Captain Love has a lunch problem. Or, more accurately, HAD a lunch problem. He
needed something fast and tasty and, preferably, not horribly bad for him. He tried
eating leftovers but it was too boring. Had Miss Kitty make salads for him and got tired
of those. Had a good two-week run of frozen meals until deciding they all tasted alike.
And, though hitting Chipotle or Arby’s for lunch every day was yummy, it was expensive
and was not winning any awards in the healthy category.
Enter: meal delivery services. He made the very smart decision to have Miss Kitty
research different services for him to try, which took her all of five minutes as Factor
came up first when she put ‘best meal services for dudes’ in the search engine. She
took a look at some of the recipes, saw they were not frozen and had meals that weren’t
full of veggies she knew the Cap’n wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole, and was sold.
When you sign up for Factor, you get to choose styles of meals (Keto, Calorie Smart,
Vegan + Veggie, etc) or you can just go with the flow, which is what Miss Kitty decided
to do. You can also select how many meals per week you want to receive (she chose
four). When you first sign up, you’ll also get some sort of offer. Right now, it’s $60 off
your first order, which is a pretty good deal.
The selection process for your meals is very simple. You’ll get an email reminding you
that it’s time to select your meals. When you go into the site (or the app on your device),
you’ll see the meals that have been pre-selected for you and you can keep those, or
browse the menu and replace them with other choices. There are around 30 meals to
select from each week. It’s also easy to add on extra meals if you need them that week
or select add-ons like protein shakes, keto cheesecake squares, or individual portions of
meats or fish.
Orders arrive in a large brown box securely packed with ice packets to keep your meals
cold. Remember, the meals are NOT frozen. However, they are pre-cooked, so you
don’t have to worry about anything spoiling before you get it into the fridge.
So the real question is…how’s the food?? Well, if exuberant texts to Miss Kitty are any
indication, the Captain loves him some Factor lunches. He’s eaten everything from
jalapeno beef mac & cheese with roasted broccoli to fusilli & ground pork with tomato
ragu to red chile pork tamale bowls with spiced sweet potatoes. He states that the
meals are packed with flavor and always expresses surprise that these are
prepackaged meals.
As far as healthy goes, each meal is around 550 calories (remember you can choose
calorie smart for lower cal options) and contain much more in the way of veggies and
reduced carbs than the Cap’n is used to. So a total score for him. If Miss Kitty were ever
to get in on the action (the Factor action, that is), she’d likely opt for vegetarian options
like caramelized onion and goat cheese risotto with roasted carrots or Cajun chickpea &
okra stew.
Factor also does a good job of encouraging you to rate your meals so they can
continually improve their recipes and curate selections for your next box. As far as
customer service goes, we have not had any issues, so we aren’t sure how responsive
they are on that front. However, we do know they have a great referral program. We
sent an email through their site to a friend who was interested and, when she signed up,
received $40 off our next box and our friend received $150 off. You can also earn free
boxes to send to your friends.
So what about the damage? If you don’t choose the more expensive ‘Chef’s Choice’
options, you’ll pay $69.99 for four meals. That might sound a little steep, but it’s worth it
to Captain Love as far as convenience goes and he swears these are as good as any
restaurant meals. While you likely won’t save a lot of money with Factor, you’ll be
guaranteed delicious, healthy, chef-crafted options for every meal.
Conclusion? Captain Love has never been happier with his lunches and Miss Kitty is
happy that he’s happy (and that she doesn’t need to make salads every morning
anymore.) If you’ve been looking for a manly meal service that does not skimp on taste
or portion size, Factor may just be for you.
