Meal Kits

One place where a lot of food subscription services slip up is that they don’t offer specialized eating plans; some of them include one or two vegetarian options or a token gluten-free meal.

For the most part, though, the meals are based around what works for everyone, which means that if you’re trying to follow a Keto or gluten-free lifestyle, you’re out of luck.

Green Chef offers a range of different meal programs that cater to those with special dietary requirements—and all the ingredients are organic.

On the downside, this service can be one of the more expensive options. Is it worth paying the extra money?

In this review, we’ll go over precisely what you’ll be getting.

How Does Green Chef Work?

You pick the meal plan that works best for you, and then you select how many servings you’d like; you can choose two or four servings.

Finally, pick the delivery date that suits you; deliveries are made on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday.

You’ll then get all the ingredients for two to three meals as well as the recipes.

The plan is quite flexible. You can check the menu options for the upcoming week and adjust as required.

If you don’t see anything that you like, you can skip that week; you can also opt for weekly deliveries, or deliveries every second week.

You are also able to veto certain foods. So, if you don’t eat shellfish, for example, you can take it off your menu.

That said, if you do have a severe allergy, we’d have to advise against using a food subscription service.

The food is prepped according to health and safety regulations, which means that you won’t have raw chicken being prepped with the veggies.

That said, there could be cross-contamination with allergens.

The company delivers to almost anywhere in the United States.

If you’re in Alaska, some areas in Louisiana, or Hawaii, you’ll have to find an alternate delivery service.

When you get your box, you’ll notice that the ingredients are packed with as little waste as possible.

The bags are color-coded so that you can easily split out all the ingredients for each particular recipe. This bonus is quite helpful when you’re unpacking everything.

Green Chef preps the food as much as possible so that you won’t have to worry about endlessly chopping carrots and onions.

Where possible, sauces are already made up for you.

From a convenience standpoint, we have to say that this service scores big points.

Types of Meals Available

You’ll get a blend of comfort food and some exotic ingredients, which should suit you perfectly if you’re more adventurous in the kitchen.

There are six different meal plans to try out:

• Paleo: These are the kinds of foods cave dwellers might have eaten, which means more whole foods and no dairy, soy, gluten, or grain.
• Gluten-free: A gluten-sensitivity can make your life difficult. Every meal in this line is packed with flavor, without the gluten.
• Plant-Powered: These meals may contain no meat, but they are packed with balanced sources of plant protein, though.
• Keto: Your meals are prepared in accordance following keto principles. That means low-carb and gluten-free.
• Omnivore: Contains a good balance between meat and vegetables.
• Carnivore: Also contains veggies, but the meat is the real star here.

As you can see, there are a lot of options. Unfortunately, at this stage, the only family plans are the Omnivore and Carnivore.

That’s a bit of a nuisance, but we can understand their reasoning; younger kids should probably not be looking into ultra-low carb eating, anyway.

All meals are available in boxes for two people.

Pricing

The amount that you pay depends on how many servings you order; here is what each serving costs:

• Keto: One portion is $12.99
• Paleo: One portion is $12.99
• Omnivore: One portion is $11.99, but this drops to $10.99 for the family boxes
• Carnivore: One portion is $11.99, but this drops to $10.99 for the family boxes
• Plant-Powered: One portion starts at $9.99. The price can vary depending on what’s in the box
• Gluten-free: One portion is $11.99

There is also a $6.99 fee per box for shipping.

The two-person boxes contain enough food for three meals for two people or a total of six portions. So, plan on one of these boxes starting at $66.93.

The family boxes contain two meals for four people or a total of eight portions for $94.91.

Company History

Green Chef is based in the United States and was started in 2014.

It’s a small company on a mission to provide healthy, organic meals.

