Have You Tried Meal Delivery Services

[+ Lucky]

I don't mean Meals on Wheels or fast food delivered I am speaking of sites Like HomeChef or Blue Apron. What was your experience with them?

I was signing up for Blue Apron. They gave me a list of things to select whether I ate them or no. So I unselected fish and seafood. Then they presented their choice of meals for me. It was all fish and seafood! So I went back, starting over, and unselected fish and seafood. My meals then popped up and were the same ones- fish and seafood. I canceled.

These sites often give big discounts to new clients. I am looking for a good one that does not require me to prepare the meal. I want heat and serve! HomeChef I had to prepare. Blue Apron was going to be heat and serve.

Edited April 9, 2022 by Lucky

[+ FrankR]

42 minutes ago, Lucky said:

I don't mean Meals on Wheels or fast food delivered I am speaking of sites Like HomeChef or Blue Apron. What was your experience with them?

I was signing up for Blue Apron. They gave me a list of things to select whether I ate them or no. So I unselected fish and seafood. Then they presented their choice of meals for me. It was all fish and seafood! So I went back, starting over, and unselected fish and seafood. My meals then popped up and were the same ones- fish and seafood. I canceled.

These sites often give big discounts to new clients. I am looking for a good one that does not require me to prepare the meal. I want heat and serve! HomeChef I had to prepare. Blue Apron was going to be heat and serve.

https://www.companyofmen.org/topic/117999-prepared-meals-cottage-industry/

Previous thread.

[+ Lucky]

@FrankR Thanks for the info in that thread. The thread is, however, closed to new posts, so I am trying again here.

[jeezifonly]

A friend had great success with a service called Model Meals. https://modelmeals.com/

A working mom who is also a marathon runner. She used them to get through weeks of working off-hours and weekends. 

[+ MysticMenace]

ive tried freshly, cook unity, and on factor75 now...so far the meals ive been getting on factor75 have been pretty tasty.

[+ Pensant]

We have a local Paleo delivery company, which I’ve been using for 5 years. She’s a great chef, and you can even go full Keto if you choose.

[Rudynate]

We have been using them for years.  I would rather cook the food - the heat-and-serve option isn't very satisfying. We have been happiest with Hellofresh.

[EZEtoGRU]

We tried Freshly several years ago and thought the food quality was quite good.  However, after about 4 weeks, we cancelled primarily due to the wasteful amount of packaging involved.  It seemed very environmentally unfriendly.  

[Guest]

8 hours ago, Pensant said:

...you can even go full Keto if you choose.

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

Keto on Factor75. 

Have used them for years, occasionally with Freshly to mix things up a little.

[jjkrkwood]

6 minutes ago, Benjamin_Nicholas said:

Keto on Factor75. 

Have used them for years, occasionally with Freshly to mix things up a little.

I am currently applying for a job with them, so look for me soon to be delivering "MEALS" to YOUR house !   😍

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

Just now, jjkrkwood said:

I am currently applying for a job with them, so look for me soon to be delivering "MEALS" to YOUR house !   😍

You are welcome to put packages in my slot anytime you'd like.

[jjkrkwood]

3 minutes ago, Benjamin_Nicholas said:

You are welcome to put packages in my slot anytime you'd like.

How did you know that your "slot" was exactly what my tongue was aiming for ?  😮

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

6 minutes ago, jjkrkwood said:

How did you know that your "slot" was exactly what my tongue was aiming for ?  😮

[EZEtoGRU]

32 minutes ago, Benjamin_Nicholas said:

Keto on Factor75. 

Have used them for years, occasionally with Freshly to mix things up a little.

Is the Freshly shipment packaging still pretty much like it was 2-3 years ago when I used it?  How much of it are you able to practically re-cycle nowadays?  Particularly the cooling packets?

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

1 minute ago, EZEtoGRU said:

Is the Freshly shipment packaging still pretty much like it was 2-3 years ago when I used it?  How much of it are you able to practically re-cycle nowadays?  Particularly the cooling packets?

I live in Texas.  The state isn't all that big on recycling.

