What A Crock Meals: An Honest Review
Are running short on time? Does making dinner seem more time-consuming and stressful than you feel you can take on but you want to feed your family delicious home-cooked meals made with wholesome ingredients? Read this honest review of What A Crock Meals to see if these pre-made slow cooker meals might be the solution to your meal prepping troubles!
Like many moms who juggle active kids, jobs, and life, I often feel like I’m short on time. Meal planning has been my saving grace for getting food on the table, but on especially busy weeks, cooking is STILL stressful and rushed for me.
Back to school, the holidays, soccer and baseball seasons, and the end of the school year – these are all times that are even busier than our normal schedule. I still want to feed my family healthy home-cooked meals, but where do I find the time to prep and cook?
What A Crock Meals: One Option Among Many
I’ve thought about trying Hello Fresh or other similar companies in the past, but all they really do is eliminate grocery shopping. With 3 growing hungry boys, I have to go to the grocery store no matter what. So that didn’t seem to be the right fit for me – especially since I would still need to prepare and cook the food.
There were just no time savings for me in those models.
Then a couple of months ago, I heard about What A Crock Meals, and was intrigued. This company delivers already prepared frozen slow cooker meals right to your door. Could that be the time-saving solution I was waiting for?
How would they taste? Are the ingredients ok? Would my family like them?
When I heard that the meals were prepared by professional chefs, I knew it was time to try it out.
I reached out to the company and they were not only super responsive, but they also offered to send me a sample of their products so I could try them myself and let you know what I thought!
So here’s my unblemished honest review of What A Crock Meals – the good and the not so good. My goal is to help you decide whether this meal delivery service is a good fit for you!
NOTE: I am writing a thorough and honest review covering our entire experience with What A Crock Meals. However, it’s long and detailed, so if you want a quick summary, scroll down near the end! What A Crock Meals Sent sponsored this post, but all opinions are 100% my own.
Our Experience With What A Crock Meals
I live in Colorado, and the company is based in Pennsylvania. That distance can be tough for shipping frozen food!
So, once I got in touch with What A Crock Meals, we coordinated a ship date so that I could be home to receive the food. They shipped it on a Tuesday and I received it on Friday afternoon.
Food Arrival
The food was packaged in a styrofoam cooler inside of a box that was about 18” x 24” and was packed in dry ice. When I received the food, the dry ice had melted, and there was some liquid in the bottom of the cooler.
I began pulling the food out and noticed that all of it was partially thawed. Initially, I was concerned about that, but I found a packet of information in the cooler.
One of the first things in that packet was a statement that the food may partially thaw in transit, but as long as the center remained frozen, it was safe to put back in the freezer and eat later.
So I followed the instructions and placed everything in my freezer. We were leaving the next day to go out of town on vacation, and I knew that I wouldn’t touch the food until we got back.
The Food I Received
I couldn’t believe it! I received FOUR meals plus an appetizer AND rice and pasta. There was so much food! Here’s what I received:
- Jambalaya
- Sausage Meatballs in marinara sauce
- Lemon Garlic Chicken
- Burgers
- Philadelphia Cheese Steak dip
- Sides of rice and pasta
I was impressed with the selection and grateful for the opportunity to try SO much!
How The Food Was Packaged
When I first saw plastic bags of frozen food, I was worried that I wouldn’t know what was what or how to cook it. I shouldn’t have worried!
The food was packaged in plastic bags and clearly labeled with not only what the items were but how long to cook them. The cooking instructions even offered different methods to cook the food and their corresponding cook times.
For example, everything has slow cooker instructions, but there were also instructions for faster cooking on the stove.
Everything was clearly laid out and labeled and made this product SO EASY to use!
Preparing The What A Crock Meals
Well, the next thing to do was to actually try one of the What A Crock Meals, right?
Once we got back from vacation, it was perfect timing because my boys had a sports camp that ran until almost dinner time. By the time we would get home it would be dinner time, and I was so excited to put one of these meals to the test!
