I rarely buy my kids those prepackaged lunch meals. I find them seriously overpriced for the sad little options you see through the plastic cover. I do have one exception: the “Jr.” ones that come in a two pack and designed specifically for toddlers. At about $1 a piece they are a perfect little snack. Of course if I were a good mom I’d be more concerned about the ingredients in those aforementioned lunches rather than the price, but we all know by now I’m not necessarily a good mom. But I digress as usual.
Why am I bringing up the subject of ready-to-eat meals in September? Perhaps the sound of a school bell is still fresh in your ears; it is around here! And just in time for back-to-school lunch is a line of ready-to-eat meals, or should I say ready-to-picnic meals, from GoPicnic. When I heard GoPicnic offered a complete line of “nutritious, high-quality shelf-stable meal solutions.” In other words, meals that don’t require refrigeration and yet are healthy and filling. GoPicnic is serious about health and nutrition and offers vegan, Halal, gluten-free, vegetarian and kosher options. The story behind the company is pretty cool:
GoPicnic’s founders developed the concept of the shelf-stable picnic meal in 2004 for a major US airline whose existing buy-on-board fresh food service program was costing it millions of dollars annually due to high levels of waste from unused meals. ... The shelf-stable snackbox solution that the GoPicnic founders created to address these issues generated profit for the airline for the first time in its food service history and provided customers with a reliable quality product at a good value.
Does that ring a bell? Anyone flown lately and seen those ready-to-eat meals some people buy while on the plane? I thought so! By the way, those people must not know you can buy a whole Cinnabon and carry it on with you.
GoPicnic sent our family three of their regular meals (GoDeli, GoPower and GoEnergy) and three kids meals (SafariMunch, ExploreMunch and SportsMunch). Each of my girls took one to school and both came back pretty happy about their ready-to-eat GoPicnic meal experience. Though one daughter wasn’t a fan of the white cheddar cheese in the ExploreMunch, she was pleasantly surprised by the Snapea crisps and ended up sharing her all-natural gummy bears with her friends. My other daughter was pleased overall with her SportsMunch, though I don’t think she was a big fan of the pumpkin seed crunch.
As for me, I tried the GoDeli and the GoPower meals—not all at once, mind you, but I did have one for lunch and one for a late-afternoon snack. My husband was supposed to take one with him to work and spaced it as usual, so I was more than happy to try his sample. I absolutely loved the GoDeli meal with its pepperoni slices and asiago cheese spread but didn’t enjoy the dried apricots so much. Don’t get me wrong, I love apricots but the texture was a bit hard for me to swallow. The chocolate chip cookie reminded me of those Grandmother’s cookies only healthier and not five gillion calories! The GoPower meal was pretty tasty too. I ran out of veggie spread for my bagel chips (those ratios are important!) but the flaky, buttery shortbread pastry more than made up for my disappointment. Note: I would’ve taken photos of the yummy treats inside each box but I ate them too quickly. Sorry.
With such high-quality, healthy ingredients that also taste good, GoPicnic is definitely a wonderful option for school lunches. They’re also great for work lunch, road trips, emergency preparedness and even as a private-label meal option for organizations. (Yes, they do that too!) The one downside is the price. Though some of the meals are only $4, a few are upwards of $6 and $7. For me that’s a bit too much as far as a school lunch option goes, but at around $4 (some of the meals go on sale) GoPicnic’s ready-to-eat meals are a good way to prepare for emergencies. I’m thinking a couple in the car for those “one hour turned into four hours” tire rotation trips to Costco or a few in the pantry for last-minute field trip lunches!—Emily
** Giveaway! GoPicnic is giving away six (6) sets of meals to three (3) winners! Here’s how to enter. You can do as many of these as you’d like. Each one is worth one entry into our giveaway:
- Visit GoPicnic.com and leave a comment telling us which meal you’d most like to try.
- Join the Friends of GoPicnic group on Facebook and leave a comment telling us you joined.
- Follow GoPicnic on Twitter and leave a comment telling is you’re their newest follower.
- Tweet about this giveaway and leave a comment with the URL of your tweet.
- Blog about this giveaway and leave a comment with the URL to your blog post.
Include a valid email address for our drawing. We’ll draw the winners from the comments and contact them via email. Deadline: September 10, 2009 (midnight). The winners will have 24 hours to claim their prize or a new winner will be chosen.
- Congratulations to Charity, Spoodles, and Diane, the winners of the GoPicnic giveaway! Thank you to everyone who took the time to read the review and add a comment. Keep reading the Daily Dish for your chance to participate in more giveaways!
I love Enjoy Life Foods. In fact, I’ve reviewed them a handful of times on Boutique Cafe’s Daily Dish and their allergen-free products are always a hit. I can still remember their semi-sweet chocolate chips, and that review was in 2008! Any time they contact me about taste-testing a new product, I’m all over it—and so is my mouth.
Did you catch how Lauren said they taste better than that other crisp rice bar? Major compliment! They also have a Rice Milk Bar to round out the collection of guilt-free chocolate indulgence. (My kids don’t know I’ve hidden the rest of the samples…and yes, Olivia was able to break out the watercolors.)
Add yourself to my connections.
