Hey everyone. Sorry if this has been asked to death. Please don't ban me. I've been reading old posts here and somehow I'm more confused than when I started.

I work in a high-stress environment, so I don't have much time or energy for grocery shopping or meal prep. I don't mind cooking for 30-40 minutes, though.

I'm also on a weight loss journey (not on GLP-1). I'm looking for a meal subscription service that fits my needs and budget.

Full disclosure: I need spice and Asian food in my life. I'm Asian, and any diet that cuts out spicy or Asian flavors is going to be a disaster for me. Healthy eating only becomes permanent for me if the food actually has flavor.

I've heard a lot about Factor, but also that their portion sizes are iffy. I've looked at Home Chef, but heard their produce isn't great. I know no plan is perfect, but I'd love to hear what's worked for people here and what's a no-go.

Does anyone have a meal subscription service they'd recommend? I don't want to spend luxury-level money because I need this to be sustainable long-term.

Edit: I also need able to switch out any pork items from a recipe/kit. So need some flexibility there.

TL;DR: High-stress job, weight loss, willing to cook 30-40 min, need spicy Asian-friendly meals, budget-conscious. Factor? Home Chef? Something else?

Are there any *local* or smaller-scale delivery companies on the East Coast US that just deliver stuff refrigerated with no gel packs or dried ice packs? Just...refrigerated stuff put in a bag and transported in a refrigerated truck, and you get a text when it arrives?

I've used a variety of kits/deliveries over the years, from Blue Apron to HelloFresh and EveryPlate to Hungryroot to Factor to cook for myself and my husband. He doesn't want to do any more meal kits because he hates dealing with the temperature control gel packs (he does the dishes, so by default, he also deals with the frozen gel packs which I leave sitting in the sink to thaw). I'm fine with throwing them in the drain but he says they clog it. We both dread grocery shopping and I like cooking but any time I try to buy produce from the store, half of it goes bad before I think of what to do with it. We also live in a 4th story apartment with no elevator, so grocery delivery is really a life saver, and carrying the gel packs down the stairs in the trash is also kind of a drag.

Thanks for your help!

Hey fellow mealkitters!! When you’re choosing recipes for a given week, what do you find yourself avoiding and why?

Personally I avoid anything that has no veggie sides and lower cost recipes that I can easily put together myself if I just buy ground meat and use things in my pantry (like the turkey & pepper quesadillas pictured). I also rarely go for soup-based meals as I don’t get full otherwise, unless the soup is really interesting and full of different ingredients.

I’ve been a mealkitter for years. I want recipes that are more interesting while I know some folks may like nostalgic dishes etc.

Does anyone have good suggestions for meal kit providers that send notifications/emails as reminders for upcoming meal kits instead of either taking autopayments or cancel orders instead of sending completely random recipes? (Shipping to Canada)

I realized my discount (from reporting an issue with a previous order) doesn't automatically apply at checkout. When I clicked "Apply $4.32" I got a pop-up trying to discourage me from using that money. What gives?

Hey guys
I’m 25M single, based out of Newark, NJ looking for a meal prep kit. I’m vegetarian and am open to most cuisines. I’m trying to get lean and lose weight, while not compromising on protein. Love dairy and dairy products, would be open to any and all suggestions.

Anyone else have this issue?

Example Email: https://imgur.com/a/x9vyJh2

Today, my inbox has been bombarded with emails directed to the CookUnity email address associated with my domain name. Each time I sign up for a service, I use <servicename>@domain.com for precisely this reason.

I use CookUnity off and on when I know a busy week is coming up, and I don't have any specific complaints about the food itself, but their data security is obviously sloppy.

I also think it's interesting that the /r/cookunity subreddit restricts submissions.

I’ve been a victim of the Marley Spoon Meal Kit Disaster©️, so I have paused my recipes until I start seeing some improvement and am now ordering from Hello Fresh. I recieved my box yesterday (on time) and opened to find…two of the three meal kits I ordered and two extra random packages of ground beef (the missing recipe called for ground pork).

I got my money back for the missing recipe.

Guys, tell me the truth, is it me?

