Have you ever used a meal subscription service, such as Hello Fresh? Experiences?

[rcpae]

My husband and I are now empty nesters and we are looking to try a meal subscription service. I didn't realize there were so many to choose from! Hello Fresh, Blue Apron, Home Chef, Every Plate, Freshly, Sunbasket, etc..... Wow! What have you tried? What was your experience? Was it worth the cost?

Thanks!

 

[soccerdad72]

https://www.disboards.com/threads/meal-delivery-services.3827388

 

[LuvOrlando]

I didn't but we paid for Hello Fresh for my daughter pre Covid in college off campus and not only did she love it but it was cheaper than restaurant food, fed her 2-3 days and was a reliable for healthy meals. We still make a lot of the recipes they shared with the meals

 

[mjkacmom]

i got hello fresh for my daughter a few years ago as a treat, she loved it. I think your best bet is to sign up for a few weeks with a code, cancel, sign up for another with a code, cancel. Every time I cancelled hello fresh they sent me a great code to sign up again.

 

[rcpae]

My husband and I are now empty nesters and we are looking to try a meal subscription service. I didn't realize there were so many to choose from! Hello Fresh, Blue Apron, Home Chef, Every Plate, Freshly, Sunbasket, etc..... Wow! What have you tried? What was your experience? Was it worth the cost?

Thanks!

 

[Cheburashka]

My retired S.O. paid for a Hello Fresh subscription for a while and we all liked the food. It wasn't cheap, though. I personally wouldn't pay for it, since I'm not that into cooking. But with him doing the cooking and the paying, it was very nice. He still has the recipe cards and makes things from it occasionally, but not often, as they tend to have a lot of ingredients and they're not always easily sourced, especially specific seasoning packets. The meals that he made at the time using their exact ingredients were better than the "close enough" meals he's made from the recipe cards using approximated ingredients.

 

[Marionnette]

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[Welsh_Dragon]

I use a U.K. based one called Riverford Organics. I enjoy cooking, but I find that the recipe boxes encourage me to experiment with different ingredients and recipes.

 

[The WDW 3]

What is your reason for doing it? Portion control? Less trips to the store?

 

[Welsh_Dragon]

What is your reason for doing it? Portion control? Less trips to the store?

For me initially it was just to try different ingredients and recipes, and then during lockdown it was to avoid supermarkets. The one I use does list calories, fat, carbs etc., so you could use it for portion control. I am not vegetarian but it encourages me to eat more vegetables. https://www.riverford.co.uk/organic-recipe-boxes

 

[DisGirlAllie]

We've done Blue Apron for a few years now and love it, but we've recently taken a break just because we've been trying to save money. Overall the meals have been delicious, fairly straightforward to prepare, and a good value.

 

[NYCgrrl]

No but I know people who have. For me its too expensive in funds to subscribe since I’ve much time on my hands. Unfortunately the pandemic has meant I ve only heard of them never tasted.

 

[rcpae]

What is your reason for doing it? Portion control? Less trips to the store?

I am thinking about trying these because I have heard that they are convenient and the food is very good.

 

[Lee from WV]

Hello fresh was absolutely delicious. I don’t know how their versions always tasted better than similar recipes. We had to stop because they stopped offering gluten free options, but I still download their recipes and cook from them every week.

 

[Meglen]

Have tried a few. First few boxes end up befing decent but than they start forgetting items and food starts to be old.. and its just a hassle with the cs team

 

[Marionnette]

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[fancymouse]

For the last few years we’ve done several different subscriptions. I started with Plated (which I loved) but took a break and then it went out of business (boohoo). I’ve also tried Blue Apron but it had a pretty limited menu to choose from when we tried it. I tried HomeChef and found it was definitely the easiest one, but I found a lot if recipes were repetitive and I got bored. The one thing I liked is you could swap out proteins on a lot of the recipes and you could pay for upgraded cuts if meat if you wanted. I tried Sun Basket a few times, but I like meat and found their recipes to be a little too veggie oriented for me. I also thought the recipes I tried lacked flavor. We finally settled on Marley Spoon which has been very good. I love the wide variety of choices and it’s slightly more difficult preparation which makes cooking an activity (when I say slight, what I mean is HomeChef used to come with most things already chopped or mixed where as Marley Spoon required me to chop an onion or mix a salad vinaigrette). Marley Spoon also lets you add deserts! I have a baby, so I don’t have enough time to try baking and cooking dinner, but they look delicious.

One thing that was a huge factor for me was delivery day. If you are flexible then it’s less important, but we usually eat out on weekends so I needed meal kits delivered earlier in the week. I think I tried to sign up for Hello Fresh once and it only offered my Thursday deliveries, so I decided against it. Just something to think about!

 

[xlsm]

We do Hello Fresh for two meals a week (family of four w/two teen boys) and everyone in the house likes it.
Have there been hiccups with deliveries or ingredients? Yes, a few times, but mostly it has been a positive experience.

It's more expensive than just buying your own ingredients, but the convenience factor is a selling point for me.

Skipping weeks is easy if you need to, and you can save the recipes you like on the website. I make several of the meals on my own.

I cook a lot anyway, but it always feels like I'm doing something more exciting when I cook from the HF delivery and I no longer have that "stuck in a dinner rut" feeling.
Between the HF deliveries and making recipes from Half Baked Harvest, we have really expanded our recipe catalog over the past year.

 

[Luckymommyx2]

I’m subscribed to Tovala. There is an oven to buy but it’s the size of a microwave and you can toast, bake, steam and broil other foods as well. The best thing for me is that everything is prepped and the most I have to do it sprinkle on some seasoning or cheese. Every meal has a card that the oven scans and cooks on its own. I find most meals cook in 13-18 mins. As someone who is disabled, it’s so nice not to have any prep and deal with pots and pans on a hot stove or oven.

 

[jaiminee krikit]

I've been subscribed to Hello Fresh and Home Chef for a couple of years now and we love it! I like that I can easily skip a week (or as many as I want). It does seem pricey, but if I were to try to shop for some of the ingredients, I would have to go to several stores, most of them 20-30 minutes away, so it's worth it to me. One of the things I don't like is when a recipe has a pre-made sauce or seasoning. It never fails that those are the recipes I like best and I can't replicate the sauce myself. But I just order it next time it comes up. Between these two I prefer Hello Fresh, Home Chef is a little more boring, but I've got them coming for the next two weeks so maybe they've upped their game.
We tried Blue Apron for a while, but I think that one might have been too fancy because I ended up canceling it. DH is a meat and potatoes kind of guy, and I try not to stray from that too often (though I will occasionally get salmon or shrimp and tell him he's on his own that night lol)