Alternatives

• Freshly: Don’t feel like cooking? Freshly cooks and delivers the meals. Just open and reheat.
• Gobble: All the meal prep is done for you. All you need is a pan and fifteen minutes.
• Purple Carrot: This site is for plant-based eating only – you’re not getting any meat here.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• One of the few to cater to special dietary needs
• Flexible subscription service
• You may opt out of two proteins with the two-person boxes
• You can opt out of more protein options with the family boxes
• It’s easy to change to a different menu
• You can check each week’s menus and opt out if you prefer
• You get your recipe and all the ingredients
• It can save you money – you don’t have to go to the store or face temptation while there
• Food is tasty
• Organic, non-GMO ingredients
• The bags are color-coded by recipe

Cons

• It’s pricey
• You can’t change the number of meals received per box
• Servings are for two or four people only
• You can’t choose your dinners

Green Chef Review Final Thoughts

It seems that there are more and more newcomers joining the meal kit market daily.

By and large, the most popular meal services function the same; they send you all the ingredients to make a tasty meal.

Green Chef makes things convenient for the home cook because everything is delivered to your door—and they set themselves apart by providing recipes and ingredients that make it easy to follow a paleo, gluten-free, or vegetarian lifestyle.

When you get home late and are trying to figure out what to make for dinner, it is easy to run out of options, especially if you happen to be even just a little bit tired.

I’m sure you can imagine that having a well-prepared, ready-to-cook meal could come as a real lifesaver in these situations.

Well, imagine no more.

Gobble is one such service that makes this seemingly impossible feat into a reality, and in this review, we break down what this company is all about.

How Does Gobble Work?

Gobble is a meal delivery service that delivers ready-to-cook ingredients right to your home.

The company has a team of chefs that prepare the ingredients; they do all the cutting, washing, and marinating for you so that all you have to do is cook them once they have been delivered. Gobble’s goal is to provide healthy, only-one-pan-needed meals.

They prep for dinners, and more recently have also come up with menus for lunches as well.

To get started using Gobble, all you need to do is register on the company’s website.

Registering an account is easy—just go to the company’s website, and you will find a prominent hanging ribbon where you fill in your details to get started on the registration process.

You will be required to fill in your personal details, address, and other information that can help round out your profile.

(Note that Gobble allows each household to edit their account at any time to customize or render suggestions to the menus that have been tailored for them.)

Once this is done, you can then proceed to choose your meals and check out.

The ingredients you have ordered will then be delivered to you in the shortest time possible. Gobble adheres to a strict data protection policy that ensures none of your sensitive information will ever be shared with any unauthorized persons.

Types of Meals Available

Gobble positions itself as a leading nutritious food delivery company.

With this in mind, the company endeavors to tailor menus that are not only healthy and delicious, but also meet the specific dietary needs of its customers.

Gobble makes this possible by offering a wide variety of menus and meal options. And as we mentioned earlier, the newest development in the company’s offerings is the option of having lunch ingredients delivered, as well.

Notable is that many meal delivery companies in this category focus their attention only on dinners.

Gobble has custom menus for both vegetarians and non-vegetarians—and if you’d like a combination of both, you can choose this option when you are registering for your account, and Gobble will come up with a custom menu for you.

Changes can be made to the preferences at any time with the convenient option to edit your profile.

Gobble also considers food allergies (there are nut-free and gluten-free options available) and whether you are on a weight loss program.

And, as stated earlier, every meal can easily be prepared by the use of just one pan. This saves you from a ton of dishes to do afterward.

Pricing

Gobble has some of the best rates among all other meal delivery companies in the industry.

Although Gobble does not offer a wide variety of plans, I still think it offers the most flexibility, because you can choose a dinner or lunch package.

This is a real power move by Gobble that is yet to be matched by any other such service.

The dinner package costs $11.99 per serving, and you have the option to choose between a two- or four-person serving.

With the initial subscription to this plan, you will get a week of free shipping. Once this period has elapsed, there will be a $6.99 delivery fee.

For this plan, the veggie option is available, and you get a customized box of new recipes each week.

The lunch package is an affordable $5.99 per serving deal that is also available for two- and four-person servings.

For this plan, you also get free delivery for the first week, and as for the dinner package, a $6.99 shipping fee follows once this period is over. Customization of grain and protein options is possible with this plan.

For both the lunch and dinner packages, the commitment is a monthly one.

The good thing about this is that you are free to skip weeks in between and they will be carried over as credit to the next month once you renew your subscription to the service.

Company History

Founded in 2010 by Ooshma Garg, Gobble is one of the pioneers in its market segment.

This company has continued to set the pace for many other companies that have come after it.

