Meal subscriptions

[k3am]

So... last night for dinner, I served corn dogs for the adults and one kid and a piece of plain bread to the other. I'd like to say that this was a rush night, but honestly? This is the norm in our house. I have picky kids. I work full-time. I have very little time/energy/desire to devote to trying to plan and cook a real meal. (Flame away.)

I'm thinking I'd like to try a meal subscription service. Any recommendations? 

Guiding factors in making a choice for subscription - meals for just two people (even if DD tries it, she'd likely take two minuscule bites), limited packaging waste (reusable options even better), no seafood, and we don't have a microwave or toaster. 

[mustardseed2007]

We JUST started with Hello Fresh - I cooked our first meal on Monday. I got two days worth of meals from them for the week because I realized that we only eat 2 normal meals a week with karate/DH card game night, one long standing chili night and neighborhood grill outs on Fridays.

But even those two meals I haven't been putting real effort into it. I only cooked one meal so far and will cook the other one on Thursday. Everyone really enjoyed it (we did chicken bulgogi bowels). I got it for 4 people and me, DH, my sister and the two kids were able to be completely full though we had no left overs.

Their standard menu is actually only for two people, although 4 is also an option, so that might be a good fit for you.

[sandandsea]

The have one of them at Safeway sometimes. I think it was Plated. I got one once to try it before committing to a subscription and was glad I did.

We tried the steak and pepper over rice stir fry. It tasted good. It’s a 2 person portion but had a ton of packaging and I don’t think it really saved me any time from a cooking perspective. It did save time from a shopping perspective. But you still had to chop the pepper and basil and they had a ton of steps. And it used more than one pan so more dishes. It also took longer than most of my normal meals to make.

In the end it wasn’t worth the money for what it provided and I realized that it’s easier for me to do it myself than use the prepackaged deal.


I know this isn’t what you asked but easy options we have a lot are:

Grilled meat and veggies (0 pans to wash!)
I do chicken, salmon, steak, etc and then grill peppers, onions, asparagus, squash, etc at the same time.

Last night I grilled the pre-seasoned carne asada and precut peppers and onions from Safeway and we had delicious and easy fajitas.

I also buy quite a few of the premarinated meats that you can just cook and be done with it.

I think most of my dinners take 15 mins to make. And I’ve been using the grill exclusively all summer except for the occasional Mac and cheese. . Because I hate dishes more than coooking.

[beachbum22]

We've only tried Hello Fresh. It was fun at first, not having to grocery shop for ingredients, and everything is measured out for you.

The food was very tasty, and we went with the family plan for the 2 of us (our toddler is too picky right now) and used the leftovers for lunches or dinner the next night.

But I really hate cooking, and the meals were kind of intense for me.

The recipes require the cook to be in the kitchen and at the stove constantly, which isn't practical for me with a 3yr old. There's dicing, stirring, and as one part of the meal is cooking you need to be working on something else, like a sauce or glaze.

I'm more of a set it and forget it chef - crockpot, or casseroles - I like something that needs a little while to simmer and isn't too complicated, like spaghetti.

I don't like feeling rushed in the kitchen because then I burn myself, or mess things up. And I don't like feeling like I can't look away for a second or else dinner will be ruined.

Perhaps other meal services have easier recipes.

So, if you enjoy cooking, and have a way to keep your family entertained while you cook, then meal services could work great for you.

[k3am]

sandandsea, DH basically does your style cooking and I'm happy with it. I just... maybe need someone to take all the thinking out of it for me. I'm not sure what my roadblock is, but it's there and it's huge. At this point, I feel super accomplished.

Also, DH bought a new grill and I have no effing idea how it works. It's a pellet grill and it's not just a "turn it on, cook, turn it off" thing as far as I can tell.

[waverly]

They are kind of great for getting out of a rut.

We’ve done Hello Fresh, Blue Apron and Plated and Hello Fresh has the easiest recipes and no they aren’t easy recipes more medium. I too prefer to just go with easy meals so DH cooks most of them and I can do maybe 1 a week. The kids are on the pickier side and we want them to eat what we eat so obviously they have pushback on it.

There are several meal planning services where they pick the recipes for you and add it to your grocery list but you are still doing the shopping and prep etc. so that might be an option for mental space. I just like to control it a bit more so I prefer to do my own menu planning but it’s so easy to just fall back into a rut of the same 4 easy meals every week especially with picky kids.

We’ve also done meal kits through Pea Pod grocery delivery. You can choose just the exact one and how many so it gives you more control. I like the Barilla Parmesan Chicken one. If there are more coming to the grocery stores I feel like that is less management and commitment.

[covergirl82]

I'll admit I haven't tried a meal delivery service, mostly because I feel my kids are too picky for it. My sister, who is single, no kids, loves doing it, but she also has the time to do any fancy prep required.

