Meal Kit Delivery services - experiences?

[Aerides]

After months of cooking-at-home with more frequency, I've run through my limited rolodex of go-to recipes way too many times.

So...I'm using a coupon code to try Hello Fresh next week - DH and I should get a kit for 3 dinners for 2, arriving Monday night, figure that's our Tues/Wed/Thur dinners.Supposed to get full ingredients and recipes to cook ourselves, all portioned out, etc.

It works out to somewhere not unlike our typical food budget, but I don't mind stretching a little over, if it saves me time and trips to the store, and the "what's for dinner?" problem where sometimes I draw a blank.

I'm hoping it gives me more ideas for recipes to repeat later.

Or it could suck! But I'm interested enough to give it a try for a few weeks and see.

Anyone else used any of these or something similar?

 

[zinger1457]

I've tried Hello Fresh and a couple other similar services using their promos and thought they were good although not so sure about value for money when paying full freight. They do provide detailed recipes so you can go on your own later if you find recipes you really like.

 

[W2R]

After months of cooking-at-home with more frequency, I've run through my limited rolodex of go-to recipes way too many times.

So...I'm using a coupon code to try Hello Fresh next week [...]

Anyone else used any of these or something similar?

I tried something similar maybe last year or the year before, although I don't remember which one it was. Anyway, although the meals were good, the preparation time was longer than what they estimated and I don't like spending a lot of time cooking. So, wasn't worth it to me, and I decided not to continue.

Good luck and I hope you are happy with Hello Fresh!

 

[pb4uski]

After months of cooking-at-home with more frequency, I've run through my limited rolodex of go-to recipes way too many times.

So...I'm using a coupon code to try Hello Fresh next week - DH and I should get a kit for 3 dinners for 2, arriving Monday night, figure that's our Tues/Wed/Thur dinners.Supposed to get full ingredients and recipes to cook ourselves, all portioned out, etc.

It works out to somewhere not unlike our typical food budget, but I don't mind stretching a little over, if it saves me time and trips to the store, and the "what's for dinner?" problem where sometimes I draw a blank.

I'm hoping it gives me more ideas for recipes to repeat later.

Or it could suck! But I'm interested enough to give it a try for a few weeks and see.

Anyone else used any of these or something similar?

We've used Hello Fresh for about 6-8 meals. I thought that they were very good. A bit more elaborate than our normal simple cooking and we liked the change of pace. We found that we could get 3 servings from each 2 serving meal.

They do seem to have a fondness for sour cream in their gravy and sauces, but fortunately, we like sour cream.

 

[SALTedOut]

I did a Hello Fresh promo and got 2 meals for 2 people for $20. Figured at $5/meal I could don't lose too much. I'll start by saying I love to cook and prior to ER going to the grocery store on the way home from work and cooking dinner was my "relaxing" time.

The dinners were fine. We enjoyed both of them and there was sufficient food for 2 people who don't overeat. The chicken breasts were small but probably the correct 4 oz portion recommend as a serving. Everything was included and the instructions were easy to follow.

With that said, as I looked at meals going forward almost all of them were low price protein based (chicken, ground beef, etc.) and had a starch as the main side dish (potato or rice). We don't do a lot of potato and rice and do more real veggies. We also do a lot of fish/seafood and ground turkey instead of ground beef. Any fish dish offered on the weekly menu included and "extra" fee. So going forward after the promo price a $30 dinner becomes a $40 dinner. I definitely don't spend that much even when shopping at Whole Foods.

So for me it came down to overpriced for what I'd normally spend when cooking myself (by $10-20/meal) and not the types of food choices I'd usually eat. For example, I can buy a three pack of chicken breasts, a head of broccoli and bag of romaine lettuce (good for 4-6 salads) for $15 and have leftovers for lunch the next day vs. the $30 for two meal on Hello Fresh with no leftovers.

For someone who does not like grocery shopping and is not creative in meal prep and more importantly trying to eat out less I'd say it could be a good deal.

 

[njhowie]

We did promos with Hello Fresh and Blue Apron. The meals were ok, but the portions were small and at regular price I'd consider it a real ripoff.

It was nice to try, but definitely not something we'd do on a regular basis.

 

[Sunset]

We used Hello Fresh for about 5 weeks. I had a really good promo, so it cost less than full price. At the time the promo was probably $20 off each wk and the first week had free shipping.

I liked it, as it taught me some new things to do in the kitchen - example a pan sauce with plum jam for pork and oven roasted green beans.
It did portion our meals very well.
It was a fun thing to try.

Why I finally quit it:

1. because it seemed to be stuck on oven roasted potatoes and oven roasted green beans.
2. It charged extra for "expensive" cuts but considering the cuts are small, it seemed like price gouging.
3. I found I had to add a potato to the bunch when oven roasting, as it was too little (for us).
4. Paying full price, just seemed a bit too much.
5. I still had to go grocery shopping.