Its brave move to diversify into lunch ingredients delivery has been lauded by many as a game-changer in this burgeoning market.

Alternatives

• Freshly is a ready-made food delivery company that utilizes the expertise of chefs to come up with custom meal plans for their customers.
• Green Chef is a meal delivery company that delivers organic, flavorful meal kits to your home.
• Peach Dish is an American meal kit delivery company that delivers fresh ingredients and groceries to your home, ready for cooking.

Pros

• Lunch plan – Gobble has a dedicated lunch plan—an option which other meal delivery companies do not have among their services.
• Caters to different groups – Unlike other companies, Gobble allows you to have access to nut-free and gluten-free meals in case of allergies or due to a weight loss program.
• Affordable monthly rates – The $5.99 lunch plan is one among the most affordable in the market.

Cons

• Requires long commitment – All Gobble contracts require a one-month commitment. Compared to other companies that allow you to order one-off meals, this can be inconvenient.
• Delivery fee – While the company offers free delivery for the first week, there will be a delivery fee after that.

Gobble Review Final Thoughts

Gobble is a seasoned veteran in the world of meal kit delivery services.

This positions it favorably as on of the meal kit service market leaders and an ideal go-to option for many people looking for meal kits.

Having the option of getting ready-made, nutritious meals without lifting a finger is an idea that many of us would jump on without a second thought.

This concept could be a real blessing, especially for people that work late and can’t find time to prepare wholesome meals themselves—and that’s where subscription-based meal services come in.

This review of Freshly—one such service—will shed some light on what this particular meal delivery service is all about.

How Does Freshly Work?

Freshly delivers fresh, chef-prepared meals to your doorstep a couple of times a week, depending on your preference and the plan that you choose. To get started on this service, you will need to register first.

To do so, simply go online to Freshly’s website and clicking on the green “register” button on the top right corner of the homepage.

This action will lead you to another page where you will be required to fill in your full mailing address; this information is necessary, as this is a doorstep delivery service.

Once you have completed that section, you will be asked to fill in your personal details, which will create your preference profile on the site.

Additionally, you will be asked for more information that can help in verifying your location and your identity. Then you are ready to begin selecting your meals from the available meals on the menu.

Once you have chosen your meals, you can then proceed to checkout.

You can expect your deliveries to begin one week later; this arrangement will continue until you instruct Freshly to stop delivering the meals.

One of the major advantages of using Freshly is that you can skip a week and then resume the following week, allowing for vacations and such.

This convenience allows for quite a bit of flexibility with your meal planning schedule.

Types of Meals Available

One of the most outstanding features of Freshly is that it has a surprising variety of delicious meals that you can choose from.

The menu changes weekly, without any compromise to the quality of the meals, and the options include both vegetarian and omnivore meals.

And best of all, with Freshly, you need not worry that you will be getting poorly made, unhealthy meals delivered to your doorstep. In my time using the service, I enjoyed the most sumptuous vegetarian meal I ever had—Korean-style veggie bibimbap with brown rice.

Believe me—I was pleasantly shocked that I could find something as yummy as this on a menu for a subscription meal delivery service.

And as beef is always my protein of choice, I also opted for the slow-cooked beef chili—which stole my tastebuds—and my heart—away.

One of the most appealing features about these meals is that a chef individually prepares each one of them. Many services such as this will claim they have a kitchen staff made of qualified chefs, only for you to find out that it was just a marketing gimmick.

This couldn’t be further from the truth with Freshly—the careful curation of the ingredients in the meals will demonstrate this.

Additionally, the meals can be warmed up and eaten in less than three minutes, and—trust me on this—you will not even notice that the food has been reheated in the microwave when you taste it.

Furthermore, neither will your guests…unless they see you receiving the delivery on your doorstep.

Pricing

You would expect that such nutritious meals that have been handcrafted by chefs would cost an arm and a leg, but the price plans are relatively affordable for all.

Freshly has four meal plans that you can choose from depending on your budget and preference:

11. Four meals a week = $11.50 per meal, plus $3.99 per delivery for shipping.
12. Six meals a week = $8.99 per meal, plus $6.05 per delivery for shipping.
13. Nine meals a week = $8.99 per meal, plus $9.08 per delivery for shipping.
14. Twelve meals a week = $7.99 per meal, plus $12.11 per delivery for shipping.

