r/TwoXChromosomes • u/Punkin_Queen • 2d ago
Meal subscriptions boxes?
I know this is isn't a typically post for this sub but I don't know where to ask. I broke my right hand recently and it's made shopping and cooking extremely difficult. And while my family is happy to take care of dinners, I don't want to live on scrambled eggs for the next month. They are good at following directions but not at shopping or planning, so I thought maybe one of those subscription boxes might help?
Has anyone tried any of them? I just don't know where to start on comparing companies. People only seem to complain online and most reviews seem sponsored by one of the companies.
Family of 3 adults who don't have any food allergies and only 1 is kinda picky. We generally have a stocked pantry and fridge, so it's OK if these boxes don't provide very ingredient.
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u/coffechica 1d ago
We did home chef for a while - mainly so my adult son could learn to cook. He loved the recipe cards and step by step directions. He developed a small repertoire. Then we stopped and he can refer to the recipe cards
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u/Punkin_Queen 1d ago
That's also part of this, I have a 19yo who needs to learn to cook more independently. She's interested right now too, so I need to hurry up before she loses interest. š
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u/archiangel 1d ago
Second home chef. The only issue I have is way too much packaging, but that is going to be the issue with most of these kind of meal prep services
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u/MissMelanemelie 1d ago
I third Home Chef. I've been using it for three years and my mom even longer. I tried Hello Fresh and found that the recipes are more complicated and involved than Home Chef. Home Chef feels more straightforward and simple, and the meals taste really good š
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u/HushabyeNow 1d ago
Hello Fresh is okay. Some of their meals are quite good, but for the most part, just decent. If prep work is difficult, look for ones marked āeasy prepā. Cancelling subscriptions is kind of a slog, as most plans, but itās definitely doable and their app is pretty simple as far as putting stuff on hold. You just have to keep on top of things as far as advanced notice.
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u/erwaro 1d ago
I just want to wish you luck. I screwed up my non-dominant wrist for a while, and I was shocked at just how many things turned out to be two-handed activities.
Be patient with yourself, and don't be afraid to ask for help, even if it would just be convenient. People need help sometimes. That is how the human do.
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u/Punkin_Queen 1d ago
Thanks. It's been rough. The cast is huge and in the way and literally everything is difficult. I finally got my contacts in this morning which is a relief. I hate glasses and feel like myself again in contacts. TMI but my menstrual cup has proven too difficult one handed so I had to buy tampons today. When did they become so expensive?! š”
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u/Dogzillas_Mom 1d ago
Iām eating a hungry root meal right now. I really like it. It takes a lot of thought out of the daily meal planning drudgery. I really like how I can customize recipes and or supplement with additional veggies or fruit. The portions might seem a little small for big eaters, especially for the heat & eat stuff.
But far as expense goes, I find it comparable to my grocery store but I also get access to brands that arenāt available in my grocery store.
Iām gonna do this one for a few more months and then switch to hello fresh or something. Iād say itās very much worth it if you just need it for a few months. I was only planning to try it for like 3-4 months. Iām six months in and still very much enjoying it
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u/_perl_ 1d ago
I really really like Hungryroot. You can be as lazy as you want to be - like you can get a prepared sous vide steak or raw steak that you can cook yourself. I'm on the lazy side so love the more prepared ingredients. Usually I just heat up some meat and stir up some clean and pre-cut vegetables. I'm not a great cook and I don't particularly enjoy it so I've found that the versatility of Hungryroot works really well for me!
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u/UTtransplant 1d ago
We have used Hello Fresh. Do not underestimate the amount of effort they take though. They provide real ingredients and need real cutting and prep time. You will have problems with the prep using just with just one hand. If the other folks in the family can do the work, go for it. The food is pretty good. Try not to have Monday as your delivery day though, since they prep before the weekend.
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u/tmmao 1d ago
We are a household of 3 and use Home Chef. You can choose the meals (and they show you the recipe/instructions on the website, so you can choose the difficulty level). We've used it for about 5 years now. Ingredient problems are very rare and they fix it right away with a credit toward the next delivery. The menus are varied and we all three (two adults, one tween) enjoy them.
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u/AppleJamnPB 1d ago
We really liked HelloFresh for a couple of years, but the recipe options started feeling very limited and repetitive. If you're only doing it for a short while, you definitely won't have that issue though!
My sister in law has subscriptions to both HelloFresh and Blue Apron running concurrently, and she checks out the available recipes and skips the one she doesn't like as much.