I kept all the recipe cards, to refresh how to make the various sauces now and then when doing regular cooking.

 

[W2R]

I tried something similar maybe last year or the year before, although I don't remember which one it was. Anyway, although the meals were good, the preparation time was longer than what they estimated and I don't like spending a lot of time cooking. So, wasn't worth it to me, and I decided not to continue.

Good luck and I hope you are happy with Hello Fresh!

The one I tried was ChefD, and it was back in 2017. Here's Katsmeow's thread about this type of service, back in 2017:

https://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/meal-preparation-services-experiences-87495.html

 

[donheff]

I have gotten three excellent meals from a local caterer who is trying a new pandemic business model. They are $35 for two people but in each case the meal was substantial enough to get a second lunch for two out of them - in yesterday's jambalaya case, a second dinner. These are fully prepared meals but the entrees need to be reheated in a 350 oven. In one case, there was a little more to the prep so they included a nicely printed instruction sheet. One of the owners is an accomplished pastry chef so the deserts are to die for.

 

[Dtail]

We use Home Chef each week for 3 meals of cooking for 4 people. We are pretty satisfied with the quality of the ingredients and the variety of meals to pick from.
The portions are not too big or too small. No appetizers or desserts.
In particular, a few of the choices are gourmet like, especially with the sauces.
Less time in the supermarket too.

 

[pacergal]

Our local Kroger has Hello Fresh kits in the deli area. I bought a few for DD after she had a baby, they said they were OK, not a lot of portion sizes (but SIL is a big guy!)

I have used Dream Dinners off and on for years. It is a meal prep service, order and go in to prep your own meals, take home and freeze. I like that I can control spice level, add or subtract to the menu, (with in reason). Although, now they do the meal prep and I just stop and pick up. They have 3 and 6 serving portions. When I use it, I get 12 meals--3 per week for the month. It helps with variety. Usually, I order for about 3 months, then stop for a few months, until I get sick of recipe planning again. Then start up again--LOL

 

[Andromeda]

When we lived in NYC, we tried a few different meal kit services including Hello Fresh and Purple Carrot (vegan) but concluded that they didn't work well for us.

Pros:

1) Interesting recipe ideas that we probably wouldn't have come up with ourselves.
2) Delivered to our door in a very busy period in our life (and in winter/early spring when it was harder to go shopping).

Cons:

1) At the time we tried the services, there weren't enough vegan options.
2) I'm quite picky about the vegetables I like eating. (I know. But I'm vegan for the animals, not because I like vegetables.) So although we ended up trying some foods I might not otherwise have tried (see Pro (1) above), I often found that meals included a core ingredient (like broccoli) that I despised.
3) Some food arrived in poor shape (e.g. damaged or went mouldy quickly).
4) Most of the meals took longer to prepare than we expected.
5) WAY too much packaging.

(2) and (5) were the deal breakers for us.

 

[ShadowBloom]

I also got bored with the recipes I know. Instead of trying meal kits, which seem relatively expensive to me, I looked for new recipes online. There are tons of sites out there; my new favorite is budgetbytes.com.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I looked at Home Chef recently as I have some rewards points I could use for $100 in gift cards. I was kinda shocked at the prices - $7 for a serving plus shipping costs. I try to spend $5 a day per person for groceries at our house. At the restaurant supply store I shop at I could buy 2.5 pounds of portabella mushroom ravioli for under $7 dollars and make fruit and green side salads for another dollar or two and that would make several meals for us.

 

[Aerides]

I also got bored with the recipes I know. Instead of trying meal kits, which seem relatively expensive to me, I looked for new recipes online. There are tons of sites out there; my new favorite is budgetbytes.com.

One of the selling points for me is small pre-portioned seasonings, just for that meal. I have a decent spice cupboard, but it always seems like new recipes call for some obscure ingredient that I never use again, but now have a jar of it that will sit in the back for the next 3 years until I do a purge.

 

[jazz4cash]

We did a half dozen Hello Fresh kits. The meals were great but I hate couscous so I was very unhappy to get it instead of rice. DD did the prep so that made it good too! The promo price is great but the regular price is too high for the amount of work and prep involved. If you hate grocery shopping maybe there’s some value there. I also got sick of all the packaging to throw out. It seemed very wasteful.

 

[steelyman]

I have gotten three excellent meals from a local caterer who is trying a new pandemic business model. They are $35 for two people but in each case the meal was substantial enough to get a second lunch for two out of them - in yesterday's jambalaya case, a second dinner. These are fully prepared meals but the entrees need to be reheated in a 350 oven. In one case, there was a little more to the prep so they included a nicely printed instruction sheet. One of the owners is an accomplished pastry chef so the deserts are to die for.

