Stumble in the front door at 8pm after a long day at work and the last thing anyone wants to do is spend an hour making a mess in the kitchen. In a perfect world, dinner would always be pre-planned and pre-prepped, and cooking and eating it would cure the day's stress — not cause it. Luckily, these 10 companies have our backs covered. From pre-packed dinner boxes delivered to your front door to meticulously organized meal plans for the entire week, there's something here to make healthy cooking easier for everyone. (Plus, there are some pretty killer holiday gift ideas — and special discounts! — hiding in here, too!)
Everyone should be able to enjoy delicious, interesting, home-cooked meals, right? Blue Apron is all about providing a great cooking experience for its users. Once per week, you’ll get a delivery including all the ingredients you need to make three meals (serving two people each). This week, they’re featuring chicken chilaquiles, steak salad with chicory and curried chickpeas, and salmon cakes with beet salad. The only things they assume subscribers have are olive oil, salt, and pepper. Every recipe features a new special ingredient (tatsoi, anyone?) to broaden your culinary palette, too. Plus, they offer a meat and fish box or a vegetarian box. Delivery available from Maine to Florida, and west to the Mississippi river. Cost: $59.94 per week for three meals that each serve two people.
Who wouldn’t want a chef-designed meal on the dinner table a few times a week? With Plated, you get just that, but in your own home (and, well, you get to prepare it yourself). It’s pretty simple: You choose the meals you want in a given week, order, and the ingredients for those meals show up at your doorstep the next week. Each week Plated hosts a new chef who’s worked anywhere from The White House to Food and Wine Magazine. This week, they have five dishes ranging from meatloaf burgers with garlic mashed potatoes to berbere spiced salmon with steamed potatoes and winter greens. Delivery available from Boston to DC and in major Midwest cities, including the Chicago (and the rest of Illinois), Indiana, Michigan, and major cities including St. Louis, and Cleveland Cost: $10-$15 per plate, depending on package chosen.
In NYC and looking for an easier way to plan, shop for, and cook organic meals at home? Marisa from Sweet Roots NYC may have the answer. She works with her clients one-on-one to create tailored weekly meal plans that take into account your taste preferences, health goals, and how comfortable you are wielding a knife. Once you OK the week’s plan, her 10-person team does all the work to deliver the ingredients (pre-measured, sometimes pre-chopped, with recipes) right to your door. They want to take the stress out of cooking without taking away the joy and satisfaction of preparing a meal on your own. Delivery available in New York City (Manhattan and Brooklyn) for $10. Cost: Plans from $75/person per week. Mention this article to get 10% off a three-meal dinner package.
Here’s one for the vegans out there. With this service, you can get pre-cooked healthy, vegan meals delivered to your door (in NYC) to save time in the kitchen. For the price, you get menu planning, organic grocery and produce items, shopping and cooking, storage containers, and delivery. What might be on the menu? Creamy corn soup, lentil burgers with tzatziki, and pistachio pear couscous salad have all made appearances in the past. Delivery available in New York City. Cost: Plans from $350/person per week.
This one’s all about the healthier options. Every week you’ll have a box with ingredients for three meals delivered to your door and packed with fresh produce and protein. Boxes hold enough to serve two, four, or six people — but the recipes (like duck à l’orange salad) take no more than 30 minutes to prepare, regardless of how big the crowd is! Not in the US? Hello Fresh has quite the international vibe. The company started in Germany in 2011, and quickly expanded to France, the UK, the Netherlands, and Australia! Delivery available from Maine to Miami, and west to Chicago. Cost: Boxes available from $59/week.
San Franciscans, we are officially jealous. Luke’s Local is reinventing ready-to-eat meals. Every week, they deliver boxes that are some sort of hybrid between a CSA (community supported agriculture) program, personal catering, and an artisan food shop. All the meals are prepared by local chefs, all the produce comes from local farms, and the artisan items are all locally sourced (like bread or granola for snacking!). The best part? You get to pick which items go in that box for every order. For those looking to nosh in the office, they also offer an Office Box filled with fresh, healthy snacks including coffee, granola, nuts, yogurt, and burritos. Delivery available in San Francisco, East Bay, and Marin for $5–$8; pickup also available at other locations in San Francisco area. Cost: Items range from $2.79 (breakfast pastry) to $11.99 (meal with meat or fish).
