I'm always looking for easy and convenient meal options, and when I heard that BJ's offers freshly made meals, I decided to check them out. Here's my review of six of their most popular dishes.
Spoiler alert: I was not disappointed! Each dish was tasty and hearty and perfect for a busy weeknight dinner. If you're looking for a quick and easy meal solution, be sure to give BJ's a try. You won't regret it!
Recently BJ's launched a new way for busy families to serve fresh meals to their family. So if you need dinner ideas, this review is for you. I've tried six different prepared meals at BJs.
If your local BJ's Wholesale Club does not have a deli, you won't have freshly made meals. This is a bummer for my locals at the Batavia store. It's worth the drive to Rochester or Buffalo for the meals, and the prices are lower at these stores.
BJ's Wholesale Club does NOT sponsor this post. So instead, I'm here sharing my honest feedback and how to save at BJs. You can see other reviews I've done on BJ's items here.
Not to go too far into a rant, but at Batavia, BJ's the Wellsley Farms Pure Maple syrup is $13.99; at Buffalo and Rochester stores, it's $10.99. I've noticed plenty of price increases like that.
When you go to BJ's, you will look for a cooler with all the fresh-made meals in it. It looks like this.
I've noticed each club is different in what they carry. Also, each time I go, the cooler seems to be expanding.
Here are some of the meals I've spotted at our clubs in Western New York. This month you can save $2.00 off any freshly prepared meal with the BJs coupon in your booklet expires 2/10/20, or add to your membership card here.
I grabbed the chef salad for my dad to bring to work, and he said it was delicious. It's pretty significant and would feed a family of four easily.
The only problem with the ready-to-go meals, if you were going to bring to work or something, there aren't any utensils or salad dressing. So, if you are paying $10 for a big salad, you should get a pack of sauce.
If you are bringing it home, that's one thing, but it's not a grab, go and eat kind of thing.
Here are a few more of the options for fresh-made meals at our BJ's.
Over the last couple of months, I've tried six of BJ's fresh-made meals. I was hoping you could scroll down to see what my family thought about those.
The first meal we tried was Meatballs with sauce. It is $3.99 per lb. With the $2 off BJ's coupon, I paid a little over $10. I have a video of it below with how my kids liked it.
We paired it with the Barilla Protein+ Noodles. The girls didn't say anything about the noodles—win for me. I talk about the noodles in the video below too.
If you don't want to watch it, we all gave it a thumbs up.
THE VIDEO IS THE ONE BELOW THIS.
The next meal I tried was the chicken Cesar wraps. The kids didn't try these, just the adults. It was an easy thing to grab for a quick lunch for the three of us.
My tip is always to check the package for the freshest date. They seem to have a shelf life of 2-3 days once made at BJs. If you can get ones made that day, go for those.
The wraps tend to get soggy the next day. It's best to eat right away.
The price was $7.99 for four good size wraps. That works out to $1.99 per wrap. This is way less than what you would pay to grab at a restaurant.
It had a nice flavor, and I've had it twice already.
*Not sure you want to pay for these meals? Check out my FREE meal planning guide here to get you started.
This is my favorite one! It is a lot of work to make a pot pie from scratch and get the gravy right. But, after being sick with a nasty cold, we enjoyed this, and it was the perfect meal.
It looked small, but it was just enough for a family of four. Otherwise, you may want to grab two for a more prominent family. I've gotten this one twice, and the second time I let it sit in the fridge for three days after I bought it.
It wasn't as good. The crust got too moist and didn't bake as nicely. I suggest eating it the same day or the next day at the latest.
- If you need a cheap BJ's membership, grab one for $25 for the year through my link here.
It does beat the little frozen pot pies because of the gravy.
This was a thumbs-up all around from the family on this one. It's also become my go-to when I need a break from cooking. It's $6.99 and with the $2 off BJs coupon, so worth $5.
BJ's fresh-made macaroni and cheese. If your family loves the restaurant's creamy cheese mac and cheese, this is for you. You can microwave all of these freshly made meals.
We grabbed this for the kiddos on New Year's Eve.
The nice thing about it was that we scooped out just enough for each child and microwaved it. This is because everyone wasn't hungry at the same time. So the next day, it was easy to scoop out for a quick lunch.
I tried the Mac & Cheese recipe in the Ninja Foodi, and it was NOTHING like I expected. This one from BJs is the classic restaurant taste. Another kid-loving meal that involves NO prep work. It was a thumbs up from everyone on this meal.
The next one we tried was the steak and cheese calzone. Looks are deceiving on this one. It's a lot more filling than I thought. It was way more than we needed for one meal for our family.
We got two meals out of this one. The kids were okay with it. Not their favorite. I thought it was terrific.
And a fun meal to serve during a Football game party or any get-together. I put ours in the oven to give it a nice crispy top. Most of the meals are all under $13 at BJs.
The latest meal we tried was only my husband and me. We went on a quick little getaway for a couple of nights and, being the frugal folks we are, bought one of BJ's fresh-made meals for our lunch. ( You can follow my lifestyle blog on Instagram for details and a post coming soon on how to plan a getaway for cheap)
This was the chicken and ziti, and my husband and I both loved it. The price for four big chicken breasts with noodles and sauce is so much lower than taking the family out to eat for the same thing.
The sauce tasted like homemade, and I was impressed with this dinner. I would defiantly get it again. The price was $12.99. Again these prices, compared to taking your family out, are affordable.
I hope you find these reviews helpful if you have tried any, share them with us below.
Have you tried any of BJ's fresh made meals yet?
DID YOU SEE THESE?
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- 15 Must-Buy Food Items from BJ's for the Ultimate Foodie Family
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Julie
We tried the chicken and ziti. When purchased, it looked like dry ziti on ends, but I figured the sauce would cover when mixed in and cooked. Covered and baked as instructed, and whole dish was dry, like they ran out of sauce. Many ziti were very hard and discarded. Only 2 pieces of chicken which I cut up for family. Wish I had extra sauce on hand, as it needed a 1/2 jar. We were all disappointed, will not buy again from Clearwater, FL. I did call store, and she said to bring back leftovers. Really.!! Quiet a drive for that.
Barbara Clayton
Steak and Cheese Calzone. I bought this as a snack at night watching TV. It was really good, tasty and filling. Everyone had a piece. Will buy again.
Eugenia Hall
We got the Meatloaf and Mashed Potato meal this past weekend and it was pretty good. I didn’t microwave it, I put my meatloafs in a pyrex pan in the oven and scooped the mashed potatoes into another pyrex pan and added some butter. It didn’t take long at 350 and dinner was ready. The meatloaf was reasonably moist, but it had a nice dense texture and was flavorful. And mashed potatoes with butter are mashed potatoes with butter, how can they be anything but good?
Tasia
Awesome thanks so much for the feedback. Glad you guys liked it. We have yet to try that one.
John
Great food
Debbie Fox
Thanks for your review of all the meals as we wonder if they are good . At our store we don’t have the calzone but it looked good.