Freshly allows you to skip meals for up to a week and have them carried over to the next week.

Additionally, you will get refunds for any meals that get delivered incorrectly or inappropriately if you had made earlier communication.

Company History

Freshly was founded in New York in 2013 by Michael Wystrach and Carter Comstock.

The company has since then grown to be a reputable, ready-food delivery company in the United States.

Alternatives

While a fantastic subscription food service, Freshly is not your only option. Here are a few more well regarded meal kit subscriptions we have found while in the course of our research:

• Sun Basket – This company delivers fresh, wholesome, and organic ingredients to its customers monthly and allows them to prepare their own meals.
• Farm Fresh To You – This California company delivers freshly-picked organic vegetables and fruits to your doorstep—right from the fields of their team of cooperative farms.
• Chef’s Plate – This meal delivery company prides itself in delivering ingredients and accompanying recipes that can be whipped up into delicious meals within 30 minutes.

Pros

• Customization – Freshly allows its customers to customize their menu plans and have their desired meals delivered right to their doorstep.
• Excellent customer service – Freshly has mastered the art of longevity in the service industry by offering fantastic customer service and attention to detail.
• Nutritious meals – This meticulous meal delivery service ensures its menus are prepared with the help of professional chefs and nutritionists.

Cons

• No free delivery – Unlike some other meal subscription services, Freshly charges for any deliveries that it makes to your doorstep.

Freshly Review Final Thoughts

Freshly is an excellent ready-meal delivery service.

Their use of expert chefs and culinary professionals in the preparation of your meals makes for a great meal every time.

The busier we get, the more we may toss vital activities – like cooking healthy meals – to the back burner.

If we do manage to cook, we may prepare the most straightforward, fastest, and often unhealthy, quick-fix meals, or order fat-laden takeaways and consider mealtime done.

In the end, we fail our bodies with these substitute meals.

So, what if someone prepared healthy meals for your family and delivered them right to your doorstep?

Well, that’s exactly what Fresh Meal Plan does. The company cooks and delivers healthy, balanced, and delicious meals from their kitchen to your home, once or twice a week.

According to the company’s website, an internationally acclaimed chef ascertains that the more than 500 dishes available are nourishing for your body.

How Does Fresh Meal Plan Work?

To become a member of the Fresh Meal Plan, visit its website, and sign up. Then, select the ideal meal plan for your family and a suitable menu for your first week’s deliveries.

You’ll choose meals every week because Fresh Meal Plan refreshes its menus weekly.

To pick a new week’s meal, log-in and select your preference.

It’s that simple!

If you don’t make your selection, the system automatically chooses a meal for you based on your first meal plan and the dislikes you shared during the sign-up process.

Fresh Meal Plan is headquartered in Florida and delivers to the 48 contiguous U.S. states. The delivery method and frequency vary by location. Florida residents, for instance, receive their hand deliveries twice a week in two sets.

The first batch arrives on Sunday night or Monday morning, and the next one on Wednesday night or Thursday morning.

Meals for residents in other states are shipped out every Thursday afternoon via FedEx.

The parcel comes in a nicely sealed, sturdy container containing dry ice and accompanied by a tracking ID that you will receive in advance via email.

After delivery, refrigerate your meals and reheat only at mealtimes.

To heat your meal, remove the film and sauce containers, then place the meal container in a microwave for 2-3 minutes and serve. The containers are microwave-safe but should not be oven-heated.

The use of cooler bags and ice containers during delivery helps maintain freshness during transit.

Please note that you must return the delivery bag with your next order or you are liable for a $10 non-refundable bag fee.

Types of Meals Available

The menu options cater to all and include vegetables, proteins, and carbohydrates or alternatives.