This free meal plan newsletter is perfect for those who love cooking at home but don’t love all the time it takes to actually plan out those weekly menus. Founder Jess Dang started Cook Smarts as a way to help people get back in the kitchen. But it’s about more than just the free meal plans: Jess also offers cooking lessons (in the Bay Area of California) and runs the Cook Smarts blog, which offers some pretty killer cooking tips and instructional videos. Cost: Free.
This simple desktop app was born out of a desire to eat real, healthy, delicious food, prepared at home, without all the stress of walking in from work at 5pm and trying to throw something together before the family (or just you) gets cranky. Basically, the program allows you to store all your favorite recipes, drag-and-drop them onto the day you want to eat them, and get an easy shopping list to print out for easier shopping. Still not impressed? The web app is also mobile-ready, so you can view your shopping list on your phone while out and about. Plus, it also keeps track of all of your “pantry items” when you check them off your shopping list. Cost: $4.95/month; $39/year.
Okay, so you’ve found the time to get in the kitchen and cook… but now it’s time to make it more fun. Kasey and Matthew of the popular food and music blog Turntable Kitchen have the solution for you: a monthly gift box filled with three killer recipes, a mix tape (in both vinyl and digital form), and a few special key ingredients. Turn on the record player and fire up the stove for a perfectly paired music-and-cooking experience. Cost: $25/month (plus tax).
Here’s one great way to spice up what’s going on in the kitchen. With this monthly gourmet subscription box service, you can enjoy dishes from around the world without actually having to trek to the other side of the globe. Hungry Globetrotter says it best: “Life is too short for food to be boring, and the world is too big for you to not experience it.” Cost: Boxes from $34.95/month.
Have another company you think is killing it at promoting healthy living and cooking? Tell us about it in the comments below, or tweet the author @ksmorin, and we’ll check it out for future articles!
At one time, the kitchen used to be a place of daily usage at home, but now it is seldom used for cooking in most of the homes because of the hectic work schedules of most people. People now seem to struggle to find time for dinner at home as he or she has spent so many hours toiling in the office during the day. Fast food joints, canned packaged foods and restaurants have increasingly become an option by some people who rely on these foods for their daily meal requirements. However these foods are usually extremely unhealthy due to the presence of saturated fat, excess oil, excess salt and loads of preservatives. These food items don’t provide any nutrition to the people and they are nothing but a source of bad carbohydrates and cholesterol for people. That is why obesity and health issues are on a rise. Hence the emergence of Diet Food Delivery Services as alternative for such foods has increased. (Read remaining article below)
Diet to Go is a diet food delivery service which is most widely used in the US. The meals delivered by Diet to Go have a proven weight loss efficacy and the people who consume these meals lose much weight without doing any additional effort like exercise etc. Diet to Go offers vegetarian meals, traditional meals and low carbohydrate meals. All the meals are prepared by extremely talented chefs in home like kitchen environment. The meals offered by Diet to Go have undergone medical scrutiny and various famous doctors have approved the Diet to Go meals. Its meals which are prepared with special food engineering and are capable of inducing a weight loss of more than 20 lbs. very quickly. It also offers a special food collection system where the consumers can have food that’s never been frozen.
