Review of semi-finished food delivery service: Can you save time and effort while also having deliciousness and health?

If you have already formed a small family and have children to raise, you must deeply understand the difficulty of buying groceries and cooking every day - it takes much more time and energy than you think.

Now imagine that you have a service that provides you with the types and quantities of ingredients you need to purchase, along with a detailed cooking recipe. Do you think this is a good idea? Would you subscribe to this service?

To find out, I spent nearly a month trying various recipes from several companies that offer different ingredients. These are the current leaders in the industry, including Blue Apron, Plated, Purple Carrot, Hello Fresh and Marley Spoon. These companies have their own advantages and disadvantages in terms of taste, price and customer service. Ultimately, whether this service is good or not depends on you - whether you are picky about food and whether you value your time.

Since the kids were already full by the time they got home, it was just my husband and I who tried the three double-sized meals each day that these companies provided.

Here are my experiences. You can find short reviews of four of these companies here.

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Ingredients for three meals a day provided by Blue Apron

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The ingredients for three meals a day provided by "Purple Carrot"

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Ingredients for three meals a day provided by "Mary's Key"

Is the price acceptable?

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Italian beef mince sandwich from the Blue Apron recipe

The meal was about $10 per person, which is more than if you bought the ingredients directly from the store, but probably cheaper than if you ordered takeout or ordered food from a restaurant (depending on the local cost). I didn't save money here.

The delivered ingredients are cooked according to the recipe without any leftovers, just like when you use up all the ingredients you bought from the store to make a meal or finish all the takeout you ordered. Excluding the first week discounts offered by these companies, my family's weekly food expenses have increased by about 60% compared to before.
Does it really save time?

That's true, but I also don't think the time I spend in the kitchen has really decreased. I've gotten better at cooking, but it still takes me much longer than the recipe says. But the time I save on shopping for ingredients is quite a bit, because if I cook, it's still quite time-consuming to go to the store to buy ingredients and then carry them back from home.

On the other hand, it saves time and trouble: when the dinner bell rings, you don't have to think about what to eat tonight. (Except when you have to prepare the New Year's Eve dinner.) You can cook a table of delicious food without going to a specialty store to select ingredients.

No more carrying bags of vegetables and fish on the subway, no more dragging them up to the kitchen at the other end of the ladder. Just thinking about it makes me feel that life is good. Suburban residents driving SUVs may just smile and say nothing.

There’s nothing more relaxing than waiting for all the ingredients for dinner to arrive at your door. But sometimes, it’s annoying when the ingredients don’t work. One time, the shrimp recipe from Hello Fresh Meat sent me an avocado that I couldn’t even cut with a knife, and I had to go to a nearby store to exchange the ingredients.
Is it healthy and nutritious?

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Chicken & Sage Pot Pie from the Blue Apron recipe

It depends on the situation. All companies will provide a food calorie table, and most meat products are between 500 and 700 calories. The calorie table is of course written very clearly, but eating it is another matter.

What I hate most is that Blue Apron always makes up nonsense about the portion sizes, providing two servings of food but claiming that they are for three people. For example, the Italian beef sandwich for dinner, with cheese sauce and potato wedges, is marked as 590 calories per serving on the calorie table. The ingredients given are enough to make two sandwiches, but the recipe says it is a dinner for three people. As you can imagine, my husband and I finished this "three-person dinner" in one go, with a total intake of 885 calories per person.

Blue Apron explained that the excess portions were due to occasional fluctuations in supply from ingredient suppliers, and reiterated that most ingredients were indeed for two people.

Of course, some of the fresh ingredients they offer are also very exciting. "Plate Food" boasts its own pure natural wild Atlantic salmon; "Blue Apron" uses Gulf of Mexico crayfish; "Hello Fresh Meat" imports native Indian crayfish; "Mary's Key" is not to be outdone, using high-end suppliers well known to gourmets as a selling point and importing their raw materials.

But sometimes there are "mysterious dishes". "Blue Apron" sometimes presents "roast chicken with gravy sauce" and "group pancake", but there is no list of ingredients in the box, nor on the company's website. "Blue Apron" explained that they only provide customers with the ingredients they need, and do not need to show the recipe, which may be adapted to local conditions.

The amazing salmon dish at "Plate Meals" also uses seafood sauce, but the ingredients and additives are not disclosed. Some dishes at "Hello Fresh Meat" also use seafood sauce, but the ingredients are rarely listed on the takeaway packaging. As expected, it must contain artificial food coloring, which is something I avoid at all costs.
How does it taste?

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Shrimp lettuce wraps from the Hello Fresh Meat recipe

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Brown sugar glazed tenderloin from the Hello Fresh Meat recipe

Nutrition aside, some of the dishes are really delicious, but some still bring me back to the taste of my elementary school cafeteria.

Purple Carrot's menu is strictly vegetarian, which may not suit some people's appetite. Some of the vegetarian dishes are very good, although it is still time-consuming. In addition, unlike other companies that give you a menu list and let you choose three meals freely, Purple Carrot gives you a fixed menu every week, and what you eat for each meal is determined, and you have no choice.

It is worth mentioning that other companies provide customers with a wide range of vegetable categories. At "Hello Xiaoxianrou", you can also subscribe to a special vegetable channel, which is cheaper than the vegetables regularly sold by other companies.

To sum up. Blue Apron's dishes are ordinary and bland, which reminds people of the countless mundane daily trivialities in women's minds. "Plate of Meals" can give you a higher-end choice in food, but you have to pay more for it. Considering that you have to spend at least $72 per week on average, the $12 for wild Atlantic salmon is really worth it. "Mary's Spoon" also offers high-end ingredients, but the cost is slightly less while ensuring quality. "Hello Little Fresh Meat" is still better than "Blue Apron" in terms of delivery and taste, although it has declined in the middle. It is not as good as "Plate of Meals" and "Mary's Spoon".
Summarize

It's worth a try. All the companies I tried offered generous first-week deals. But if you decide you won't be ordering again, you can cancel your next delivery online. Cancelling deliveries takes time and effort, and many people end up paying for food they don't want because they didn't cancel online in time.

Whether this service is worth it depends on whether you are willing to invest the time. It's nice to save time going to the grocery store, but is the time you save worth $60-$72 per week?

After a few weeks, I got tired of the pre-packaged food I received and began to miss fresh-baked bread, my favorite Turkish chili, and the irresistible "Free Beer Wednesdays" at a nearby Thai restaurant.

I still subscribe to Meals on a Plate and Mary's Key, but I think it's time to go back to grocery shopping. But maybe once I start trudging up the endless stairs with my bags, I'll change my mind.