The last couple of months of the year, everyone can be susceptible to food guilt. It makes sense, right? Halloween’s whole premise is seeking candy. Thanksgiving is an entire holiday based off of a meal, so much so that most companies give the next day off just to digest. And, regardless of religion, it seems that the majority of winter holidays are intertwined with sweets, whether that be Santa’s cookies, candy canes, gelt, or ladoo.

With the holiday food guilt paired with preemptive New Year’s resolutions, wellness (mainly in the form of nutrition) is heavily marketed this season. One morning a couple weeks ago, I woke up feeling super bloated from binge-eating Trader Joe’s pumpkin bagels the night before. The healthy, rational decision would be to understand it’s just a day and to be more cognizant around food that I lose control over moving forward. Instead, as I was flipping though Instagram stories, I caved to a targeted ad for Sakara.

Although I didn’t know anyone personally who tried it, I was familiar with the brand through listening to co-founder Whitney Tingle on the Second Life Podcast. I had never tried a meal plan before and generally stick to the same couple meals everyday, so I was excited to be “forced” to explore something new. I ordered a week of the Signature Program: three meals per day for five days, Monday through Friday.

WHAT IS SAKARA?

Sakara is a nutrition plan, delivering ready-to-eat meals that are organic, plant-based, gluten-free, dairy-free, non-GMO, and without refined sugar. Their premise is to “experience the power of food as medicine,” promising a “transformation” in as little as one week — improving digestion, reducing bloat, shedding weight, boosting energy, increasing focus, and even improving skin health.

The company’s nutrition philosophy is based on nine pillars:

No Calorie Counting
Plant Protein
Eat Your Water
Greens
Good Fats
Eat the Rainbow
Nutrient Density
Sulfur-Rich Veggies
Body Intelligence

With high-profile clients and fans like Lily Aldridge, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Chrissy Teigan, Sakara has definitely established itself as one of the more high-end, fashionable, Instagram-friendly meal delivery services on the market.

Sakara offers three different meal programs: Signature, Detox, and Brides. With the Signature Program, you have options of 3 or 5 days of 1, 2, or 3 meals per day. You also receive Detox Tea and complimentary functional supplements. The Detox Program is a 5-day “deeper cleanse” with 3 meals, daily kefir, digestive tea, water drops, and supplements, along with check-ins with a health coach. The Bridal Meal Program is 4 weeks of 3 meals per day, 5 meals per week, along with gifts from Kleinfeld’s Tata Harper, and ModelFit.

WHAT I EXPECT

As someone with a strong interest in nutrition but is by no means a dietician or nutritionist, I am generally a fan of intentional, plant-based diets while remaining skeptical of the magical rhetoric that always seems to accompany them. I do believe in the science of a healthy diet, but am generally cynical about the concept of superfoods (which Sakara seems to base their holistic health approach off of).

For context, I already don’t eat any dairy products and am generally very conscious about my nutrition. I’m not at all new to plant-based meals (shoutout to my love), but have never gone fully plant-based for more than a day (on purpose, at least).

My only concerns are whether this plan will actually be enough food for me and whether it will include enough protein to sustain my active lifestyle.

I would never expect any sort of sustainable change within five days, but I am interested to see how I feel incorporating more veggies, getting some plant-based meal ideas and inspiration, and not having to think about my next meal.

THE COST

Mom and Dad, if you’re reading this, please skip this section! You taught me well and the rest of my disposable income is going to my 401(k), I promise!

Due to a 25%-off sale, I bought the fifteen meals at $17.45 per meal. This is STEEP, but after two months of eating out every lunch at around $15 per meal and dinner at closer to $20 per meal (you’re judging me, I know it — it’s New York City!!!!), this didn’t seem that crazy.

The non-sale price, however, at $23.33 per meal, is slightly less reasonable.

THE DELIVERY

Sakara hand-delivered to my apartment Sunday for Monday through Wednesday’s meals, and Wednesday for Thursday through Friday’s meals. They gave a time frame (I believe 6-10PM) and sent a text reminder the day before. Luckily, I was home for the delivery both Sunday and Wednesday, but had I not been, the meals underneath layers of insulated bags with freezer packs likely could’ve sat in my walkup’s lobby for at least a couple hours.

