Tovala +4

I have completed my first week. I am a widow with pounds I need to lose. My intuition was true: I look forward to these meals every night! It’s like eating in a restaurant except I have to scoop it onto a plate and take it to my own table. No hassle having to pick up food or wait for slow servers. I get 15-20 minutes to do what I want without meal prep. I am called to my table by a text on my phone telling me dinner is ready. Clean up is very simple. The portions are a bit small it seems, but they are enough. Obviously, I don’t know much about portions so this controls it for me. When it’s gone, my meal is OVER. I haven’t gotten hungry before bed, so that tells me something. This may finally be the key for me. I’m a widow who lives like a queen! I stay out of the grocery store a lot more, thus avoiding impulse buys, so the price of the meals is worth it. I have found the oven to be a little less handy than my toaster oven for heating up things. Perhaps with some more experience....

I bought this oven on a Black Friday special that required 6 weeks of meals. I thought I would use those 6 weeks and then cancel my subscription, but have never stopped. I have loved nearly every meal with the Tovala. The chicken and the salmon always turn out perfect. I work a lot, so I prepare a few meals ahead of time and take to work. Prep is a minute or two and clean up is even less. I’m spending so much less time in the kitchen. Now I only cook what I enjoy making and the rest of the time still eat delicious food. It’s streamlined my grocery shopping, so less time at the store. My only complaint is that for a single person, 6 meals a week was almost too much. I loved it, but I missed some of my own meals and the restaurants I frequent. I had been thinking of skipping every other week or something so I could mix those things back in, but Tovala offered a breakfast meal option, so I’m back in. I keep raving about it to anyone who will listen, but people are skeptical. I call it my easy bake oven, lol. Am seriously considering buying this for my parents, who live in a small town with limited dining options and an even smaller offering of options at the grocery store for cooking. I’ve tried other meal plans, and although I enjoyed cooking and learning how to cook new things, I became busier in my career and needed to free up some time from somewhere.

Over all its great, but there are a few issues I have had. The way the items are packaged makes them always get crushed in delivery despite the boxes labels with arrows for “this side up.” My boxes seem to be shipping from the east coast, but I live on the west coast in a major area causing 2 deliveries to be a few days late and 1 delivery arriving with the food warm. Tovala did credit me for the meals, but it does cause a last minute change of plans on what to eat and cooking prep time. This is the biggest advantage of subscribing to Tovala. I use the special oven, it will burn the tops of veggies and I requires you add water frequently. The oven will only tell you when it’s low, so you need to top it off before every meal or the food might not cook correctly. Tovala is very much a modern take on TV diners. The contents are not frozen, and when shipping is 3-4 days it’s “leftovers” fresh. Lastly, I wish the portions were just a bit bigger (I’m 125lbs).
The pros are the meals cook in under 30mins and take just a minute to prep. The packaging is minimized to reduce waste and most is recyclable cardboard. It’s a lot more convenient than BlueApron and I would recommend for single people who work and commute long hours.