Meal Subscription Services
Reviewed
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| We came out of this experience with a binder full of 30+ super tasty recipes |
The Ranking
The Overall Favorite: My personal choice likes the variety offered by Sunbasket. It reached a good middle ground on price, flavor and variety as well as making it easy to avoid my allergen.
DH's vote was a toss up between Terra's Kitchen (the easiest and most fun) and Saffron Fix (Indian). Ultimately, I felt TK was too high in price, but we ended up doing both on the regular. We do 2 boxes each month, 1 from Sunbasket and 1 from Saffron Fix, with 2 weeks where we don't get a box at all. We have also repurchased a Chef'd box, which i love for breakfast.
DH's vote was a toss up between Terra's Kitchen (the easiest and most fun) and Saffron Fix (Indian). Ultimately, I felt TK was too high in price, but we ended up doing both on the regular. We do 2 boxes each month, 1 from Sunbasket and 1 from Saffron Fix, with 2 weeks where we don't get a box at all. We have also repurchased a Chef'd box, which i love for breakfast.
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| Fish Puttu from Saffron Fix |
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| Panang Curry from Sunbasket |
| Add caption |
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| Terra's Kitchen Recipe cards, came hole-punched with drink pairings and conversation starters, and pre-prepped ingredients |
The Tastiest: Blue Apron and Marley Spoon topped the flavor charts. If I'm recommending one box on cost, portion, ease, and flavor, I'd say Blue Apron is probably the way to go if you just want to stick with one. If you don't mind a more challenging route, Marley Spoon was also low in price and super high in flavor- it was just more work and more difficult to follow recipes.
The Most Affordable: Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, Home Chef, and Marley Spoon are on par for pricing. Marley Spoon has an edge on flavor, but the work sucked a lot of the fun out of the experience. If you're really comfortable in a kitchen and just want the convenience, I recommend Marley Spoon. If you're more of a novice in the kitchen enjoying a flavor adventure, Blue Apron is not going to disappoint.
No Subscription Needed: Chef'd and Saffron Fix both have subscription-free options. Chef'd offered a fabulous breakfast and delicious 10-minute meals. Saffron Fix is a beautiful adventure in Indian Cooking and we loved both.
No Subscription Needed: Chef'd and Saffron Fix both have subscription-free options. Chef'd offered a fabulous breakfast and delicious 10-minute meals. Saffron Fix is a beautiful adventure in Indian Cooking and we loved both.
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| Amaretto French Toast with fresh berries, candied bacon, and cheddar egg scramble |
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| With Saffron Fix, we learned to cook dishes like Fish Puttu, Kofta Curry, Kati Rolls, and Lemon Vermicelli |
Honorable Mention-Snack Box: We've been subscribed to NatureBox since 2014, when they were still pretty new. They use no artificial flavors, colors, sweeteners, or hydrogenated oils, and send substantial portions (5 servings of 5 snacks) for $20/month in their deluxe box. A lot of their snacks are allergen-free (w/ facility warning) and they have a filter for allergies which is great for me (soy-free snacks! yay!). For people who subscribe (like me) we also get a hefty discount on their retail products. My husband looks forward to the naturebox each month, and some of the snacks are individually portioned for lunch boxes. From oatmeal and granola, to snack bars and fruit snacks, and all manner of spiced and candied fruits and nuts, it is great to have snacks in the house we can feel good about reaching for.
*****
Our Adventure:
We decided to work our way through the meal subscription services, mostly for fun. In general, they're a little pricey for "groceries", but every service offers a discounted trial and we thought, for an average of $30/week, why not give it a shot? We frequently work opposite shifts, and no one has the time or desire to meal plan or shop appropriately. We also throw away a lot of produce in our house, because produce comes in bulk quantities and buying for one recipe leaves extras. We participate in a crop share every year, but it doesn't begin until late spring, so choosing to do this adventure in the winter time was also strategic. Ultimately, we cooked more in general, ate more dinners as a family, AND learned to cook some cool ethnic dishes we weren't super familiar with. Everything was yummy, and we really enjoyed the adventure!
Who we tried:
Below I've linked the individual reviews for each service that we tried, from price to flavor to convenience.
Below I've linked the individual reviews for each service that we tried, from price to flavor to convenience.
- Week 1: Terra's Kitchen
- Week 2: Blue Apron
- Week 3: Hello Fresh
- Week 4: Green Chef
- Week 5: Sun Basket
- Week 6: Marley Spoon
- Week 7: Plated
- Week 8: Home Chef
- Week 9: Chef'd
- Week 10: Peach Dish
- Week 11: Saffron Fix
- Week 12: Gobble
- Week 13: Dinnerly
- Week 14: Daily Harvest
- Easy Meal Planning and Motivation for Family Dinners in an era of workaholics
- Not only do you pick from pre-curated menus with the click of a button, but having these in your fridge and knowing the prep-time made us more likely to cook dinner. We also always ate at the dinner table.
- Less food waste
- Americans throw away so much food. These services plan out portions and send only what you're going to use, eliminating food waste.
