We Compared 3 Popular Meal Delivery Services

 

We Compared 3 Popular Meal Delivery Services

Here's what we loved. . . and did not love

I'm a working mom and currently, a student. I need to put fast, delicious meals on the table most days of the week. That's what led us to try meal delivery services.

My family tried 3 of the 5 best known meal preparation services and here is our experience. To summarize in case you don't want to read the whole chart, they were all easy to prepare but Home Chef was more difficult to read or follow. The freshest food was from Hello Fresh. The best tasting meat was from Blue Apron. The least amount of veggies was in Home Chef and it was also the least flavorful. They all had way too many carbs. Bottom line, if I was choosing today, it would be Hello Fresh, although Blue Apron was a close second. (Chart at the end of the post).

When we returned from our vacation, between Home Chef and Blue Apron trials, we had a week of cooking the “usual” way. This made me happy as our weight needed to recover a bit from overeating on vacation. Following that vacation, we had 2 weeks of Blue Apron. 

It's probably important to mention here that I am currently a member of Weight Watchers and I've had great success in the past year - 50 lbs. down. I normally serve published portions of carbs to my family – 1 cup of pasta, half a cup of rice, etc. All three meal services serve 2 to 3 times that. amount. I’ll say this, you are never hungry afterward. I can only eat a half-serving of these meals. I also serve higher fiber when possible; it’s so good for your heart. That’s why the Blue Apron trial lasted only 2 weeks.

Here’s the thing. With the exception, in my opinion, of Home Chef, these meals are DELICIOUS. The reason they are so good: excellent seasoning and sauces plus full fat ingredients adds up to yummy. My buddy CHAT GPT made you this graphic:

It’s not just the convenience that sells people on these services, although they are  VERY convenient. The simple instructions, the sauces made with 2 or 3 prepackaged (delicious) ingredients, and the full flavor you get with all of those plus fat is what sells. Suddenly, a homemade meal literally tastes and looks like a restaurant meal. All 3 tell you how to present the meal because we “eat with our eyes” first. Plus, most of the meals can be put together in the time it takes to drive to a restaurant and be seated. Arguably, the cost is also lower than a restaurant meal. So, what to do? 

My goal as a home cook: Cook delicious, healthy food that doesn’t taste “healthy.” I want meals that appeal to the senses, including looking pretty. As a self-trained home cook, this is a learning curve for me. As far as macro nutrients go, for my family we strive for high protein, high fiber and “regular” carbs.

The first night of the 2nd week of Blue Apron, I came up with a plan that gives us everything we want, with only a little more work on my part. That’s fodder for the next installment!

Category/Numerical	Hello Fresh (HF)	Home Chef	Blue Apron.
Weeks Tried and why - 3 meals per week on average	We started here so we ran a 12 week trial because it was all pretty good - 38 meals	We did a 3 week trial for fairness but would not have renewed - 9 meals	2 week trial  - it was fine but  . . . well, read the blog post!
Average Cost for us including shipping. All were 4 servings, 3 meals a week.	$150/week  - included 0.5 “premium” meals per week. 3 meals plus a 2 serving snack or dessert.	$140/week  Inc. 2 premium meals in the 3 week trial; 3 meals per week.	$139; I bought these al a carte so no extras but 1.5 premiums per week.
Taste	Very good! There were a few things not preferred for personal preference but excellent seasonings and sauces	It was just ‘lacking” in some way. Not bad, by any stretch, just nothing amazing. The sauces were just okay. Seasonings fine. Teens asked me to go back to HF.	It was delicious and simple. Very similar to Hello Fresh.
0 to 5 (worst/perfect)	4.75	3.5	4.9
Freshness of Ingredients	The ingredients were fresh 90% of the time. I had one small package of herbs I’d consider “past it’s prime" but it was still useable.	We had some issues here. In our 12 meals, 3 had spoiling produce; 2 of those could be salvaged.	We had 2 issues.The veg tends to be a little “on the edge.” For our first box we cooked all 3 recipes in 4 days and yet 2 meals still  had “gone” produce.
0 to 5 (worst/perfect)	4.9	4	3
Durability (could it still be cooked safely on the 7th day after delivery)	I cooked 11 meals on the 7th day. All were perfect.	Major downside: has to be cooked by the 4th day, so you have to cook them all day after day and then figure the rest of the week.	They don’t state how fast you need to cook it, but I’d be surprised if it held up past 5 days. It’s just not as fresh, which might be due to the produce being more prepped, so it’s a tradeoff.
0 to 5 (worst/perfect)	5	1	4
Quality of ingredients Quantified by an average of 3 MAJOR ingredients in each meal and then one point for the minor ingredients. So each meal could have a max score of 20.	My only “beef” with HF is the beef. The steak items have a “livery” taste about half the time. The burger is great. No one else in my family tasted this. You may not notice! I just order my steak from the grocery store instead.	The ingredient quality was fine. I already addressed produce in freshness. Packaging impacted my rating here; many ingredients were pre-sliced or prechopped which speeds prep but impacts quality.	The beef is fine - delicious in fact. That gives Blue Apron a leg up on Hello Fresh. Aside from freshness, the ingredients were great and their seasonings were SO good.
0 to 5 (worst/perfect)	4	3.25	5
Ease of Preparation	Each meal is packaged separately which speeds up prep. You do need some chopping skills unless you opt for the “low lift” in which more ingredients are “pre-prepped”	Very fast prep due to many pre-prepped ingredients. Meals are packaged separately. You won’t learn anything here if you are hoping to improve your skill in the kitchen.	Very similar to HF. You have to chop the veg about half the time. That’s fine. It was really very simple; a novice cook could do it well.
0 to 5 (worst/perfect)	4.5	5	5
Recipes	All recipes have very clear step-by-step instructions. A novice teen cook was able to prepare them with no adult support. The timings are fairly accurate. Includes a clear color picture of plating.	The recipe cards were a little hard to read at first and I did not always agree with the order of preparation. The sauces were combined in bowls but not “cooked” so lacked depth.	Well laid out, logical, easy to read. Very similar to HF. Nice photos. I was never once confused.
0 to 5 (worst/perfect)	5	4	5
Nutrition	¾ of recipes contain at least a cup of veggies; many contain more. Full nutritional information is supplied. Offers calorie conscious, vegetarian  and high protein options plus many more options. That said, although lower in calories, they still often have high carbs so read the macros if carbs, fiber and protein are important to you, so you know what you’re into.	½ of recipes contain at least a cup of veggies; some contain more. Full nutritional information is supplied. I liked their method of filtering by category better than HFs.	¾ of recipes contain at least a cup of veggies; many contain more. Full nutritional information is supplied. Offers calorie conscious, vegetarian  and high protein options plus other choices. I  have the same concerns as HF. While delicious, they tend to be very high calorie and even lower calorie choices tend to be high in carbs.
0 to 5 (worst/perfect)	4	4	4
Averaged Score	4.6	3.5	4.4