Meal Delivery Reviews

I hear from people all the time about how healthy eating is so much work, takes too long, they’re just too busy and so on. I get it. On my busiest days, it’s a challenge to get to the grocery store if I’m low on supplies, never mind cooking. Enter meal delivery kits to save the day and keep you from doing takeout or heaven forbid, the drive-thru!

If you’ve ever considered a meal kit subscription, making a decision can be a bit daunting. There are a lot of programs out there, and they’re all trying to win your business!

I thought it might be a good idea to review 5 of the top programs for you, so here are five meal delivery reviews to help you decide which may be the right plan for you.

Home Chef

Currently home chef is rated number one in customer satisfaction among the leading meal kit companies. At the time of this writing, they have a voucher code on their website for 16 free meals if you are a new customer.

In order for new customers to get the 16 free meals, it’s important to remember that the special offer does not apply to orders fewer than 12 servings a week.  There is an expiration timeframe for that offer and it’s ten weeks after you sign up.

They do not offer organic food although they do say they have more flexibility than other meal plan programs.

Home Chef asks you a list of questions to find out what your preferences are so they can recommend recipes, but you still have access to their full menu. You also can save time with their delicious low or no prep recipes which they call “Fresh and Easy”.

You will be asked if you have any dietary preferences such as calorie conscious or carb conscious meals. They also ask if there are any foods avoid you need or want to avoid like pork, beef, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts and so on.

I investigated meals for two people and for getting two recipes per week. My subtotal for the food was $35.96, and the shipping was $13.99. If you receive three or more recipes per week, they give you a savings of four dollars on your shipping.

There are several desserts, one of which was a chocolate lava cake which looked amazing. My only hesitation was it did not give a list of ingredients that I could find, and I know it’s not organic. It disclosed the dessert contains milk, eggs, wheat and soy. I really like to see a list of the ingredients before I’m going to commit to buy and consume anything.

They advertise their meals start at just $6.99 per serving which is very reasonable.

To get started, you can select your preferences by answering a few questions about your taste, serving size and delivery preferences, and that helps them personalize your menus. Then you create an account and you get started. You can choose from a variety of new recipes each week, and you can use their “customize it” to upgrade, swap or double up on your favorite protein. It’s delivered to your doorstep with easy to follow recipe cards, and you can always skip a week or pause your account at any time.  They have a different menu every week so there are always new recipes to discover.

They offer meal kits with pre-proportioned ingredients and recipes that are ready in about 30 minutes. They also have 15 minute meal kits that are prepped pre-proportioned ingredients to cook in 15 minutes. Finally, they have oven ready meals that are prepared fresh ingredients that arrive in an oven safe tin so there’s no prep or mess; you just pop it in the oven.

Interesting additional options include grill ready meals where you assemble the ingredients in a grill safe bag and throw it on the grill for a quick meal. They offer other options that make this plan worth a look.

 

Green Chef

Green Chef offers popular organic vegan and gluten-free menus, including plans compliant with Paleo and Keto diets. Their ingredients are organic and have no GMO‘s, pesticides or antibiotics. The ingredients come pre-measured and prepped along with premade signature sauces, marinades, and spice blends.

The recipes are quick and easy to prepare. They have step-by-step instructions with chefs tips and photographs, and they are ready in just about 30 minutes.

With green chef, you can select a meal type such as Keto, and Paleo, Vegetarian, Mediterranean, Fast and Fit, Vega or Gluten free. They offer carb conscious, high-protein recipes free of gluten, grains, soy and legumes. You can select your box size for the number of people you’ll be feeding: two, four or six. You can also choose the number of meals per week: either three or four. They advertise their plan is $6.49 per serving at the time of this writing and that the shipping is free.

They carefully hand pack all ingredients in their eco-friendly packaging so they have a “healthy, happy, cushioned cool journey to your door”.

If you want to see the recipes before you sign up, you can click weekly menu to see the upcoming meals. The meals change weekly, so there’s always a new flavorful dish to look forward to.  There is no commitment. You can skip when you want and cancel any time. In case you’ll be out of town, you can skip for several weeks.  They make it easy. With each delivery, you get a box that is hand-packed with delicious ingredients and recipe cards. Your ingredients are insulated so they stay cool even if you’re not at home.

This is the meal plan that I tried. I was impressed with their recipe card presentation. It was very attractive, and it was nice to have those recipes to keep and add to my recipe arsenal.

HelloFresh recently announced it acquired Green Chef, the USDA-certified organic meal kit company. HelloFresh will now offer the largest selection of meal plans for consumers.