If Sakara is an expert at one thing, it’s aesthetics. Although it may contribute to their higher meal cost, the meals are beautifully plated and packed in well-sealed containers and jars. Each meal is clearly labeled with what the meal is, when you’re supposed to eat it, an extensive ingredient list, as well as a “superfood spotlight” with a witty-yet-educational blurb on its benefits. Be warned, there is a lot of plastic used. The containers are durable enough for reuse, although if you’re consistently using the meal plan, they can definitely add up. With this in mind, Sakara provides instructions on how to properly recycle their packaging as well as additional information on why they use the materials that they do.

THE MEALS

SCALE

I tried to rate these meals on a combined scale of concept, ingredients, flavor, and satiety.

0 - Spit it out.

1 - Wouldn’t eat again, even for free.

2 - Would eat again if it was free.

3 - Would buy again for < $10.

4 - Would buy for $17 but question my spending decisions after.

5 - Would happily buy this for $17.

MONDAY: DAY 1

BREAKFAST | CARAMEL APPLE PARFAIT w/ SUPERFOOD GRANOLA

Wow. Pieces of baked apple, granola (oats + nuts + honey + almond butter), and goji berries in coconut yogurt. As someone who is not a yogurt fan, I wasn’t particularly excited for this meal. HOWEVER, I really enjoyed it! The flavors resembled a slice of apple pie with ice cream, but light and refreshing.

The clean and compact cylindrical jar made it easy to transport and eat directly out of. The layering of ingredients kept the granola from getting soggy. I was satisfied with the amount of food in this meal. Filling, but comfortably so.

RATING: 4.6

LUNCH | DAYDREAMER SOBA BOWL w/ SPICY SRIRACHA DRESSING

An Asian-inspried bowl with an arugula base, topped with soba noodles, shittake mushrooms, and asparagus. Dressing was by far the star of the meal: a concoction of water, white miso, tamari, and sriracha. Spicy, but not overwhelmingly so. The loser was the asparagus. I’ve had good cold asparagus before, so I know it’s possible, but this was not that. Soggy and chewy.

Logistically, this was hard to eat. There was a lot of arugula just stacked at the bottom of the bowl, without including enough room to mix. This may just be a personal bias, since I struggle at eating salads and generally prefer chopped salads. It was filling, however! Couldn’t even finish all of the arugula.

RATING: 2.3

DINNER | PINK PEPPERCORN TOMATO BISQUE w/ SUPERFOOD SWIRLS

A creamy, rosy bisque with a side of buttery, flaky rolls. I loved that it wasn’t just a soup, the rolls were savory and complemented the soup perfectly, almost resembled a “healthy” garlic knot or Pillsbury Crescent Roll.

The soup heated up easily on the stove and heated the rolls up for 20-seconds in the microwave. Although this meal was good, I definitely felt like I could’ve eaten more after.

RATING: 4.2

TUESDAY: DAY 2

BREAKFAST | CHIA PUMPKIN BREAD w/ CACAO CREME

Although I normally love any kind of baked good, I found this muffin to be pretty dry. It kept breaking up into small crumbles, making it difficult to eat both alone and with the sauce and blueberries. The star of the meal was the innovative chocolate sauce — made out of avocado, cacao powder, banana, maple syrup, and cacao nibs — which, along with the blueberries, added some much-needed flavor to the meal.

RATING: 1.5

LUNCH | CACIO E PEPE w/ CHAMPAGNE VINAIGRETTE SALAD

I was looking forward to this meal the most. I always see Cacio E Pepe #foodporn on Instagram, and was very curious as to how Sakara would put their plant-based spin on the classic dish. I was not disappointed! The sweet potato and zucchini noodles prevented a carb-heavy hangover that would turn me off from a pasta lunch, and the sauce of nutritional yeast, algae and black truffle oil, vinegar, and dijon mustard, was the perfect amount of cheesy and creamy. After the meal, I was still a bit hungry and craving something sweet, so I was very happy to discover there was a salad as well. As a huge supporter of salads with fruit and walnuts, I enjoyed it almost as much as the Cacio E Pepe.

Since the meal was in two separate plastic containers, my lunch was slightly harder to transport in my bag. The Cacio E Pepe took a little longer to set up, just because I needed a plate at work to warm it up and initially forgot to add the sauce.

RATING: 4.8

DINNER | THE RED BEET BURGER w/ AVOCADO SMASH

As a big fan of both veggie burgers and beets, I was looking forward to this meal. The burger did not disappoint and the homemade bread was also a really great texture, although a little soggy from being packaged with the rest of the meal. The avocado was a nice addition to the burger, and the salad, with a vinegar-oil-dijon dressing, was a great touch to the meal. I was decently satisfied following the meal.