As much as I don't love eating the same things over and over, that's what I have found is easiest (and usually my kids don't mind it). Monday is mac & cheese, Tuesday is tacos, Wednesday is spaghetti (or ravioli). I generally just make a frozen vegetable with each meal. Thursdays I WFH and Fridays I usually WFH or every-other Friday I'm off, so I have more time to plan something a little more involved. Even then, I will make something relatively easy like sausage and roasted potatoes or homemade hamburger helper (one pan!).

I just wanted you to not feel bad/guilty about corn dogs or similar for a usual dinner. I would bet a lot of us are in a similar boat.

[sandandsea]

You need an easy grill! . I had no idea how to use a grill until probably 7 years ago when I made myself learn. The gas and fire always intimidated me and I thought I would burn down the entire state.

Also I do my grocery shopping through amazon and always meal plan based on the precut veggies and ready to cook meats they have available. I think it all comes from Whole Foods and they have a lot of ready to go options.

[k3am]

My best meal planning usually falls apart after 1-2 meals. =\

My kids literally won't eat 95% of what we want to cook. So if we do cook (vs. just heat something up we know one of them will like) their options are try it and like it or eat a plain piece of bread or an apple. Even when I make "kid foods" there is only two meals they'll both eat... and one of them is breakfast for dinner. I can't even begin to express just how much their pickiness drags my relationship with foods down. I don't bother shopping anymore and leave that up to DH.

Even fast foods, with the exception of McDonalds nuggets and fries is an option.

And this turned into an entire rant.

[186momx]

Have you thought about batch cooking on Sundays. Your grill is not the quick and easy lets grill burgers for dinner but you could grill burgers for dinner on Sunday and while the grill is on have your DH do a couple steaks and some chicken breasts. Then you just need to find a side to go with the pre-cooked and prepped meat. You could do chicken or steak fajitas with the pre-cut stir fry veggies and just heat everything on the skillet or salads, or steaks with boxed pasta dishes.

I'm also in a rut and DH isn't helping by just suggesting take out each night or spaghetti.

FYI DD loves breakfast for dinner and we normally do that once a week.

[mommyatty]

k3am- solidarity on picky kids. One of mine won’t eat French fries. Neither one will eat a hamburger.

We tried a meal service, and I found it much harder than anything I make because they do not short-cut anything. Like if a recipe requires spaghetti sauce, I’m using a jar. I’m not making sauce from scratch. Their recipes make you do the sauce from scratch. All the sauces. All the steps. It’s maddening.

[waverly]

mommyatty, yup. This is why I really only want to do that once a week. Some of the grocery store meal kits are less of that. For example the Barilla one just plain comes with a jar of Barilla spaghetti sauce. It's much more practical.


But yeah truthfully there is a lot of opportunity to just go with prepared foods in the grocery section. There are a lot of cookbooks that kind of center around that too. Quick and Healthy, Half Homemade one we just got. So 80's but stuff like hamburger helper (not saying get that), but a lot of that kind of stuff went out of style but the concept is partially the same where you have some clean ingredients and some processed. Lots of salt, but if you counter with a cleaner meal the next night it can sort of even out.


When DH was traveling even more so I did what covergirl82 does. Monday was something interesting or sort of new (because I was still fresh and not beaten down by the week yet), Tuesday Tacos, Wed something like grilled cheese and tomato soup or breakfast for dinner, Thursday- Spaghetti, Fri- pizza, Sat- out, Sun- DH decides, but a lot of times he would pick spaghetti. Spaghetti can be switched pretty easily though to meatballs, ravioli, fettuccini. I don't read the blog, but this is my favorite description of meal planning modernmommymadness.com/2015/09/21/a-meal-planning-reality-check/

[soccermama]

Jul 10, 2019 12:57:31 GMT -5 waverly said:

mommyatty , yup. This is why I really only want to do that once a week. Some of the grocery store meal kits are less of that. For example the Barilla one just plain comes with a jar of Barilla spaghetti sauce. It's much more practical.


But yeah truthfully there is a lot of opportunity to just go with prepared foods in the grocery section. There are a lot of cookbooks that kind of center around that too. Quick and Healthy, Half Homemade one we just got. So 80's but stuff like hamburger helper (not saying get that), but a lot of that kind of stuff went out of style but the concept is partially the same where you have some clean ingredients and some processed. Lots of salt, but if you counter with a cleaner meal the next night it can sort of even out.


When DH was traveling even more so I did what covergirl82 does. Monday was something interesting or sort of new (because I was still fresh and not beaten down by the week yet), Tuesday Tacos, Wed something like grilled cheese and tomato soup or breakfast for dinner, Thursday- Spaghetti, Fri- pizza, Sat- out, Sun- DH decides, but a lot of times he would pick spaghetti. Spaghetti can be switched pretty easily though to meatballs, ravioli, fettuccini. I don't read the blog, but this is my favorite description of meal planning modernmommymadness.com/2015/09/21/a-meal-planning-reality-check/

omg that blog post is hilarious!  so so true. 

