Meal Home Delivery?

_NicLovin_

I apologize if this is a duplicate thread - I may not have scrolled far enough to see if others have commented on this.

Has anyone done the meal delivery thing through Hello Fresh, Blue Apron, etc.? I've been trying to read up on the cost effectiveness of this, versus grocery shopping, and it seems that the pros/cons are really dependent upon the individual/family lifestyle of spending and eating out.

For those of you that have tried it, what do you like or not like about it?

For those of you who are considering it, what are some of the factors that are leading you to possibly sign up?

Old_Cat_Lady

effectiveness? To lose weight all you need is stay within your calories. You can do that by buying chicken breasts and grilling them and adding frozen veggies on the side.
Learning how to cook healthily = priceless; a life skill no one can take away from you.

Alatariel75

Pros: There's a good variety and you get to try new things.

Cons: Can be spendy, and you still have to cook - it's just the ingredients that get delivered.

I wouldn't, generally because I'm already a good cook who cooks a big variety of food and (more to the point), I already have a really well stocked kitchen when it comes to herbs, spices, additions and all that fiddly stuff which might keep people from trying a recipe because they have to buy half the spice aisle and don't know if they'd ever use them again.

But if you're looking to branch out, what to try new things, brush up on your cooking skills it can be good, and there's no lock in - do it once and see how you go, there are always discount vouchers floating about for first time buyers, and (contrary to the post above) it can actually be very good on upping your cooking skills level.

_NicLovin_

Alatariel75 wrote: »

Pros: There's a good variety and you get to try new things.

Cons: Can be spendy, and you still have to cook - it's just the ingredients that get delivered.

I wouldn't, generally because I'm already a good cook who cooks a big variety of food and (more to the point), I already have a really well stocked kitchen when it comes to herbs, spices, additions and all that fiddly stuff which might keep people from trying a recipe because they have to buy half the spice aisle and don't know if they'd ever use them again.

But if you're looking to branch out, what to try new things, brush up on your cooking skills it can be good, and there's no lock in - do it once and see how you go, there are always discount vouchers floating about for first time buyers, and (contrary to the post above) it can actually be very good on upping your cooking skills level.

Thanks! That's helpful, and love the idea of it being a way to possibly round out some of my cooking skills. In general, I consider myself a fairly decent cook, but you can never have enough culinary knowledge and skill in my opinion! I'll scout out some of those vouchers!

MilesAddie

I cook the majority of my dinners using Hello Fresh and Home Chef, for a couple reasons:

- I live in South Boston, groceries are super expensive. Saves money. Saves time.

- I love to cook, but when I make something it's difficult to buy the stuff for just two people, and then Portion control is an issue, and I eat the leftovers....

- Weighing food and the recipe builder can be a pain if you are hungry and just want to cook dinner... The majority of the meals fall between 500-700 calories, and I'm not choosing the low calorie ones.

- It keeps me from ordering out. I get up in Manhattan on a diet of delivery. But every week I'm able to get a fix of Mexican, Asian, or Italian.

I say give it a shot. Do your research though, we tried a few and liked homechef and HelloFresh best. Blue Apron was just too fancy for week night meals...

lucerorojo

I use Blue Apron from time to time. There was a stretch of time where I used it every week for several months. Now it is just occasionally. Ironically I lost weight while on it for the few months because I wasn't eating out. But Blue Apron's meals tend to have a lot of calories so you'd need to probably cut the portions--which could be a good thing since then you'd have more meals. The calories per serving tend to be between 650-850. It is a lot of preparation--more than the 30 minutes they say it is. For me it IS cheaper than eating out and also cheaper than the grocery store if I were to have that same variety and gourmet quality meals. I live in a big city so the food and produce is expensive. Chicken goes about $4.99 lb. (not organic or free range which is $5.99/6.99), and a good steak would cost me 15.99-16.99 if I bought it locally.

dabearo

We like one called freshly. Completely cooked and never frozen. Great variety.

creatureofchaos

I tried several and none of them reliably had low-calorie options.

_NicLovin_

lucerorojo wrote: »

I use Blue Apron from time to time. There was a stretch of time where I used it every week for several months. Now it is just occasionally. Ironically I lost weight while on it for the few months because I wasn't eating out. But Blue Apron's meals tend to have a lot of calories so you'd need to probably cut the portions--which could be a good thing since then you'd have more meals. The calories per serving tend to be between 650-850. It is a lot of preparation--more than the 30 minutes they say it is. For me it IS cheaper than eating out and also cheaper than the grocery store if I were to have that same variety and gourmet quality meals. I live in a big city so the food and produce is expensive. Chicken goes about $4.99 lb. (not organic or free range which is $5.99/6.99), and a good steak would cost me 15.99-16.99 if I bought it locally.

Can I just say that food prices are so effing insane?! It shouldn't be so expensive to eat quality foods. We've been going to the farmers market more and more, because if I'm going to pay $4-5.99/lb for a chicken, I'd rather be supporting a local grower than Perdue or Tyson. I feel like I could rant for days around the food prices, FDA, and corporate 'merica.

I found a coupon for Home Chef and Blue Apron last night. We're doing a discounted trial week of Home Chef first. Like you, I noticed Blue Apron's menus tended to be more calorie-rich, but definitely mimic that feel of a restaurant quality meal (Bleu Cheese Steak - yum!).

RachelElser

My friend has Hello Fresh and LOVES it. Her mother doesn't know how to cook, so she was never taught how to cook. She cannot walk into a store and buy ingredients to make meals. She just can't break it down into what she needs. Alternatively, she can't look at what she has and make a healthy meal from it. Hello Fresh is great because it's "here the ingredients, here's how you make it, now eat it'

girlgeeklula

dabearo wrote: »

We like one called freshly. Completely cooked and never frozen. Great variety.

Fiance and I have recently switched to Freshly from Hello Fresh. As much as I liked HF, I felt like the last few months we're getting stale (aka we we're getting the same meal options every other week, which I blame on them now offering premium, Hall of Fame, and breakfast options). Freshly fit better within our lives, since I don't have to prep and cook anything. I love cooking, but getting home at 7:30-8:00 and then having to cook a meal that takes 45+ minutes is not fun. And the meals are reasonably filling and taste pretty good.

_NicLovin_

girlgeeklula wrote: »

dabearo wrote: »

We like one called freshly. Completely cooked and never frozen. Great variety.

Fiance and I have recently switched to Freshly from Hello Fresh. As much as I liked HF, I felt like the last few months we're getting stale (aka we we're getting the same meal options every other week, which I blame on them now offering premium, Hall of Fame, and breakfast options). Freshly fit better within our lives, since I don't have to prep and cook anything. I love cooking, but getting home at 7:30-8:00 and then having to cook a meal that takes 45+ minutes is not fun. And the meals are reasonably filling and taste pretty good.

Nice, I'll have to give Freshly a try if I can find a discount trial voucher. Groupon has one for a service called Pantry Boy which looks cool. I bought the voucher for $25, and we're trying that one next month.

JenSD6

We've been doing this kind of meal delivery service for a few months now, and we really enjoy it. We alternate between a couple (Fresh Prep and Chef's Plate ship local in the Vancouver area) depending on which menu we like better each week. I enjoy trying out new recipes and flavours, and I like that they send me only what I need for that meal.

It's not as cheap as frugal home cooking, no. But we've increased our food budget to allow for it, as we feel it's worth it for us. Many servings are overly generous in size and we can often keep aside a third serving from a two-plate meal. This week nothing really struck our fancy from either service, so we decided to save our money and skipped it entirely.