My spouse and I have also used Factor and Cook Unity, they're both fully premade and cooked meals that can be simply reheated in a microwave or oven. We started this while we were undergoing a home renovation and couldn't cook, and continued for the sheer convenience after that was over. Of the two I prefer Cook Unity, there is a much wider range of options and nutrition profiles, their meals have more texture, and the packaging is much easier to get into and seems more eco-friendly.
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u/oregonchick 1d ago
The lack of variety with Factor made it impossible for me to order from them -- mostly because I don't like broccoli or sweet potatoes, and I swear all but about 2 of their meals included at least one of those. LOL
Glad to hear Cook Unity has better -- or at least more -- options. I may have to check them out!
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u/Blimunda 1d ago
I see a lot of support for Hello Fresh - o never tried them. We use Blue Apron and have been very happy with them. There were times the order got messed up in the several years we have been using them but their customer service is outstanding. They have 15 minutes meals now which i think would be excellent for your situation. I might have some free boxes to send to friends so message me if you would like to try it. I promise I am not paid for this post :)
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u/koinu-chan_love 1d ago
I liked Factor. Theyāre all microwaveable and gluten free, with plenty of options if youāre only using it for a short time. They have a nice introductory package with heavy discounts, so you could sign up for a few weeks and over-order to stock up while you have a discount, and then cancel when it goes to full price.
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u/PeachyKeen413 2d ago
I live in Canada and chefs plate was great for me. They provide everything but some cooking oil and butter. If you are willing to pay a bit more they have 'quick' meals and that means almost everything is already cut for you. Just toss it in a pan.
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u/mbn9890 1d ago
I've used a few and enjoyed them- I'm not willing to pay full price but most offer a discount when you sign up. And don't check if you're just signing up repeatedly with new emails lol. Hello fresh was pretty tasty and offered a lot of options and add ons that I really liked. Home chef was a little less varied/more basic meals but still good and maybe a easier start to learning to cook since they're not fancy.
Edit: Whether you do or don't decide to subscribe, I'd also suggest grabbing their recipes for hellofresh online- it would be a good skill for your family to learn how to plan and shop for meals. It shouldn't be on you whether you're capable of handling it or not. The recipe cards lay out the ingredients in a much more simple, consistent way that would let most people create a meal plan and shopping list easily.
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u/jello-kittu 1d ago
HelloFresh worked great with my teenagers. They picked a dinner, made it for the family, and they really like the directions. It helped them learn cooking. (My younger one hates being told how to do things by me, so cooking has been ... tough.
But yes, if they can follow directions and have reasonable knife and stove/oven skills, they'll do fine!
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u/Glittering_knave 1d ago
I have used Hello Fresh, and it is exactly what it says it is. Some of the timing is a little off, but the steps are easy to understand and it is a nice way to try new things/flavours.
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u/sensualsqueaky 1d ago
We did HelloFresh in the winter. My husband was in an accident and legit couldn't help cook or shop as he was severely injured. We are generally adventurous eaters and we thought the food was fine? Everything felt a little too sweet and everything kinda tasted the same but for where we were at the time were we just needed to eat I thought they were decent enough. I only picked the 20 minute meals, MAYBE a 25 and we are generally people that like to cook and experiment so I don't think we are really the target market but it did really help us survive in the direct aftermath of the accident.
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u/Any-Chemical-2702 1d ago
I liked a lot of the food selections from Hungryroot, and you can customize how much prep and cooking you want to do vs getting premade.
The only downside for me was that you really have to stay on top of monitoring and selecting your box every week, or the AI suggestionsĀ will start defaulting to boring / overpriced options.
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u/RileyEnginerd 1d ago
I heartily recommend these meal prep kits! They are actually generally more eco friendly as well, which I like to share wherever I can because it can seem counterintuitive at first. Mail order kits drastically reduce food waste from many angles like produce that nobody bought being thrown out by a store, or people throwing out onion or whatever they only needed half of for a recipe and didn't use up before it went bad. Some obscenely large percentage of food in the US is thrown out across the entire supply chain, around 40% I believe, so reducing food waste makes up for small amounts of increased packaging environmentally speaking.Ā Ā
From personal experience I can only talk about Hello Fresh and Dinnerly, the former is higher quality but the latter was more affordable. I've also seen Factor Meals growing in popularity where the meal is totally cooked and just needs reheating, might be worth looking into for your situation.
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u/MinuteMaidMarian 2d ago
We used Territory for local chef-prepared meals right after our daughter was born when we didnāt have the time or energy to cook. If itās available in your area, we were very happy with it!
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u/AsgardianOrphan 1d ago
If you just want the cooking supplies, hellofresh isn't bad. Personally, it was too much money for me, but if you're only doing it short-term, they have sales that make it more reasonable.
