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Fast, fresh and local—this delivery service made my week a breeze.
As of a couple of months ago I decided to start being a *health girlie.* Along the way on this journey, I have discovered one major issue: I hardly have the time to do it all. Drink two litres of water, lift weights, go on a mindfulness walk, take vitamins, get eight hours of sleep and eat healthily—and that’s just the wellness part, I also work full-time and absolutely must manage to get in my minimum hours of reality TV every week.
That has left me at a bit of an impasse as I’m using more and more of my time to create healthy-yet-delish meals that have enough variety so I don’t get bored. So, when Tractor Foods reached out and offered me a trial run of their Tractor at Home meal delivery service—I was on board. Healthy and low effort for me? Sign this exhausted girl up.
The box arrives very cold, with an ice pack and cool-maintaining wrap—both of which can be returned to Tractor on your next order. There was also a note about jars being returned. Although I didn’t receive any jars, some items come in glass jars to reduce your use of plastics.
The box showed up with easy-to-read instructions. Some items (like the carnitas tacos) had to be heated and therefore came with a recipe to make sure you were preparing it correctly. All items (including sauces and sides) were clearly labeled, so there was no fumbling about trying to figure out which sauce belonged to which main.
Coming in at a cool $155, this box contains 10 meals plus additional sides/accoutrements and cookies.
It may look unassuming, but this wrap packed a hefty punch taste-wise. Made eggs and a bunch of veg (butternut squash, black beans, red pepper, corn) plus flavour-boosters like aged white cheddar, cilantro, lime, pesto aioli and hot sauce to round it all out.
The parfait I received was the “power” one, but it also comes in vegan or minimalist versions. It’s made with bircher muesli, blueberry chia pudding and topped off with yogurt. I was surprised by how creamy it was—it felt indulgent and filled me up.
Inspired by my fave bar snack, this salad was spicy, creamy and crunchy thanks to a combo of yogurt-based ranch dressing, blue cheese, Frank’s red hot sauce, radish, pickled carrots and celery. As with all of the salads I received—the portion of greens is huge. Honestly enough to eat for two meals (and surprisingly, enough dressing so that it was all evenly coated). If you are splitting it up though, I would recommend ordering extra chicken because I devoured the portion they provided in one go.
Kale Caesar is my favourite salad in life so it’s no surprise that this was my fave from Tractor as well. Made with kale (of course), raddichio, croutons, parm and creamy dressing made with real anchovies—it was the umami bomb I was looking for. I added an additional side of chicken ($3.75) to round out my meal but again, there were enough greens for me to enjoy later as well.
I’m a big-time quinoa fan so this was right up my alley and was a satiating salad thanks to the black beans and corn. Pickled red onions added some great acidity and crunch and the charred tomato vinaigrette brought depth. There were only three pieces of the chili lime tofu which was super tasty, so I savoured every bite of it. If I ordered this again I would make sure to add extra tofu ($8).
I love a cobb salad and this one was elevated by the pesto ranch (usually I’m a blue cheese gal). The egg was cooked perfectly, and it was served with feta (again, I’m usually a blue cheese person here), bacon, tomatoes, radish and those pickled red onions. It definitely felt healthier than my traditional cobb, which is what I was looking for—and just like the other salads, I’m pretty sure there was a whole clamshell of greens in there so I was able to eat this over two meals.
I ate my burger too quickly and forgot to take a picture! (via Tractor at Home)
Technically these burgs came with the kale caesar salad as the side. But I don’t always listen to instructions, so that is not how I enjoyed them. However, they were great without it. I love the addition of zucchini to the turkey because it kept the patties from drying out as they cooked. They were super flavourful thanks to parm, garlic and parsley and kind of reminded me of a meatball. The burgers are served on brioche buns from A Bread Affair and are toppeed with herby aioli, arugula and pickled red onions.
Ditto on forgetting to take taco-pic! (via Tractor at Home)
I’m a bit of a taco snob and we make them at home at least once a week. The carnitas here were good and although the instructions say to warm the carnitas in a non-stick pan with a splash of water—I like mine crispy so we re-fried it in the cast iron. The chipotle crema was just spicy enough and the slaw brought crunch. I may or may not have stolen pickled red onions from one of the salads to add some additional acid and added cotija that just so happened to already be in my fridge.
This was a great heat-and-eat option. The meatballs were super tasty, tender and hearty enough for a dinner portion. The pasta comes pre-cooked which I was very dubious of at first but, surprisingly it was still cooked pretty al-dente and didn’t turn to mush when reheated. But, for those looking to avoid carbs (or are gluten free) you can order meatballs a la carte as well.
(via Tractor at Home)
To be absolutely honest, I’m not a big lasagne person. But, as lasagne goes this was bubbly, creamy and hearty thanks to generous amounts of ricotta, provolone and their house-made Bolognese. It takes about an hour to bake from frozen which is a perfect amount of time to throw on an episode of Love Island and open a bottle of wine—if you’re into that sort of thing.
Marinated with balsamic, Dijon and garlic—these veggies were really, really good. If you own a grill you can re-grill them and I’m sure they’d be great, but as someone without a balcony or a grill, these made quick work in the oven and came out wonderfully. I also fell to temptation and ate some of them cold, which was definitely the right call. A winning side for sure.
A dangerous addition when I’m trying to be healthy but hey, health is balance not restriction, right? These gluten free cookies are decadent, crunchy and not too sweet. May I suggest warming them in the microwave for 15 seconds for an ooey-gooey treat.
The food from Tractor at Home was tasty, fresh and had a ton of variety (plus there are a bunch of other items on the website that I’d like to try—I’m looking at you elote slaw). Although it costs more than my weekly grocery trip, it’s definitely cheaper than ordering out and we were able to get a lot of meals out of it, plus most importantly, it definitely saved on time. Rather than ordering every meal, going forward I would purchase additional meals or proteins for days I’m in the office or know I will have little time to prepare food.
Website: tractorathome.com
