Meal preparation services experiences?

W2R said:
Good point, MichaelB, and in fact one reason I tried ChefD is my mobility issues with my knees (that the surgeon isn't ready to operate on yet).
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Sorry about your knees .I know Gary was miserable before he had his done and his mobility was not affected too much but the pain was awful .
 
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W2R said:
Well, I always get my steaks from a chain grocery store, not from a butcher. I would not be at all shocked to find out that they are frozen at some point along the way. Then when I get them home, the first thing I do is cut them into portions and freeze them. I think I can confidently tell you that I have never had a steak at home in my entire life that wasn't frozen at some point.

If you want gourmet meat, look at RobbieB's links. This isn't gourmet, AFAIK.
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Maybe thats why my frozen beef was a bit sub par from the fresh ones I get. Seems I might have been re freezing a former frozen steak. This is why I stopped getting for my mom Omaha steaks when she lived alone. I ate one with her, and I thought the supermarket ones were better. The ones from the butcher are definitely better. Yes, Robbie B is my go to guy for learning to expand my high life
 
Well Amazon has great warehousing and delivery capacity.

But does that mean they might have trouble delivering time-sensitive goods?

It's one thing to deliver canned foods or books but what about produce and meats?
 
explanade said:
Well Amazon has great warehousing and delivery capacity.

But does that mean they might have trouble delivering time-sensitive goods?

It's one thing to deliver canned foods or books but what about produce and meats?
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Amazon Fresh already delivers perishable items including meat, dairy and produce, so delivering meal kits could just be an extension of the existing service. Fresh is only available in some areas and I've never tried it myself.
 
DD lives in the Greater Seattle area. Both her and her hubby are busy tech pros and they rely on Amazon Fresh for a lot of their shopping. Because of their location, they even get same day if they put in order early enough. They seem pretty satisfied with what they get for the price and they are otherwise pretty savvy about spending their bucks.
 
Meadbh said:
Rotten food certainly would be a deal breaker! If you delegate both the selection and delivery of fresh produce, you are now depending on two other parties to get things right. If the supply chain is poorly organized, it's a disaster.
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Rotten food seems to be all too common for the online meal delivery services I've investigated.

Right now we use a local store's kit, which changes weekly:
https://www.thefreshmarket.com/specials/little-big-meal

And I'm looking forward to something similar from Whole Foods once Amazon completes their purchase.
 
Meadbh said:
Rotten food certainly would be a deal breaker! If you delegate both the selection and delivery of fresh produce, you are now depending on two other parties to get things right. If the supply chain is poorly organized, it's a disaster.
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OMG<, Rotten food:LOL::LOL:, how did i miss this post,hahahah. I cant even type in laughing so hard. This goes with the store bought soup.:D
 
Meadbh said:
I learnt to make great risotto by reviewing YouTube videos and trying it out. Sounds like you learnt from the recipe provided with the ingredients. How did that add value?
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Given that I'm still working 50 hours a week, raising a ten-month old, and do most of the cooking, the convenience of having the recipe without having to look it up and get the ingredients was valuable.

For you already ER'ed types, of course a meal delivery service isn't going to be a value proposition because you have a bunch of time to devote to doing stuff like that. I don't!

Now, I can put those ingredients on my shopping list and make it again very easily. I don't think I would've otherwise thought "hey, I'd like to learn to make a risotto!" YMMV!
 
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MichaelB said:
Following written instructions and imitating the steps in a video are different ways to learn, but both work.

This approach - to send the ingredients, recipe and instructions - is really interesting. This is a reasonable option for a senior with mobility issues, or someone without good transportation resources.
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I actually prefer reading the recipe myself, but that's how I learn.

Our "transportation issue" is about 28" and weighs about 20lbs, at 10 months old. :LOL:

We used to go out to eat quite a bit because it was "us" time, and now Hello Fresh/Blue Apron are our fancy dinners "out". We've been doing both going on eight months now, and really enjoy them, with no experiences of rotten food, etc. I think the worst was when HF forgot to include the recipe cards, and I just used the app that week.

