I have always had a hard time discerning high quality meat. Sure, I’ll ask the butcher for a certain cut of meat at the grocery store, but how do I know what I am actually getting? More and more reports of mislabeled meat are popping up, and I want to make sure I am spending money on meat that is going to help me sustain my healthy lifestyle.
Sometimes I don’t even have time to wait at the butcher counter, so I grab a prepacked meat and hope for the best. There has to be a better way to buy meat, I thought. One that doesn’t involve being a detective and spending an arm and a leg on high quality meat.
I decided to try out Butcher Box, a subscription meat delivery service that brings fresh, grass-fed meats straight to your door.
Since I don’t have much time to properly grocery shop (an unfortunate but prevalent dilemma for many millennials), Butcher Box seemed like a smart, hassle-free way to get fresh meat. And the price is honestly better than grocery store chains.
I’m also all for customer loyalty freebies, and Butcher Box has a doozy of one — free ground beef for life — more on that later.
I didn’t just feel good about the promised quality of the meat, either — knowing that Butcher Box’s beef is grass-fed and grass-finished made me feel confident in starting the service.
What’s grass-finished, you ask?
It means that the cow has been fed grass its entire life, according to Butcher Box’s blog roam. Many companies have “grass-fed, grain-finished,” beef, which just means their cattle ate some grass as calves and then were fattened up with grain.
Several studies have shown that cattle whose diets primary consist of grains or corn do not have as high of a nutritional value as their grass-fed, grass-finished counterparts.
Grass-fed cattle also boast a lot of other nutrients that lower quality beef does not.
Taco Tuesday got us like 👀#TacoTuesday #butcherbox pic.twitter.com/opeRL8Ou7C
— ButcherBox (@butcherbox) August 20, 2019
We’ve all heard how important getting our Omega-3’s is. This fatty acid has such a wide range of health benefits that it kind of blows my mind. According to Healthline, Omega-3’s can help with everything from anxiety and depression to improving joint and bone health.
And guess what’s chock-full of Omega-3’s? Grass-fed, grass-finished meat.
If you follow the Keto diet, you might already know that grass-fed meats have higher amounts of Omega-3’s. But did you know they have another fatty acid that helps build lean muscle?
It’s called Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA), and it’s a powerhouse.
According to an article from the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, CLA is an omega-6 fatty acid helps break down fats in the body.
The study also suggests Conjugated Linoleic Acid has “benefic actions on glycemic profile,” which suggests it could be beneficial for folks with diabetes.
While I don’t have any overarching health ailments, I know that prevention is the best measure — and that eating a diet high in protein and nutritious fatty acids like Omega-3 and -6 can help keep me healthy.
Butcher Box starts at $129 a month. This basic package includes 7-10 pounds of beef, chicken, pork, and bacon on a monthly basis. I did some quick math to see how much that would break down per meal.
The American Heart Association’s suggested weekly servings from poultry, meat, and eggs is 8-9 servings. Meat servings are generally around 3 ounces, or the size of your palm. So, if you are getting the minimum of 7 pounds (or 112 ounces), that is a whopping 37 servings; even at top weekly suggested servings, you would just be eating 36 servings.
But how do you eat all that meat in a month, then?
That’s the beauty of Butcher Box. Your subscription meat box comes on dry ice, so you can just pop them in the freezer once they are delivered. Meat can be kept in the freezer for about four months, according to the USDA.
This is also what makes Butcher box the prime way to get quality meat. Instead of rushing out any time I want to make a meal with high quality meat, I can simply go to the stock I have in my freezer, thaw it, and make a protein-rich, delicious dish.
And if you only want certain types of meat — like just beef and chicken or a mixed box of beef, pork, and chicken — you can customize that, too.
This is a part about Butcher Box that I truly enjoy — you can customize it to fit your dietary (and taste!) needs. I opted for the mixed box, mostly because I wanted to be able to test out all the wares.
You can also switch up your size or meat preferences from month to month. Again, the highly customizable aspect of Butcher Box is what makes it a (prime) cut above the rest.
Butcher Box’s Optional Add-Ons make it even more personalized.
This got me good. How could I say no to wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon or grass-fed bacon? You can also choose to add on ground beef or breakfast sausage, if you choose. This also eliminated my need to go to the seafood section of the grocery store. Honestly, it doesn’t get better than this.
Remember that customer loyalty perk I talked about? It’s free ground beef for life.
Yes, you read that correctly. If you sign up for Butcher Box before September 30, 2019, you can get two pounds of free ground beef with every Butcher Box delivery for life.
As long as you are getting a Butcher Box, you get two free pounds of ground beef on the regular.
Imagine all of the tacos, burgers, and flavorful meat casseroles you can make with that!
If you include meat in your diet in any capacity — even just once a week — the Butcher Box is worth it.
You can set up your first Butcher Box delivery (and your free two pounds of beef) here. Make sure to sign up before September 30, though, if you want to get in on this deal!
