Meal preparation services experiences?

[zinger1457]

I've tried both Blue Apron and Hello Fresh using their 50% off promotion several times. I thought they were both good, easy to follow recipes, quality food. I liked the Hello Fresh packaging better, they grouped each meal in it's own separate box, Blue Apron kind of threw everything together in one box. Someone mentioned that the portion sizes were big and be ready for leftovers. That was not my experience with either service, I thought the portion sizes were adequate or a little on the small size, never had any leftovers. For me I liked the meals but didn't feel the $10/meal cost is worth it. I do find myself reusing some of the recipes on my own.

 

[Meadbh]

Now that is pretty cool! Especially if you independently do all of the meal planning, independently determine which groceries and utensils are needed, reliably keep it all within a reasonable budget, and do all of this plus cook everything to perfection and serve it without complaint or hand-holding (which IMO is really what the complete job is all about). I'm sure you do. I guess I did all of that for about a third of a century but it has grown old, and so have I.

This is exactly what one of my friends said last week.

 

[Katsmeow]

Dear Katsmeow:

On point #5: I'm glad you don't have to be home for the delivery. Presumably they can leave it on your doorstep without fear of theft or animal damage. Doorstep delivery wouldn't work for me, as I live in a condo building.

Your analysis includes many constraints, such as the "no beef" rule, days of the week for delivery, exact price, etc, that may make it difficult for any company to completely meet your needs. One suggestion would be to contact the company to see if they could devise a customized package for you. I suspect that would be expensive, though. Or you could hire a cook.....

We live in a house in a gated community so not worried about delivery. And, most of the time one of us is here anyway.

I don't think I have that many constraints. I don't eat beef at all but at most places beef is definitely a minority of the meals so that hasn't been a problem so far. The delivery date being from, say, Monday to Wednesday is a deal breaker so I have to check that. Not sure what you mean by "exact price." I don't require that there be a set price for each meal. I'm cool with Chef'd and the variable pricing. I do have to consider whether its greater flexibility is worth and extra couple of bucks for meals and tend to think it is.

I will probably narrow down to 3 services and try them all and see what I like best.

 

[Sunset]

I encourage OP to try all 3 services, and let us know what they are like.
I've certainly been tempted by them.
Then I won't have to come up with another meal: Tonight is salad with crab meat.

Soon we will have garlic butter fried scallops, but I don't know what side dishes to make... ?

These services would make it easier, and I know I would save the recipes for later just in case I found the delivery awkward.

 

[Walt34]

No direct experience here but DW's niece orders from Hello Fresh once in a while and seems happy with what she gets, and I frequently see a neighbor's Hello Fresh boxes out on trash day, so presumably they are happy with what they're paying for.

I'm tempted to try an order or two myself but haven't looked at all the options so will wait a while. Seems kinda pricey but cheaper than a restaurant. I generally don't mind some cooking but if a recipe has more than about half a dozen ingredients or stuff that we normally don't have around, I'm not going to make it. When I see these recipes that have a dozen or more ingredients, half of which I've never heard of, that's a definite turn-off.

 

[newtoseattle]

home chef and sun basket

I've used both home chef and sun basket.
On the one hand - I feel ridiculous knowing I could just go buy the ingredients and cook it myself for cheaper - but the reality is, I don't/didn't. So, for me, I think I cook more at home and eat a little (?) healthier.

Home chef - liked the meals, similar to what I'd normally make, better price

Sunbasket - "organic"; healthier options, things I'd never cook on my own, but taste good and I feel "healthier". Much more expensive- but ingredients I don't usually have on hand, so really a bit hard to compare

I wish there was some way to reduce packaging - yes, its all "recyclable" - but its still a lot!!!

Bottom line - its definitely a luxury, but worth it to me right now and has reduced our eating out...

