Factor Meal Plan Review

by Marne Orenich, MSA Content Specialist, Takeout Queen
March 26, 2020| 3 comments

About Factor

Plans & Pricing

Choose from five weekly plans that get cheaper the more you order. Add-ons are available for an extra cost.

• $60.00 for 4 meals/week ($15.00/meal)
• $77.00 for 6 meals/week ($12.83/meal)
• $99.00 for 8 meals/week ($12.83/meal)
• $138.00 for 12 meals/week ($11.50/meal)
• $198.00 for 18 meals/week ($11.00/meal)

COUPON: Save $40 off your first two boxes ($20 savings each box)! No coupon needed - just use this link.

My Subscription Addiction paid for this box. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)

Preferences & Allergens

Factor has several meals that cater to paleo and keto diets. They also allow you to filter out common allergies like tree nuts and shellfish, and allow you to select meal types and proteins for future deliveries.

My Factor Review

Why Factor?

Since I decided to go pescatarian (vegetarian + fish) this year, I was happy to see that Factor offers vegetarian meals in addition to ones with meat. Although cooking can be fun with another person, it can feel like a chore to me when I’m on my own (which is most nights). Not only do I need to cook everything, but I need to clean it all up and do the dishes too. What a drag! With a meal plan like this one, everything can be heated up in a microwave OR an oven and enjoyed just minutes later with virtually no clean up. That definitely piques my interest.

Signing up

Once you put in your email address, zip code, and choose a plan, you’ll be able to choose your meals. Simply add the amount of each meal you’d like below the photo.

*It’s good to note that as it gets closer to the delivery date, some meals can sell out and that will be noted here. It’s best to choose your meals ahead of time to avoid this happening.

There’s also a filter at the top left that allows you to choose your dietary needs.

When you hover over a meal, you can click to check out the ingredients & nutritional information.

Once you click in, you’ll see all the pertinent information like ingredients, nutrition facts, and serving size, as well as a description of the meal.

Since I am pescatarian, I chose the only 5 vegetarian options for the week, plus a salmon meal. One happened to be breakfast food, which I’m ok with. Those who eat meat or have fewer restrictions will have a larger selection to choose from (next week there are 18 total options).

Once you’ve chosen your meals you’ll see the add-on page. Here, you can grab extra fish, meat, granola, keto or protein “power packs”, and even wellness shots.

I decided to add a 6 pack of wellness shots to my order for $23.99 which makes them $3.99/each.

Skipping weeks is easy. You’ll find it under your account settings as “future deliveries.”

My First Delivery and Meals

I’ll start with my wellness shot variety pack which includes three of each of the two flavors they currently offer: Cayenne Cleanse and Live Greens. They come in cute little 2-ounce plastic bottles inside a box.

Cayenne Cleanse

If you’ve ever done a cleanse and made a concoction like this, you’ll have an idea of how it tastes. I love spicy things so this shot made with apple juice, ginger, lemon, and cayenne is right up my alley. The ingredients inside this little bottle of goodness aim to help my skin and immune system and give my tastebuds a little jolt of sour spice. Yum!

Live Greens

Oooh- I love this! The lemon is super tart and really cuts through the yummy greens. I really enjoy the flavor of a dark green kale or celery smoothie even though it can have a really earthy vibe to it. It also contains E3Live which is an organic & wild-grown blue-green algae with 65+ vitamins, minerals, and amino acids. I’d love to start every day with a little shot like this. As for now, I’ll have to be happy with just three.

The meals come in microwave/oven safe trays (sort of like TV dinners) with a cardboard sleeve. I had a jolt of panic when these arrived since I was fixing to use the microwave at work to cook these and we are all currently working from home (where I don’t have one). But then I read the directions to see that these are also fine to prepare in the oven and didn’t require much more time! Yay!

Meatless Walnut Cauliflower Bolognese (Paleo, Plant-Based, Vegetarian)

Although it was quite wet after I took it out of the oven, I thoroughly enjoyed this walnut cauliflower bolognese over zucchini noodles. At first glance, I thought the zucchini wouldn’t be enough, but after plating, it ended up being plenty. I found this meal to be quite filling to the extent that I was satisfied but not bursting at the seams. The walnut in the sauce provided a wonderful crunch that I’d never think to add on my own. The flavor of the sauce was wonderful and these really did give me pasta feelings.

