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We all know the feeling of coming home exhausted and hungry after a long day. You hurry over to the fridge in search of some food, open the door, and … nothing. The fridge is empty, at least of anything appetizing, and you don’t have the time or energy required to grab your shopping list, hit the grocery store, prepare a meal and do the dishes. At this point the standard playbook calls for ordering takeout, grabbing snacks from the pantry, or eating nothing at all (not an option if you have a family to feed). None of these are great options, especially if you have specific health goals such as weight loss. So, I encourage you to try something new and consider utilizing a meal planning service.
A meal planning service can come in a variety of different forms including ready-to-cook meal kits with pre-portioned ingredients to fully prepared pre-packaged meals. It’s incredibly convenient knowing you can come home, quickly pop a container in the oven or microwave and minutes later have a healthy and delicious meal for you and your family. The great thing about these services is that they are built to fit your needs. You select the number of meals that works for you. These services can be used for breakfast, lunch and dinner to completely overhaul your routine or as a way to keep some ready meals on-hand in the fridge or freezer to supplement your diet on the days when you really need them.
To help with your selection, we analyzed nine different meal planning services to see how they compare on quality, affordability and customer reviews. While they all will have their pros and cons, there will definitely be a prepared meal delivery service that aligns with your dietary needs. These are our top-picks for the best meal planning services to fuel your busy life.
This content is meant to be informative, but should not be taken as medical advice. It is not intended for use as diagnosis, prevention or treatment of health problems. Always speak with your doctor before starting any new supplement or exercise regimen.
If you’re looking for help tracking your dietary needs, we suggest using Noom. Noom helps users understand the psychology behind their eating habits. Noom can help you reach your fitness and nutrition goals to build a healthier life.
Freshly
Freshly is a meal delivery service that offers customers ready-to-eat pre-made meals delivered fresh to their door. The rotating menu has over 35 different options to choose from, and all food is cooked in house using all-natural fresh ingredients. Each meal is around 400-600 calories and is portioned appropriately to provide customers a well-balanced nutritious diet.
Purple Carrot
If you’re looking for a vegetarian meal delivery service, then Purple Carrot is for you. Purple Carrot is a 100 percent plant-based meal delivery service focused on whole-foods. Customers can choose from a variety of meals, snacks and desserts that are vegan, non-GMO and free of refined sugars. Each delivery consists of a variety of ingredients including fruits, vegetables and plant-based sources of proteins
Mosaic Foods
Mosaic Foods is a plant-based company that produces a variety of vegan meals and health-conscious snacks. Its products are designed to provide plant-based, nutrient-rich alternatives to traditional processed foods. Its product range includes veggie bowls, soups, oat bowls, smoothies, pizzas and more. It even offers large family meal options ready to feed the entire family.
Factor 75
Factor 75 is a meal delivery service that provides fresh, nutritious, farm-to-table meals cooked by professional chefs and delivered directly to your door. Its meals are designed to provide you with the balanced nutrition you need to fuel a healthy lifestyle. It offers a wide range of meal options, including low-calorie, vegan, vegetarian, keto, high-protein and gluten-free meals. All meals are ready-to-eat, made with organic and non-GMO ingredients, and are free of added sugars and preservatives.
Blue Apron
While Blue Apron is known for its meal kits, its new “Heat and Eat” options are perfect if you’re looking to save time in the kitchen. Blue Apron promises these low maintenance meals deliver the same quality and flavor as their traditional meal kits, serving up dishes like Calabrian Chile Meatballs, Cheesy Guajillo Chicken and Rice, and Soy-Miso Chicken and Udon Noodles. The “Heat and Eat” meals come in a single serving making it the perfect option if you’re cooking for one. Blue Apron says each meal is ready to eat in five minutes or less. You’ll be able to choose your meals from a rotating list. Blue Apron offers a variety of meal plan options including vegetarian, diabetes-friendly and wellness options allowing you to have healthy meals in minutes.
Home Chef
Popular meal-kit delivery service Home Chef now offers two pre-made meal delivery services to make dinnertime quick and easy. The “Oven Ready” meals serve up fresh pre-portioned ingredients, ready to go inside an oven-safe tray. Home Chef says “Oven Ready” meals require little to no preparation, perfect for a busy night or when you just don’t want to cook. Looking to save even more time? Then Home Chef’s “Fast and Fresh” option might be for you. This service provides easy meals that go right into your microwave, and are ready to eat in under five minutes. Both the “Oven Ready” and “Fast and Fresh” offer family-friendly sized meals and smaller serving options. Meals can be tailored to suit dietary preferences, including vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and offer calorie-conscious and low-carb options.