But that said, now that Nestle owns Freshly, they made it a little easier, but there's still those gel packs to deal with.  You still have to dump the gel and then recycle the plastic around it.

Factor75 uses frozen water packs versus non-toxic gel, so you can just throw the whole damned thing into the blue bin.

[marylander1940]

I'm sure it's a useful idea to most but considering I'm retired I always walk to the store and buy there what I want and cook it myself. I do order plenty of other things from Ebay but when it comes to food I'd rather walk to the supermarket. 

 

1 hour ago, EZEtoGRU said:

Is the Freshly shipment packaging still pretty much like it was 2-3 years ago when I used it?  How much of it are you able to practically re-cycle nowadays?  Particularly the cooling packets?

If it's ordered only is never as fresh as advertised. 

Edited April 10, 2022 by marylander1940

[EZEtoGRU]

58 minutes ago, Benjamin_Nicholas said:

I live in Texas.  The state isn't all that big on recycling.

But that said, now that Nestle owns Freshly, they made it a little easier, but there's still those gel packs to deal with.  You still have to dump the gel and then recycle the plastic around it.

Factor75 uses frozen water packs versus non-toxic gel, so you can just throw the whole damned thing into the blue bin.

Thanks for that.  Those gel-packs were my main concern regarding the packaging.  I think Freshly at one time claimed the gel inside the pack could even be recycled.  I never understood how that would be accomplished.  Maybe I'm remembering incorrectly.

Anyway, it's hard for me to reconcile the convenience benefit of delivered prepared meals versus the incremental environmental impact compared to normal shopping at the grocery store.  If they could get to a point where plastic use is eliminated and a more environmentally friendly shipping/cooling process is used, I would try again.  Like I said above, we generally enjoyed Freshly when we tried it.

[Gadfly22]

There's one in NJ called Eat Clean Bro https://eatcleanbro.com/

Never tried them but I thought the name was funny. 😊

[Rockey]

HomeChef and Blue Apron for years. 6 meals a week. They provide good portion control, so no weight gain. The only negative is that I dread having to grocery shop for ingredients when there’s no meal kit available. 

[Epigonos]

My major problem with these food delivery services is that I find the food bland.  I realize that when they are preparing meals for a wide selection of people they must be careful with spicing.  I have over thirty different spices and herbs in my kitchen which I use to prepare interesting well spiced meals.  I have no problem with the specific items they prepare as I enjoy eating just about everything; the one exception being that I loathe, hate, and detest okra - I absolutely refuse to eat it.  I have, in the end, come to the conclusion that I enjoy preparing my own food so much that these services won't work for me. 

[MikeBiDude]

3 minutes ago, Epigonos said:

I have, in the end, come to the conclusion that I enjoy preparing my own food so much that these services won't work for me. 

Plus one…I just enjoy the process of cooking too much. But i’m following the thread as my siblings and I are looking for options like these for our 90+ year old parents.

[+ Charlie]

One of my hesitations about any of these services is that they don't have much of the ethnic foods that I enjoy, specifically Indian and Japanese.

[Rudynate]

20 minutes ago, Charlie said:

One of my hesitations about any of these services is that they don't have much of the ethnic foods that I enjoy, specifically Indian and Japanese.

Hellofresh is heavy on Thai and Southwest.

[mike carey]

On 4/16/2022 at 2:49 AM, MikeBiDude said:

Plus one…I just enjoy the process of cooking too much. But i’m following the thread as my siblings and I are looking for options like these for our 90+ year old parents.

Me too. A propos of possible suitability for your parents, these services may only offer a short term solution between being able to manage the ingredients they have in the pantry and fridge (with grocery delivery possibly being an earlier step) to being better served b packaged prepared meals. My mother went from cooking for herself to only being able to prepare sandwiches (prepacked ingredients would not have helped). What she was capable of in her last year or so was heating single serve meals. To @Charlie's point, one of those was a line of fresh curry and rice meals (i.e. not frozen) at the local supermarket that were quite good and just needed a few minutes in the microwave. (I used to take her there to shop.)