Are you tired of meal planning? Are you spending all day Saturday or Sunday meal prepping for the week ahead? Let me introduce you to some amazing meal delivery services that can give back your evenings to spend with your family and friends!
As I said in my Easy Meal Solutions post, getting dinner on the table during the week before 7pm is a challenge! Of all of the easy meal solutions I wrote about, the meal delivery services are my favorite. They really take the guess work out of what we are going to eat each week! I love picking out the menus and trying meals that our family has never tried before. I have seen my children try ingredients I never would have eaten as a six and ten year old!
Meal delivery services save me time at the grocery store! It literally eliminates 30 minutes or more of my time in the store! I zip through and get breakfast, lunch and snack food knowing that our dinners are already prepped. These services also save me so much time in the kitchen too. I still get to do what I love…cook! It saves so much time with already having everything pre-measured, sometimes pre-cooked, and chopped depending on the service we are using.
I must note that none of these services are perfect. The deliveries sometimes arrive damaged, ingredients are missing and sometimes you might not even get everything you ordered. If this happens to you (I hope it never does) reach out immediately to the company! They are very accommodating and will refund you whatever damages you incurred or products you did not receive. I always take pictures too incase they wish to see what I received.
I have compiled a list of meal delivery services we are currently using, have tried, and ones I plan to try in the months ahead. I hope that you will give one or more of these services a try and that they give you back the time to do whatever it is you want to do with your evenings (or have to do…like folding all of those clothes in the laundry baskets that are spilling over)!
Meal Delivery Services we are currently using:
Freshly – This is the latest box we are giving a try! I will be back with our review of how we like the meals. This is the first service we try where the meals are completely cooked! We literally just have to heat them up in the microwave for THREE minutes and set for TWO minutes. That’s right! Dinner in five minutes. The most exciting part of this…the ingredients are REAL! There are tons of options if you are gluten free, dairy free, vegetarian, etc. We are so excited. In case you want to try before our taste testing…use this link for $40 off your first order of Freshly!
Martha & Marley Spoon – I recently saw an add for Martha & Marley Spoon and decided I wanted to give it a try. I ordered three different meals that I thought our family would enjoy. It is one of FAVORITES! Why we LOVE it: The quality of the ingredients are OUTSTANDING! I feel good about serving these meals to my family. Everything is labeled. This is so important to me as some of the other meal companies do not always label their food. The recipes are super simple and tastes amazing. The kids are inhaling their meals…healthy meals! I cannot ask for more than that! The dinners take 30-40 minutes which is longer than I like on a week night but I have started to make a couple ahead of time and we are reheating which works for us! It’s actually quicker this way on our busiest nights and the only clean-up is loading the dishwasher! AWESOME! If you click on the banner above you will receive a coupon for a discount on your first three orders. The banner is a commissioned link.
Gobble – You guys this is currently one my FAVORITE food service on the PLANET! You can try a FREE dinner kit for two here! Why we LOVE it: It has saved us So. Much. Time. It’s what I have been wanting for so long! We found it! Clean Eating – YES! Dinners in 15 minutes – YES! (I was so skeptical but it’s TRUE!!!) Yummy Meals – YES! Kid Friendly – YES! You guys it hits all of the marks for our family. Not only do the meals take 15 minutes or so to whip up I typically only use one pan and one microwave safe bowl! I am done with dishes and cleanup in less than 15 minutes! Lunch bags take me longer than cleaning up after dinner these days.
You can choose which meals you want each week. There are plenty of choices. Our family has been trying lots of new dishes and we are loving them. My husband has said more than once it is like we our having restaurant dinners at home each night now! We are no longer wasting food because it makes the perfect portion sizes (sometimes we even have leftovers for lunches!). I buy them now too for when we are going out of town! My Dad does not have to spend time in the kitchen other than just throwing the meal together and has more time with his grandchildren.
The kids see the Gobble box on the front stoop and cheer! My son will ask what did I order for the week. I am still shocked by this. The sides you can add are so good. Both kids will ask when are we getting the macaroni cheese again. They offer drink mixes too which would be so refreshing for summer nights out on the patio!
I hope you give Gobble a try and you love it as much as our family is loving it! You can try a FREE dinner kit for two here!
Meal Delivery Services that are Local (VA/DC/MD):
Washington Green Grocer – This is a local grocery delivery service that we LOVE. They offer boxes of all organic fruits & veggies. They also offer meal kits! Why we LOVE it: The produce is SO fresh! The customer service is so great too!
Dinner Done! – Dinner Done! reminded me of Let’s Dish! but we liked the menus a lot better! The kitchen was a bit further from home so we had the meals delivered. Why we LOVED it: This is a great service and has the best customer service! They are in the VA/MD/DC area as well as Tampa, FL. Check them out! Why we stopped: We began eating clean (primarily organics, GMO Free, etc.) and this service did not offer these type of meals.
Meal Delivery Services we have tried:
Let’s Dish! – This was the first service I used making freezer meals! While we can no longer prep meals in their kitchen they do still offer meal delivery! This was a great service. Why we stopped: We simply became tired of the menus so we eventually stopped going.
Plated – We tried Plated for one month. It was just ok. Why we stopped: I felt like the meals were ‘too fancy’ and not enough per portion and it was not inexpensive. It was our first meal delivery service so I was glad we gave it a try. The kids were not crazy for the meals and I was not about to cook two different dinners every night!
Blue Apron – Everyone we knew loved Blue Apron. We gave it the old college try! Why we stopped: It took SO long to finish prepping/cooking the meal. I have heard that the prep time has improved. Once we finally sat down to eat the meals they were nothing memorable. I also did not like that we could not pick what we wanted! We had so many issues with the deliveries. It was not uncommon that our package would be delivered at 1am. While we never had trouble receiving a refund it was a hassle because we wanted the food not a refund! I was no further ahead.
Sun Basket – We recently tried Sun Basket and I really liked it! Of course my number one reason for loving it is that all ingredients are organic or GMO free. Everything was clearly labeled so I knew where my shrimp, beef, chicken etc. came from. The recipes were easy to follow and our family loved all of the meals. I selected the Mediterranean menu to try. My only gripe was the meals I selected were not ready in 15 minutes. One took almost 45 minutes. I still had to scrub the potato, peel it, chop it, etc. These meals would suit our family better on the weekends when I have more time to prep and cook. They offer a really good special to try their meal delivery service. We have since stopped our subscription with Sun Basket. The meals became a little too ‘different’. The kids did not like them as much or at all and even my husband and I had trouble finishing dinner. Ugh! I still love them though for their quality of ingredients.
I want to hear from YOU!
Please let me know if you do try one of these meal delivery services and how you liked it! Do you know and love another service I have not mentioned? Please tell me about it and why you love the one you do!
**This post is not sponsored, all meal services were purchased with my own money and not given to me.**
