Meal kits: what's the point?

Chef_Barbell wrote: »

WinoGelato wrote: »

Chef_Barbell wrote: »

Wow lol the judgement.
It's called choice and different priorities for people.

Exactly. I also love when the judgement comes from people who clearly have incorrect assumptions about how something works.

I totally agree. I truly fail to understand how a meal deilivery kit is equivalent to some sort of personal life deficiency.

For us, they make the perfect 'date night' activity when we can't get a sitter and go out to eat. A bottle of wine and some fancy non kid friendly food and we're good to go.

Great idea! Yeah they would have been perfect for me and hubby pre-kids. If they weren't still so involved to prepare I might try it again. They should start a more family friendly one - or maybe they already have it - with slightly more approachable meals for kids. These definitely seemed more aimed at semi adventurous foodies who wanted to cook more at home.

My daughter, who is an excellent cook, likes to try the kits occasionally to shake it up a bit. As some have mentioned here, she gets to try something totally out of her norm without having to buy the spices and other ingredients separately.

Maybe good for:
Busy parents/families
People on vacation who might have food sensitivities, don't want to worry about eating out, but also don't want to spend time shopping.
People who just want to learn how to cook without getting too overwhelmed.
Try something new.
Convenience - plain and simple.
People with disabilities that make it difficult to grocery shop.
People living in areas where access to healthy food is limited.

Grad student here, with a partner who works 11 hour days. We just started using Chef's Plate 2-3 days a week.

Ordering in is faster and easier than groceries and cooking. Groceries and cooking are much healthier and cheaper than eating takeout. By the fact that we both gained 30 lbs in the last year? You can see the decision we ended up making most nights! Packaged meal services provide a nice balance: less time, more convenience, reasonably healthy, and somewhere in the middle in terms of cost.

I totally get the people who want to meal plan and shop and cook - I really do. My partner likes to, and so often makes large meals on the weekends that we can freeze and have on hand for the other nights of the week. But ... when you're a recovered (or recovering) disordered eater, and food still kind of triggers you? You want as little to do with it as possible. At least, that's been my experience. I can actually enjoy my food, because I haven't had to deal with the active psychological 'work' of being confronted by meal plans, grocery lists, buying food, unpacking food, etc. This isn't everyone's experience, certainly, but it has helped me TREMENDOUSLY.

We're both in very mentally taxing fields in our house - any service we can use to take some of the mental load off in our daily lives? We use it. Amazon's automatic re-ordering feature is a blessing.
We also don't drive - grocery trips are limited to what we can fit in our backpacks, or a small handcart, and get on public transit. If you can do that trip with chilled fresh meat and/or fresh produce and have everything come back in pristine condition? It's a complete miracle.

Everyone's got a different experience. I love them. Other people are free to hate them - just kindly don't hate me for my preferences? Thanks!

I put it down to different strokes. For the people that buy the kits there is a value for them that makes it worth it. That's great! If it makes their life easier or more exciting or knowledgeable with new techniques to try I say right on. We all deserve things in our life that lighten the load.

For me personally, cooking is my happy place. I LOVE creating new recipes and I have a spice drawer AND a spice cupboard lol. So these services aren't really my thing.
On the other hand, my husband just got a raise and the first thing I did was start stongarming him into getting our housekeeper back. Having someone else come in to clean once every 2 weeks makes a HUGE impact on my mental and emotional wellbeing. Some people consider it the height of self-indulgence. But I'm a very busy woman, and if someone else is dealing with the mess then I can focus my energy more on other jobs that need to get done. To me a housekeeper is like any other freelancer I hire for my career.

kommodevaran wrote: »

Exciting to see all the assumptions that pop up. I used to live off readymeals because I was insecure of my own cooking skills, I had heard that singles don't cook, so I believed that as a single person I was doomed to eat an unbalanced and boring diet. What I "knew" about nutrition was that healthy=tasteless. I would have been a potential customer for these kinds of services, if I had more money. I don't think people who use them are lazy. I think they have been duped. I think making money from people who are insecure is wrong. I have shaken a lot of my own assumptions, and now I eat restaurant type meals three times a day, healthy and varied, and I don't have a hundred different spices and I don't spend all my time in the kitchen or dragging tons of produce home just to throw out half of it. I like meal planning and grocery shopping and cooking because it's fun, and it's fun because I get to decide for myself what I'm going to make. I don't get how letting someone else choose meals for you, but still have to cook it, can be something anyone would want to pay for.

These are quite different than frozen ready meals. These meals are fresh and prepped and come with the seasonings you need, etc...you cook them...you don't just pop them in the microwave.