By now you’ve probably heard of Tom Brady’s very strict diet, the TB12 diet. He’s partnered up with meal delivery service Purple Carrot and they now offer the TB12 meal plan at $78/week, for 3 meals (2 servings each). I’ve been wanting to try a meal plan service for quite a while, but because Sam follows a strict diet himself, it wasn’t possible to try any.

So when I heard about them teaming up, I was super excited, not because we are Tom Brady or Patriot fans, though you can’t deny his talent, the man is a beast, but because Sam’s diet is almost the same as the TB12 diet. I figured it was something we could both eat, and it would push me to try new things that I might not normally go for.

The TB12 diet follows the following:

1. Vegan / 100% Plant Based
2. Gluten Free
3. Nightshade Free (nightshade vegetables contain solanine and cause inflammation in the body, they include potatoes, tomatoes, peppers & eggplants). Yes Sam doesn’t eat tomatoes or potatoes, so that means no pizza, spaghetti or fries…its rough but he doesn’t mind it.
4. Limited Soy products

I’m posting some snaps of a couple of the meals below, and will give you the pros and cons towards the bottom.

CRISPY TURNIP CAKES WITH QUINOA TABBOULEH

The quinoa tabbouleh was absolutely delicious. And I would’ve never tried to make turnip cakes, so it was fun to try! They included kumquats instead of tomatoes for the tabbouleh and it was a nice bright burst of citrus. The sauce was a vegan yogurt & zaatar sauce, also delicious. Overall we loved this meal. The turnip cakes were still a little strong for me towards the middle, I think I should’ve made them thinner but it was nice to try.

RAMEN WITH GINGERED AMARANTH GREENS

I’ve never made ramen, well, not counting the cheap ramen in college, but that’s probably not fair to call “real” ramen, is it? This dish was absolutely delicious, the flavors were layered, and I absolutely loved the tahini, sesame, nori sauce. A couple things with this one that could be improved on. The ramen noodle portion was way too little, we were both not full after. Also, the watermelon radish is way too strong of a vegetable to have so much of it raw. We didn’t eat it, it was also hard to slice thin. Additionally, the recipe called for baking the broccoli, which seemed pointless to heat up the whole oven just for a handful of broccoli, so I just pan sauteed it instead. The miso coconut broth, the amaranth greens, the hemp broccoli that was all delicious. If there was more noodles, this dish would’ve been perfect.

THE REAL TALK 

Ok, so now for the real talk. Would I recommend the meal plan? Yes & no, it depends. I think the dishes are very flavorful and have alot of different elements which expose you to different techniques & I think many people would have trouble coming up with dishes within such strict parameters. But if you aren’t following this diet in the rest of your meals on your own, it’s kind of pointless. Because for example, gluten stays in your body for months. But since someone like Sam follows the diet daily, he enjoys the meals because they are different and in a way he is forced to try something he wouldn’t normally go for.

I am enjoying the meals as well, but I’m not sure I could sustain cooking them weekly. Let me explain. I cook alot as you know, so for me to take a good amount of time to make the dishes says something about the recipes. I spent much longer making them, than what the recipes call for. I think there are too many steps and elements for it to be a weekly endeavor I could undertake, especially with how busy I usually am and trying to juggle everything. I think I’d like it once in a while. But I might be the wrong person to ask. Since I cook so much and create content & recipes for the site, I might not be the best candidate on whether I would use this weekly or not. So flavor wise, I’m in, all the way, absolutely delicious. Great dishes. Time wise on a weekly basis, not so much, but once in a while yes for sure. But hey, if you enjoy cooking you will definitely enjoy it and its great for everything to just show up on your doorstep and eliminate all the grocery shopping. That part I loved. Let me know if you do try it or if you’ve tried any other meal plans!