FAQs

Balanced Bites Meals & Meal Add-ons

Balanced Bites Meals cannot be returned. If there is a problem with your order, please complete this form within 24 hours of receiving your box. We'll respond to your request within 24 hours.

Subscriptions require a minimum of 2 orders before you can cancel. Cancellations made prior to the second order will be charged a $20 cancellation fee (per box of 10 meals).

Balanced Bites Spices, Pantry Items and Apparel

Returns

We hope you LOVE everything Balanced Bites! Returns can be made for qualifying items within 30 days. Products must be unopened and sealed to receive a refund.

You will be required to pay for your own shipping of all returned items. Unfortunately, we cannot reimburse you for any previously paid shipping charges.

Opened products, clearance items, sample items, gift cards, books, logo merchandise and apparel cannot be returned.

Any products with a "best by" within 30 days cannot be returned.

Damaged/Defective Products

If your products arrive damaged, broken or defective, we will replace the goods free of charge. Please notify us within 14 days of your package delivery date.

Lost Packages

Spices, Pantry Items, and Apparel

If you never received your products, you have 30 days from the day you placed your order to notify us. All packages are sent with a Tracking Number. Tracking information is sent to the email account that you provided to us upon checkout. If your tracking information indicates that your package was delivered but you never received it, please contact your local postal carrier. We are not responsible for providing refunds if your tracking information indicates that your package was delivered.

If you need to return an item, please email support@balancedbites.com.

Yes, it is a 100% gluten-free kitchen!

No, they aren't, but keep reading...

You spoke, I listened!

When I polled my readers to ask if you all would prefer to have premium quality, all grass-fed/organic ingredients in these meals as well as premium pricing, OR, squeaky clean ingredients and antibiotic/hormone-free meats, the latter was the vote by a landslide.

You all told me that TASTY, more affordable meals alongside the convenience of being ready-made and without weird additives or preservatives was priority.

The meat in these meals are all 100% antibiotic and hormone-free. I still encourage you to shop and cook with grass-fed/organic ingredients as often as possible, but when it comes to convenience foods like this, getting squeaky clean, well balanced meals made by real people with no additives is a great trade-off. Remember that most restaurants won't be serving food that's perfect quality either, so what you're getting from BB Meals is going to beat any delivery or takeout more often than not.

Each meal is one serving.

If you are a big eater (like my husband!), there are some meals you may find you need to bulk up a bit with extra olive oil or ghee, or you may want to add a side salad or something to it.

The total weight of food per container is just around 12 ounces.

Yes! Select the Build-a-Box option to customize your box.

The meals are shipped frozen and will arrive to you frozen/partially-frozen or refrigerator-cold. If your meals are thawed or partially thawed, they are perfectly safe to freeze until whenever you decide to eat them. The texture and quality will be perfect no matter what thanks to our vacuum seal.

If you choose to defrost them in your refrigerator, you can do so for up to 3 days before heating to eat. Frozen, the meals will taste best within 90 days but will keep for up to 6 months.

The food you're eating in Balanced Bites Meals is all real food made from whole, fresh ingredients that are delivered to our kitchens weekly. Meals are made by real people (with ovens and equipment, of course), not giant machines.

You're paying for quality in healthy, whole food ingredients without preservatives - and for the time and effort it takes for the entire team of chefs to prepare the meals. Read the ingredients and notice no fillers, no additives, no preservatives, and nothing you wouldn't cook with at home.

Your order supports small business doing things right to help you be healthier every day.

Many of our meals will work with specific allergen or dietary needs. We also feature tags on each individual meal on our build-a-box page.

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PALEO

Balanced Bites Meals that have the PALEO tag are created with standard Paleo principles in mind.

These meals are all:
gluten-free
grain-free
soy-free
dairy-free*
legume-free**
refined sugar-free

*These meals will be dairy-free in terms of main ingredients, but may contain ghee. Please read ingredients if you have a strict dairy allergy and cannot consume ghee (clarified butter, which has milk proteins removed). 

**These meals may contain peanut butter. If you have a strict peanut allergy please read all ingredients on our Paleo-tagged meals.

These dishes have a varying carbohydrate level (most are low-carb at fewer than 20g of net carbs per serving, but some may be higher). Any sugars indicated on the Nutrition Facts panel are from naturally occurring sources, like tomato or dates. In limited cases, small amounts of honey may be used (for example, in a cranberry sauce) to take the edge off of the tartness. This will only ever be in very limited quantities.

Learn more about Paleo in Diane's first book, Practical Paleo: A Customized Approach to Health & a Whole-Foods Lifestyle.

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KETO

Balanced Bites Meals that feature the KETO tag include fewer than 20g of net carbs for the entire meal.

These meals are all:
gluten-free
grain-free
soy-free
legume-free
added sugar-free

These meals may contain dairy.

Any sugars indicated on the Nutrition Facts panel are from naturally occurring sources, like tomato or dates. In limited cases, small amounts of honey may be used (for example, in a cranberry sauce) to take the edge off of the tartness. This will only ever be in very limited quantities.

Per the meal plans and recipes in Diane's book on keto (see below), you can easily plan a day's worth of meals around including one or more of these meals while aiming for around 30g of net carbs per day.

Note that there is no specific, exact number of carbohydrates that every person needs to eat to maintain a state of nutritional ketosis. A food cannot be "keto" or "not keto," since ketosis is a metabolic state. Different people may eat a highly varied level of carbohydrates to maintain a state of ketosis from person to person.