Quinoa Breakfast Skillet (Vegetarian)

My boyfriend Kurt and I split this one morning for a light breakfast even though it is a serving for one. I was actually impressed with the size of this meal since I probably wouldn’t make this amount of scrambled eggs for myself. It’s nice to know that they’re also cage-free! I never thought to make quinoa for breakfast but it was super good with the black beans, zucchini, and red bell peppers that were added. This has inspired new breakfast ideas in me! While I did like this, I think $12.83 is simply too much for this since breakfast is so easy to make.

Moroccan Vegetable Stew (Plant-Based, Vegetarian)

Unfortunately for me, a lot of the vegetarian meals from Factor use sweet potatoes, which I’m not super fond of. I had Kurt help me out and eat this one although I did try it as well. I personally didn’t think it looks like enough food for a meal (maybe because I put it into a bowl?) but Kurt insisted that it was filling. He prefers lighter fare though, so that does make sense. I could taste the Moroccan spices immediately and even though they weren’t too spicy, they produced a bit of zing. The quinoa was cooked well with the perfect amount of texture that wasn’t too hard or too mushy.

Paleo BBQ Salmon (Paleo)

This was the only recipe I chose that is marked as two servings. I will say that I find that shocking since I easily ate it all myself and I don’t think a tray of prepared food like this should ever contain more than one serving. Who would eat half of this and save the rest for later? Not me. That aside, I loved this dish. The salmon tasted fresh, the green beans were great, and even though I don’t love sweet potato, the mash was smooth and tasty. What I liked the most though was the BBQ sauce on the salmon. Honestly, some of the best I’ve ever had! If someone put this in front of me and told me they just made it, I’d believe it. This meal is close to worth the $12.83 cost for me since salmon can be pricy and it would take me about 30 minutes to make the whole thing.

Spiced Lentils with Sweet Potato Mash (Plant-Based, Vegetarian)

I love Brussels sprouts, so this was an easy win for me even if there is mashed sweet potato involved. I also love lentils and eat them as much as possible. The three main ingredients make up quite a bouquet of textures. The sprouts are halved and still crisp instead of soggy. The lentils bring some solid bits into the creamy mashed sweet potato. I think the flavor hit well here and even though I added some salt and pepper to the sprouts, they tasted fresh.

Sweet and Sour Cauliflower

This meal looks so good to me but I just am not the right person for it. I’m not a fan of sweet and sour flavors at all and this cauliflower is just slathered in it. There are chunks of pineapple and green pepper with coconut sugar mingling with the crunchy cauliflower to make up the main portion of this dish. The brown rice was cooked really well and tasted as I had just prepared it. Sadly I had to pass this beauty on to my roommate Tony who seemed to enjoy it.

Nutrition Coaching

When you subscribe to Factor, you receive a free 20-minute consultation with one of their dietitians that can help you create a personalized nutrition plan.

As a subscriber, you have the option to purchase a month-to-month plan of coaching sessions including your own wellness coach, a digital diet dashboard, and a virtual food log for $139/month. You can also purchase a 3-month option for $99/month.

My Verdict

Part of me wonders “who the Factor meal plan for?” since $12.83 is quite a ticket price for each meal and I could easily spend that on a meal out. The other part of me is realizing that if I ate meat, these meals would most likely be much more worth it, especially during the current state of events when we’re home-bound and can no longer enjoy a meal at a restaurant. I hate to say it, but this week especially I haven’t been feeling much up to the task to cook nice meals for myself and being able to pop a fresh-made meal into the oven or microwave for less than 5 minutes and have a complete dinner is kinda nice. I think the bottom line is that I found these meals to be delicious and I was pleasantly surprised by the quality. I’m really bad at nutrition as well and these are portion-controlled and seem generally quite healthy, especially if you’re following a diet like keto or paleo. If you have the money, but not the time or energy for meal prepping, I think Factor is a great option.

COUPON: Save $40 off your first two boxes ($20 savings each box)! No coupon needed - just use this link.