[sdlaura]

We've been doing blue apron for a few years now. I like to get two 4-person meals per week. It's the same amount of prep and clean up as the 2-person meals but then we have leftovers. I also think the 4-person meals tend to be more kid friendly and less exotic than the 2-person meals.

I like that I can pick from 6 different meals each week and I just skip when I have busy weeks and don't think I'll have time. I get delivery on Tuesdays and usually make one during the week and one over the weekend.

If you do blue apron I recommend not doing each step in their order. The instructions have you prep everything first and then cook - which takes forever. Instead I'll just cut up whatever needs to go in a pan first and then prep the next step while I'm already cooking.

[mellym]

We tried Hello Fresh and had a similar experience. It was way too time consuming peeling, dicing, saucing and cooking for me on a weeknight.

I just bought a tray of beef tacos and chicken parmesan from Costco. We made the beef on Tuesday and it was heat it up in a saucepan, add sauce, shred and ta-da! We had tacos ready in 10 minutes.

[k3am]

mellym, are the tacos freezable? Neither kid will eat them, but I'm sure DH would, so if I can portion them out into multiple meals over a few weeks, that would be an idea.

We sometimes get the stuffed bell peppers there and freeze them in pairs.. 3-4 (can't remember if it comes with 6 or 8) meals for $12 isn't too bad.

[livinitup]

Every time I think about subscribing to a meal service, I get better inspiration from some interesting sandwiches and do sandwiches for dinner for a while.

Don’t get me wrong, I can get stupid over complicated on sandwiches. So, it’s not always the automatic easy dinner it’s supposed to be.

But I can definitely shelve the “thinking” needed for most dinners by collecting a few interesting sandwich recipes. Even a French Dip feels really fancy, and it’s just roast beef on onion bread with an au jus (canned) to dip it in. Fancy! Not hard.

Good luck ! I often recommend sandwiches. We love them.

[mustardseed2007]

It doesn't look like any anyone has done green chef? Just wondering b/c they have Keto and Paleo options. I think after I work through my discount at Hello Fresh I might try that.

[k3am]

I'm just going to stick to pizza, nuggets, mac n cheese, corndogs and slices of plain bread for dinner.



In 20 years, when they bitch about how I was such an awful mother, I'll send them a link to this thread.

[waverly]

k3am , if you take that menu and sub out for similar food would they eat it? For example calzones for pizza or pizza bagels, pizza pitas, pizza sandwiches, breaded chicken for nuggets (chicken Parmesan) fried chicken, and other types of pasta for mac n cheese (spaghetti, fettuccine, other pasta dishes)? It might be a way to add just a tiny bit of variety.

[k3am]

Jul 15, 2019 11:09:57 GMT -5 waverly said:

k3am , if you take that menu and sub out for similar food would they eat it? For example calzones for pizza or pizza bagels, pizza pitas, pizza sandwiches, breaded chicken for nuggets (chicken Parmesan) fried chicken, and other types of pasta for mac n cheese (spaghetti, fettuccine, other pasta dishes)? It might be a way to add just a tiny bit of variety.

Noooooooooooope. 

For example, DH accidentally bought panko breaded chicken breasts instead of panko breaded chicken nuggets (taste EXACTLY THE SAME) that sit on the plate and get screamed at. I have also mistakenly ordered chicken tenders instead of nuggets and OMG THE WORLD WAS ENDING. 

[sandandsea]

Hahaha. I can hear the screaming!!!

[k3am]

Jul 15, 2019 12:09:24 GMT -5 sandandsea said:

Hahaha. I can hear the screaming!!!

Um.. super embarrassing, but my neighbor totally did. They hear screaming from us frequently, but this one was bad enough/long enough that I got a text asking me if she should send wine. 

I wouldn't be surprised if you heard it at your house. 

[phdmomma]

We've done blue apron and hello fresh in the past, and they all just take so much time. No shortcuts, and an excessive amount of lemons and weird salads. Yep, just peel these raw brussle sprouts and throw on some lemon and olive oil, thats a salad...nope no one ate that.

[5thofjuly]

DH grew to up with a meal rotation their family sticks to to this day and no one has died so far. His mom is a vegetarian so his dad either makes a veggie version of each, she has sides for dinner, or she has peanut butter and crackers. I wonder if there’s a way to make a version of each your kiddos will eat and just have extra add-ons for the adults? Or, if they decide they just want an apple and a slice of bread, so be it. They’ll eventually get curious about your meals.

Mon- pizza
Tues- grilled veg and steaks with baked potatoes
Wed- lasagna and salad
Thurs- cube steaks with baked potatoes and salad
Fri- Tacos or pork loin and that weird ramen/cole slaw salad
Sat- dinner out
Sun-crock pot pot roast with veggies

Lunches- soup made from Sunday dinner or sandwiches

Breakfast- coffee, leftovers, berries, oatmeal, and peanut butter on whole wheat

Snacks- cheese, crackers, veggies

Their grocery list is only like 30 items long, but they’re happy and healthy.