Nest:Prep : A trial and review of the vegetarian pre-prepped meal delivery service

So. Stinkin’. Full.

Exactly how I felt each time I ate one of the Nest:Prep meals

My busy, stressful life and general hatred of cooking for myself has driven me to try many meal delivery services over the years. Most of the options send pre-measured ingredients with (sometimes complicated) instructions. I’ve also tried local pre-made options too. Each one I tried was either too much effort or not enough food.

Enter Nest:Prep

This is a new service being offered in central Nebraska. Nest:Prep is “American Portioned,” pre-made,, vegetarian, gluten free, dairy free, preservative free, organic, locally sourced, chef made meals delivered to your door. (Whew, that’s a mouthful, literally!)

I decided to give it a try for a week.

How it works:

Thursday by midnight, you sign up for the next week of food. At this time, you don’t get to choose which meals you receive, but you do get to see the menu in advance. Each meal is $11.95 and when you sign up for the full week, that includes free delivery. The first batch of four meals arrives at your doorstep on Sunday evening. The second batch of three arrives on Wednesday. With each order you’ll be sent a digital document with the full list of ingredients, heating instructions and freezing tips.

Nest:Prep recommends heating the meals in the oven, but they do provide microwave instructions as well. I tried both options and while the oven did taste slightly better, I learned that the average 30 minute warm-up time just didn’t work well with my schedule or lack of patience. I chose to microwave the rest.

Big Portions:

Size is the biggest complaint I have about most pre-prepped meal options. I’m a whopping 118 pound, 5’2 human and if a pre-made meal isn’t filling me up, I can’t image a grown man feeling satisfied.

Nest:Prep says their meals are about 32 to 34 ounces each. For me, even after a rigorous workout, I could not finish the entire meal.

For this reason, I loved having the option to freeze half my meals. They say they can be defrosted in the fridge in about eight hours. I disagree. I would suggest at least 12 hours to defrost, or adding additional cook time when heating up.

But they’re vegetarian…

Yes, these meals are 100% plant based. The owners know that’s not for everyone so in their weekly document, they do include meat pairing suggestions. Also, this isn’t your only meal of the day, so meat can easily be the main entree of a different meal.

Does it taste good? To me, yes.

I do eat meat but for me, its not uncommon to eat vegetarian meals, so this concept wasn’t too outlandish.

This isn’t your “cardboard” meal. Each dish was very flavorful. Chef Crickett said she works hard to have good texture and has made a few recipe adjustments over the month since they’ve opened. Keep in mind they’re gluten free, so some things, like the enchilada shells, may not have a texture you’re used to.

However, if you are a basic meat and potatoes person, this may be a stretch for you. Chef Cricket uses a lot of international flavors that some central Nebraskans may not be accustomed to eating. I’m from Detroit, so for me, it was fun having variety.

I will say, some of the meal titles did mess with my head a little. For instance, the stew. Mom makes stews pretty often and they always have meat in them. For this reason, my brain was really struggling to accept this meal as a “stew” and it took me a few bites to enjoy this dish. After that, I didn’t really read the menu. I just heated the dish and ate it for what it was. So, my meat-eater tip is, don’t read the title and expect it to taste “traditional,” think of this as an entirely different dish.

Zero Waste:

Nest:Prep says they’re a zero waste company. Each meal group is delivered in a reusable bag, in glass dishes. On the next meal delivery, these dishes and bag are collected and fresh, full dishes are left in their place. Think old-school milk man style. The containers are sanitized using heat instead of chemicals. Veggie tops and “waste” is either used in slaws, pickled, or composted. Documents are sent digitally.

Want to know more? Hear from both the owners and Chef Crickett in their NTV News story, here.

Final Thoughts:

Meat eater or vegan, if this is an option that fits into your budget, I’d say give it a go for at least a week. By doing so you’re supporting local farmers, local entrepreneurs, sustainability and creative thinking.

Lemmie know which food services you’ve tried and what you thought of them.

Till next time, XX