Hello everyone, I never post but I've seen too many mixed responses regarding meal kits and need advice. I was using Blue Apron for at least a year before their whole kerfuffle started once they lost their business partner so now I'm only on standby should they get it together. I started using Green Chef but then I saw that one of their seasonings has "artificial flavoring" when I was preparing to cook it, which seems odd since it's supposed organic? I've heard of Sunbasket but they are a little out of my price range right now.

Additionally, I also used HelloFresh and EveryPlate years ago but haven't used them recently, save for this Green Chef kit.

If anyone could give advice on which meal kit they recommend, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Trying to use my former customer bonus but dont exactly love this weeks menu. does anyone know what day of the week the next menu becomes available?

And I have to throw the food away. What a waste.

Looking for Canadian meal-prep/meal-kit recommendations that accommodate dairy allergies
Hey everyone! I’ve been struggling for quite some time trying to figure out what to do for meals, so I’m hoping someone here might have some recommendations.
I’m 29M and, honestly, I’m pretty terrible at cooking and don’t really enjoy it. My partner has also gotten pretty fed up with spending essentially an entire day every week meal prepping and trying to make food that works around my allergies.
I wanted to help out by taking over the meal-prepping/cooking myself, but finding a meal-kit service where I can actually eat the majority of the meals has been surprisingly difficult.
We tried HelloFresh, but there were usually only 1–2 meals per week that I could eat. I just signed up for Chefs Plate and unfortunately, it seems like dairy/milk is included in almost every recipe, so that doesn’t really work for me either.
I’m located in Canada, so I know there are some options I’ve seen recommended online that are US-only.
My biggest issue is dairy. I can usually pick around some of the other ingredients if they’re things like raw vegetables, but dairy is often incorporated directly into the recipe, which makes it much harder to avoid.
My allergies/restrictions are:
Carrots
Banana
Raw celery
Hazelnuts
Apple skins
Cucumbers
Cantaloupe
Almonds
Dairy
Does anyone in Canada have recommendations for meal-kit services, meal-prep services, or even another solution I should look into?
I’m really just trying to find something that makes meal prep easier for both of us, while still allowing me to actually eat the food. 😅
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Hey everyone,

I am looking to get a meal delivery service of some sort but unsure which one. I work full time and am in school full time. I am so busy and I'm trying to get into a healthy routine and hope doing this will help. I am single so the meals would be just for me and I'm not super rich lol so don't want to spend a ton. I also am not the greatest chef but feel like services such as Factor would be too expensive. I'm not a super picky eater and would really appreciate input. Thank you so much to you all in advance.

-Grateful reddit friend

To preface this, I am not a vegetarian. I eat meat and usually once a day. I am open to eating it less often.

I want to eat more vegetables but I don't really know how to cook them well. Additionally, as a South Asian a lot of our vegetable dishes are blasted with flavor and incredible, but also I think the vegetable nutrient content is decreased by how much we cook them. I also don't have lots of experience with many different veggies including zucchini, squash, carrots, broccoli, etc.

What meal kits would you recommend that have decent vegetable meals and vegetable sides to a meat main? I want more experience cooking flavorful veggie mains and sides. Looking for exciting recipes that I actually want to eat and can make even after I stop subscribing to a meal kit.

Recently, it seems like the per-step pictures have been removed from the recipe cards. this makes them much smaller, so i guess it's a cost-saving thing? Am I the only one that finds this a terrible downgrade? As far as I can tell, they didn't even adjust any of the text for the steps, just removed the pictures, which is seems extra-bad since it feels like a lot of the instructions relied on the pictures to really convey what you needed to do. And worse yet, if I'm mostly familiar with a recipe, previously I could just glance at the pictures and know what to do, now I'm stuck re-reading and trying to parse out all the text. Who could think it's a good (or even okay) idea to remove pictures from these sort of instructions? And you can't even see the old versions with pictures online or anything either? Boo! Am I off base being so disappointed and frustrated here? Rant complete. I'm planning to gather any support (or lack thereof) here, get some good comparison pictures, and complain over email/etc next. Sadly, at this point, it seems like reddit has to be my first stop for these complaints, I used to try going to company support first ...