I’ve tried several different meal kit services over the past 2 year years. They all promise to make putting a meal together so much easier for you, and overall, they do deliver on that promise. All of the ingredients you need to put together 2-3 meals shows up on your doorstep, and all you need to do is follow the directions provided to get dinner on the table. No need to plan a menu or shop for the groceries.
HOWEVER…there are 2 main problems that I’ve encountered with these meal kits. First, sometimes in an effort to provide their clientele with impressive dishes, these companies opt for unnecessarily complicated prep. For example, I do not want to make my own pesto, even if the fresh ingredients will yield a more intense flavor, when it’s already 5:30 and my kids are staring at me with growling tummies.
The other main problem is that the cost is just not sustainable. When a meal costs around $10/serving, as the dishes in these meal kits tend to, I might as well just go to a place like Panera for dinner. I won’t spend much more, and I won’t have to do any cooking or cleaning up.
But there’s a new game in town, a meal kit service called Dinnerly. This company seems to have focused its energy on solving those 2 key problems that busy parents like me seem to have with the other meal kit services. So they offer 30 minute or less meals that come in around $5/serving. That’s undercutting their competition by 50%!
Our family got to try out a box from the very first weekly offering of the company in Tennessee. I was impressed with the quick delivery to my door (2 days) and in particular, how freezing cold my meat was (I have received meat from another company…TWICE…that I was VERY nervous was too warm to still be safe, so great packaging and quick delivery is essential for meal kits).
We had enough food to prepare 3 meals for 4 people in this kit, and those meals were as follows:
- Grilled Onion Turkey Burgers with Pepper Jack & Sweet Potato Fries (our favorite!)
- Grass-Fed American Chop Suey (made way too much food for us, and surprisingly, the kids didn’t like it)
- Harissa-Spiced Chicken with Potatoes, Onions and Spinach (I could take or leave the spinach in the dish, but overall, great flavors)

Speak Your Mind