Kosher Fresh Diet Review & Giveaway

UPDATE: Congratulations to Joanne Klipper, winner of Savvima’s Kosher Fresh Diet Giveaway!!

I just got back from a relaxing vacation. Okay, confession, those who know me off the web know that I haven’t actually left town at all this summer (yet). But I like to think of my recent trial of Kosher Fresh Diet, as a stay-cation of sorts. At least I was lucky enough to vacate my kitchen for a week. What more can a busy mom ask for?

Kosher Fresh Diet, a subsidiary of The Fresh Diet, based out of South Florida has just announced its expansion into the Metro-New York market. KFD is a program which provides prepared meals delivered daily to your door. All KFD food is under the OU- Kosher certification.

They have also just launched a food truck, Kosher Fresh Diet Express, which can be found in Midtown Manhattan. For its exact location at any given time, customers can find out the truck’s exact location by following KFD Express on Facebook and Twitter.

The program is geared towards those who want to eat healthy, lose weight, and not spend extra time in the kitchen. Unless you’re OK with eating tuna and salad 365 days a year, dieting requires some creative cooking and know-how. If you rely on take out but want to shed a few pounds this may be the diet plan for you.

I was given a 7-day trial to give the KFD a whirl. Here’s what the process was like.

The two basic plans are the Premium Plan, which allows you to choose from up to four choices for each meal and snack, and The Chef’s Plan, where there’s no choosing. (If you do opt for the Chef’s Plan you can choose up to eight food dislikes, which the chef will leave out of your meals.)

Once you’ve chosen a plan you select your calorie range and then you’re done. No measuring, weighing, or calculating. The portion sizes are geared to your calorie range. You can also customize the plan to suit a diabetic, vegetarian, or breastfeeding diet.

Here’s a sampling of the meal options:

Breakfast-

Fresh fruit salad with ricotta cheese

Southwestern scrambled eggs with fire roasted corn, salsa, bell peppers, pepper-jack cheese, and multi-grain toast

Lunch-

Grilled tilapia wrap with sauteed shallots and lettuce

Grilled chicken breast with arugula orange segments, mango, strawberry, and citrus ginger dressing

Dinner-

Walnut crusted chicken apricot roulade with wild rise & cranberry pilaf

Citrus marinated beef stir-fry

Dessert-

Cheesecake

Snack -

Roasted tomato & mozzarella whole wheat bruschetta.

Some days it was hard to choose from so many options and the menu changed daily. After a few days I based my menu on what I’d already tried and liked.

A red KFD cooler (the kosher plan is packed in a red cooler, and The Fresh Diet uses green coolers to clearly differentiate, and the zipper is also closed with a tamper-evident lock to ensure kashrut) was delivered to my door every night with the following day’s meals. All the meals were labeled with the contents, reheating instructions, as well as a blue or red sticker to differentiate between dairy and meat. Also included was an attractively printed menu.  I found this handy since meals are selected a few days in advance and I would forget what I ordered (It’s always nice to know what you’re eating).

Some of the KFD website’s features are:

Reminder emails ensure you select your meals so the chef doesn’t have to do it for you.

If you select too many carb-rich meal choices for a given day a warning will recommend you change a meal (you can always choose to ignore the warning and keep your selection).

If you know you’ll be away you can suspend the delivery and the day will be added to the end of your subscription plan. In my case, I opted to suspend meals for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The meal options were no different for Shabbos than the weekly menus and since those are typically days when I have to cook for my family and guests I didn’t feel the need for the prepared meals on those days.

All in all the food was tasty and fresh. The program will best suit someone who needs a diet plan without the fuss of cooking special foods.

If you would like a 7-day free trial of The Kosher Fresh Diet delivered to your door, leave a comment below. One lucky winner will be selected randomly on Monday, August 29, 2011.

Please note: The winner of this giveaway must reside in KFD’s delivery areas (most of the Northeast corridor and South Florida).