Diet to Go Meal Plan Costs
Low-Fat Traditional Menu
5-Day Plan with Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner – $116.59 per week/$7.77 per meal
Grab a $30 off Coupon and price is only $86.59
7-Day Plan with Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner – $145.99 per week/$6.95 per meal
Grab a $50 off Coupon and price is only $95.99
Vegetarian Menu
5-Day Plan with Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner – $116.59 per week/$7.77 per meal
Grab a $30 off Coupon and price is only $86.59
7-Day Plan with Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner – $145.99 per week/$6.95 per meal
Grab a $50 off Coupon and price is only $95.99
Low-Carb Menu
5-Day Plan with Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner – $136.99 per week/$9.13 per meal
Grab a $50 off Coupon and price is only $86.99
7-Day Plan with Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner – $169.59 per week/$8.07 per meal
Grab a $50 off Coupon and price is only $119.59
Diet to Go is the most affordable home food delivery service provider and it offers the best price per meal. This is another reason that its diet plans have a mass appeal and a wider customer base. The three types of menus offer a wide variety of meals to choose from. For each menu, there are separate scrumptious items for breakfast, lunch and dinner. This diet food delivery service can be apt for your weight loss and dieting routine because it provides calorie restricted meals. Frozen food technology is used by the Diet to Go which preserves nutrition in food. There are two different types of diet plans for men and women to suit their weight loss plans. This diet food delivery service has been ranked at the top for its food quality and taste
There is another popular health food delivery service know as BistroMD which offers meal delivery service for either seven or five days in a week. You can also further customize the delivery. BistroMD also provides separate programs for men and women but it provides a single menu to choose from which restricts your choice. The breakfast, lunch and dinner menus are separate and the food is delicious.
BistroMD is more costly than Diet to Go but that could due to the fact that it outsources the production of its food and doesn’t have an `in-house’ kitchen. You can choose your meal plan from a range of 200 different recipes. The consumers experience weight loss after consuming the food delivered by Bistro MD because it is nutritionally balanced in terms of protein, fat and carbohydrate ratio. People with special dietary requirements will experience difficulty in choosing meals with this plan.
eDiets offers diet plans for diabetic people, overweight people and vegetarians. This is another diet plan that is meant for keeping the heart in perfect health. This diet plan is also more costly than Diet to Go. Another drawback of eDiets is that it also outsources its food and there is no in house elaborate meal preparation. eDiets delivers frozen food which you need to microwave like the Bistro MD but you don’t have the choice of eating non frozen food. It has recently come up with a Mediterranean meal plan too.
Emergence of Diet Food Delivery Services (cont.)
Some people argue that at least on the weekends you can prepare your own fresh meals at home. But would you really want to spend your holidays on cooking rather than enjoying your vacation? That’s when diet food delivery services step in to relieve people from the stress of cooking and meal planning. These healthy food delivery services are the perfect replacement for all the unhealthy fast food that you’ve been consuming due to lack of time or cooking skills. Diet food delivery companies are doing an excellent job by helping millions of households in arranging healthy food for their families. These are companies which provide healthy ready to consume meals for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks to the customers and regularly the food is delivered at your door step. The diet food’s delivery is done either at the customer’s home or at the office address as requested by the customer.
Diet Food Delivery Services are Extremely Convenient
Diet food delivery has slowly caught up really well with people because it is the perfect combination of comfort and heath. The meals delivered by the diet food delivery services contain perfectly balanced ratio of carbohydrates, proteins, fiber and fat. The good diet food delivery services provide daily meals which are low in salt and contain fixed amount of calories in every meal. This saves you from the effort of counting the calories in every meal. Good diet food delivery services cater for the requirements of various people according to their health conditions and diet sensibilities. Healthy food delivery services provide specially prepared meals for vegetarians, non vegetarians, traditional food lovers, low carbohydrate requirements, high protein requirements, diabetic people and gluten sensitive people etc.
Diet Food Delivery Services for Special Health Requirements
There are a few people who require special health care and attention like pregnant women, aged people, people who have undergone some surgery, very small children and nursing mothers. No matter how hard their families try, they are never able to pay proper attention to their special dietary requirements because of the efforts and time that goes into it. But what if you could get fresh meals which taste exactly like home cooked food? These Diet food delivery services not only cater to healthy people, but they also provide their meal services for these types of people who need special kinds of nutritious food. The best part is that this diet food that is delivered by these companies does not contain unhealthy preservatives. Even if they do contain preservatives, then it is in such low quantities that it doesn’t cause harm to the body.
