Meal kits

[Anonymous]

I’m over it for the moment. I started a new job, we have an extra family member living with us, and I can’t deal with dinner every night of the week. DH does a lot in the house but food isn’t his thing and the kids only moderately helpful.

I need a meal kit delivery service for the next couple of months. Two adults and three teens boys. I’m thinking three times a week and we can take turns the other nights.

Suggestions on service provider? There are a lot of options.

[Anonymous]

Why not just meal prep. Make large batches and have leftovers the next day or two.
Not that difficult.

[Anonymous]

Vegetable and butcher delivers pretty interesting and tasty prepared meals although tbh the meal portions might leave teen boys hungry (I think it's really designed more for 1-2 adults than families).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why not just meal prep. Make large batches and have leftovers the next day or two.
Not that difficult.

Because I am so over. An extra teen boy in the house, a new demanding job, and I am completely done for now.

[Anonymous]

The problem with a lot of meal prep companies is that you will need so many portions to feed a couple and 3 teenage boys that not only is it not economical, but the meals won’t be convenient to prepare either. You might need to have 4 skillets on the stove or 3 baking sheets in the oven at a time.

[Anonymous]

Two different people at my law firm use Factor and seem to like it.

[Anonymous]

Have your local grocery store cater platters or put together meals. Whole Foods has an entire catering section so does Safeway at reasonable prices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not just meal prep. Make large batches and have leftovers the next day or two.
Not that difficult.

Because I am so over. An extra teen boy in the house, a new demanding job, and I am completely done for now.

Which is an excellent reason to want the meal kits. Ignore that PP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Two different people at my law firm use Factor and seem to like it.

Not a meal kit. Factor is prepared meals.

But I'll add my voice to chorus of liking Factor (and I'm a lawyer as well, lol). Their meals are excellent for what they are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two different people at my law firm use Factor and seem to like it.

Not a meal kit. Factor is prepared meals.

But I'll add my voice to chorus of liking Factor (and I'm a lawyer as well, lol). Their meals are excellent for what they are.

Meh, I'm in the minority here but I found their portion sizes to be small and the meals themselves were boring. Are they healthy? Sure, maybe, but not worth the cost to me and the container waste was also bothersome. I can see why people like them from a healthy-ish, convenience standpoint but they weren't for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two different people at my law firm use Factor and seem to like it.

Not a meal kit. Factor is prepared meals.

But I'll add my voice to chorus of liking Factor (and I'm a lawyer as well, lol). Their meals are excellent for what they are.

Meh, I'm in the minority here but I found their portion sizes to be small and the meals themselves were boring. Are they healthy? Sure, maybe, but not worth the cost to me and the container waste was also bothersome. I can see why people like them from a healthy-ish, convenience standpoint but they weren't for me.

I mean ... they are what they are. They are basically fresh tv dinners. But as far as things go in that category, I haven't found anything better.

[Anonymous]

I agree with the pp that in your situation I actually think catering trays would be cheaper for this. With the teenagers and adults you can get a catering tray and have it last a few days for everybody and/or freeze some for another week to have some variety. A meal service where you make the meals would be too time consuming/expensive for your particular mix of eaters. Speaking from experience. Grocery store catering trays will be the least expensive.
-Mom of 3 boys who has done this before with great results.

[Anonymous]

We do Blue Apron some weeks; their portions are pretty large (we can typically feed 3 adults from the 2-person kits, though 2 of us are not big eaters). You have to be thoughtful about which meals you pick, though, because some of them can have a lot of prep, hands-on time, and-or dishes. But they do have things like sheet pan meals, one-pan meals, or quicker prep ones, which you can figure out if you look through the options. And they have a whole line of ready-made stuff too, but I haven't tried those.

I do think you could do some sort of a hybrid meal planning/meal prep exercise using AI to streamline ingredients and prep (this is on my to-do list but I haven't done it myself) - but I totally hear you on being over it and just wanting things on your doorstep in a box.

[Anonymous]

I also have 3 teenage boys. so that’s 2-3 serving for each. That’s like feeding 9 people. And then 1 serving for each adult. So for you that’s 3 more servings. Planning meals for 12 servings is not for the weak. It’s hard and I have to triple most recipes. regular meal kits just don’t work for this kind of quantity.

Do the catering. rotisserie chickens, giant servings of pasta based meals. Making a bunch of meat.

[Anonymous]

Cook Unity has good prepared meals, but agree with the above posters that it would be insanely expensive for teens in the house. I would do a combo of Wegmans prepared stuff and delivery.