Has your family tried these delivered fresh meals? (1 Viewer)

[Jeff]

My wife and I both work outside the house and for many years we’ve ordered in a lot of food and not done much cooking. Too much time and planning required to cook. Ordering in is pretty expensive.

Recently, my daughter introduced us to this service that delivers groceries in precisely the right things and amounts for meals that they plan and give you instructions to cook. They package the food in ice and it comes mailed to your front door. We order 3 meals per week for each of us (about $60 total) and cook together. It’s not a diet, but the food is pretty well portioned and is relatively healthy.

Here is an example of the instruction cards and how the food comes.

This is called Hello Fresh and weve liked it so far, but wonder if anyone has tried any of the other alternatives and would recommend another source for this sort of thing.

 

[Rhodeman77]

Whenever my wife comes across a coupon code she orders them. It is a great way to try new dishes without having to buy a bunch of odd ingredients you may not use again. We have enjoyed them, but for us it doesn’t make sense to use on a regular basis as my wife is a stay at home mom so cooking she feels is part of her job. With 4 kids eating out is more a chore than a treat.

 

[flipupchipup]

If you can get a deal on the order, these are great. We keep the recipes if the dish turns out well and then just buy the ingredients from the store. Blue Apron is another company just like Hello Fresh

 

[Jeff]

I am enjoying spending the time prepping a meal with my wife. The kids are away at college, so it’s just us. The idea of keeping the cards didn’t occur to me...prolly a good idea!

 

[abby99]

My nephew and his wife, both of whom have full-time jobs, have tried HelloFresh and Marley Spoon. They prefer HelloFresh for its consistent quality. The meats at Marley Spoon were of spotty quality. The delivery restrictions and minimum orders of HelloFresh are a bit of a problem for them, but they still recommend HF.

Many of the recipes involves frying, but they often grill, broil, or bake instead. Even though both are accomplished cooks (I'll vouch for that), most of the time it took 45 minutes to prepare a 30-minute meal. They have kept the recipes and have made some of the dishes with their own ingredients.

Thumbs up for HelloFresh. Marley Spoon, maybe a C.

 

[rowlin]

I read the title and thought Jeff had been hacked.

Haven’t tried those but did a thing called Dream Dinners, where we went to their kitchen and measured out ingredients for the meal kits. There were also times they would pre-bag a bunch and sell kits from the fridge.

 

[timsta007]

I've tried Blue Apron, Plated and Hello Fresh. All were good but we liked Plated the best. Not sure if they deliver everywhere in the US yet. My biggest complaint with the service is that the meals take a good bit of effort to cook and generally don't have extra leftovers. I take leftovers for lunch at work almost every day to save on eating out costs. Most meals I make from scratch I make extra servings and have them for lunch or even another dinner at home. For the amount of time it takes to make these recipes for the number of servings they make, it's not efficient for me and my family. I have enjoyed trying new recipes and cooking techniques that I otherwise might have never made at home. For someone that hates leftovers or in the situation of the OP, I can see how this would be a great opportunity to cook different things at home and not have to bother with grocery shopping. It just depends on your situation and how you like to do meal planning.

 

[timinater]

My wife and I enjoy cooking and use a meal planning service (https://www.cooksmarts.com/weekly-meal-planner/). As our house gets busier we really appreciate just grabbing the things on the list and not worrying about a plan.

The groceries in the weekly plan coordinate nicely for very little waste.