RATING: 3.9

SUPPLEMENT | SAKARA ENERGY SUPER BAR

After dinner, I was craving something sweet. As a new Sakara customer, they threw in an extra Sakara Energy Bar, with 10-grams of hemp protein and made with sunflower seed butter, dates, cassava root and chicory fiber, almonds, cacao nibs, cacao powder, l-theanine, and vitamin b-12. As a fan of the fruity RX Bars (blueberry, mixed berry, peanut butter and berries), I wasn’t sure that I’d like this bar but was quickly proven wrong. The bar had a similar taste and texture to a chocolate-y RX Bar (or any other date-based bar), but was gentler on my stomach and had chunks of nuts and fruits to make the texture more interesting. I would actually buy these!

Retail on Amazon at $29 for a six-pack.

RATING: 4.5 (based on $4.83 value, not $17)

WEDNESDAY: DAY 3

BREAKFAST | DARK CHOCOLATE GRANOLA w/ VANILLA ALMOND MYLK

Cereal, essentially, and in the best way possible. I am a huge cereal fan, so I was very appreciative of Sakara providing both a container of granola as well as an individual serving of their own homemade almond mylk. Chocolatey, crunchy, and refreshing. Would eat again.

I would assume that there was a higher fat content with the granola and almond mylk, as this meal left me full for hours.

RATING: 4.0

LUNCH | WINTER SUN SALAD w/ DRIED TART CHERRIES

I am not a big raisin guy, but I looked forward to the dried tart cherries in every bite. All of the ingredients worked very cohesively. The dressing was more hummus consistency than dressing, which made it difficult to mix. The “superfood spotlight” of the meal was “sunshine” which, I’m not sure if that meant this meal was high in vitamin D or sunshine was involved in drying the cherries, but was less tangible and more woo-woo of the ingredients.

RATING: 3.8

SUPPLEMENT | DETOX TEA

Ignoring the fact that it’s called “Detox Tea” for the sake of taking this review seriously. The tea is made of red rooibos, lemongrass, and rose. I am new to the tea game and can’t detect “notes” for the life of me, but I do actually enjoy the tea! It tastes “florally,” which makes sense given the rose. According to the Sakara “Ultimate Guide,” the herbal ingredients in the detox tea “support the body’s built-in cleansing systems, fight free radical damage, eliminate bloat, and give skin a healthy glow.” I am a little skeptical of the magical powers of the tea, but I am receiving it for free, therefore I will drink it.

RATING: 1.9 (but 0 for claims)

DINNER | GOLDEN PINEAPPLE UN-FRIED RICE w/ VEGGIE MEDLEY

I wish I could remember the ingredients, because I loved this meal but am not actually sure what it was made up of! The seeed chunks were such an appetizing texture and flavor, almost similar to a tempeh (maybe it was tempeh???). It was easy to throw the bowl into a pan, adding the sweeter sauce and mixing everything together. Light and refreshing, yet still satisfying. I was actually also impressed with the superfood spotlight of “fo-ti root” — as a neighbor to Chinatown, I’m always curious what fresh and new ingredients I can easily incorporate in my daily life! According to Sakara, fo-ti root is used in traditional Chinese medicine for spiritual awareness, intuition, and creativity.

RATING: 4.3

THURSDAY: DAY 4

BREAKFAST | HEART-OPENING OATMEAL w/ MANGO ROSE PUREE

An oatmeal bowl of steel cut oats cooked in coconut milk with strawberries, pistachios, honey, cardamom, rose petals, and saffron AND a single-serving bottle of mango rose purée. Although I did enjoy both pieces of the meal, I was a little confused at the combination. There were no heating instructions mentioned, so I more or less dumped the oatmeal into a bowl and poured the purée overtop. The mango was creamy and the oatmeal was flavorful, but the mixture of consistencies did not go over too well for me. I’m not the hugest fan of overnight nor cold oatmeal, so this may have been more-so due to personal preference.

RATING: 2.5 together, 3.8 separate

LUNCH | SHIITAKE COBB w/ CASHEW RANCH

An innovative take on a classic! Brussel sprouts, mesclun greens, avocado, and shiitake mushrooms provided a filling base, with a creamy cashew ranch dressing and crispy toasted coconut flakes to add some crunch and flavor. This meal was clearly thoughtfully conceptualized and was executed just as well. One of the better salads this week, by far.