• Traditional menus contain complex carbohydrates, lean proteins, and vegetables.
• Paleo menus include lean proteins, vegetables, nuts, and seeds, to provide fatty acids essential for your body. This menu is low in cholesterol, sodium, complex carbohydrates, and saturated fats.
• The Keto menu is low in carbohydrates, moderate in proteins, and high in healthy fats. This menu is perfect if you want to lose weight. The low-carbohydrate levels force your body to use fats for energy and drive your body into ketosis to burn excess fat.
• Fresh Meal Plan’s Vegan menus incorporate healthy, balanced, and delicious no-meat meals for plant-loving individuals.
• Lean and Mean menus comprise high proteins, limited carbohydrates, and few fats. This menu is perfect for bodybuilders keen on maintaining their physiques. Unfortunately, this menu doesn’t have the option to change meals weekly like the rest of the menus.
• The XL Menu caters to those wanting extra protein in their meals. The menus are the same, but you’ll get double-protein portions.

Pricing

Pricing varies by your meal plan.

Three meal plans and six menu options are available with Fresh Meal Plan, including:

• 6 meals at $12.00 per meal
• 10 meals at $10.90 per meal.
• 14 meals at $10.00 per meal.

This pricing formula translates to $72 per week for a 6-meal plan; $109 per week for a 10-meal plan; and $140 per week for a 14-meal program.

Billing is weekly. Florida residents get their bills every Friday, and others get theirs on Mondays.

As such, you should make any menu changes before your next billing cycle, based on your location.

For non-Florida residents, the Fresh Meal Plan website opens for selections from Wednesday at noon to Sunday at noon, and from noon on Saturday to noon on Wednesday for Florida residents.

Subscribers are required to choose their following week’s meals and update their orders accordingly during this window.

Company History

Marc Elkman, a certified personal trainer and health-and-fitness enthusiast, co-founded Fresh Meal Plan with Patrick Delaney.

They aim to offer an affordable, high-end, healthy, delicious, and nutritious meal delivery service that will change your family’s lives for the better.

Patrick Delaney is a prestigious Culinary Institute of America graduate and has served dignitaries, athletes, celebrities, and politicians, including former Presidents Bush and Clinton, the Saudi Royal Family, and Mikhail Gorbachev, among others.

Patrick and Mark weaved their professional skills and experience to craft this healthy, nutritious, and delicious meal plan for you and your family.

Alternatives

Other top meal subscription boxes that may be a good fit for you include:

• Martha and Marley Spoon: subscription services offer fresh ingredients accompanied with Martha Stewart’s recipes and photos for meal preparation.
• Farm Fresh to You: delivers 100% organic fruit-and-vegetable boxes to your home or office.
• Gobble: delivers fully prepped meals ready within 15 minutes, all in one pan.

Pros

• Delicious and balanced, fully cooked meals.
• The company allows flexibility to change your menus weekly.
• Reduces meal-preparation time to 2-3 minutes.
• XL option available for those who want to extra protein portions.
• Maintains a variety of menus and meal plans.
• Food is fresh and can stay unopened up to 10 days in your refrigerator.
• Packages use the latest technologies to preserve freshness during transit.

Cons

• Poor customer support reported.
• Vegetable servings can be insufficient.
• One fitness enthusiast said the Paleo menu uses deficient fat proteins like egg whites, extra lean chicken, and turkey, and that the vegetables are devoid of olive oil and butter.

Our Verdict

Fresh Meal Plan offers healthy, prepared, balanced meals for people who want to eat right but can’t seem to carve out time to cook and prepare healthful meals.

The subscription is perfect for people with busy lifestyles, as it takes off the stress and time required for meal preparation, cooking, and clean-up.

We certainly recommend it if you are a time-starved busy professional.

The Fresh Meal Plan motto – “Be Fit. Be Fed. Be Fresh.” – certainly lives up to its name!

Are you sick of trolling the produce section and coming up with limp lettuce and mushy mushrooms?

Farm Fresh to You vows to change your experience by delivering farm fresh fruit and veggies.

Does it deliver on its promises? In this review, we’ll go through what they offer and see for ourselves.

How Does Farm Fresh to You Work?

It’s simple enough.

Start by confirming your zip code, so that you know exactly when the company will deliver to your area.

Then it’s time to choose the box that you want.