I decided to use my slow cooker so that I didn’t have to babysit the food as it was cooking. I pulled the Jambalaya out of the freezer. What A Crock Meals sent 4 servings and I was just a tad concerned that there wouldn’t be enough for us.
I put the packets into some warm water to allow it to thaw just enough that I could get everything out of their bags and into the Crock Pot. After about 30 minutes, I was able to put everything into the slow cooker, turn it on, and let it do its thing.
I added the rice to the slow cooker before I left to pick the kids up. When I got home with the boys after basketball camp (about an hour later), the Jambalaya was cooked and ready to enjoy! It was DELICIOUS!
You guys, this meal was packed with flavor, made with wholesome ingredients, and there was PLENTY for everyone to eat AND have leftovers.
The Other What A Crock Meals We Received
The next meal we tried was the Lemon Garlic Chicken. After seeing it frozen in the bag, I thought it would be a creamy thick sauce, so it was soupier than I thought. But we served it over noodles, and like the Jambalaya, it was super yummy,
Next came the burgers. We only had 4, but either my husband or I usually eat veggie burgers anyway, so it wasn’t a problem at all. The burgers were HUGE, but they definitely shrank on the grill. They were thick and juicy and very flavorful.
The last meal we tried was the Sausage Meatballs in marinara sauce. The meatballs were large, and again, we received 4 servings. My husband and I were both a little concerned there wouldn’t be enough meatballs – we do have 3 hungry, growing boys, after all! Again, I shouldn’t have worried – there were PLENTY of meatballs. And they were DELICIOUS!
And finally, the Philly Cheesesteak Dip…it’s creamy, cheesy, hearty, and amazing.
Doesn’t it look incredible?
What A Crock Meals Review: Pros And Cons
I think the best way to evaluate an experience with a program is to compare the pros and cons.
Pros Of This Service
Here are the things that I really liked about this food delivery service. And they’re things that may help you too!
NO Prep
There’s no chopping, measuring, mixing, or anything else. What A Crock Meals takes my meal prep time to NOTHING.
I LOVE that! If anything, I just need to remember to pull items out in time to thaw enough to add to the slow cooker. A healthy, hearty, home-cooked meal on the table with ZERO prep is my favorite part of What A Crock Meals. It’s every mother’s dream, right? 😉
Taste
While I can’t personally vouch for every single item the company offers, I have no problem recommending these meals based on flavor. The flavor of everything we tried was outstanding, and I have no doubt that’s the case with everything they make.
Quality
Every meal we had contained great quality meat, veggies, and seasonings. I was extremely happy with the quality.
Serving Sizes
Everything we received had extremely generous portions. Every dish fed a family of 5 with tons of leftovers! I was very happy with the portions delivered.
Variety
I was impressed with the variety in the dishes that we received. I didn’t choose them; the company did. There was a terrific range of flavors.
And when I look at the website, the selection of meals available is astounding to me. There are SO many options! I don’t think I would ever get tired of the offerings available!
And the menu changes slightly with the seasons too just to keep things interesting 😁
Saves On Grocery Store Time
These meals came with everything I needed to serve an entire meal, including rice and pasta. Of course, I could add bread or a salad to round things out, but since the dishes had so many veggies in them, I didn’t feel the need to do that.
I did serve some fruit on the side, but that’s because I serve fruit with basically every dinner to help ensure we all get enough in our diet.
Cons of What A Crock Meals
Ok, here’s the not-so-fun part. I have a hard time pointing out negatives about companies or people. But, no review would be an honest one without pointing out things that I didn’t like. So here it goes…
Cost
This was my biggest problem with What A Crock Meals is the cost. The meals themselves aren’t cheap and add up quickly for families. (they are fully prepared meals, after all!)
That said, the meals are more expensive than buying food from the grocery store to cook, but they’re cheaper than going out to eat. If you’re looking to add some convenience to your life, then this might be a happy compromise!
In addition to the cost of the meals, the shipping costs range wildly from affordable or even free on the east coast to very expensive where I live.
The company does usually have meals that are on sale, and they run shipping specials from time to time too. If you’re looking to try this service but are concerned with price, I definitely recommend checking out those options!