These meals will be supportive of maintaining a state of ketosis for the vast majority of folks who have that aim. If you have specific questions, you can reach out to us at any time via our contact page. If you have been prescribed a medical ketogenic diet, please consult your physician as to whether our meals will serve your needs.

Learn more about Keto in Diane's book, Keto Quick Start: A Beginners Guide to a Whole-Foods Ketogenic Diet with More Than 100 Recipes.

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MACRO-FRIENDLY

Note that there is no specific, exact number of grams of fat, carbohydrates, or protein that every person following a macros-based plan will want or need.

Balanced Bites Meals that feature the MACRO-FRIENDLY tag include:

• 25g or fewer of fat
• 20g or more of protein
• 40g or fewer of carbs
• 500 cals or fewer total per meal

Note that if a meal comes with a sauce packet, we do not count the packet content for the above criteria since you can choose to add as much or as little of the sauce as you want, keeping the meal more customized to your needs. So, the MACRO-FRIENDLY tag is for the meal in the tray itself, sauce packet contents are to be counted separately as you wish. Sauce packet macros are listed on the meal labels under the main macros.

These meals are all:
gluten-free
grain-free
soy-free
legume-free

These meals may contain dairy or added natural sweeteners (we use these minimally/sparingly).

These meals will be supportive of eating generally lower-fat, but we cannot take your personal needs into consideration. You may need to adjust another meal in your day to be lower in fat to allow for your Balanced Bites Meal to fit your plan.

You can find many of our meals entered into My Fitness Pal app, or you can enter them yourself if you'd like. Note that the barcodes on our labels are for internal use only and will not load macros into your app upon scanning.

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21DSD-FRIENDLY

Balanced Bites Meals that feature the 21DSD-FRIENDLY tag are compliant with The 21-Day Sugar Detox guidelines. 

Some of these dishes do contain dairy, which is compliant on levels 1 and 2 of the 21-Day Sugar Detox. For more information on the 21-Day Sugar Detox, visit 21daysugardetox.com.

Learn more about The 21-Day Sugar Detox in Diane's books,
The 21-Day Sugar Detox Daily Guide
The 21-Day Sugar Detox (original guide book)
The 21-Day Sugar Detox Cookbook

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DAIRY-FREE

Balanced Bites Meals that feature the DAIRY-FREE tag do not contain any dairy. Dishes may be prepared with ghee, which is clarified butter where the milk proteins have been removed.

If you have a strict dairy allergy, please read all ingredient lists. If a meal contains milk, cream, or cheese, we will not mark it dairy-free. We do not use butter in our meals, only ghee.

Why might someone want a dairy-free meal?
Some people are allergic to dairy or find that they are sensitive to it, resulting in any one or more of the following physical symptoms:

• joint pain
• skin irritation
• acne
• digestive distress
• general fatigue / inflammation
• autoimmune condition flare-ups

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EGG-FREE

Balanced Bites Meals that feature the EGG-FREE tag do not contain any eggs.

Why might someone want an egg-free meal?
Some people are allergic to eggs or find that they are sensitive to them, resulting in any one or more of the following physical symptoms:

• joint pain
• skin irritation
• acne
• digestive distress
• general fatigue / inflammation
• autoimmune condition flare-ups

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NIGHTSHADE-FREE

Balanced Bites Meals that feature the NIGHTSHADE-FREE tag do not contain any nightshades.

The nightshade family of vegetables are: tomatoes, potatoes (this does not include sweet potatoes), eggplant, and peppers / pepper spices (this does not include black pepper).

Meals marked nightshade-free will not contain tomatoes or tomatillos, white potatoes, eggplant, or any hot, sweet, or bell peppers or any pepper-based spices like paprika, chili powder, or cayenne.

Why might someone want a nightshade-free meal?
Some people find that they are sensitive to nightshades, resulting in any one or more of the following physical symptoms:

• joint pain
• skin irritation
• acne
• digestive distress
• general fatigue / inflammation
• autoimmune condition flare-ups

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NUT/SEED-FREE

Balanced Bites Meals that feature the NUT/SEED-FREE tag do not contain any nuts or seeds.

Why might someone want a nut/seed-free meal?
Some people are allergic to these ingredients or find that they are sensitive to them, resulting in any one or more of the following physical symptoms:

• joint pain
• skin irritation
• acne
• digestive distress
• general fatigue / inflammation
• autoimmune condition flare-ups

At Balanced Bites, we have very high standards for what goes into our meals. On this page, we outline any approved additives we will allow in our foods and why, explain any less-common ingredients, and disclose any ingredients you will *never* find in our meals.

We have a page just for subscription FAQs! You can find it here. If you need more help, please email support@balancedbites.com.

Meals

IMPORTANT: Every order that is in by Saturday at 11:59 PST will be shipped from our kitchens on Tuesday to arrive by Friday (based on your location).

Every order that comes in after Saturday at 11:59 PST will go into next week’s order and be shipped the next week.

• If you order on Sunday, your order ships on Tuesday of the following week.
• If you order on Monday, your order ships on Tuesday of the following week.
• If you order on Tuesday, your order ships in one week.
• If you order on Wednesday, your order ships in 6 days.
• If you order on Thursday, your order ships in 5 days.
• If you order on Friday, your order ships in 4 days.
• If you order on Saturday by 11:59pm, your order ships in 3 days.

Pantry Items

Orders will ship the business day following your purchase. Please note, purchases made during a promotion may experience a longer processing time.

Yes! From time to time a meal can rub against another tray or ice pack in transit. The friction can cause the seal to lift. The food is perfectly safe to eat. We recommend putting the meal in the fridge to consume first!