Citrus Pear Dinners: What I Learned By Making 20 Meals in 75 Minutes

Citrus Pear is one more solution to the usual question of “What’s for dinner?”

The company provides freezer meals that are home-cooked in your Crock-pot or pressure cooker — things like Chipotle Chili, Coconut Chicken Curry, Sun-Dried Tomato and Pesto Pasta, or Creamy Lemon Chicken.

You assemble them and cook them. But someone else shops for the groceries, supplies the recipe, and cleans up after the prep work.

  The meals are created with the help of registered dietitians who can alter them for special diets — gluten-free, low-sodium, diabetic, and so on.

 I was invited to attend a Citrus Pear meal-assembly class and then blog about my experience. One night in June, I assembled 20 meals (that each serve 3-4 people) in about 75 minutes, at Bowman’s Market in Kaysville. Since then, I’ve been cooking and eating them (not all at once, mind you!) so that I can give an honest opinion.

 Let me share what I’ve learned, and my unvarnished opinions.

 About Citrus Pear:  

It was founded by registered dietitian McKenzie Rockwood. For six years, she counseled patients at Logan Regional Hospital who required special diets for medical conditions or allergies. She realized that it was challenging for people to go home and cook for their new health restrictions on their own. And the overall need to make healthy eating easier sparked the idea for Citrus Pear.

“The biggest pitfall to eating healthy is the perceived lack of time, where we’re all so busy,” Rockwood said. “The classes or pre-assembled meals get rid of that barrier so we can focus on other things that are important, but still live that healthy lifestyle.”

 How did she come up with the Citrus Pear name? “I was trying to think of something that sounded fresh and unique, and when people heard it, would make them want to look into it,” she said.

Rockwood began in 2016 by hosting meal prep classes for her family and friends. She promoted it through social media and word of mouth. Classes began filling quickly, and grew until she quit her hospital job to go all-in on Citrus Pear. In fall 2019, her husband quit his full-time job to help run the business, which has expanded to five states and 150 employees, about 30 being registered dietitians.

The Covid pandemic temporarily stopped all group meal prep classes, which are taught in Associated Foods grocery stores. Citrus Pear pivoted to offering more pre-assembled meals. Now, classes are being offered again, but people can also order the pre-assembled meals too.

  The meals were recently deemed eligible for the federal SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, aka food stamps), and Rockwood said she’s excited to offer Citrus Pear to a wider demographic. 

  What sets Citrus Pear apart from restaurant takeout, and other dinner solutions, is that, “Our menus are planned by dietitians, so we can accommodate any food allergies and special diets,” said Rockwood. “People can feel confident that it will be safe for their family whether it’s a peanut allergy, or gluten, or other health issue. Dietitians are trained in all of that.”

The nutrition facts are labeled — calorie counts, fat, carbs, sodium — for whatever you might be tracking.

    How it works:

  A person (or persons) decides to “sponsor” a class, choosing 10 entrees from a huge list of possibilities on the Citrus Pear website. Then they invite friends or family to come and also assemble meals, too, using the same ten entrees chosen by the sponsor.

  The sponsor receives a discount on their meals — plus they get to pick the menu.

  -10 regular-size freezer meals that feed 6-8 people begin at around $199; there are extra charges for some with beef or other expensive ingredients.

 – 20 “smaller family” meals that feed 3-4 people begin at around $209. It’s the same 10 meal choices, but half the size. So you get two of each meal choice.

  – If you just want to order meals without having to do any assembly, the price starts at $249.

  If the sponsor can’t get 11 more people to fill the class, it’s opened up to the public to fill those spots.

  And that’s where I came in, filling a spot where a sponsor had already chosen the menu and had a couple of vacant spots. The chosen dishes sounded pretty good, although pasta-heavy —Cajun Chicken Pasta, Sundried Tomato and Pesto Pasta, Tuscan Chicken Pasta, and Pesto-Tossed Lasagna, for instance. I discovered that the actual pasta isn’t provided. Your bag includes ingredients for the topping and sauce, but you’ll have to cook your own pasta or rice just before serving. That makes sense, since starches turn mushy if it’s frozen and/or slow-cooked.