 

[Bestwifeever]

These are the meals DD's service offers for this week, per the email I just received:

miso marinated pork tenderloin, scallion pancake, soy glazed carrots, bok choy
roasted chicken breast, baked sweet potato fries, shaved beet salad, marinated feta cheese, roasted garlic
vietnamese pho, ginger-spiced grass-fed beef meatballs, shaved vegetables, fresh herbs roasted salmon, ricotta & summer vegetable ravioli, kale, green garlic pesto
grilled mahi mahi tacos, avocado, savoy & pickled vegetable slaw, lime dressing
'family-friendly meal of the week' baked sausage & orecchiette pasta, peas, carrots, creamy tomato sauce

They are $15 to $19 for a single serving. DD will probably get the family friendly meal of the week rather than the more exotic ones. All come for a few dollars less, in a vegetarian version.

OTOH, without a service's help, tonight I am making roasted salmon tacos with fresh pineapple and red pepper salsa, plus some roasted zucchini maybe mixed with quinoa and some of our garden herbs, because that's what I have on hand, no recipes needed.

 

[nash031]

Since the birth of our daughter, we've replaced our nights out with Blue Apron or Hello Fresh prepare by yours truly. We are saving money by not eating out, even with the more expensive individual meals at home. I highly recommend both services, and would happily send you (or anyone) a week of free meals on either one until I run out of them! PM if interested.

Thoughts on the services:

Blue Apron's food tends to be more exotic and usually a little bit more complex. You can get into some real "chefing" with some of their stuff. Prep and cooking times range from 30-60 minutes. I generally like the food from BA better than HF.

Hello Fresh seems to focus more on healthier and quicker options. Most meals are 30-40 minutes. Things like garlic cloves come individually wrapped and peeled rather than BA which sends an entire "head" of garlic and you do the work. Their food is less exotic, so you may branch out a bit, but not like with BA.

we alternate services week to week. 3 meals each week, and we just pick which one looks best to us. Usually set it up once a month and then just enjoy.

I've saved a dozen of the recipes and made a few of them on my own or with some kind of modification.

DW and I arent big people, so we often have leftovers which I take for lunch the next day. Makes the financial hit even less!

On waste: both hello fresh and BA containers and shipping materials are 100% recyclable. HF recently switched from individual boxes for each meal to a paper bag for each. BA just ships all the ingredients loose in a chilled box. So yeah, more waste, but recyclable waste at least.

 

[tulak]

For those interested in Blue Apron, Costco sells Blue Apron gift cards. If I remember correctly, it's $85 for $100 gift cards.

We tried Blue Apron and enjoyed the meals. It really didn't work well for us though, since we tend to be busy and it was difficult for us to make all of the meals within a week.

I also agree with the packaging waste. That bothered us and if we continued to subscribe, we would have looked into shipping back the packaging.

 

[windyblonde]

We used Gobble Box for a period time last year and enjoyed it. Liked trying different types of foods. We ordered items that we would not normally cook. The cost is the main reason we stopped. I had hoped that the cost would reduce my grocery bill some but it did not. I might go back to them at some point.

 

[Amethyst]

That is one of the funniest names I have ever heard. Made me laugh out loud.

We used Gobble Box for a period time t.

 

[W2R]

Katsmeow, thank you so much for starting this thread.

I have never used a service of this type but ChefD sounds like it is made for me. So, just now I ordered two 2-person meals from them. It was very easy to do. I got to choose the day of delivery, and they will be delivered a week from today.

I will let you know how it goes, but so far the website interface was flawless and very professional.

 

[Ally]

I haven't tried them myself. My daughter's family had used Hello Fresh a few times and liked trying new dishes. The recipes were fairly easy. My son's family tried Blue Apron and found the prep was longer and more intensive than he liked.

 

[Moemg]

Can you pick your delivery day ? I would only use them occasionally when I have run out ideas of what to cook . They are a great idea for working couples especially if they have children .I don't mind cooking or shopping but sometimes I would like someone to tell me what to cook that week . Occasionally my SO has a request but not often and He also cooks especially if it goes in a smoker .

