One of the hottest trends in the world of health and nutrition today involves receiving your week’s meals in a well-insulated box on your doorstep. Yes, you read that right! Meal delivery services are becoming increasingly popular, with everything from diet-friendly meals that are ready to pop in the microwave, to meal kits from the likes of Home Chef that provide you with all the ingredients you need to make delicious but nutritious dishes. But like every trend that takes the world by storm, meal delivery services have their pros and cons, and we’re here to explore them in further depth.
Food takes up a lot more of our time every day than we realise. While eating may only take 10-15 minutes depending on the speed we eat and the size of the meal, the preparation, clean-up and even going to the shops to buy the ingredients all take up good chunks of our day that could be better spent doing something else. If you work long hours, value your sleep over waking up early to get to the shops before they get infuriatingly busy, or even just really don’t like shopping, a meal delivery service can save you time and effort! By registering with a meal delivery service, you can have your meals delivered directly to your door so you needn’t even step outside.
Okay, so meal delivery is convenient – but so is ramen, microwave meals, take-out and so much more. The world has adjusted to a society filled with more work and less play, but home meal delivery has another perk that trumps all other convenient options: it’s healthy! In fact, meal delivery services are renowned for their healthy nature and with the added bonus of having all of this healthy food at your fingertips without needing to do the research yourself before your shopping trip, you can learn more about much-needed nutrition as you go!
Let’s be honest – once you’ve found a meal that works for you, it becomes a staple pretty much every week. You’ll pick up the same foods from the supermarket each week because they’re familiar and you know you can cook them, but by using a meal delivery service, you could open yourself up to a much wider range of foods, all without wasting anything! With Home Chef, for example, the menu of dishes you can choose from changes each week, and you’ll even be given pre-portioned ingredients and a helpful recipe card so you’re not left staring at something, wondering where to start.
Cleaning up after cooking can be the most tedious process we have to endure when it comes to feeding ourselves, but with some meal delivery services, this clean-up is cut down considerably. Some services will send you ready-made dishes that have been prepared fresh, but that only equire you to heat them up to eat. In these cases, the most you’ll need to wash up is a plate, and a knife and fork! With meal plan kits, you’ll receive portioned ingredients already packaged, so you don’t have to find enough bowls to carry ingredients until they’re needed, or break out the chopping board.
It’s no secret that some of the meal plan options out there can be a little on the expensive side. It’s important to remember that when you order from a meal delivery service, you’re not just paying for the ingredients and the postage, you’re also paying for the cost of planning, preparing and even packaging your meals or meal kit for you. The menu choice can also make a huge difference to the cost that you’ll pay, and in the end, the effort required to pop to the supermarket once a week suddenly doesn’t seem so bad. However, there are some very cost-effective choices out there and with many of these meal delivery services offering gift cards too, you could even request them as gifts from your loved ones to help cut the costs.
While there is usually more variety available through meal delivery services than you may give yourself by habit, there is technically a limit to what you can order. In order to cater for the volume of orders they get, meal delivery services are likely to prepare meals in bulk, and order the ingredients they need in bulk too. As a result, they may have set menus for you to choose from, or very limited choice altogether. Nevertheless, many meal delivery and meal kit services do offer menus that reset every week, so while there may seem to be limited choice, you do have a wide range overall.
While there is usually more variety available through meal delivery services than you may give yourself by habit, there is technically a limit to what you can order. In order to cater for the volume of orders they get, meal delivery services are likely to prepare meals in bulk, and order the ingredients they need in bulk too. As a result, they may have set menus for you to choose from, or very limited choice altogether. Nevertheless, many meal delivery and meal kit services do offer menus that reset every week, so while there may seem to be limited choice, you do have a wide range overall.
Of course, this point is mostly related to meal delivery services that actually deliver meals to your doorstep leaving you only the joy of warming them up. While this can be convenient and save you precious time, it also stops you from cooking altogether. Cooking can be a fun, relaxing and an ultimately entertaining experience, and the joy of being able to enjoy the fruits of your efforts at the end of it is certainly one to cheer up anyone. Luckily, some meal delivery services such as Home Chef offer meal kits instead. Home Chef’s meal kits come with pre-portioned ingredients and a recipe card to help you put it all together, and then make the meal again at a later date should you so choose. By choosing a meal kit, you’re still getting all the joy of cooking, with half, or even none of the hassle!
So there you have it, our list of pros and cons of meal delivery kits. Weighing up whether or not a meal delivery kit is for you is ultimately your decision, but with the convenience, variety andnutritional value of the range of meals you can order through the likes of Home Chef, and other meal delivery services, you can widen your repertoire of meals, all while enjoying the ease of the service.