I am always up for trying out new foods, drinks and restaurants. It’s always interesting to test-drive new presentations. I have done it before with other brands who have sent me food products including meats, veggies, spices, beverages, snacks and desserts. It’s always interesting if only to educate my palate (and my brain) about new products as well as what I think is tasty. Sometimes I love everything but generally speaking I have my own personal tastes and I don’t like everything 100% – but then who does? What’s more interesting to me is to test drive different food presentations from organic to vegetarian, paleo, vegan, juicing and more.
I recently was introduced to the plant-based food company Veestro! You saw a good chunk about the brand in the 8/25 post. It includes a comp discount code that will be shared in this post. Today’s post is all about the food.
What is Veestro?
Veestro Delivers Healthy, Tasty Plant-based Meals to your door!
Veestro provides organic, plant-based meals for the overworked and overscheduled individual. Created by a brother/sister duo who grew up learning to appreciate the value of a home cooked meal, Veestro delivers a complete solution to its customers: healthy plant-based meals, created from wholesome ingredients, ready to heat and eat. Veestro meals are all-natural, preservative-free food that’s high in protein and fiber, packed with nutrients and simply delicious – straight from your refrigerator or freezer. With Veestro, you no longer have to sacrifice convenience and taste for healthy & nutritious food.
The point of Veestro is that
1) it saves you time,
2) saves you money sourcing- and buying – ingredients that create these plant-based meals.
Whether or not you cook, you will save time using these meals. No recipes, no shopping, no calorie (or point) counting and it’s preservative and animal product-free! Sounds ideal for those who are vegetarian or vegan. For those who want to try out this super-smart delivery service of frozen chef-created recipes featuring organically and locally sourced ingredients (here in So. California), this sounds fabulous. Given that Veestro delivers to contiguous 48 states means that you can try Veestro cuisine almost anywhere!
When I was asked to participate in the review process, I thought it would be interesting to feature since I have reviewed other food delivery plans over the course of 10 years. None were entirely vegan though they could be done that way if requested. I have eaten vegetarian dishes and enjoyed the food delivery service a lot.
There is a sector of the population — omnivores (like me) who currently eat meat and other animal-based products that would benefit from exposure to a plant-based diet on a regular basis. It’s healthy to switch off animal-based proteins (primarily meat) and it gives the digestive track a break. It’s particularly good for those who are dealing with immune or inflammatory disorders since going vegan means that products are organic. For anyone dealing with health issues, substituting one meal a day (or more) would be a real plus if you did that on a regular basis.
I felt that it would be a worthwhile for me to do a trial run on Veestro. I am not vegan by any stretch. I had not contemplated the changes in the meals that vegan implied. Those who are vegan do not eat any animal-based food (that includes eggs, cheese and milk)) according to my vegan friends. They make up their meals differently with tofu, tempah and lots of ingredients I have never tried. My idea of vegetarian is one thing. Before I tried Veestro, I had not really experienced much in the way of vegan food.
Based on all this information, I was really interested in learning more about this line. When I was offered the chance to participate in the 5 day Summer Slimdown Challenge! I decided to give it a try.
Disclosure The meals I received and reviewed were at no cost to me and it was contingent on my honest review of 15 meals.
Here’s the 15 meals that I received. It was a mix of various entrees plus a juice. Here is where you can find all the food/dishes I am reviewing. http://www.veestro.com/collections/a-la-carte
I liked almost everything Veestro sent me. I think it’s a great program. I did not get any pizzas or some things that I would have liked to have tried. While the site has some sweets, I didn’t get one to try. Because I am not vegan or vegetarian, I don’t eat a lot of tofu or tempeh. This was the first time at tasting tempeh. So my lack of knowledge about some of the elements in vegan food is apparent. I am not familiar with cheese substitutes, varieties of tofu and other vegan food ingredients. It made this challenge even more interesting because a lot of the dishes were really great. My husband and I wound up sharing most of these meals 50/50– as in we shared one lunch or dinner. It was plenty of food. I was full all the time. I wasn’t snacking. Often I wasn’t hungry for dinner after a Veestro breakfast and lunch. Eat healthy, eat vegan, eat Veestro!
1)Enchilada Casserole
Review:
This is one of my favorite meals from Veestro. It’s a perfect marriage of stacked tortillas, veggies and tofu. The tofu acts like cheese and it was extremely tasty!
2)Empanadas
Review:
The empanadas were one of the first meals I pulled out of the huge box to cook. WOW. I had no idea that some of the meals really do require oven cooking. This was one of the few that wouldn’t turn out well if it wasn’t put in an oven or a toaster oven. This is well worth the effort since empanadas are like small turnovers filled with a savory filling. My husband and I split this.. and it was super tasty when used with the sauce provided. You could substitute organic salsa to serve with these great-tasting empanadas .
3)Eggplant Casserole
Review:
This is a twist on an Italian meal. It’s a great meal with lots of texture courtesy of the eggplant. It has lots of veggies, vegan cheese and tofu ricotta. Nice texture and the only thing I would change would be to add more herbs like garlic and basil.
4)Oatmeal Pie (breakfast)
Review:
This is one of the breakfast dishes. I like oatmeal but I find it bland so I am always adding things to spice mine up. This is a twist on the typical oatmeal that I have because it’s presented as a pie or like a bread pudding. This one is nice. It does have cranberries and nuts (walnuts- not the almond slices in the photo), spices apple and sweet potato chunks. This is a hybrid dish. I like it but I would like it more if it had more contrasting texture like more dried berries and nuts. I should have added nutmeg to it along with more nuts. Also this could double as a dessert like a vegan bread pudding provided you could figure out how to create a vegan whiskey sauce.