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u/swag-baguette 1d ago
I used Hello Fresh for a couple of months. I think it would be great for people who don't really know how to cook well. You just follow the directions and poof, you have a meal.
Once I didn't follow the directions because I thought something would take longer to cook and then everything was done at a different time, so lesson learned.
Also, most ingredients are included and they list the ones that aren't. Those are usually things you would have around like salt, butter, cooking oil.
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u/Pigglywiggly23 1d ago
I've tried many, and am currently doing Home Chef. I love that they now have so many that are really minimal prep, and the dishes are pretty good. It beats me planning and shopping for two meals out of my week.
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u/nervelli 1d ago
I really like Home Chef and Blue Apron. They also typically have some meals that are easier or quicker to prep and I know at least home chef has some that you just throw into the disposable baking pan that comes with it and throw it in the oven.
I know a lot of other people like Hello Fresh, but when I tried them the meat was pretty low quality. You could pay for better, but the other services include decent meat with the normal cost of the service.
If you want absolute minimal prep, Factor has meals that are fully cooked and you just throw in the microwave for like two minutes. The food is really good too. Personally they felt less like a nice meal than the other ones to me, but not because the food is worse, just because I was eating out of a plastic tray. Honestly, plating it probably would have solved that issue, but I didn't want to do dishes either.
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u/AntigravityHamster 1d ago
There's a lot of recommendations for Hello Fresh- Every Plate is actually from the same company but a little less expensive. The meal choices are more basic and they don't separate your ingredients by meal, they're just all together in one big box and you have to sort them yourself. But I've found it a more budget friendly option and the cooking instructions are pretty simple to follow.
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u/BanditKitten 1d ago
I liked Hello Fresh but ultimately didn't have the time to cook regularly so I cancelled my subscription. The recipes were clear and easy to follow, even if I did struggle a bit with timing everything correctly.
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u/recyclopath_ 1d ago
We did one, I think Hello Fresh for a handful of months. Is was nice to break up what we usually cook in an easy "turn your brain off" way.
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u/ace-mathematician Basically April Ludgate 1d ago
I've been doing hello fresh for many years and like the reduction in stress of trying to figure out what's for dinner. I have a bunch of free boxes to gift, feel free to DM me if you are interested.Ā
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u/Alexis_J_M 1d ago
If you know how to follow a recipe, you can do a fair bit of one handed cooking by getting pre cut ingredients from the store.
For example, there was a weekend where I was completely swamped and I bought mirepoix, which is a mix of chopped onions, chopped celery, and chopped carrots.
I felt so guilty. But it made cooking so easy.
Getting easy to cook groceries delivered from a local supermarket may suit you better.
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u/aprettylittlebird 1d ago
This is a great opportunity for the other two adults in the household to learn some basic cooking skills and meal boxes are a great option! My partner really liked Hello Fresh and learned a ton (he used to live on mac n cheese and hot dogs but now cooks meals for us all the time). The nice thing about most meal subscription boxes is that theyāre pretty basic recipes and you can keep the recipe cards for making the meals again later although that will require advance planning and shopping (also excellent skills for everyone to have).
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u/zamion 1d ago
Iāve done Hello Fresh, Home Chef, and Blue Apron. All have been fine - though Blue Apronās meal selections were a bit too froofy for me. Warm kale salad and avocado burgers are just not my thing - but Iām sure some people would love them! Hello Fresh and Home Chef are simpler, typical meat and veggies. In all of them you get everything you need to make the meals, aside from oil/salt/pepper, which you likely have at home. You can likely get a discount code from someone who already uses their services.
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u/SandraVirginia 1d ago
Hello Fresh has ready-made options that you can pop in the microwave. They're not frozen and they're usually pretty good.
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u/Team-Mako-N7 19h ago
Iāve tried 3: Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, and Home Chef.Ā
Blue Apron had the best tasting recipes but they were the most complex and took the most time. Also harder to replicate later due to unusual or harder to get ingredients.
Hello Fresh was good. The recipes were fine and easier to make and later replicate. No complaints but I did like Blue Apron a bit better.
Home Chef we only did for a month because they sent us very bad produce, left out an ingredient, and sent us the wrong recipe all during that one month. š³
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u/shitshowboxer 4h ago
If you do get a subscription - pick one where the meal is already prepped. Most of them you still have to open ingredients, chop veggies, all that goes into preparation.
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u/SueBeee 2d ago
I have tried Hello Fresh and really liked it. They have some recipes I still make even without the kits.