Katsmeow
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2009
- Messages
- 5,308
I would like any feedback from those who have used any meal preparation service. I am talking about services like Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, Chef'd, etc. Those where you order meals and they send the ingredients and then you cook it.
I am interested in personal experiences and feedback on specific services. We are considered doing this for probably 3 dinners a week (2 of us).
For most of the services this usually works out to about $60 (so $10 a meal per person). Chef'd tends to be a little more expensive but seems to have many more meals available (you can basically order anything in their database any week rather than having a set rotation of choices each week). Also, it is a la carte so no subscription required. But, as I said, it seems to mostly be in the $12 to $15 a meal range with some lower or higher.
Reasons I am considering doing this.
DH and I usually eat out twice a week. We will continue to go out once a week. This would replace one restaurant meal. I figure that 3 of these meals would basically equate the combined cost of the one forgone restaurant meal plus what we would have typically spent to prepare dinner. It seems to be a wash economically for the $60 a week option (might be little more expensive if did chef'd).
Yes, I could theoretically cook the same meals from scratch without the service. But, the reason I don't actually cook is that I don't like having to research and find recipes and hate the shopping for ingredients and often having to buy some ingredient in large quantities that you don't use for anything else. Whenever I cook some restaurant quality type meal at home I always have wasted ingredients left over unless I plan other things to use those ingredients. That ends up being a pain to do so I just don't cook.
A service like this seems like it would be perfect for me. I don't mind the actual cooking process -- I actually like it. It is just all the preparation and planning in advance that I hate and having too much stuff left over that I won't use.
While I don't need diet meals we do watch our calories so I don't want anything that has meals that are a huge number of calories (I would like most to be under 700 calories). And, I usually like healthier type options. I don't eat beef, but do each chicken and fish.
Ideally I would like something that each week has a fairly large variety of meals to choose from. Having, say, 6 meals to choose from isn't enough. I would like more variety than that.
(I know that this kind of question may engender all kinds of responses as to why these services aren't necessary or are a waste of money. I am not actually asking for an opinion on that, however. I am just interested in those who have personal experiences with these services or who maybe have a relative or friend who has used them. There are so many services, it is hard to know which ones to start with.)
I am interested in personal experiences and feedback on specific services. We are considered doing this for probably 3 dinners a week (2 of us).
For most of the services this usually works out to about $60 (so $10 a meal per person). Chef'd tends to be a little more expensive but seems to have many more meals available (you can basically order anything in their database any week rather than having a set rotation of choices each week). Also, it is a la carte so no subscription required. But, as I said, it seems to mostly be in the $12 to $15 a meal range with some lower or higher.
Reasons I am considering doing this.
DH and I usually eat out twice a week. We will continue to go out once a week. This would replace one restaurant meal. I figure that 3 of these meals would basically equate the combined cost of the one forgone restaurant meal plus what we would have typically spent to prepare dinner. It seems to be a wash economically for the $60 a week option (might be little more expensive if did chef'd).
Yes, I could theoretically cook the same meals from scratch without the service. But, the reason I don't actually cook is that I don't like having to research and find recipes and hate the shopping for ingredients and often having to buy some ingredient in large quantities that you don't use for anything else. Whenever I cook some restaurant quality type meal at home I always have wasted ingredients left over unless I plan other things to use those ingredients. That ends up being a pain to do so I just don't cook.
A service like this seems like it would be perfect for me. I don't mind the actual cooking process -- I actually like it. It is just all the preparation and planning in advance that I hate and having too much stuff left over that I won't use.
While I don't need diet meals we do watch our calories so I don't want anything that has meals that are a huge number of calories (I would like most to be under 700 calories). And, I usually like healthier type options. I don't eat beef, but do each chicken and fish.
Ideally I would like something that each week has a fairly large variety of meals to choose from. Having, say, 6 meals to choose from isn't enough. I would like more variety than that.
(I know that this kind of question may engender all kinds of responses as to why these services aren't necessary or are a waste of money. I am not actually asking for an opinion on that, however. I am just interested in those who have personal experiences with these services or who maybe have a relative or friend who has used them. There are so many services, it is hard to know which ones to start with.)