Local services are an option I’m considering. In this area several local restaurants have banded together to provide prepared meal options for pick up (each restaurant has their specific menu options). Pick up is in a common area (drive up).

Timely and good thread topic.

 

[Dawg52]

For a Christmas present I received 4 meals from Freshly. Not a kit requiring preparation but basically expensive microwave dinners. But they are prepared fairly recent and were pretty tasty. Only a Mexican dinner was less than satisfactory. It's a subscription service wanting you to set it up weekly. But sometimes I like to go to my condo on the spur of the moment and was afraid I would have dinners coming in when I was leaving town. So I didn't continue with it.

 

[JanF]

We have been using Hello Fresh for 3 years, and we love it. My husband likes to cook, and I don't mind helping. Nobody likes to plan meals, we just run out of ideas. Portions good, variety has increased lately-more vegetarian options. Almost all of the packaging can be recycled. Meals very tasty.

 

[Dtail]

One of the selling points for me is small pre-portioned seasonings, just for that meal. I have a decent spice cupboard, but it always seems like new recipes call for some obscure ingredient that I never use again, but now have a jar of it that will sit in the back for the next 3 years until I do a purge.

Yes another plus, for example using 1oz of truffle oil,etc.

 

[Delaney]

I recently signed up for Every Plate to receive three 2-serving meals per week. I signed up because I am getting bored with my home cooking, but also with COVID, I've been doing curbside pickup of groceries and I hope to be able to wait a week for my next grocery shopping because of the meal delivery.

Every plate allows you to skip a week whenever you want, so I plan to skip every other week. I can pick 3 meals from a set of 13. About 10 of the meal options looked good to me, but I picked meals I don't usually make myself but might order at a restaurant. (Beef Banh Mi Bowls, Greek Chicken Pitas, Ponzu Steak Bowls)

I like that I can see every single ingredient that will be sent to me and the full recipes in advance. (Another service I tried didn't provide that much detail in advance or enough options to pick from.)

Every Plate has fewer ingredients and simpler instructions than other plans, but I think that might make it easier for me to reproduce. Also, Every Plate is cheaper. For 6 meals for the first week, the cost is $26.93 with discounts. After that the cost is $5 per serving plus $9 shipping per week.

 

[Sunset]

I also got bored with the recipes I know. Instead of trying meal kits, which seem relatively expensive to me, I looked for new recipes online. There are tons of sites out there; my new favorite is budgetbytes.com.

You can also see and print/download the recipes from the meal kit sites.

 

[Aerides]

I got thru my first week w/Hello Fresh and I'm keeping it going for now (I have one of those stacked coupons that runs over several weeks), initial report:

I was able to swap out one of the dishes to about a dozen other choices (including upgrade$, pass).
Of the 3 meals, 2 were fine, 1 was good enough that I'm saving the recipe card.
The portions aren't huge - espec the protein - but they pack a lot of calories with butter and oil, so I'm opting over to their lower cal menu in next week's batch.
They forgot the veggies/accents for one of the meals, but refunded me the entire meal for 2 via a brief help chat. That was good as I was able to just go get a few things, but of course the whole point of this is you don't have to shop.
Their prep time is complete and utter BS, at least for a first-timer. If it says 5 mins that means 20. If it says 10 you had better start an hour before you want to eat.

Overall pretty good, the main benefit for me is the decision-making is done.

 

[Dtail]

I got thru my first week w/Hello Fresh and I'm keeping it going for now (I have one of those stacked coupons that runs over several weeks), initial report:

I was able to swap out one of the dishes to about a dozen other choices (including upgrade$, pass).
Of the 3 meals, 2 were fine, 1 was good enough that I'm saving the recipe card.
The portions aren't huge - espec the protein - but they pack a lot of calories with butter and oil, so I'm opting over to their lower cal menu in next week's batch.
They forgot the veggies/accents for one of the meals, but refunded me the entire meal for 2 via a brief help chat. That was good as I was able to just go get a few things, but of course the whole point of this is you don't have to shop.
Their prep time is complete and utter BS, at least for a first-timer. If it says 5 mins that means 20. If it says 10 you had better start an hour before you want to eat.

Overall pretty good, the main benefit for me is the decision-making is done.

Home Chef has many low carb/low fat options.

 

[FreeBear]

We have friends who regularly use high-end meal kits. They enjoy the food, but they sounded crazy expensive and didn't yield much food. Frankly, for these prices, I wouldn't want to do any cooking, not even Chef Microwave.



We either quick cook, ie meat and veggies on the grill or slow cook in bulk, ie chili or smoked bulk meat. When we get tired of our own cooking we get ethnic takeout. We started get half (small) $45 party trays of Chinese food that we stretch with our own veggies and brown rice or quinoa. We can eat for almost a week for about the price of one dine-in Chinese meal. We love the value and the break from real cooking!