You have until Friday each week to pause, skip, or cancel your order, which you can do via Home Chef's website or app. At this time, Home Chef does not ship to Alaska or Hawaii. Our Home Chef ingredients arrive in an insulated cardboard box, with items kept cool with ice packs.
Proteins are individually wrapped and packed together in a plastic bag, and all premeasured ingredients are grouped in resealable plastic bags, making it easy to store the items in the refrigerator until ready for use.
Each recipe comes with its own double-sided card; these are already three-hole punched and intended to be saved in a binder.
We sampled several recipes from Home Chef, which consisted of the following:. Pros: Dinnerly offers comfort food favorites in varying sizes at budget-friendly price point. Cons: In order to cut down on cost, Dinnerly only offers digital recipe cards. Some of our testers also report chatbot issues when reaching out to customer service.
You can order meals with either two or four servings, with an option of three to six meals a week. Dinnerly's rotating weekly menu focuses on family-friendly comfort foods like steak and potatoes, quesadillas, and rice bowls. You can also incorporate grocery items into your shipments using the new online Market by Dinnerly.
With preportioned items and only a handful of ingredients, meals are quick to prepare and delicious. You don't need to create an account to view Dinnerly's menu. Simply click on "View Menu. First, select the number of meals and servings you need.
Then, provide your location, email address, and delivery address. Choose the delivery day that suits you best. Once you've added your payment information, you can select the meals you want for your first delivery. Dinnerly will choose your meals, but you can adjust your preferences by clicking on the "edit taste profile" link in your account settings.
Once there, you can customize the types of proteins you prefer, whether you want vegetarian options, and whether you like spicy food. To choose your meals, simply click on "edit recipes," select the meals you want, and then hit "continue" to reach Dinnerly's "Market" section.
In the "Market," you can choose up to 10 additional items from categories such as bakery and dessert, breakfast and brunch, drinks and smoothies, fresh fruits and vegetables, lunch, and prepared meals and sides.
Dinnerly ships its meal kit ingredients fresh, and items are kept chilled in transit by a combination of insulation which can vary based on your location and a large ice pack. Proteins are separated from your produce and seasonings, and all perishable items should be stored in the refrigerator.
The company only provides digital recipe cards to reduce costs and its carbon footprint. These are always available in your Dinnerly account and can be accessed on your phone via the app or on your computer. Our sample meals included:. Our main complaint? The broccoli and chicken were supposed to be cooked in the same skillet, but this proved impossible and required another skillet and thus more dishes to clean.
Dinnerly is also the most affordable meal delivery service we tested. Blue Apron stands out from the rest for its diverse selection of meals and entrées available, all with a gourmet touch. Additionally, the company offers both kits and the convenience of heat-and-eat meals, giving busy folks more options to save valuable time in the kitchen.
Last but not least, with its pre-prepped ingredients and clear, step-by-step instructions, Blue Apron makes it both fun and convenient to try new meals each week. Our dedicated team, which includes editors, researchers, home testers, dietitians and skilled chefs, has conducted a comprehensive review of over 50 meal delivery services.
We've carefully evaluated each company on various criteria, such as pricing, meal variety, packaging, cooking time, and more. To ensure we provide the best recommendations to our readers, we've tested and tasted over 1, meals and counting!
Our testers begin by creating an account with the service and exploring the website to assess its user-friendliness.
They then select a diverse range of meals that represent a variety of dietary preferences and make a purchase. Upon delivery, our testers meticulously document the unboxing process by conducting a packaging count and taking photos. Next, our testers follow each recipe's directions and photograph the cooking process as they chop, slice, and sauté.
They keep track of the time spent preparing and cooking the dish to see how these recipes stack up against their expected preparation and cooking times. Finally, we document the best part—the food! Our testers are encouraged to assemble a tasting panel of family and friends to try the meals and make note of details such as texture, seasoning levels, and presentation.
While we know taste is subjective, we collect feedback from the panel and present those notes to our readers to help them make an informed decision when choosing a meal delivery service. Each meal delivery service is unique and may offer a variety of health benefits.