 

Factor

Factor75.com offers healthy chef prepared meals that are delivered to your doorstep. They advertise no prep, no mess the meals that arrive ready to heat and eat in minutes. The meals are prepared by gourmet chefs who do the prepping and cooking so you don’t have to. They have new menus every week, and they have fresh, never frozen ingredients. They offer ketogenic, low-carb, low-calorie and plant-based options. As of the time of this writing, six meals per week cost $12.83 per meal. If that sounds a bit pricy, remember they do all the work.

Factor75 ships the meals in insulated boxes with gel packs that will keep the box at refrigerated temperatures for quite a while. Their packaging has been thoroughly tested in all seasons across all climates.

You can choose your own meals or you can just let their chef select meals based on your taste preferences.

If you go out of town you can skip up to four weeks and pause your delivery for those weeks as long as you do so before the cut off date for your order.

The only cooking involved is heating up a fully prepared meal!

They deliver Monday through Wednesday and your delivery date is based on your ZIP Code. Factor 75 offers meals like garlic and herb chicken breast, beef spinach and mozzarella balls, Peruvian shrimp bowl, bruschetta risotto with kale pesto cauliflower and vegan mushroom marsala with onions and risotto and roasted garlic with green beans.

 

Hello Fresh

Hello Fresh markets themselves as America’s most popular meal kit. They get the most five star reviews, and their meals are fresh and affordable with their chef created meals starting at only $7.49 a meal. There is no commitment; you can skip weeks or cancel at any time. They have over 25 fresh recipes every week designed by professional chefs and nutritionists.

To get started, you personalize your plan choosing your preferences such as meat and veggies, fit and wholesome, veggie, pescatarian, quick and easy and more. You can choose for two or four people, and your recipes per week range from 2 to 6.

After you check out, you have access to their entire weekly menu of more than 25 recipes if you want to mix-and-match, that’s fine. You can always pick and choose your recipes regardless of your initial preference. Each recipe they offer includes FDA nutrition information, so you can view nutrition information and ingredients for each recipe. I like that feature very much.

Hello Fresh has options for many different types of diets such as low carb, vegetarian, and more. Any changes you make to your order need to be done by 11:59 PM Pacific standard time five days prior to your next scheduled delivery.

One example they currently offer is a roasted veggie kale salad, and you can choose your protein from either chicken or steak .

The program can be even more flexible with “Hello Custom”. That’s a new offering at the time of this writing. You can change, swap or upgrade more than 12 sides and proteins each week. You can swap proteins in size if they aren’t perfect match, so it really is a very flexible plan .

Hello Fresh is one of the most popular services, and Every Plate is one of the most affordable. Every Plate is another meal delivery service not reviewed in this article. It is owned by HelloFresh and was launched in 2018 as a lower-cost alternative.

 

Blue Apron

Blue apron advertises chef designed recipes with step-by-step instructions that are quick and easy. They use responsibly sourced quality ingredients, fresh produce and sustainable seafood. They pride themselves on perfectly proportioned amounts to reduce food waste so you have easy portion control as well, and they use recyclable ice packs and packaging to reduce environmental impact.

Their meals start at $7.99 per serving, and they currently have a special offer to get you started at just $3.24 per meal with free shipping.

Their menus include a signature category, a vegetarian category and a wellness category among others. They use beyond meat and have diabetes friendly recipes and health-conscious offerings.

Some of their recipes at this time of writing include chipotle roasted tofu lettuce cups, miso mushroom grilled cheese, southern style chicken with asparagus and rice lemon and garlic butter chicken served with roasted broccoli and mashed potatoes.

They have nutritionist approved recipes plus weight watchers recommended selections. They also have kid friendly meals to make the whole family happy. Their meals are designed to be ready in 30 minutes.

 

My personal preference was to go with an organic program, but regardless of whether it’s organic or not, having an easy to fix, quick to prepare healthy meal is a great way to face dinner time when you’re just beyond busy!

I hope these meal delivery reviews are helpful; please email me with any questions you may have. Cheryl@ThinStrongHealthy dot com. I’m always happy to hear from you and to answer your questions!

Helping You Achieve Major Wellness!

Cheryl A Major, CNWC

I’m author, health coach, and entrepreneur Cheryl A Major, and I would love to connect with you! If you’re new to the world of creating better health, both mental and physical for yourself, please check out my training on how to get sugar out of your diet. Crack Your Sugar Habit is where to check it out. Learn how sugar, as yummy as it may taste to you now, affects your mental and physical health and how to go about reducing or eliminating it from your diet.

Be sure to follow me on Twitter so you won’t miss my daily postings for health, wellness and mindset, and please subscribe to my YouTube channel so you won’t miss the short, informative videos I post there!