My Take on Meal Delivery Services

It is my experience that you come to a point in your life when cooking and all that goes with it (coming up with a recipe, making a list, shopping, measuring, chopping, cooking and then plating your creation) is a burden. A necessary burden none the less. We need to eat. And since I'm all about eating healthy, I eat to live.

Entrepreneur chefs to the rescue. You might see a commercial for Hello Fresh or Blue Apron while watching your favorite tv show. There are lots of services to choose from today in the meal delivery services arena. And they are constantly changing aspects of their business to attract you to their service.

If eating healthy is a priority for you, why not try a Meal Delivery Service?

I was first motivated to try a service early last summer when I noticed a colorful box for Sun Basket on a neighbor's porch. I checked them out online and found they used organic and sustainable produce—a must for me and it should be for you. I decided to give it a try. At the time they only had a vegetarian option in addition to Lean & Clean, Paleo and more. Sun Basket now offers a vegan meal choice and a pescatarian meal choice.

Since I eat organic eggs, the vegetarian option kinda worked until I found I was throwing away too much cheese or yogurt. Not all recipes had dairy, but overall I also found some of the meals not very flavorful.

After reading a comparison of other meal delivery services, I discovered Green Chef. 100% organic with a vegan meal choice. I signed up for Green Chef and so far I like the recipes. The portions are large enough that we always have left-overs and the meals are a bit easier to put together than my experience with Sun Basket.

Sun Basket packages their recipe ingredients in paper bags that make it convenient to stash in the refrigerator, however you can't see the ingredients inside without opening the bags. Whereas Green Chef has color-coded labels on each menu ingredient. I spend a few minutes gathering the three menu ingredients together—separating the refrigerated ingredients from pantry ingredients (e.g., spices, cans, potatoes, etc). I purchased some containers at the Dollar Store and put each menu's ingredients in a container and store it in the refrigerator or pantry.

The menu cards that come with the services are all very pretty with step by step instructions and pictures to make the cooking go smoothly. Sun Basket includes a cook book each week of all their recipes because they offer the flexibility of ordering a meal (out of your 3 meals/week option) from any of their meal choices. For example, you can order two vegan meals and one pescatarian meal for your three meals.

So far I'm happy with Green Chef's vegan meals and their easy to follow menu cards. I've gotten so used to the process that I don't need to read the menu ahead of time. I can cook the meal and have it plated and ready to eat in the time indicated on the menu card.

Oh... the cost for those three delivered vegan meals is $81. It comes out of my grocery budget. I end up shopping less and wasting less. The beauty of the delivered meals is that the ingredients come as pre-measured spices, finished sauces, many cut-up ingredients (like julienned carrots)—only what you'll need to make the dish. No waste. Consider the service a sous chef for your meals.

I would grimace with envy when watching a recipe video. Wouldn't you love to have someone pre-measure and prepare the ingredients for a recipe you were making? Every ingredient in nice little bowls ready to be thrown into the pot. The recipe looks so easy because someone spent all that time ahead chopping and measuring everything.

Yup... Well you can have that too!

So here are my take-away points for subscribing to a Meal Delivery Service:

1. Great way to stick to a healthy diet
2. Reduces grocery shopping
3. Reduces food thrown away due to spoilage
4. No stress cooking
5. What's for dinner is a no-brainer
6. Save on monthly grocery budget
7. More time in your life
8. Flexible delivery and skipping weeks
9. You now have your very own sous chef...

I think there's more that can be added to this list. Are their any you can think of?

If you want to give any of these two services a try, here are links to sign up:

Sun Basket *

Green Chef **

*First-time users get $40 off their first order and I get $40 credit on my meals.

**First-time users get 4 free meals. If you order another week, I get $25 credit on my meals.

If you like any of these services, you can refer your friends for bonus credit too. Think of it as Yelp with a $$ bonus.

I am currently using both Sun Basket and Green Chef services. I skip one service while I get meals from the other. I usually do it for several weeks at a time so I can stay on top of it. I also skip meal delivery all together on some weeks if I'm going away or I just want a break from delivery. You can make it fit your style.

If you have any questions, leave a comment below.