Food delivery is all the rave these days, but when you live in a small city like Pittsburgh, it’s hard to find healthy, local, portion controlled food delivered to your door step. That is, until PITTSBURGH FRESH stepped in to my life. They provide fresh, healthy meals delivered right to your door! I love that this local Pittsburgh company is pushing the limits on making healthy food convenient and accessible for everyone. There is such a need for this service.When is healthy food EVER convenient?! My office is located in what we like to call a “food dessert.” There isn’t a good restaurant around for 20 minutes so Pittsburgh Fresh delivering work lunches to my office is the CATS PAJAMAS (if you will).
Meal Prep Takes A LOT of work to Do It Yourself
It can sometimes feel impossible to meal prep breakfast, lunch, and dinner every week. Plus, I can almost guarantee there are better things you want to be doing on your Sunday afternoon than fixed to your kitchen all day. Let me help you minimize that time in the kitchen by taking lunch (or dinner) out of the picture. Pittsburgh fresh does exactly that.
Shop Local
I love to support local Pittsburgh business’ so when I heard that Pittsburgh Fresh was opening up, I was game to try it. One of my favorite things about this service is that they are local & I know exactly where the food is coming from. I weighed the option of other fancy pants meal services but who even knows where they’re shipped from? I’m sure they’ve been frozen for some time before they make their way to me. Now, the convenience factor is great and I knew of them before placing but order (since their insta is bangin), but the real test would be the flavor. I write a food blog for crying out loud, i’m bound to be a little picky.
Patrick & I (need the guys perspective who’s taste buds haven’t evolved into liking the taste of wheatgrass..) just tried 5 meals.
Here’s what we tried:
Super Salad with Avocado Dressing: Roasted sweet potatoes, roasted beets, baby kale, arugula, chick peas, quinoa, pumpkin seeds, served with house made avocado dressing on the side *GF, Dairy Free, Paleo (can a girl get an amen!) This salad is packed with Superfoods & positively delicious! Reminds me of that line in the Incredible when they say, “honey, where’s my supaaa suite!?” in this case i’m like, “honey, where’s my supppa salad!?” I digress…
Chicken Salad with Avocado Mayo: shredded chicken breast, celery, red onion mixed with house made avocado olive oil mayo, served with fresh fruit * GF, Dairy free, Paleo (halla!)
Smoked BBQ Chicken with Sweet Potato Casserole (antibiotic & hormone free): Smoked chicken breast with BBQ sauce, served with Pittsburgh Fresh’s signature sweet potato casserole made with mashed potato, egg, cocnut milk, a touch of honey, and topped with walnuts and almonds *GF, Dairy free, Paleo (*shwinggg!) Patrick scarfed this one down for dinner the same night I had the Chicken Salad with Avocado mayo.
The Basic: Grilled Chicken w/ Steamed Broccoli (antibiotic & hormone free): Simply seasoned chicken breast served with steamed broccoli *GF, Dairy free, Paleo (thank you, kindly)
Crab(less) Cakes with Quinoa Tabbouleh: crab-less cakes made with garbanzo beans, heart of palm, bread crumbs, vegan avocado mayo, and spices served with quinoa tabbouleh
In conclusion, there are a few key things I looked out for when trying these (or any new foods for that matter):
- Quality – ESPECIALLY in the meat – I love that these chicken meals were all antibiotic & hormone free. I’m a huge proponent of not taking in antibiotics through animals which contribute to the creation of superbugs, limit the effectiveness if we need medicine, and wake out our hormones which control almost every function of our body. I thought the texture & quality of the chicken was really good! They were cooked just right and seasoned well (keeping it really light).
- Added Sugars – those suckers are everywhere… they’re in almost everything you buy pre-prepared so finally we’ve found a solution to the store bought convenience of pre-made food with the confidence in the ingredients as though we made it at home. Thank you for none of these Pittsburgh Fresh.
- Preservatives – to my knowledge, they don’t use any preservatives. Importante! Preservatives are impossible to digest, known to cause cancer, weight gain, asthma, allergies, and more). You have to freeze these if not eating within 5 days which leads to me to believe they’re preservative free and I love it!
- Clear Labels – beyond labeling every meal with notes such as GF, Dairy-Free, Paleo, Pittsburgh fresh shares their full list of natural ingredients (all of which we can pronounce, thank you!), nutrition facts, reheat directions, and transparent lids. This is a company going for transparency and I am in FULL FULL support of their mission.
I was visiting Pgh recently for a few weeks, and I tried all the delivery apps – all were dissappointing or did not deliver to the Mt. Lebanon area. So thank you for the tip, next time I’m in the ‘burg I will surely try this!
When you come into town next you can load up on delicious meals that won’t disappointed.. no groceries needed. They have vegetarian options too!