RATING: 4.0

DINNER | LAVENDER QUESADILLA w/ CRISPY CHAYOTE SALAD

Oh, my god. It doesn’t look like much in the picture, but this was easily my favorite meal of the week.

The quesadilla was decadent. It was the type of quesadilla you would expect from a higher-end vegan restaurant — creamy, flavorful, melt-in-your-mouth. It smelled so good in my apartment for the hour following the meal. Disclaimer: I like mushrooms. This was definitely a mushroom-heavy dish, so if you don’t like mushrooms, I would skip this. The side salad was fine, crispy and refreshing but unremarkable in comparison. Although the heating instructions said to heat the quesadilla up in the oven, I could not justify using that much energy for this tiny meal. I heated it up in a pan, and found the quality to be comparable.

RATING: 5

FRIDAY: DAY 5

BREAKFAST | SEXY CINNAMON ROLLS w/ SUPERFOOD CARAMEL

Obviously, was looking forward to this breakfast. The cinnamon rolls — made of almond milk, coconut oil, potato, oat, and almond flour, coconut sugar, and other simple ingredients — spotlighted mucuna puriens, a seed with both brain and libido benefits, according to Sakara’s blurb. After warming in the microwave for a couple seconds and eating with the unsweetened applesauce and goldenberries, the cinnamon rolls did prove to live up to the hype. Only wish they included a couple more, as I was very much still hungry following the small meal.

RATING: 3.2

LUNCH | FORBIDDEN RICE + TATSOI BOWL w/ SUGAR SNAP PEAS

As a big fan of both sugar snap peas and the ginger dressing found at sushi restaurants, I was really expecting to like this meal more than I did. The vegetables neither appeared nor tasted as fresh as the other salad-based Sakara meals. The flavors were great and I did really enjoy the “forbidden rice,” but could not get over the soggy texture.

RATING: 1.1

DINNER | FIVE HERB PESTO PASTA w/ ROASTED CHERRY TOMATOES

It’s very hard to mess up pasta. Sakara did well with their take on a creamy, pesto lentil pasta with mushrooms and roasted tomatoes. Not as revolutionary as some of the other meals this week, but was a satisfying final supper.

RATING: 3.9

MY TAKEAWAYS

Personally, I loved how I felt on the Sakara meal plan. I ate more vegetables than I normally do. I felt less bloated throughout the week. I enjoyed the creativity of the recipes and the ease of always having a meal ready without spending the time planning, cooking, and packing. Although I love grocery shopping and cooking, I am very much a creature of habit and end up eating the same meals every day, so being on a meal plan actually helped me step out of my comfort zone.

Some notes on how I “survived” this week: I am not at all a strict Intermittent Fast-er, but I did find that I spaced my meals strategically around the day, saving breakfast closer to 11:30AM, eating lunch when I had a break from meetings around 2PM, and then dinner at 6PM. I would still get hungry (especially on days I trained) but would try to either a) drink more water or tea, or b) stick to fruits, almond butter, and bone broth as my meal deviations. Although I originally questioned whether these would affect the validity of my “plant-based meal plan,” a friend candidly reminded me: “One meal won’t compromise your results. You’re not blogging for the FDA.”

Was it worth it?

The answer we all hate: it depends!

Can you make these meals yourself, for cheaper? Probably. The real question is, will you? Probably not.

WHO THIS WOULD BEST WORK FOR:

Those prioritizing convenience and high-quality ingredients.
Those wanting to eliminate the guesswork from following a specific “diet.”
Those interested in going plant-based, but unsure where to start (hey, Veganuary!).
Those with the financial flexibility to reach the higher price point.

WHO THIS MAY NOT BEST WORK FOR:

Those who prefer higher-volume and/or higher-frequency meals.
Those who enjoy more meal flexibility.
Those with muscle-growth or weight-gain goals.
Those with a highly active lifestyle or who may require more calories.
Those who track calories and/or macros.
Those with past or present eating disorders.

All-in-all, I love the concept of Sakara and think they truly are creating thoughtful, creative, and varied menus. Although still expensive for the average person, Sakara is contributing to the conversation of making healthy food more accessible for a greater portion of the population.

I Tried Instagram's Hottest Meal Plan — Sakara Life