Meal Delivery Service

[Princess_Ariel_5]

Does anyone use a meal delivery service like Hello Fresh or Blue Apron? I’ve tried each of them in the past and this coming week, my husband and I are getting another 3 meals from Hello Fresh. It’s $60 for 3 meals for 2 (essentially 6 meals priced at $10 each). I feel like this is useful for me because I loathe grocery shopping and planning out meals. I’m also not a creative cook so this is useful because it comes with step by step instructions and I try meals I wouldn’t have tried on my own. I feel like it sounds expensive but then again, each week at the grocery store runs us between $100-$150 (family of 2 - husband and me). Any experiences? What do you think?

 

[Callie]

I've loved Hello Fresh when I've used them. Its a bit expensive for me so I wait for coupon deals they send. I love to cook, and I like that the menus are often different than what I'd think to make, and that they send exactly what is needed.

 

[Breezy_Carol]

I have used Blue Apron a number of times. The food was always high quality and it was fun to try new recipes. It did stress me out the first time because it was unfamiliar but then I got used to it.

 

[gillep]

I usually rotate between 3 different meal delivery services, Plated, Home Chef, and Gobble (available in very limited markets). I choose each week which I am going to use and which I want to skip based on the menus. I prefer meals that require a lot of ingredients or are not something I would normally prepare, such as pad thai or a curry, as opposed to just a simple protein and side type meal. I like it because I am eating alone a lot, but even when my husband eats with me, I feel like we have a lot of food waste, I also hate buying a spice or sauce just to use it for one recipe, so this works for me with those concerns. I don't worry about the price anymore, as every time I have an off week my grocery bill is quite a bit higher than the meal box would be or I end up filling my freezer with leftovers that I then need to slog through. I find that most of the meals make more servings than advertised, I also like to stretch the meals, and keep calories down, by cutting the serving size down and supplementing with a large baby spinach salad with fresh citrus dressing that I whip up with a citrus, honey, olive oil. salt and pepper. I have been doing this for at least a year and have only ever had a handful of issues with the ingredients either not being fresh or a vacuum sealed meat puncturing, any time this has happened I have received a prompt credit from the company. It works for me and how I like to eat but they certainly have their downsides (packaging waste) and limitations.

 

[Julylady]

I used Hello Fresh for 8 weeks. Most weeks I ordered a chicken meal, a pork meal and either a steak or fish meal. The food was fresh and the recipes were easy to follow. I started using them because I was in a meal rut making the same 6 items over and over. I needed a change. I ordered the box for 2 people, but we usually ate it with the three of us with no problem. My girls helped with the food prep and were introduced to new foods we hadn't tried before. For example, sweet potatoes, mac and cheese served as a side dish, red cabbage, fish tacos. We liked the quick and easy sauces that were included with the meals. The cost was more than I normally spent for groceries, but not that much more. I stopped when the meals started to repeat (about 8 weeks). Hello Fresh recipes have you "roast" most vegetables including potatoes in the oven. My girls decided they would rather have steamed vegetables so we started steaming about week 3. They also tired of green beans which were included every week. And, after 8 weeks the novelty had worn off for my girls and I ended up doing all the cooking again.

I did learn to cook pork chops and chicken in a fry pan and then make a quick sauce to make it more interesting. I saved all the recipes and still make many of them regularly. We all found out we loved sweet potatoes and still have them at least once a month. All in all, I am very glad I used Hello Fresh and would recommend them to others. I have a lot of new recipes and learned some tricks that I still use.

 

[Pink Partridge]

I love Hello Fresh. My wallet does not.

 

[erin1715]

I've tried Blue Apron and Hello Fresh and while both were very good taste-wise and easy to make, the portions were way too small for us, especially my husband. Not worth it for us.

 

[rwdavis2]

The food was fine but too expensive. I can do it myself and don't mind shopping/cooking.

