Food delivery companies

I did Blue Apron a couple of years ago. The food was amazing and the packaging was fabulous. As a foodie it was really nice to have all the spices and specialty ingredients in such a convenient manner. At the time it was definitely worth the money to me but I found after awhile I just did not care for the commitment of that level of cooking every night. But there was definitely a lot more good about it than bad for the time that I did use it, which was about 3 or 4 months as I recall.

I've been using Blue Apron for several months now and love it. It's been fun getting introduced to new ingredients and cooking methods that I've not tried before. And the variety of choices is good as well - they never repeat the same recipe in any given calendar year. They recently started including nutritional info for all of their recipes, so logging each meal is as easy as copy/pasting the recipe URL into MFP's database.

I've actually got two free boxes to give away, so if you're interested in trying it, message me with your first/last name and your email address and I'll have them send you a box. There's no commitment and you can pause or cancel your deliveries at any time.

I've been using Home Chef for a couple of months. LIKES: Getting out of my cooking & meal planning rut (same old, same old). I love to cook (& family really loves my cooking) so it's nice to try new menu ideas and techniques. Love that the ingredients are (surprisingly) very good quality and are pre-measured. (The only thing called for from my own pantry is usually salt, pepper, olive oil. Everything else is sent to me.) CONS: Like someone else said on this discussion, it does require commitment and planning. I've ended up on a couple occasions having to freeze the meat from one or two of the meals, and salvage the produce to use some other way (& tossing what I couldn't use) because of schedule constraints and/or unexpected trips out of town. SUMMARY: Using the service helps me prepare healthier, interesting meals and motivates me to learn new cooking techniques. Working from home I tend to let the workday go well into the evening and then am too tired to cook anything more ambitious than Top Ramen. Using this service helps me discipline myself to end my workday at a reasonable time in order to prepare a healthy meal. Cooking is one of my 'zen' activities (along with music, reading, yoga), and when I'm in the kitchen preparing one of these meals, I find it to be an enjoyable, creative outlet for me (particularly if I have some nice music playing in the background and a glass of wine nearby.)

I've started getting deliveries from a local company called Dinner Twist, and it's been great for me.

The food is very good quality and although they say it is enough for four meals for two people I always have enough for more.

It definitely costs more than if I did the planning and shopping myself, but at this point in time I can afford it, and I'm eating better because of it.

You have to be prepared to cook - but that's fine for me, I'm enjoying having a break from the planning and eating some different meals with ingredients or combinations I don't usually buy.

For any Perth (WA) people, I highly recommend them.

I see OP is in Iowa, but I'm in Connecticut, so this specific example won't apply, but maybe the concept will. There's a couple (she's a dietician, he's a personal trainer) that run a business. They make a number of types of meals every week and you can order and pick them up and just reheat them. Almost always whole foods, good (IMO, for many people's goals) macros, and decent Calorie counts - typically 400-600 Cals per meal. Most of the food is pretty good, although I like to heat the veggies (especially the broccoli) a little longer.

You may be able to find something like that in your area?

TR0berts wrote: »

There's a couple (she's a dietician, he's a personal trainer) that run a business. They make a number of types of meals every week and you can order and pick them up and just reheat them. Almost always whole foods, good (IMO, for many people's goals) macros, and decent Calorie counts - typically 400-600 Cals per meal. Most of the food is pretty good, although I like to heat the veggies (especially the broccoli) a little longer.

You may be able to find something like that in your area?

Similar to this, one could look for "personal chef" services rather than a "private chef." A personal chef will learn what you want, and then shop and prep multiple days worth of meals at a time. They'll have around 5 families at a time and either do all of the prep work in a commercial kitchen, or spend one or two days a week at each home. Some meals simply need reheated and others need additional prep and cooking similar to a Blue Apron box. Either way, you'll have what you need for the number of meals you request.

A private chef, on the other hand, usually works for one family. They will handle things like dinner parties and occasionally travel. A friend of mine is a private chef for a family and he splits his time between their two homes. He lives rent free in the carriage house behind their primary home and has his own little suite in their home on the beach. It's an unusual lifestyle but if he wants time off they somehow "make do" with restaurants and various meals he preps and leaves for them.

Hello Fresh here. We've been getting boxes for about 6 months now, and while it's pricey, I find it about on par if I were to try buying the ingredients of the same quality from stores. We've enjoyed most of the meals (we had one bad week that was a transition to winter ingredients), and like the variety they give us. And it helps with meal planning since we have 3 boxes each week to go through.

That said, if you don't have a basic kitchen set (baking sheets, pans, pots of various sides with lids) or aren't comfortable prepping, they can be a bit overwhelming. I shared it with a friend and they do meals once a month to change it up since the prep amount doesn't work for them. My fiance has taken up cooking on of the quicker, simpler meals once a week since I'm working late (and help take a load off my schedule).