College Care Package

Our meals are designed to be cooked with a slow cooker, and times and temperatures are printed on the nutrition label on every meal. Here are some tips and tricks to help you along your way:

Follow Cooking Instructions Closely: Instructions will vary across each meal. Please note that some meals may require the addition of water while others require delayed add-ins (ie. pasta).

Cook from Thawed or Frozen: To thaw out a meal, place it in the refrigerator in a container (to prevent possible leaking) overnight or run under cool tap water to break up the ingredients so they fit inside the cooker. When cooking directly from frozen, cooking times will be increased.

Know your Equipment: Though each one of our meals comes with instructions and online support pages, we find that our customers use a wide variety of slow cookers, sizes, and features, causing a need to adjust cooking times occasionally. Adjust as needed if you find that your protein is under or overcooked.

Recommended Slow Cooker Size: To get the best results with your Beehive Meals, we suggest the following slow cooker sizes based on your selected serving size:

• Small Family: 3-quart slow cooker
• Medium Family: 4-quart slow cooker
• Large Family: 6-quart slow cooker

You are welcome to use a different size if needed, but keep in mind that cooking times may need to be adjusted to ensure your meal is cooked properly.

Safe Internal Temperatures: To ensure food safety, make sure beef, pork, and ground meats reach an internal temperature of 160° and chicken reaches 165° before serving.

Meal Variation Suggestions: While each label includes an initial serving suggestion, you can find a list of additional meal variations by searching the name of your meal at beehivemeals.com under the “Our Meals” section of our website, or by scanning the QR code below.

Every meal you receive is vacuum-sealed and frozen with care before being shipped to your door. After opening your package, we recommend transferring the meals from the insulated cooler bag to your freezer right away. When stored properly, the meals will stay safe for at least six months.

You will also notice that each meal is frozen flat, making them easy to stack and store without taking up too much space in your freezer.

When life gets hectic, there’s nothing like the excitement of delivery day to brighten your week!

Each meal has been carefully prepared in our state-of-the-art commercial kitchen, then frozen and stored with care until it reaches your doorstep. To ensure your meals stay frozen during transit, your shipment includes dry ice and is packed inside a Beehive Meals insulated cooler bag.

When your order arrives, your meals should be frozen or cold to the touch. For best quality and safety, we recommend transferring your meals from the cooler bag to your freezer as soon as possible.

Please note that some sauces or ingredients may feel soft or partially thawed upon arrival. This is common with ingredients like honey, barbecue sauce, or soy sauce, which do not freeze as solidly as other items. This is common and still considered safe.