As others indicated, we're in CA, so the stuff is sourced from closeby,
 
Scuba said:
Seems like a brilliant move for them. Read that Blue Apron stock dropped 11% in one day after this news.
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Maybe for Bezos but not for the consumer. Once they have their fingers in everything, prices will cease to be very competitive. I did some elected officials wanted hearing on the Whole Foods deal.

Once Amazon decided not to fight the sales tax issue and started building warehouses everywhere you could see this was the end game.
 
I would suggest the big advantage of such a service would be decent meals with healthy ingredients - assuming you choose wisely. For us, and for the same money, we have a dozen or so places we can eat out for the prices suggested here. We can be careful regarding calorie, amounts of carbs/veggies, etc. but it IS more difficult to eat healthy than using the services as described. If for instance you are eating veggies, most restaurants "ladle" on butter or margarine while one could cook the prepared ingredients with limited "bad" stuff.

But for now, we much prefer the eating out route. It has become a "social" time between the two of us (no TV, no hobbies, etc. to interfere - we are there and we talk during the meal.)

There might come a time we would appreciate this service, but not yet. YMMV
 
I've used Chef'd for orders around 10 times and every one has been delivered precisely on the scheduled day I picked. (I'm in Colorado.) We've really liked most of the dishes - there was only one I wouldn't re-order. Meats and veggies have been of very high quality, and the portions easily serve two for dinner with extra for a lunch. Sometimes two lunches. Even when delivered on a hot day the food has been nice and chilled.

We've re-ordered some favorites, and used the included recipe cards to make some others with our own ingredients.

I'd just as soon not have my in-box cluttered with a bunch of unneeded emails -- as long as the food is going to show up on the date I picked when I ordered it, I don't need any further notice.

We're quite happy customers.
 
Does any of them do sous vide recipes?
 
Katsmeow said:
For me, a big draw to this kind of service is threefold.
. . . .

Third, and most importantly. I like the idea of these services because you get the amount of ingredients that you need to for the meal without a lot of wastage. With some recipes, they call for ingredients that I don't usually eat. I have to buy a jar to use a tablespoon for example. I am then stuck with the jar that I have no use for. If I end up eventually throwing it out then the cost of my meal is higher than originally thought because I spent to buy the entire container but only used a small amount of it. Some recipes have things, also, that I just don't find in stores or are very expensive for even a small quantity. I really love the idea of not having to buy more than I will use.
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I see this comment a lot. I wonder if there is an opportunity to ship recipes and the small stuff like spices, oils, odd types of produce and leave the perishables to me. I can go get meat and typical produce items. I've never seen these packaged ready to cook meals, but I wonder how much smaller the package would be if the perishables were left out. It would cut down on shipping cost and container waste and still accomplish a big part of the main objective - give people variety and a simpler experience.
 
Kroger has introduced their own meal kit service, at least around here. They call it Prep+Pared and the cost is $14 for a two-person meal kit. Initial reaction from a few people I know who have tried them is positive. So there's another competitor in the ring!
 
Katsmeow said:
For some people that is true but for me it is a hassle that doesn't work.

I just cleaned out my freezer and pantry of expired stuff (really expired, not just a little bit). And, a lot of it was this type of stuff. Stuff that I bought for a specific recipe and then didn't use again.

Yes, theoretically I could find another recipe to use this spice I don't use for anything else or this perishable item that I only used 1/4 of for the recipe. But, it is more likely I have to find 2 different recipes, one for the spice and one for the perishable item. And, that kind of hassle just gets to be more cooking and searching for recipes that I like.

Someone who likes to do a lot of cooking or who likes the puzzle piece aspect of this would like it. But, that just isn't me....
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What the condiments in Katsmeow's kitchen are saying....

https://youtu.be/Az080LXT7FA
 
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