Fresh and Pure Diet Foods
Now you may wonder how these meals, delivered by the diet food delivery services, are kept fresh despite the fact that these food items lack preservatives. Those services, which don’t use preservatives, actually utilize the technology of freezing the food items. Doctors and nutritionists always recommend frozen food over food containing preservatives. When the food is completely frozen, then any form of bacterial, fungal or viral growth is completely inhibited in the food item and it retains its nutritional value till the time it is consumed. So, you can be sure that the vitamins and minerals in your diet food are intact when they are delivered to your home. All you have to do is to microwave the meal directly as it is already packed in microwavable containers. Imagine how much time you save daily which you had to spend earlier doing the dishes and cleaning up your kitchen.
Taste is not Compromised with Diet Food Delivery
Many people have the misconception that diet food is always boring and you have to compromise on your taste to benefit from it. But this is not the case. The top diet food delivery services make special efforts in preparing meals that are extremely delicious. All the meals provided to you have excellent flavors as they are prepared in modern well equipped `company kitchens’ by talented chefs. Every dish from various cuisines provided by the diet meal delivery services has authentic taste of its cuisine. You can even have healthy versions of your favorite burgers and noodles. Therefore, if you and your family order meals from diet delivery services, then you would never feel like eating outside. It will not only save your expenses but it will also be good for your health too.
Ample Meal Choices in Your Diet
If you think that you won’t be able to eat from a choice of 30-40 meals for your whole life then you’re mistaken. These healthy food delivery services have wide range of food items and the meal choices for customers are numerous. They have hundreds of various dishes that you can choose from so that you don’t ever get bored with the variety. Seasonal additions are done in the meal menu of many of the diet food delivery services. The quantity of the food per meal depends upon the calorie plan that you have chosen. Special meal plans are usually available for men and women as they require different portion sizes.
Diet Food Delivery Fits Your Budget
The cost for the diet meal delivery is also extremely affordable and it can easily be accommodated in the food budget of various households. Have you ever imagined how much money you actually spend on a meal that you prepare at home? You have to spend money on buying ingredients from supermarket, paying the gas bills, paying for water and electricity spent in cooking, etc. Therefore when you compare home delivered meals with home cooked meals, you’ll realize that the diet delivery services don’t charge anything extra for their super convenient services. In fact, many times you would find that you’re saving money from your monthly food budget when you use diet food delivery services and that too without compromising on the quality of food.
How the Diet Food is so Healthy
The diet food is extremely healthy and stringent hygiene measures are taken in the preparation of meals. The diet meals are prepared using healthy cooking methods like baking, stir frying, roasting, grilling and steaming, etc. to name a few. Low fat cooking oil, lean meats, and green vegetables are integral parts of the diet meals. This is the reason that people who consume diet food are able to lose weight without any extra physical activity. The portion controlled sizes, the inclusion of sufficient fruits and vegetables, the usage of good carbohydrates, the less salt used and the minimal sugar content of these diet meals help the consumers to reduce their weight. People who are already in their ideal weight range are also able to maintain their weight better if they make diet foods a part of their life.
Weight Loss Becomes Easy with Diet Food Delivery
Overweight people spend so much money on various weight loss services which are extremely costly. You have to do calorie counting for each of your meal on your own then. Typical weight loss services consume so much of your time and efforts. Meal planning becomes so difficult when you’re trying to lose weight. It becomes next to impossible to prepare a meal for your office lunch daily in the morning. But all these problems are eliminated when you use healthy food delivery services. No matter what kind of diet you’re following, diet food delivery is available for almost all kind of popular diets recommended by doctors. These meals so nutritionally balanced that they can be consumed by children too. The daily nutritional requirements are completely fulfilled by the consumption of these diet foods. You can lose even up to 50 lbs with these home delivered meals.
Our Conclusion
Diet food delivery services have become an essential requirement of modern times because they help the people in keeping track of their diet. The calorie specific diet plans help you in losing weight quickly without staying hungry. You can easily lose weight despite being a workaholic by utilizing these healthy food delivery services if you choose the right service.