5)Risotto with Butternut Squash
Review:
I love risotto. I think it’s a great dish and that they could turn out a great risotto with superb texture is terrific. It does have butternut squash which is a nice color contrast but the flavor and the texture are a bit bland. Granted I actually cook and I make great Italian. For me to expect this dish to be what I think it should be is not the correct thing. I do believe someone would love it and just add in some organic crisp-tender peas or snow peas would give this a bit more crunch.
6) 3 Layer Scramble (breakfast)
Review:
What a great breakfast. It’s not an egg dish but it is a great dish for any meal. This layered meal give you a range of textures and flavors and it’s very very tasty.
7)Thai Chik’n Stew
Review:
Another one of my real favorites. I don’t eat a lot of Thai because often it’s much spicier than I can tolerate. This is is darn near perfect. A smidge over my heat threshold but it’s so darn good! Veestro has created a faux chicken that almost duplicates the texture of cooked chicken. I like this one a lot because lots of spices are included to nail down a fairly accurate Thai dish.
8) Tuscan Calzone
Review:
This is an Italian pocket pizza type dish. I love calzones. This one has spinach, yellow squash and zucchini along with some sundried tomato spread. I think it should have more tomato spread. It was a nice flaky crush and I think it’s a good meal that could be great if it had more sauce in the interior of the calzone or as a side packet.
9) Golden Chickpea Stew with Quinoa and Veggies.
Review:
Another great dish that is more Thai but also feels like Italian. I liked this one a lot. I eat garbanzo beans (chickpeas). But Veestro made me like them so much that I wanted more! That’s a huge plus!
10) Kale and Roasted Beets Salad
Review:
Interesting that this salad came almost frozen. It will defrost without damaging the salad. Bonus for Veestro for such an accomplishment. I like the texture of the beets. They were cooked but not to the point of being mushy. The kale was still crisp. The dressing lacks vinegar and thus missing some zest. It’s easy enough for me to add it to this nice dressing provided.
11) Moroccan Melange
Review:
While this looks like soup, think again. It’s not soup. It’s more like a stew with sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, lentils, red peppers and more veggies. I like the flavor– it really does taste like Moroccan food. Yippie. This would be a good fit with brown rice or other additional side dishes.
12) Red Curry with Tofu
Review:
One of my favorites– and tofu does not usually make an appearance in my kitchen until now. This was a terrific dish. With collecting the right spices (curry, brown sugar, ginger, coriander, cumin, and tamari), it’s very much a restaurant quality meal.
13) Kale and Quinoa Salad
Review: I like kale. I like quinoa. I am not a fan of tempeh. This was the first time. I know it’s an acquired taste. It didn’t work for me. I ate everything but tempeh. I did like the texture marriage of the kale and quinoa and it’s a lot of salad for the price!!
14) Mediterranean Skillet.
Review: This is an interesting dish. This had tempeh too. I didn’t eat it. I tried it in context of the dish and it doesn’t work for me. It doesn’t mean it’s not a good dish. It is. I am not a huge fan of olives.. particularly kalamata olives. They are too briney/salty to me. I have never been able to eat them. While I like the idea of this dish, it’s not my favorite. I am sure there are a ton of people (like my husband) who would eat this and never bat an eyelash. Personal preferences should be considered when ordering. LOOK at the ingredient list.
15) Quinoa Patty
Review:
This is a pretty darn good substitute for a burger in the protein dept. Veestro included other ingredients like corn, red pepper and lots of spices to this so that it has a lot of flavor. It does need some good bread or wrapping to be able to be a burger. My thought is that being vegan is about making adaptations and this would be a pretty good option. It’s thick and chewy and it has flavor. It’s a great addition to something that isn’t quite enough.
16) Johnny Appleseed Juice
Review: This juice is a nice green juice. It ranks right up there with a lot of green juices that I like and has a nice flavor balance. It has a great ingredient mix too:
Organic green kale, organic spinach, organic parsley, organic cucumber, organic celery, organic apple, organic lemon, organic ginger, Sacha Inchi protein powder. (12 oz.)
I just don’t know anything about the protein powder but that didn’t bother mix. I mixed it in the blender with some ice and I was happy!
This wraps up my review of VEESTRO food delivery service. I really like the menu. There’s a lot of things to choose from. There are items I would add (and subtract) from my review. I was supposed to include my own photos but the photos I took of the packages when frozen weren’t sexy. The photos after I removed the product from the package after cooking didn’t turn out right. I am not a professional food stylist and trying to make my food look as fabulous as the photos here on Veestro didn’t work. Most often the lighting wasn’t right and I didn’t want the flat looking photos that I took to be used to judge how great this line is! Veestro is affordable and good. It’s easy to use and will keep you full all day!
I would like to thank Veestro for allowing me to participate in the 5 day trial. I did lose a couple of pounds because I was no longer snacking.
Disclosure The meals I received and reviewed were at no cost to me and it was contingent on my honest review of 15 meals.
My getting the food for free to review was the key to my being able to do the review. I have provided my honest reviews for 15 meals and 1 juice.
I would recommend this to anyone seeking to do a vegan and/or vegetarian diet. It’s easy to cook, it’s nutritious and they put serious amount of thought and effort into the dishes!
As an added bonus, Veestro has provided my readers a promo code to make the trial easier!
Get 20% off your entire order with the promo code: LASTORY! This code is valid through September 30th, 2015.
Follow Veestro on these social platforms:
Veestro website www.veestro.com,
Facebook: www.facebook.com/veestro ,
Twitter: https://twitter.com/VeestroFood,
Instagram: https:// instagram.com/veestrofood/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/veestrofood/
Stevie Wilson,
LA-Story.com
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This is high quality for the delivery market. I am glad to see these excellent options hit the market. I can imagine this service being super popular.