While there's nothing like cooking at home, it requires frequent trips to the grocery store, and we all know that hours for grocery delivery services stick. Fortunately, there are many meal preparation services that offer meal kits with all the ingredients and instructions you need to prepare your own lunches and dinners. We are looking at Blue Apron vs. home chef vs. Dinnerly, among other smaller, specialized meal preparation services that focus on weight loss, vegetarians, and eating for entire families. Better yet, these meal kits ship right to your front door. This is a great option if you don't have time to shop for groceries or don't have the space to store a lot of items (anything that shares a fridge, for example). But this is also useful for people who want to develop their cooking skills, since the kits come with step-by-step recipe instructions for cooking each meal. If you want to up your dinner game, this could be a nice addition to your culinary toolbox. The services are also flexible based on your needs, allowing you to choose not only what meals you want, but how much and how much to serve, which is useful if, for example, you only need to cover a few nights a week or if you want to feed the whole family. family. Not all services cover all areas or food needs, so we have highlighted this in each entry.
Blue apron (gold standard + wine subscription option to match)Chef at homeFresh (fully cooked / isolated meals)Purple carrot (vegan only)Yumble (children)
(Image credit: blue apron)
- Region: nationwide
- Dietary Requirements: Vegetarian, Weight Watchers
- Cost: from € 48 per week (two meals, two servings each)
Blue Apron, the company that began preparing meals at home, continues to operate with a variety of packages and menu options. Meals take anywhere from 25 to 55 minutes to cook, though most are around 30 minutes, and there are options for vegetarians, weight watchers, diabetics, and Beyond Meat. The catalog changes weekly. Plans are somewhat flexible: You can start with two meals, each with two servings, for €48 (including €8 delivery costs) or build up to three meals with two servings for €60 (with free delivery). If you want four-serving family meals, this option starts at €72 a week for two meals and goes up to €120 for four (delivery is free). Meals are shipped in refrigerated containers to keep them cold and you can select the time they arrive. If you wish, Blue Apron can also pair a wine with your accompanying meals; This option offers 6 bottles of wine for €66 per month, shipping included.
(Image credit: Home Chef)
- Region: Nationwide (specifically, 98% of the United States - check your zip code here)
- Dietary requirements: vegetarian, no carbohydrates
- Cost: from € 49.80 per week (two meals, two servings each)
Home Chef is another widely available meal prep service with its own benefits and quirks. Although its menus correspond to more American dishes (protein/vegetarian/carb dishes), it is much more flexible than other services. For example, you can customize your meals to swap out proteins or increase portion sizes. Like the other services, the chef's dining menu changes weekly, though it includes a variety of vegetarian, low-carb, and low-calorie options. There are also specific dishes that are pre-made on a ready-to-cook tray, as well as options similar to the slow cooker. Exclusive meals are sometimes offered from the weekly menu, although their higher quality ingredients add to the base price. Home Chef also has finer service orders and frequency: choose from two, four or six servings and two to six meals delivered to your home each week. On the low end, it's €39.80 plus a €10 delivery fee (all other options have free shipping) for two meals with two servings each; on top, six six-serving meals will set you back €358.20 per week.
(Image credit: Home Chef)
- Region: Contiguous United States (not Hawaii or Alaska)
- Dietary Requirements: Vegetarian, No Beef / Pork / Seafood
- Cost: from € 62 (three meals, two servings each)
HelloFresh is another well-known name in the meal prep delivery game. The service offers enough variety to accommodate food preferences such as avoiding beef/pork/seafood, vegetarian, or even meals meant to please children. Plans start with three meals with two servings each starting at €54, or increase to four meals with two servings for €70. Four serving meals start at two per week for €72 or three per week with a slight €90 discount. All these options add €8 for weekly shipping.
(Image credit: recently)
- Region - Nationwide (but not necessarily all ZIP codes - check your ZIP code here)
- Food requirements: gluten free, peanut free, dairy free
- Cost: from € 46 + shipping per week (four meals with individual portions)
Don't you need two servings with each meal? Your choice is fresh: each meal kit comes with one serving and arrives fully prepared in its packaging, just heat in the microwave or oven and eat. This means that their menu selection is a bit more basic than other services, and you won't have the pleasure of learning new recipes while preparing meals. The 30-meal menu changes weekly, and by design each is gluten-free, though Freshly doesn't currently offer vegetarian or vegan options. Most meals are meat, vegetable or carb dishes, low calorie bowls of comfort foods. Since meals are single-serving, Freshly's plans are simply divided by the number of meals per week, starting with four at $11.50 each (or $46 total). The cost per meal decreases with more orders per week, increasing the cost from six to €9 each (€54 per week), nine servings for €9 each (€81 per week), and finally twelve for €8 each one (96 € per week). Shipping costs are added at the end of the order.
(Image credit: Purple Carrot)
- Region: Contiguous United States (not Hawaii)
- Dietary requirements: exclusively vegetarian and vegan, gluten-free, soy-free
- Cost: from € 51.94 per week (three meals, two servings)
Purple Carrot is the service for vegans and vegetarians, period. Their menus consist of high-protein, gluten-free, and soy-free options. And unlike other services, Purple Carrot also offers breakfast, lunch, and snacks, at an additional cost on top of your meal costs. At a minimum, subscribers sign up for dinners. Prices start at three meals with two servings per week for €72 plus €6 shipping or two meals with four servings each for €80. You can then add extras to your order for around €18 each: four servings of breakfast or two lunch servings. You can also pack snacks ranging in cost from €4 to €16. If you're unsure about a menu item or want to redo it, Purple Carrot explains how to make each of their meals on their website - just click the button "See recipe" at the bottom right of n It doesn't matter what food card. Amid the coronavirus woes, Purple Carrot assured customers that the boxes their meals are shipped in are safe to touch, their staff handle ingredients safely, and their prep areas sanitize/sanitize properly.
(Image credit: Yumble)
- Region: East Coast, Texas, and parts of the Midwest and West Coast.
- Dietary Requirements: Vegetarian, Gluten Free, Soy Free, Egg Free, Dairy Free
- Cost: from € 48 per week for six meals
Yumble is a meal service for kids, from toddlers to tweens, catering to a variety of food preferences. If you've booked meal deliveries for the adults in the family but want more age-appropriate dining for the younger ones, this is an interesting solution. Yumble divides its menu into age groups: Kids Meals 1-3 have simpler ingredients for toddlers, 4-8 have more complicated construction, and 9-13. years have meals with a more recognizable complexity: bowls, burritos, etc. There are also several organized meal plans that may be a good fit for your child, like Picky Eaters, for example. All meals arrive prepared and require just a few minutes in the microwave to eat. The packages start with six meals per week for €48, but offer discounts for larger orders of eight meals for €56 or 12 meals for €72, all of which come with free delivery. And, as a bonus for the kids, each shipment comes with stickers and activities. In light of coronavirus concerns, Yumble "adheres to USDA's strict antimicrobial and antiviral standards," including face masks, gloves, hairnets, and cleaning practices, with testing. health facilities at production facilities, according to the company's FAQ.