  When I arrived at Bowman’s Market in Kaysville, tables were set up in the deli area, with stacks and bins of food — canned tomatoes, chicken broth, bell peppers, celery, lemons, etc. We were told to come 15 minutes early to be ready to start promptly at 7 p.m.

  There were 12 assembly stations for each attendee in the class, and a rudimentary handwashing station. McKenzie told me Citrus Pear has a partnership with Associated Foods stores to supply the assembly space and the ingredients.

  I was lucky that the person next to me, Erin Sanderson of Layton, is a Citrus Pear employee, who was making her own family’s meals. She offered tips along the way and helped me keep up, because the assembly session is pretty fast-paced.

  There are special stands that hold your gallon-size bag upright and open, which makes it easy to add ingredients. The raw meat (in this case, chicken and ground beef) is already prepped and packaged in each bag, so you don’t have to handle it. You just dump ingredients on top of it.

You might toss in a can of tomatoes or coconut milk or chicken broth, add some chopped garlic, onion, bell peppers, or frozen spinach, and pretty soon you’re sealing up that bag, placing it in your cooler and you’re on to the next two dinners.

 Each zip-lock bag is labeled with the name of the meal and all the nutritional information. There’s a QR code on the label, so you can use your smartphone to get the cooking directions when you’re ready to cook.

  There were a few things to chop — celery, bell peppers, onions. I guess the sponsoring cook has a thing for lemon, because we juiced and zested lemons for several different dishes.

The staff came around and spooned in things like curry powder, pesto minced garlic, and buffalo sauce, to avoid having a lot of people handling those community ingredients.

  The packaged fresh mushrooms were already sliced, but I chopped them a bit more since my husband isn’t a mushroom fan, and this way he might not notice them.

  Also I took Erin’s advice to chop up the whole sun-dried tomatoes for the Sun-dried Tomato and Pesto Pasta, as they can be kind of chewy even after crock-pot cooking.

  Cooking is often a solitary experience. The Citrus Pear class is more social, even though there’s not a ton of time to chit-chat because the process goes pretty fast.

  “People like the classes, to come and be social,” said Rockwell.

  It’s important to bring a rolling cooler to transport your meals. It will be VERY heavy by the time you take it out to the car!

And since you have raw meat in your meal bags, don’t stop on the way home, unless you have ice to keep your meals cool.

And clear out space in your freezer the day before. Or find a friend with an empty freezer. Don’t wait til you come home with a full cooler.

  HOW THE MEALS TURNED OUT: 

Overall, I give the meals 3 out of 4 stars; as a former food editor, I’m probably more picky than most people.

But if you’re been living on drive-through takeout like burgers, crispy chicken and french fries, many of these meals may taste “too healthy,” because they lack the high doses of salt, fat and/or sugar present in most fast food meals. It might take awhile to train your palate toward healthier dishes, but your body will thank you in the long run.

    I did the “small family” size, which makes 3 to 4 servings. I think the servings were generous, because my husband and I always had enough leftovers for a second day’s dinner.

Here’s what we thought of some of the dinners:

  The first meal we tried was Sun-Dried Tomato and Pesto Pasta, with chicken breast.

Again, the actual pasta isn’t provided, so you’ll need to remember to have it on hand. If you’re on a low-carb diet, you could skip the pasta and use it over other veggies or zucchini noodles. Or just eat the chicken and sauce. You’ll also need to stir in a half-cup of plain Greek yogurt to the crockpot just before serving, which adds some creaminess and tang.

  The cooked chicken shredded easily, but the shredded texture seemed a bit mushy/stringy to me. For most of my future chicken meals, I took out the chicken when it was cooked through, diced it and returned it to the pot to soak up some juices and tenderize. I like the diced texture better. I was really glad that I chopped up the sun-dried tomatoes beforehand, because they ended up nicely bite-size and not overwhelming.

The Creamy Lemon Chicken was pretty good, although I “cheated” and added a chicken bouillon cube. Freezing and slow-cooking make flavors diminish a bit, and I felt this needed a bit more “chickeny” flavor.

   The package of frozen broccoli, added the last 45 minutes of slow-cooking, turned a bit gray-ish for my taste. Many green veggies go gray during long cooking times, or with a lid on the pot. Next time, I’ll microwave the broccoli separately and add just before serving, to retain the bright green color. Yes, I’m picky about green veggies.