Sunbasket
Sunbasket is an all-in-one meal kit delivery service that provides high-quality ingredients and easy-to-follow recipes to make delicious meals at home. Sunbasket offers a variety of organic, sustainable, and seasonal ingredients, as well as meal plans tailored to specific diets, like paleo, gluten-free, keto, Mediterranean, pescatarian, and more. With Sunbasket, customers can easily create delicious meals in as little as 5 minutes.
Related Post: Best Healthy Meal Delivery Services
Territory
Territory is a meal delivery service that focuses on delivering fresh, locally sourced meals to customers throughout the United States. The company offers a variety of different meal plans and allows customers to customize their orders to fit their dietary needs. All meals are prepared with fresh ingredients and cooked to order and delivered straight to customers’ homes or offices.
Sakara
Sakara is a plant-based meal delivery service that provides health-promoting, organic meals to its customers. The company offers a variety of meal plans and snacks, which are designed to provide maximum nutrition and convenience. The meals are prepared using fresh, organic ingredients and are free of gluten, dairy, soy and refined sugars. Sakara also provides tips and recipes to help customers create a healthier lifestyle.
In order to figure out which meal planning service is the best for you, I would start by thinking about your specific dietary needs. Do you need meals that are either paleo, keto or gluten-free, or maybe you prefer plant-based options. You also want to think about your specific health and fitness goals. Are you an aspiring bodybuilder who needs a certain amount of protein per meal or are you looking for some low-carb meals to aid with weight loss? These initial questions will help narrow down your search for a company that offers meals that suit your specific dietary preferences.
The next step would be finding a price point you are comfortable with. A great initial exercise is determining how much money you spend on food over the course of a week through groceries and eating out. You can then use this information to estimate how much you are spending per day and per meal. From there you can figure out which services might work with your budget. However, you should remember that even if the meals might come out to be slightly more expensive monetarily, you are saving in other areas, such as time spent shopping, cooking and cleaning.
Finally, I would suggest looking at the types of meals the service has available and determine if they fit your needs. For example, if you want to be completely hands-off then you need a service that offers ready-to-eat breakfast, lunch, dinner and even snack options. You also need to take into account whether you are purchasing meals just for yourself or you need them for your entire family. You also want to consider the menu and how many different meals or meal kits they offer.
If you answer all of these questions, then you are definitely on the right track to finding the perfect meal planning service for you.
When we were looking for the best meal planning service available, we considered four important factors. We analyzed the quality of the ingredients, the cost associated with the service, the types of meals and services available, and last but not least, the customer reviews.
Yes, you can use every meal delivery service on this list for meal prep depending on what you are looking for. These companies either prepare the meals for you and therefore eliminate the need for personal meal prep, or they give the ingredients and recipe to prepare the meal yourself.
When you actually do the math and compare the price of these meal delivery services to the amount you spend on groceries and eating out each week, you will likely find that these services are pretty affordable. As mentioned earlier, when using these services, you are also able to save a significant amount of time and energy since you are no longer grocery shopping or preparing your own meals. That being said, if you still want to utilize these services while on a tight budget then I have a few tips. The first is using these meals for the times of the day that you struggle with the most. For example, it usually is pretty simple to throw together a simple breakfast or snack, however lunch and dinner are often more time consuming and complicated. So, you might only want to use a meal delivery service for one or two meals throughout the day rather than for every single meal. You also might be using a meal delivery service because you are so busy during the week, but have additional time to cook your own meals on the weekend. In this case, I would suggest only ordering enough meals to cover Monday through Friday knowing that you have the extra time to shop and cook on the weekend. If you make these small adjustments, you can find that these services can be very budget friendly.
Life can be incredibly hectic, and we don’t always have time to hit the grocery store and plant out a weekly menu. So, when we get hungry and have to figure out something to eat, we usually choose the path of least resistance. This often involves fast-food, takeout or eating some simple snacks. However, these prepared meal delivery services are the perfect solution to this problem, especially if healthy eating is a priority. They allow you to cut down on food waste, to still eat delicious and nutritious meals while living your busy life.
Although, these meal planning services aren’t just for people that lead extremely busy lives or simply hate cooking. Even the most disciplined of grocery shoppers and meal planners will struggle from time to time to always have food prepared and ready to go. This is another example of where these services can be such a phenomenal resource. Having a few easy meals stored in the fridge or freezer is perfect for those situations where you just don’t have enough time to cook a healthy meal. With dishes ranging from comfort food, to vegetarian options and healthy meals, there is something for every palate. From the reviews you can see people swear by these services, so if you are on the fence, I suggest you ditch the grocery lists and give one of these services a try.
Prices are accurate and items in stock as of publish time.
Pete Nastasi, the owner of Nastasi Nutrition, is a Certified Sports Nutrition Coach residing in North Carolina.