 

[OneOftheB's]

I've used Hello Fresh, Blue Apron, and Green Chef. My family has really enjoyed the meals from HF & BA but we found the meals from Green Chef to be, um, not to our liking to say it politely. We are a family of 4, so we end up with double portions and with 2 kids that means leftovers for at least two adults and occasionally the whole family. The prices aren't too bad for my family, given the likelihood of the 4 portion size yielding at least 6 meals, but it's not a service I use every week. I find myself in a rut, meal wise and will order a few weeks worth of delivery, spacing them out over a month/6 weeks. I enjoy having the recipe cards available to make the meal again by sourcing our own supplies and have done this multiple times.

 

[Marchand63]

Yeah Blue Apron, I just found their selections too limited. They only allowed you to combine certain meals.

 

[Albort]

i used hello fresh for 3 weeks. i think some stuff that came with it was not always all that. like you see a full plate of carrots but what i got was like... 1/4 of it...
overall, most of the meals were really good.

pricey like what a lot of ppl say.

 

[LilyWDW]

Waste of money.

 

[BearFamily]

We were underwhelmed by Hello Fresh a few years ago but have been doing Blue Apron for a while. It has helped force us out of a boring food rut. I have a friend who does Sun Basket and is very happy.

 

[dosekies]

I just tried Blue Apron for a week because I got a code for half off. I would never pay the full price as that is what I usually spend on groceries for a full week. We found the food to be good but a little strange. Many of the sides were foods that we wouldn't normally eat. I've looked at Hello Fresh and the menu looks like it would fit us better, but I would again probably only try it for a week with a coupon. I can't justify the full price.

 

[lifesavacation]

I’ve used Plated, Blue Apron and Sunbasket. We’re a family of 3 right now. I really like the convenience of having the meals delivered and most of the meals can be ready in 30-60 minutes. My daughter can even follow the meal directions and help with preparation. She prefers Blue Apron to Sunbasket. Sunbasket is all organic and wild caught seafood (we won’t eat it otherwise). I really like that there’s a variety of vegetables included in the meals.

I did have issues with the deliveries at times or food showing up spoiled. We have put a pause on the meals for now. I’ve been using Instacart for my grocery shopping and absolutely love that I don’t have to step into a grocery store and can choose exactly what I want for meals. The downside to the meal deliveries is that they send exactly what you need for the meal prep so there’s no extra, like milk, cheese, etc so you’re still buying those anyway. It’s definitely more cost saving to buy groceries on your own.

 

[dotfurio]

We used to have a local place that did the same thing. We loved using them. Like others, we'd try recipes we might not have. On one hand it might seem expensive, but if we bought all the ingredients to make the recipes it would cost much more (although we'd have product left over). The ease was worth a little extra money anyway. No measuring, most of the prep is done.

I haven't tried the mail order ones like Blue Apron because I'm worried about delivery and freshness. I also don't know how it would fit in my diet plan.

 

[SteveH]

We tried them but they were to high in carbs and no options to reduce or eliminate carbs. There are other options but I hated all the waste; shipping and small packages/containers.

 

[Aimeedyan]

I really liked both Blue Apron and Hello Fresh but they got pricey. I appreciated some of the less "typical" recipes - esp the variety of ingredients - so I started using their recipes off the website and just buying the ingredients myself. We liked 100% of the meals we made from both programs and I would stick with it if I could justify the price longterm.

 

[aprilgail]

I have used them all- when they offer me like a half priced special to come try again then I try again for that month and cancel- I won't pay full price for it but I will do it when they offer me a special. I use Fresh Direct for groceries at times too and order their meal kits.

It is not a meal service but I have been living on this avocado chicken salad I got the recipe off facebook from. It is so good I can't get enough of it LOL.

 

[belle032]

DH and I are big fans of Home Chef and use it very regularly. We've done about every variety of food-salmon, chicken, steak, shrimp, fish, vegetarian, etc. Honestly never had a bad meal. It's actually taught me to be a better and more creative cook! We like that we can choose meals from a bunch of options and if nothing looks appealing, we just skip that week. I've saved all of our recipe cards and weeks we don't get a delivery, I use them to help meal plan.

Many think it's expensive, and yes, you do pay for convenience, but honestly it's so nice to know what you're going to have for dinner that night and not worry about it. In the beginning if we skipped meals, it ended up costing us more money because we're horrible at the "Oh I'll just pick up something on the way home" deal.

I have gotten better at meal planning, so we do skip weeks at a time, but we really like the service.