my last box for breakfast, I don’t think any of the lunch and dinner meals were ever the same on any given week.
They will, however, rotate the meals out in other weeks, so you might still see some of your favorite meals come back in another week’s box.
(I’m still crossing my fingers for the Cilantro Cream Vegetables with Braised Beef to return in my future boxes!)
Customization
I said this before, but Fresh N Lean’s customization is honestly the best I’ve seen in the meal delivery services industry. And I’ve tried so many of them!
Among all the options, you can customize:
- whether you want a weekly meal plan or a la carte
- within the weekly meal plan, you can choose how many meals to receive per day and how many days of the week you want meals for
- 5 dietary meal plan options: protein, keto, paleo, plant-based, and low-carb/low-cal plant-based.
- ingredients to avoid whether for allergies or personal preference (I’ve found this especially useful for allergies within the dietary meal plan)
- whether you want additional meals or snacks
- whether you want to add-on bulk meals and sides
The amount of customization available through Fresh N Lean is truly incredible – and as a family with different allergies/preferences, my husband and I really loved this feature.
Meal Quality
Again, incredible flavors. We dare say it’s the best meal delivery we’ve ever gotten (my husband agrees!)
There’s not one meal yet we haven’t just gobbled up. Everything has been delicious, and the ingredients are great. That makes sense, considering everything is scratch-made to your order.
I love that they are organic, gluten-free, and mostly dairy-free (the keto plan may have dairy).
The portions are larger than most meal delivery services we’ve tried, and I actually feel full eating the meals.
My husband loves the Tikka Masala Veggie Bowl with Shrimp and my favorite has to be either the Ginger Sesame Steak with Sweet Potatoes or Cilantro Cream Vegetables with Braised Beef.
Fresh N Lean snacks were definitely delicious, but you could get similar ones at your local grocery store too. Still, they were convenient, delicious, and were made with better-for-you ingredients.
For example, the granola I got didn’t have any hydrogenated oils common in many store-bought granolas, and it was only sweetened with maple syrup.
Customer Service
Last but not least, customer service. I didn’t have the need to contact them a whole lot, but the few times I did, they listened. They go above and beyond to make sure my needs were addressed, and response time has always been within 24 hours.
How Much Does Fresh N Lean Cost?
The cost of your Fresh N Lean box will depend on the meal plan you choose, and how many meals you get per day.
As a good rule of thumb, the more meals you order on a given week, the cheaper the cost will be per meal. Makes sense right?
Right now, you can also snag 10% off your order with the code DWELL10.
Here’s the current price breakdown for Fresh N Lean’s meal plans:
Protein+ Meal Plan Pricing
- 1 meal/day: $14.75 per meal
- 2 meals/day: $12.18 per meal
- 3 meals/day: $10.41 per meal
Keto Meal Plan Pricing
- 1 meal/day: $15.18 per meal
- 2 meals/day: $12.60 per meal
- 3 meals/day: $10.78 per meal
Paleo Meal Plan Pricing
- 1 meal/day: $15.18 per meal
- 2 meals/day: $12.60 per meal
- 3 meals/day: $10.78 per meal
Standard Plant-Based (Vegan) Meal Plan Pricing
- 1 meal/day: $12.64 per meal
- 2 meals/day: $10.05 per meal
- 3 meals/day: $7.93 per meal
Low-Carb/Low-Cal Plant-Based (Vegan) Meal Plan Pricing
- 1 meal/day: $13.67 per meal
- 2 meals/day: $11.96 per meal
- 3 meals/day: $9.63 per meal
Personally, what my family has chosen to do is get the 3 meals/day weekly meal plan. Between my husband and I, we go through all the meals in a week easily. But whatever we don’t eat (for example if we ate out a few times), we freeze the Fresh N Lean meals for future meals!
Oh, you can also schedule your deliveries either weekly or bi-weekly. Since the meals last for up to 10 days in the refrigerator, you can buy the 3 meals/day plan (saves money) and just order it every other week.