For instance, if you follow a strict diet, such as vegan , gluten-free , or keto, there are specific meal kits that focus on these dietary needs. For those looking to lose weight, there are dietitian-designed services that cater to customers who want extra support.
If you are looking to add more organic produce or vegetables into your diet, many meal services offer a vegetarian meal plan or work with local farms to procure and produce healthful meals.
While each meal delivery service is distinctive in its offerings, most of the meal companies share nutrition facts for each meal and may even offer filters or tags to help you find the ideal meal.
If you have any specific health ailments or issues, speaking to a doctor or registered dietitian may be advised to help select the right meal delivery plan for you. Fortunately, for those who suffer from food allergies and restrictions, there are plenty of options when it comes to meal delivery.
Many services cater to a variety of food allergies and dietary needs, and some meal services are created by physicians and registered dietitians to offer custom meal plans. A variety of services offer a selection of diets, such as vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-, nut-, and dairy-free.
It's important to note that, despite offering diet-specific meals, many companies process foods in facilities that may not uphold strict allergen standards. For this reason, consider reaching out to customer service to learn more about each service's processing and facility practices.
With so many meal kit plans available, there are several factors to consider when selecting a meal delivery service. Who is the plan for? How big is the household?
Some services are geared towards single-serving meals , while other services offer multiple serving sizes, which may appeal to families or homes that love to have a fridge stocked with leftovers. Time commitment may also be an important factor. Which deliveries will work best with your schedule?
Are you looking to microwave a complete meal in a few minutes, or do you enjoy the process of cooking a gourmet meal some evenings?
Additionally, it's important to consider diet, food restrictions, and food allergies when selecting the best meal plan for your household. Most meal delivery services make it quite easy to cancel, update, skip, or even pause your service.
Many companies let customers make changes and updates to their account in the online profile or mobile app.
Depending on the service, you may need to answer a few questions before fully canceling your subscription. Other services may even require contacting a customer service agent to cancel a subscription.
If you have any hesitations or questions, check the FAQ section of the company website or reach out to customer service for assistance. Use limited data to select advertising. Create profiles for personalised advertising. Use profiles to select personalised advertising.
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Buy at Dinnerly. Green Chef. Photo by David Cicconi. Pros: Green Chef has a way of making even ingredients our testers did not care for they had a thing about green bell peppers very appealing. The step-by-step instructions, which all use pictures, are super helpful and really do teach new techniques.
Cons: Ingredients can get a little repetitive so this is best to slip in just two or three times a week. Green Chef is best for: The beginner cook. Buy at Green Chef. Pros: In general what we got was more filling than expected or than it looked like it might be.
Even though so many of the meals are salads, Sakara really knows how to make a salad dressing enticing we loved the avocado tahini and creamy cilantro. The breakfast parfaits were delicious meals.
They were surprisingly complex and ate like fancy desserts. Cons: Per meal cost is around 28 dollars and sometimes one of those meals is a single donut or muffin.
Buy at Sakara. Purple Carrot. Pros: It offered new vegetarian recipes that could be incorporated easily into a regular weekly cooking cadence. Cons: The fresh produce was not always perfectly ripe.
Buy at Purple Carrot. Blue Apron. Pros: We really like the way Blue Apron formats their instructions. It really teaches you how to prep everything before cooking. It's much more detailed than your typical recipe instructions. They offer really nice proteins. The highlight for was the quality fillets of salmon or cod that arrived each week.
We even tried scallops in one "premium" basket. If you don't have time to shop at the butcher or fishmonger or feel at all intimidated by that experience, the proteins alone make this kit worth it.
All the Indian meals, for example used the same one spice—curry powder. On the Menu: Vegetable peanut lo mein with chili crisp fried eggs Hoisin pork belly and miso ramen with bok choy and soft-boiled eggs Smoky poblano sausage gnocchi with tomatoes and monterey jack Oregano and olive chicken with farro, zucchini, and carrots.