  The Buffalo Chicken Lettuce Wraps were fun, fresh and flavorful. As the directions suggested, I tasted the dish near the end of cooking time and added a bit more hot sauce for the perfect spicy kick. For serving, the recipe advised adding shredded carrots, chopped celery, blue cheese crumbles and blue cheese dressing. So it’s good to look at the directions the day before to make sure you have these on hand, as well as the lettuce for wrapping.

  A ¾ cup serving of the Buffalo Chicken mix is 210 calories, with just 4.5 grams of fat, 1 gram of carbs, no fiber, 1 gram of sugar, and 39 grams protein. I’m not sure if that includes the blue cheese crumbles and blue cheese dressing, which would raise the fat content a bit. But it’s a solid amount of protein, low in fat with hardly any carbs, and it tasted restaurant-quality. A total win!

The Fire-Roasted Tomato and Chipotle Chili had a nice aroma and flavor, although I ended up adding a shake of taco seasoning to boost the flavor a bit more. I thought the ground beef was a bit mushy, but it didn’t detract overall.

The second day, I used the leftover chili to make taco salad, served over shredded lettuce and topped with cheddar and salsa.

The Coconut Curry Chicken was really tasty. I think the fat in the “lite” coconut milk helped tenderize the chicken breast while cooking, although I once again diced the chicken rather than shredding it, for better texture. (OK, call me the Meat Texture Nazi, but I stand by my opinion!) I added snap peas, ribbons of fresh spinach and thin-sliced carrots near the end of cooking, since I already had these in my fridge and why not? I served it over a half-cup of cooked rice, with a side dish of sauteed zucchini from my garden, so it was a super-satisfying meal.

That’s as far as I’ve gotten with the dinners, although I gave my daughter and her husband one of the Thai Peanut Chicken meals, and they thought it was great.

My Conclusions:

• Even if you don’t have special diet issues, Citrus Pear meals is an option to add variety to the usual meals you cook on a regular basis.
• It’s like money in the bank to know you have a go-to dinner (or 10) stashed away in the freezer, especially on busy days when you don’t have a lot of time or energy for chopping veggies and prepping meat.

• The cost breakdown is roughly $20 per dinner that feeds a family of 6 to 8; or $10 to feed a family of 3-4. There might be a costs savings, too, from not having to buy jars of spices or other ingredients that you might never use again.  
•  The dinners can be “training wheels” to help you get in the mode of cooking and planning meals. I used to wonder why some people found it so hard to throw together a meal on their own. But I’ve come to realize that many didn’t grow up learning to cook; they have a hard time following a recipe, much less “winging it,” without one. These dinners are all fresh-cooked by you.
• It’s easier to get family members to help. They may not be up for making a from-scratch dinner on their own, but they could easily dump a bag of frozen ingredients into a slow cooker and turn it on. For that matter, they could come to a class and do the meal assembly.

Some things to keep in mind:

• If you don’t like Crock-pot or Instant Pot meals, this program probably isn’t for you. although Citrus Pear has developed some meals for the grill.   
• The directions often have you add a few last-minute ingredients, so you’ll need to plan ahead to make sure you’ve got those items on hand.
• A long stint in the freezer and slow-cooker can cause flavors to diminish. Taste your meal a few minutes before serving, and add a sprinkle of garlic powder, dried onion flakes, a few grinds of pepper, Italian seasoning, etc.  The recipe directions gives some of these recommendations.

• You’ll have to plan ahead to put your meal in the crockpot earlier in the day, or to thaw in the fridge the night before. Most of the small-size family meals cooked within 3-4 hours on low heat. If you’ll be away at work for 8 or 9 hours, try using a slow cooker that can be programmed to turn to a warm setting after a few hours, to avoid over-cooking your meal. The Instant Pot is a quicker option.

• Most of the meals contain the main protein entrée, but you’ll still need to come up with a veggie, salad, baked potato, etc. to round out the meal. A lot of the Citrus Pear meals I assembled included chopped onions, bell peppers, chopped frozen broccoli or canned tomatoes, which could count as a veggie serving. But you could also throw in some extra veggies.

• You’ll need to order the meals a week or more in advance, and fit about 2 hours into your schedule to assemble them.
• You’ll need lots of freezer space to fit all those meals. So clean out your freezer the day before!