Feelings on meal-prep boxes? Personally, I've never understood the appeal...

[Anonymous]

Those prep boxes are so wasteful in terms of transport and packaging pollution. And they don’t test great.

[Anonymous]

Taste

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I meal plan weekly. When we do a CSA, I do it right after getting the box. When I buy a new cookbook (I usually borrow from the library first and even try a couple recipes before shelling out) DH and I like to go through and make a list of what might be tasty. Then each week, I look at what’s in the chest freezer, what produce we have, and what our schedule looks like (are we eating early, are we in a fast) and flip through whichever book I feel like until I fill up my week with meals that use up whatever I have on hand.

Your kids are all grown up right?

[Anonymous]

We do them. I like that it takes some of the mental load out of weekly meal planning. It covers a couple meals and then there's leftovers. I actually like a lot of the food so that's a plus.

We also grocery shop and cook other meals, also do various frozen meals type things. It's a good part of the mix for our household (2 adults + 2 young kids). Agree the prep still takes a bit of time and it's more expensive than just buying all the individual components yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I meal plan weekly. When we do a CSA, I do it right after getting the box. When I buy a new cookbook (I usually borrow from the library first and even try a couple recipes before shelling out) DH and I like to go through and make a list of what might be tasty. Then each week, I look at what’s in the chest freezer, what produce we have, and what our schedule looks like (are we eating early, are we in a fast) and flip through whichever book I feel like until I fill up my week with meals that use up whatever I have on hand.

Your kids are all grown up right?

They’re little. But I’m a SAHM.

[Anonymous]

I’ve tried them, but it’s just easier to get partially-prepped items from Trader Joe’s and cook them however I want to cook them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I meal plan weekly. When we do a CSA, I do it right after getting the box. When I buy a new cookbook (I usually borrow from the library first and even try a couple recipes before shelling out) DH and I like to go through and make a list of what might be tasty. Then each week, I look at what’s in the chest freezer, what produce we have, and what our schedule looks like (are we eating early, are we in a fast) and flip through whichever book I feel like until I fill up my week with meals that use up whatever I have on hand.

This is what I did when our lives were less hectic. I now rotate through a list of about 20 meals based (loosely) on what’s in season and the amount of time we have for prep.

[Anonymous]

I've been tempted to try a few times but I'm a picky eater and only one person so between those two factors and that the meals seems super complicated with a TON of steps, it's not for me.

[Anonymous]

I find them to be a lifesaver. We use HelloFresh inflation has really hit the boxes and it’s mostly vegetarian meals that are included in the basic now. However, they take the work out meal planning so I have no intention of giving them up.

Preparing dinner is the worst part of my day. I really really really hate it. Anything to make that a little bit easier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I meal plan weekly. When we do a CSA, I do it right after getting the box. When I buy a new cookbook (I usually borrow from the library first and even try a couple recipes before shelling out) DH and I like to go through and make a list of what might be tasty. Then each week, I look at what’s in the chest freezer, what produce we have, and what our schedule looks like (are we eating early, are we in a fast) and flip through whichever book I feel like until I fill up my week with meals that use up whatever I have on hand.

This is what I did when our lives were less hectic. I now rotate through a list of about 20 meals based (loosely) on what’s in season and the amount of time we have for prep.

pp. I actually aspire to just riffing based on the ingredients rather than planning ahead, but I can summon 30ish minutes of executive function once a week and then follow a recipe, I can’t reliably think that hard about the food while I’m cooking it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I find them to be a lifesaver. We use HelloFresh inflation has really hit the boxes and it’s mostly vegetarian meals that are included in the basic now. However, they take the work out meal planning so I have no intention of giving them up.

Preparing dinner is the worst part of my day. I really really really hate it. Anything to make that a little bit easier.

Amen. We just had my mother's funeral and we all laughed about her reputation as a great mom to us five kids. In our 1960s/70s home, my mom made every meal we had for 20 years. And then, the youngest left for college and the kitchen CLOSED. In all her life, my mom never complained about cooking but we all knew she hated cooking.

My mom might have sold one of us so she could have a hello fresh box show up every day.

[Anonymous]

I started using them during the pandemic because of ingredient shortages and just dealing with the grocery store during the early days. Plus, since I was home working, I had more time to actually prepare these meals, which is a previous poster said generally take more time than the recipe states.

Since then, I generally order maybe a box a month, just to give me a break from figuring out what to cook. A few of these recipes I make on my own, which is much cheaper.

[Anonymous]

I've never wanted to try them. They seem expensive and when I see ads the meals are so basic, stuff I can throw together easily anyway in the same time I make meals. The grocery shopping for me is the hardest, I really have to plan all my ingredients for the week as I don't have a lot of time to go to the store.

[Anonymous]

I used Blue Apron for awhile and loved it. I liked that it sometimes took me out of my comfort zone, the food was good and I didn't have to think. But now I have gotten even lazier/busier and just get a meal delivery service. And the waste? We have waste everywhere. What's one more thing?

[Anonymous]

Someone around the block from me gets Hello Fresh and a couple of times her package got misdelivered to my house--the address on the box actually does not exist. The third time I managed to catch the delivery (Amazon? I don't remember) and tell him where to take it, the first time it was a very hot day so I brought it in to keep it from defrosting and was able to locate her via Facebook (turned out we'd crossed paths at the dog park before). First two times she said go ahead and use as she'd already gotten them to ship replacement.

They use certain techniques for several things. Ex: Potatoes get a half inch dice whether they are roasted or boiled for mashed. The meals were substantial (3 dinners, 2 for each meal in each of the boxes). Recipes were not terribly complicated and easy to simply make later with my own ingredients. Meals were pretty good.

I don't cook in a hurry (favor one pot meals usually made ahead, sometimes prepping parts of the meal at different times). So following the timetable was like racing to beat the buzzer.