Your choices are:

• Just fruit: This gives you a range of fresh fruit, all organic and in-season.
• A mix of fruit and veggies: Want some greens too? Then choose this mix. You’ll get a range of fruit and vegetables. Again, it’s seasonal produce; you can expect some veggies that need to be cooked, like potatoes and eggplants.
• A no cooking required box: Do you love eating raw vegetables? Then opt for this box. You’ll get some fruit and veggies. The upside is that you can eat everything as is.
• A snack pack: Fresh fruit that’s perfect for snacking.
• The traditional CSA box: This is all produce sourced on the company’s farm, or from one of its neighbors, so it has a minimal environmental impact.
• Veggie only: Maybe you don’t need or want fruit. Maybe you want veggies for juicing.
• Donate a Box: This allows you to donate a box of fresh produce to a family in need.

Next, you choose whether you want a “Regular” box with nine items or a “More” box with twelve items.

Then you can confirm your delivery schedule; this could be every week, every second week, or once a month, as you prefer.

All that’s left now is to pay.

Customizing Your Order

What’s interesting about this service is that you can make substitutions. You’ll receive an email confirming what’s in the box, and you can leave this as is, or opt to substitute some of the items.

You’re also given a chance to add some extras such as honey, eggs, olive oil, or dairy. In some instances, you may also be able to buy bottled goods or other items, like marmalade. And all of these extras are prepared on the farm.

You’re also allowed to create a “Never Send” list as well.

If you decide to cancel, that’s quickly done on the site.

Just make sure that it goes in more than two days before your next delivery is scheduled.

The delivery itself is what we thought best about the process; it’ll take place between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. so that the produce is not being driven around during the hottest time of the day.

It’s also helpful to know that your box is there early on delivery day. With so many of these services, boxes arrive too late to be of any use that evening.

Types of Meals Available

Unlike most other meal subscription services, this company packs fruits and veggies, not meal kits.

You have a choice of fruit, vegetables, some farm-produced specialty items, or a combination of the three.

Pricing

The Regular box costs $33 and contains nine items, while the More box costs $46 and contains twelve items.

If you opt to donate a box to a needy family, you have more choice in terms of size:

• Small box for $26: This box is perfect for one person.
• Regular box for $33: This box will feed two people comfortably.
• More box for $46: This box should be plenty to feed a small family with young children.
• Monster box for $58: This box will feed a larger family with older children.

The donations are all handled by local food banks to ensure that the boxes to those that need it most; all you need to do is to choose which size to send.

Keep in mind that every bit counts, so if you can only manage the Small box, you’re still doing a wonderful thing.

Company History

This is a family-owned and managed company.

The Barnes family saw the value of working organically back in 1976, and that’s when the idea for a sustainable, healthy meal business started germinating.

It took some time to get the farm to the point where it could produce sufficient quantities to make it viable, but now it’s working like a dream. The farm can provide the freshest fruit and veggies.

The methods used on the farm are all organic – no pesticides are used at all.

Farm Fresh has since moved on to include chicken.

These are pasture-raised, free-range chickens, and the farmers are part of a community devoted to sustainable, organic farming. As a result, they have a wider source of crops to draw from.

You might also be able to buy artisanal, homemade products like farm butter, jelly, and so on.

Alternatives

• Dinnerly: Simple meals with no more than six ingredients. Why spend longer in the kitchen?
• Marley Spoon: If you enjoy cooking, you’ll enjoy exploring the new flavors offered here.
• EveryPlate: Tasty, healthy food, and flavorful recipes every week.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Easy to order
• The website is kept up to date
• You have a lot of customization options
• Choose weekly deliveries, alternate week deliveries, or whatever suits your schedule
• You get a chance to change out items you won’t eat
• There are a lot of different boxes to choose from
• The produce is fresh
• Canceling or pausing the subscription is simple
• The box is temperature controlled to lock in the freshness
• The unusual delivery schedule takes advantage of cooler morning temperatures

Cons

• Just fruit and veggies
• You don’t get any recipes
• The items are not pre-measured
• Could work out to be more expensive than in-store

Farm Fresh to You Review Final Thoughts

Farm Fresh to You is one of the best meal kit delivery services for anyone looking to introduce more fresh produce into their diet but doesn’t have the time to shop for it.

It is also perfect for those cooks that don’t have access to farm-fresh produce and prefer the just-picked flavor over that of frozen or products that were picked weeks ago.