- Fresher Ingredients
- Usually produce goes from the farm to a wholesaler to a regional warehouse to a grocery store to your table. Most of these services partner directly with the farms.
- Support for Local Farms & Sustainable practices
- Most of these services source locally and sustainably when they can. Almost all were geared toward non-gmo, hormone-free, antibiotic free, sustainable proteins and conscientious farming practices. It's nice to have that research done for you and access to the kind of ingredients you want to be buying.
- Recipe Books
- All of these services send you quality recipe cards to keep and many keep them available online for free.
Downsides to Meal Subscription Services:
- Cost
- Having someone do your shopping for you, with quality ingredients to boot, and ship it to your door, is going to cost you. Plans range from $60-$100+/week (or $10-$20/plate). Not everyone has it in their budget to do this.
- The counter to The Con is that pretty much all of these offer flexibility. You can skip as many weeks as you like, so if you just want to use it once a month, you can set your account to do that.
- Packaging
- Most of these companies make an effort at recycled or recyclable packaging, some don't. They all come in a cardboard box and individual goods are usually packaged in paper or plastic, so you're often offsetting your farm sustainability with some extra trash. There are varying levels of wasteful packaging, and there are definitely practices you can be comfortable with, but not for every company.
Standards for All the Boxes:
- Lacking simple basics- salt, pepper, olive oil, butter (i had 1-2 send butter, milk, and eggs, but most don't)
- They arrive in a cardboard box, with ice packs, and usually some kind of eco-friendly insulation. The boxes vary in size and style, but at the end of the day, it's a cardboard box.
- You receive recipes printed on cardstock, so you can always make it again. Most of these companies actually give you access to their recipe cards online, whether you're a subscriber or not.
- Websites allow you to skip, cancel, or tailor your subscription easily.
- Trials- pretty much every service has an intro rate or coupon of some kind, all of the ones included here do.
- Most of these are offering some kind of sustainable conscientious ingredients sourcing
- Yes, it's going to come out just like the picture, which is nice
- Overall, we ended up with a lot of ethnic dishes-which is something we enjoy, but- if that's not your thing, these boxes might not be for you.
*****
Who we didn't try:
There were some services we just weren't interested in, like pre-made meals, and soup and smoothie subscriptions. Others just weren't available in central Pennsylvania right now. A big part of the appeal in trying all of these was that the trial price point is low. There are so many of these services, so if you didn't really offer a promotion, you weren't really worth my dollar. Just because they didn't tickle our fancy doesn't mean we can't share the info!
Not in our area or overpriced:
Not in our area or overpriced:
- Handpick was a standout from the others in my research in that they don't re-package smaller portions. They build 3 meals around shared ingredients with separate proteins. They only deliver in California, so we couldn't order the box, but because their meal plans are designed around purchasing standard produce and using it in all 3 meals, i thought their app was worth mentioning. It's a recommendation for their meal-planning app, rather than their subscription box.
- Meal Time Box- MTB15 - Honestly, this one just looked a little boring. It's things like meatloaf, baked penne, and jambalaya. Each meal is $19.99
- Burga Box- HelloBurgaBox - I just felt like this was overpriced for a single meal. Their "feast kits" are a full dinner for 2 with gourmet burgers, gourmet mac and cheese, specialty fries, and side for $65.
- Purple Carrot "Purple20" gets $20 off. This is a vegan/vegetarian box and even the trial ran $48/box. DH really wasn't interested in a vegetarian box and the price point made it a no-go. From what i could tell, the menu is set every week with no substitutions, so all you can tailor is regular or high protein.
- Fresh Realm-" EMAILPW35" gets $35 off a box. Super similar to Terra's Kitchen, their trial price is on the higher end and we just didn't feel like paying more to try something similar. They charge $10 shipping if you fill your box (and i think $20 shipping if you don't fill your box).
- Raddish- This is a kid's club. It comes with a grocery list, cooking tools, and recipes. It looks fun, but since it doesn't come with ingredients, and our toddler is still a bit small for such a thing, we didn't try it. "FACE15"
- HungryRoot- vegan. currently on hiatus as they move to a larger location.
- Takeout Kit- "WELCOME" or "ADDICTION" These ingredients aren't fresh, which was a turnoff, but it's a way to try dishes from around the world.
- Just Add Cooking (Boston), Madison and Rayne (Chicago), Miss Fresh and Buddha Station(Canada), Gousto (UK).
- Freshly--Also doesn't ship to PA, but "RADSPRING30" for 30% off
- Munchery
- Lean Meals
- Nurture Life- This one is for babies and toddlers!
- Veestro- for vegans and vegetarians (20% off with "20PLEASE")
- Sakara- At $69/day, who would try this?!?!?
- What A Crock- Crockpot meals. They're partially cooked and designed to be finished all day in your crockpot
We also didn't try the mini services for fresh soups and smoothies, but being able to send soup to a sick college kid or friend is kind of awesome:
- Green Blender- smoothies
- Frozen Garden-smoothies
- Grandma's Chicken Soup -soups and comfort foods (like mac n cheese) for sending out
- The Soup Shop-soups
- Spoonful of Comfort- soups for sending
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