 

[audreyh1]

I don't mind shopping for groceries and I have lots of recipes I've developed over the years. It's the in season or available ingredients that inspire new recipes. If I have to do the food prep I'm not interested in buying from a meal service.

Now hiring someone to create freshly made ready to eat meals and delivering them to my house - I might be interested!!!

 

[Fedup]

I think one of my kid's might profit from some of the easy cooking recipes from Hello Fresh. She confessed of not knowing how to cook chicken. The other one is a reasonably decent cook, she has won awards at work for her recipes.

 

[splitwdw]

A friend has tried Blue Apron and she thought the meals were skimpy. She is not a big eater.
Have you searched for any meal prep. services in your area. We have quite a few in our area. They range from gourmet to down home.


I'd probably never try a Blue Apron company. I like my meals simple and not a lot of seasoning.

 

[HillCountry]

We used Blue Apron last year. We order 2 meals every week so that my two middle schoolers can practise cooking. The shipment comes Friday, very well insulated.

At the beginning, it will take them about one hour to prepare a meal. Later on, they can do a meal in half hour. It is lots for fun for them and they look forward to the cooking.

The meals come in various cuisine and taste decent. Eventually we put the service on hold, as the kids say their mom cooks way better

 

[nash031]

A friend has tried Blue Apron and she thought the meals were skimpy. She is not a big eater.
Have you searched for any meal prep. services in your area. We have quite a few in our area. They range from gourmet to down home.


I'd probably never try a Blue Apron company. I like my meals simple and not a lot of seasoning.

I don't really see how anyone could call the meals "skimpy." We frequently have leftovers.

 

[splitwdw]

I don't really see how anyone could call the meals "skimpy." We frequently have leftovers.

At least one other poster has commented that the meals were adequate or a little on the small side with no leftovers. Maybe it depends on which meal is ordered.

 

[Meadbh]

At least one other poster has commented that the meals were adequate or a little on the small side with no leftovers. Maybe it depends on which meal is ordered.

I'm curious whether the size of the meals varies depending on location. How standardized are the portions? Or is this in the eye of the beholder?

 

[W2R]

I am hoping to get 3-4 dinners out of each of the two 2-dinner meals that I ordered from ChefD. So hopefully what I ordered will last a week.

Meadbh, the calories are listed in the nutritional info (for ChefD anyway), and do not depend on location since they are all shipped from the same place.

The 2-dinner meals that I ordered are each around 2000 calories total, so using their suggested portions that would be 1000 calories per meal. That sounds like too much for me, but we'll see!

I can't afford to eat 1000 calories per meal (for my health), so if I find myself eating anywhere near that much, then next time I may choose the Weight Watchers meals from ChefD instead of the regular meals.

 

[45th Birthday]

Just received this week's Blue Apron shipment.

Here's a little data to shed some light on the portion size issue. Two meals for four people each.

The chicken meal contained four six-ounce boneless chicken breasts, 1/2 pound of pasta, three celery stalks, two oz. baby greens, one red pepper and some spices and seasonings.

The hamburger meal contained 1 1/8 pounds of ground beef, four buns, one pound of potatoes, two oz. cheese, and some spices and seasonings.

Unfortunately, the pepper, a potato, and some basil were rotten. Second time this is happened in maybe six deliveries. Not good.

 

[W2R]

That sounds substantial to me, 45thBirthday! Thanks for the info.

OK, I was posting about my ChefD order on another forum and somebody suggested ButcherBox for meat and said their meat is really good. ButcherBox is apparently subscription only, but I love the idea of getting just meat to freeze like that and then defrost and grill now and then. So I subscribed to get a box every other month.

So, I thought I pass along that information too.

 

[W2R]

Can you pick your delivery day ?

I'm not sure but I think maybe you were talking about ChefD? When I ordered from them yesterday, they gave me a choice of about 7-8 delivery days to pick from, and I could click on one of them.

The first day they listed was next Wednesday, so I clicked on Thursday.

This was not for a subscription, but just for 2 dinners that I ordered with no subscription.