As far as a la carte pricing, prices start at $2.99 for the snacks and go up to $31.72 for bulk proteins. There is a minimum of $85 per weekly order, so I usually just stick with the pre-set weekly meal plans.
FRESH N’ LEAN DISCOUNT CODE: Use the code DWELL10 to get 10% off your order!
Bottom Line
As a lot of other Fresh N’ Lean reviews also state: this is truly the best meal delivery box out there! I have personally loved everything about the nutritional meals, and it has been a really good option for our family.
Especially as my husband and I are both busy professionals, having these pre-cooked full meals ready to heat up is a great way to curb fast food cravings and eat tasty meals that are also healthy!
We’ve tried their breakfast options, lunch and dinner options, as well as snacks (via a la carte orders) and have been extremely satisfied with this fresh meal service.
I will continue to order from the company, and in fact, I’m looking forward to trying out different plans this following week!
Fresh N’ Lean Alternative
If after reading this review you don’t think Fresh N’ Lean is the right choice for you, here are a few alternatives you might be interested in:
- HomeChef: Meal kit delivery service (prepped, portioned, and ready to cook)
- Everyplate: Affordable meal kit delivery service at $2.99/serving (pre-packed and pre-measured ingredients with cooking instructions) – get 20% off!
- Freshly: Meal delivery service (ready-to-eat)
- GreenChef: Premium meal kit delivery service (pre-packed and pre-measured ingredients with cooking instructions) catering to Keto, Paleo, or Vegan lifestyles – get $100 off!
- Hello Fresh: Meal kit delivery service (pre-packed and pre-measured ingredients with cooking instructions) – get $90 off!
- Chowbus: Asian food meal delivery (read our Chowbus review) – use code DWELL10 for $10 off orders of $20+
- Splendid Spoon: Fully vegan, clean-eating meal delivery service (read our Splendid Spoon review)
- Kencko: Instant smoothies & gumdrops delivery (read our Kencko review)
- SmoothieBox: breakfast and snack smoothie packs delivery
- Good Chop: meat subscription box (read our Good Chop review) – get $100 off!
- Cratejoy: subscription box marketplace, including food subsciption boxes (read our Cratejoy review)
FRESH N’ LEAN DISCOUNT CODE: Use the code DWELL10 to get 10% off your order!
Looking For More Product Reviews & Deals?
- Crowd Cow Review (2021) with Pictures!
- Good Chop Review: Everything You Need to Know + $100 Off
- 5 BEST Matcha Whisk You Can Buy on Amazon
- 7+ Must-Have Travel Wallets, According To Reviews
- My Urthbox Review + Get A FREE Box!
- (2021) 10 Best Gift Sets for Women on Amazon
- 12 Best Air Fryers Under $100
- 7 Best Travel Kettles For Your Next Trip
- (2021) 11+ Best Travel Toothbrush for Sparkling Clean Teeth
- Vivoo Review: Everything You Need to Know About the At-Home Wellness Test
- 13+ Best Travel Backpacks for Women
- CAUSEBOX Winter 2021 Review + $10 Coupon!
- 21+ Best Gluten-Free Protein Bars (2021)
- My Organifi Red Juice Review + 15% Off
- (2021) MasterClass Cooking Review: Is The MasterClass Culinary Arts Course Any Good?
- 5 Best Travel Fishing Rod in 2021 – The Ultimate Fan-Favorites!
- My Honest Review of Kencko Instant Smoothies (2020)
- Mighty Fix Subscription Review + 72% Off Coupon
- 13+ Must-Try Wine Subscription Boxes And Best Wine Clubs In 2021
- ButcherBox Review + Unboxing (2021) : Is Butcher Box Worth It?
RELATED: Check out our FULL list of coupon codes & other savings!
Have you tried a Fresh N’ Lean subscription? If so, what did you think? Please leave a comment below – I’d love to hear!!
Leave a Reply