Community Chat

[software]

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@Mmsfoxxie wrote:

I enjoyed Blue Apron very much.  In the summer months they are the best because of the availability of so many fresh vegetables.  Food arrives on time, still frozen or almost frozen.  As you said, just right portion size.  One negative about Blue Apron...their shrimp has a bad taste like a chemical.  Numerous complaints about it last year.

I've also tried two others, Hello Fresh and Home Chef.  I think of the three that I've tried, Home Chef had the most weekly variety to choose from.  Blue Apron let's you choose the type of food you like, meat, fish, or vegetarian and they send you that type of meal weekly that they select unless you skip.  Home Chef gives you much more to select from weekly, not just the three meals, two of each.

I stopped ordering, not because I was displeased with the food but because my husband thought it was not enough in portion size and he was anti vegetables.  (Since then, he has been diagnosed with diabetes and has to eat veggies so with that in mind, I might go on plan again).  The other concern I had with one that most might think silly but I thought about the fact that I might not be able to stop deliveries in time if something happened to me.  Remember, you have to contact them to stop or deliveries keep coming.  Oh, one more issue...there were a couple of times that my schedule did not permit me to cook the vegetables at their fresh delivered state.

All of those services misrepresent the preparation time, at least for me.  That chopping and dicing takes a lot of time and use of dishes.

This week, I'm going to try Freshly a service where the food is already cooked.  It's like frozen dinners but supposedly better.  I decided to try it because it's already portioned for you and no prep time, obviously.  Hubby has a hard time realizing what a portion is, lol.

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I bet deliveries stop when the checks quit rolling in!    It's just not something I worry about.   I figure when I stop paying, it's time to stop a delivery!

[Mmsfoxxie]

@software, they have your credit card number on file.  There has been a time or two that I forgot to notify Blue Apron that I wanted to skip a particular week and there it was at my door that Friday.  I could have been out of town and come back to spoiled food.  I get so many emails from them that I missed reading the notifications.  Totally my fault because I know how the program works.  Every week you have to be on alert to cancel for the following week.

[Kachina624]

These food services seem to be everywhere I look.  I want my food to arrive cooked and ready to eat.  I don't want to stand in the kitchen 30min to prepare it. 

[GusMo]

My concern is the cost and the amount of packaging. 

I tried Blue Apron, thought it was very expensive and lots of trash/recycling. 

[tdog]

@Sooner  What is a sous vide?

[mantaraye]

@Mmsfoxxie -  I was subscribed to Freshly. Their food is delicious, but when I read the sodium content of their dishes, I deactivated my account. One dish, in particular, Chicken Parmigiana, sodium content was 1460.

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@Mmsfoxxie wrote:

I enjoyed Blue Apron very much.  In the summer months they are the best because of the availability of so many fresh vegetables.  Food arrives on time, still frozen or almost frozen.  As you said, just right portion size.  One negative about Blue Apron...their shrimp has a bad taste like a chemical.  Numerous complaints about it last year.

I've also tried two others, Hello Fresh and Home Chef.  I think of the three that I've tried, Home Chef had the most weekly variety to choose from.  Blue Apron let's you choose the type of food you like, meat, fish, or vegetarian and they send you that type of meal weekly that they select unless you skip.  Home Chef gives you much more to select from weekly, not just the three meals, two of each.

I stopped ordering, not because I was displeased with the food but because my husband thought it was not enough in portion size and he was anti vegetables.  (Since then, he has been diagnosed with diabetes and has to eat veggies so with that in mind, I might go on plan again).  The other concern I had with one that most might think silly but I thought about the fact that I might not be able to stop deliveries in time if something happened to me.  Remember, you have to contact them to stop or deliveries keep coming.  Oh, one more issue...there were a couple of times that my schedule did not permit me to cook the vegetables at their fresh delivered state.

All of those services misrepresent the preparation time, at least for me.  That chopping and dicing takes a lot of time and use of dishes.

This week, I'm going to try Freshly a service where the food is already cooked.  It's like frozen dinners but supposedly better.  I decided to try it because it's already portioned for you and no prep time, obviously.  Hubby has a hard time realizing what a portion is, lol.

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[HappyDaze]

I love Sunbasket- mostly organic ingredients and very interesting combinations, lots of healthy choices and I love that their packaging is recycleable. I do enjoy Home Chef as well. Their meals are more basic but still tasty and I've found some really good meals that I can make on my own with my own groceries.The thing I don't like about Home Chef is all the waste that comes with their boxes and not recycleable so I don't use them that often.

We get the 2 person meal plan that comes with 3 meals a week which is so convenient as we rarely have time to shop and we don't like to eat out very often. It is also the perfect amount of food so we don't waste anything. Sometimes more than enough for leftovers which we generally will have for a lunch at work. 

The thing is with any of these home food programs is you do NOT need to use the amount of salt and/or butter that they suggest in the recipe or give with the meal. i never add salt to any of the meals even when they say to and I may or may not use the butter but certainly not as much as they give with the box. In other words, there are ways to make them healthier (e.g. less sodium, less fat) if you are creative and don't follow their recipes to a "T". 

[tansy]

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@Kachina624 wrote:

These food services seem to be everywhere I look.  I want my food to arrive cooked and ready to eat.  I don't want to stand in the kitchen 30min to prepare it. 

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Up above someone mentioned Freshly.  

[Mmsfoxxie]

Oh my goodness, @mantaraye, that definitely is high.  We haven't tried ours yet.  It came on a Saturday and we had leftovers in the fridge from Friday.  Then, on Easter Sunday, we went out to dinner, eating our doggy bag food today, lol.  It's in the freezer.

Thanks for mentioning the sodium.  My husband looked at the packaging and said it looked mighty small, lol.

[Sooner]

It is a device that sort of looks like a stick blender (it's about that size) but you put it in a pot of water and it heats the water gently and cooks food that is sealed in a plastic bag.  The water doesn't get terribly hot and you cook in in the pot but doesn't have to be in a stove.

It makes wonderful chicken, fish and even steak (not as good as grilled but good!).  It is easy to use, accurate, you can hold the cooked food at temp for a good while (if you have people eating at different times), and no real mess to clean up.

Read about it!  Restaurants have used them for many years.

I hope that helps!