🎉 I HAVE A COUPON FOR YOU! What A Crock Meals has VERY generously provided a 10% off coupon for any order using the code MADEINAPINCH. 🎉 Note, this code won’t apply to gift cards or meal plans.
Food Thawing
While I understand why the food arrived partially thawed, I didn’t feel comfortable putting partially thawed food back into the freezer to refreeze.
Nothing spoiled or tasted “off” and no one got sick, but it went against everything I’ve ever believed about freezer food safety.
I guess that shows what I know, huh?! 😂
Timing
Some meals may require someone to be home in the middle of the day to cook the food in the slow cooker for 4-5 hours. The meals that we received could be cooked on high in the slow cooker for 5-6 hours or on low for 8-9.
Plus, I work from home, so that wasn’t an issue for us.
My Overall Impression: Would I Recommend What A Crock Meals?
Without a doubt, we enjoyed every single thing we received from What A Crock Meals! The quality of the food FAR surpassed my expectations, and the ease of cooking was everything I had hoped it would be!
I was able to throw the food into the crock pot mostly frozen and come back to find it perfectly cooked hours later. That saved me SO MUCH TIME and effort!
Although the price was higher than I would be able to afford to pay on a regular weekly basis, the quality of the food and complete hassle-free meal prep make this service more than worth it during especially busy or stressful periods.
I would highly recommend What A Crock Meals, but let’s talk about when it makes sense to use it so that it doesn’t become cost-prohibitive in your life.
When It Makes A LOT Of Sense To Use What A Crock Meals
Back to school is always a hugely busy and stressful time that also happens to overlap with busy sports seasons. It’s times like these that make this service entirely worth the cost because it’ll save you money over eating out every night.
Here are a few other times to consider using (or gifting!) What A Crock Meals:
- Mother’s Day (hint, hint!)
- Busy sports seasons
- Holidays
- Vacation/Staycations
- End of the school year
- Gift cards for any time! (coupon code won’t work for these)
It’s also a terrific idea for:
- New moms
- Sick friends or family members
- Friends or family who can’t cook for themselves
- Friends or family who have just lost a family member
- A terrific meal train replacement!
- As a gift that ANY mom will LOVE!
How To Order From What A Crock Meals
There are a couple of ways you can order on the website:
- One-time shipment – pick whatever meals and the number of portions you want to try.
- Recurring meal plan – receive meals on a regular basis and either choose your plan or set up a Chef’s Choice Meal Plan where you indicate how many people you want to feed and how often. Then the company picks the meals that will be sent to you.
Tips For Ordering
Shipping – If shipping is expensive for you and you have the freezer space, consider ordering more meals less frequently to save on shipping costs. You can check the shipping map to see what shipping costs are for you.
NOTE: shipping costs have recently been updated so that they’re cheaper and sometimes even free further out west! Check them to see how they are for where you live!
Decide how many portions you need – Like I mentioned earlier, the portions are on the large side. Check the portions chart to see how many your family needs.
Allergen Information – Does your family have food allergies or do you need nutrition information? Check the nutrition facts and allergen chart for a quick reference to get all the information you need.
Use a Coupon – What A Crock Meals has VERY generously provided a 10% off coupon for any order using the code MADEINAPINCH…why not try it? With a coupon like this, you have nothing to lose and you just might find the solution YOU have been searching for! In full disclosure, this code won’t apply to gift cards or meal plans.
Where To Go If You Have Questions
I found customer service to be extremely helpful (and friendly) at What A Crock Meals. They responded quickly to my questions and were very friendly and helpful. Feel free to reach out and contact them yourself if you have questions!
I hope you’ll give What A Crock Meals a try. The service was excellent, the food was very satisfying, and the convenience was priceless.
🎉🎉Don’t forget to use the awesome coupon that What A Crock Meals has VERY generously provided a 10% off coupon for any order (except gift cards and meal plans) using the code MADEINAPINCH!! 🎉🎉 Save some 💲💲 and add convenience to your life – yes, please!
Enjoy!