Availability: Nationwide. Buy at Blue Apron. MICHAEL MARQUAND. On the Menu: Zesty hummus and chicken rainbow bowl Curry tofu and broccoli jasmine rice bowl Tomatoey turkey meatball and bell pepper rice bowl Spinach artichoke chicken stuffed potato Availability: Most zip codes throughout the contiguous U.
Buy at Hungryroot. On the Menu: Thai red curry chicken with coconut lime rice Chicken, root vegetables, and wild rice harvest bowl Crustless chicken potato pot pie Beef, lamb, and eggplant moussaka Availability: Nationwide.
Cons: They repeat ingredients we saw lots of mushrooms and nutritional yeast, for example , which makes this a good addendum to your cooking, but perhaps not something to commit to for five meals a week in perpetuity. Methodology is best for: Busy, health-minded folks. Buy at Methodology. Cons: This is not the friendliest meal option for lactose intolerant individuals who eat meat, as the bulk of their meat options have some sort of dairy component to them.
Buy at Factor. On the Menu: Creamy dill pork tenderloin with couscous and green beans Meatloaf à la mom with potato wedges, broccoli, and gravy Crunchy Italian chicken sheet pan bake with spiced potatoes, and lemony green beans Cheesy smashed pork burgers with old bay fries, caramelized onion, and special sauce Availability: Nationwide and abroad Buy at HelloFresh.
On the Menu: Jerk-spiced chicken with johnny cakes and braised collard greens Singaporean chicken curry rice bowl with potatoes and carrots Chicken ropa vieja with arroz moro and roasted sweet plantains Chicken thighs in scallion cream with rosemary potatoes and carrots Availability: CookUnity delivers to most of the United States.
Buy at CookUnity. Nutrition for Longevity. Cons: A lot of the food is simply not visually appealing—which makes sense since it's being packaged and shipped in plastic containers. This is something we noticed with more than one meal delivery service that focused on fully cooked food.
Buy at Food for Longevity. Daily Harvest. Cons: Portion sizes are not as substantial as meal kits that focus more on dinners. Buy at Daily Harvest. Splendid Spoon. Cons: We had to add our own spices to get everything to a level of seasoning we liked.
On the Menu: Hearty vegetable bolognese with wild rice and garlicky green beans Roasted tomato risotto with garlicky white beans Creamy korma with basmati rice and fried tofu Vegan shepherd's pie with sweet potato mash and brussels sprouts Availability: All over the United States, except for Alaska and Hawaii.
Buy at Splendid Spoon. Revive Superfoods. Pros: There is good variety, even in the standard, pre-set pack. Not just the oatmeal, but also the smoothies were quite filling. We thought the smoothies could stand up as a full breakfast on their own.
The precut ingredients in the cups were very convenient to blend up, and the fact that the cups are designed to be reused as the drinking vessels with a straw-ready lid is a nice touch. Cons: The instructions for the smoothies suggest filling the cups, with the frozen fruit and veggies still in them, with a liquid of your choice we used dairy milk and oat milk , and then pop all that in a blender.
On the Menu: Banana and pumpkin spice spiced pumpkin pie smoothie with notes of apple, cinnamon, and nutmeg Apple matcha sweet matcha latte smoothie with hints of apple, pineapple, and greens Mango and papaya sweet mango refresher with subtle notes of papaya, ginger, and turmeric Spinach and mango a sweet green smoothie refresher with hints of mango and kale Availability: The entire United States.
Buy at Revive Superfoods. Buy at Sunbasket. Buy at FlexPro. Please enable javascript and reload the page, or use a browser that supports javascript. Get our iOS app from the App Store.
Get our Android app on Google Play. How It Works Browse Foods Supported Diets For Professionals Sign Up. Put your diet on autopilot Eat This Much creates personalized meal plans based on your food preferences, budget, and schedule.
We tested popular meal prep delivery services, like Blue Apron and Hello Fresh, to find the best meal delivery service for every household Explore our comprehensive guide to the best meal delivery service options available. Discover convenience, variety, and top-quality meals for every palate PlateJoy is your personal meal planning assistant, providing custom meal plans and recipes. Start your free trial to enjoy recipes tailored to your
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