The provision of food delivery box services is a new phenomenon. Many busy people are adopting the service for their grocery shopping and meal planning.
Its gives you nutritious food, its all picked out and its often less than if you bought the same ingredients at the store. You can learn how to cook or just get out of the rut of the same old recipes you have been cooking. What’s not to love?
How to order Food Delivery Boxes Online
It’s easy! You just:
- Navigate to the provider’s sign up page for the service for the number of people you have, usually in increments of 2. Make sure you use a promo code for a free meal or whatever they offer new customers! You can always cancel after the first box if you don’t like it.
- pick the number of times per week you want the box to cover; some have only one choice, but usually you can choose from 2 to 5 times a week.
- pick a type of diet: frequently this is vegetarian, gluten free, paleo or carnivore
- enter your payment and set up an account
- pick your meals from a selection of choices. Often they have a selection of up to 3x what you need. You can look at the recipes and the photos of the final product to help you decide which to pick. Save your choices.
- Wait till the box arrives a few weeks later. They need advanced notice to set up your service so it will take awhile.
- Unpack your box and put the groceries in the fridge. The meals come with a recipe card, often with photos of each of the steps in the recipe. Each recipe is in it’s own paper bag, except the meat.
- Cook your dinners once they arrive, one at a time.
Reasons to like Food Delivery Boxes
There are so many food box delivery services to choose from now! There should be one that matches what you need and the food type preferences of your family.
The demand for the service that has come as a result of various factors.
They include:
- Families are busy and can’t find time to go shopping for food items
- Many people are on special diets and that makes it harder for them to find good recipes and ingredients
- Cooking is becoming an art of the past due to dual income families. This time saving method with instructions helps introduce the skills slowly and easily. All levels can learn.
Food Delivery Box Service Providers: How to choose
There are various food delivery box service providers. You may choose one depending on the dietary, taste and budget of your household.
Some services are cheaper and some are more expensive. I think Blue Apron is the cheapest, and probably the oldest, so you may want to start there first like I did.
Not all services deliver to all parts of the country so be sure to check where they deliver before signing up.
List of Grocery Box Services available
Martha & Marley Spoon – This is one of the unique food delivery boxes. The initiative by Martha Stewart and Marley Spoon provides recipes and unique ingredients with sufficient guidance on how you conveniently cook the items into tasty food.
Their boxes are recyclable and have dish bags sorting ingredients as per the meal to be prepared. They have large colorful recipe cards with photos of step by step instructions.
I tried this and found the gluten free availability a little lacking. The recipes were ok. This was my second favorite of 3 I tried.
HelloFresh.com – The services provided by the supplier includes the veggie and the classic boxes. A classic box will cost about $70 to $130 for a serving of four people.
On the other hand, a similar serving for the vegetarian box costs $59 to $109.
I have not tried this service.
Forage.com
The service provider seeks for recipes from hotels and catering service providers. They then have the cooking recipe attached to the items food delivery boxes.
Their charging is averaged at $15 per serving. The service is limited to residents of California.
BlueApron.com
The service provider has two kinds of boxes. These include the two person and the family plan boxes.
Their cost per serving is $9.99 and that of a weekly basis for the same plan is $60.
Nevertheless, the family package is dependent on the number of people one would include in their request.
I tried this and found the gluten free options pretty lacking. My partner has a gluten allergy so I had to make substitutions frequently. The recipes were pretty standard and good for the price. I am more of a gourmet, so preferred this one the least, but it would be great for a hungry family of picky eaters I think.
Plated.com
This is a more expensive food box service provider where their per serving’s rate at about $12. However, their delivery service is available for a wider scope of America. I have not tried them.
Marias Gourmet Kitchen
http://www.mariasgourmetkitchen.com/ has a unique selection of dinner supply services for their clients. They deliver the fresh items in Houston on either Monday and Thursdays or Tuesdays and Fridays. I have not tried them.
Sunbasket.com
This is my personal favorite of the ones I tried. The recipes are fabulous and easy enough for me to make but not too easy. The boxes are recyclable or returnable. You get 3 deliveries a week for 2 to 4 people, although they seem to be in flux as to the rules on that. They have lots of Vegetarian, Paleo and Gluten free options, they have a wide selection each week, they let you try new exotic ingredients frequently and they are all humane meat and Organic produce. I love this service!
The cost is a little higher than others, about $12.50 a meal, but still cheaper than buying the ingredients yourself much of the time. The calorie counts are low, which is good if you have a small appetite, but I often have to add my own desert or a carb side dish when I am hungry since I am tall and stocky.
They rely fairly heavily on sauces and spice blends with a vague list of ingredients without amounts. This often makes the food REALLY taste good, but I wonder if I could ever repeat the recipe.
Peachdish.com
Has gluten free, super food, seasonal and regular menus. Has an emphasis on family farms. You can login to your account with Amazon.com . $12.50 per meal.
I have not tried this service.
Vegginout.com
This is a vegetarian only grocery box service. I have not tried this since I am a carnivore. $128-$170, varies with shipping, which gets you 3 vegetarian vegan entrees, 4 vegetarian vegan side dishes, 1 vegetarian vegan soup, and 5 vegan cookies
This looks very similar to my favorite Sunbasket service. I have not tried this, but I recommended it to a vegan friend, since they have a lot of vegan options. Her daughter is using is in California.
Benefits Associated With Food Delivery Box Services
There are a variety of benefits that one gets from getting food items delivered in the food delivery boxes. Some of the main benefits include:
- You get food items delivered conveniently to your doorstep.
- There is more time for you to do other productive things as your shopping activities are done by the food delivery boxes service providers.
- There is effective shopping since you will not be engaged in impulse buying where one shops for other items other than the ones needed.
Have you tried any of these services? Are there any I missed?
References:
- http://www.lifehealthhq.com/best-food-subscription-boxes/
- https://www.finedininglovers.com/blog/news-trends/forage-food-delivery-service/
- https://marleyspoon.com/martha-stewart?CLID=goog&gclid=Cj0KEQjwwMi7BRDGptbvwOCDj8oBEiQAIALyDOphrf6NeSEwmCTb5sxppaqfqILsRyYPQHXN7Sym6YUaAg4c8P8HAQ
- http://lp.hellofresh.com/tasty-sem40-nb/?c=KN4W5FPJEFXTLHXWT86J3RQQ&gclid=Cj0KEQjwwMi7BRDGptbvwOCDj8oBEiQAIALyDK6XXDLEuG6n9AW5fbcrmR-V5F8wgR1ZecIrwl4Zb30aAueg8P8HAQ
- https://www.blueapron.com/?cvosrc=search-paid.google.nb30&gclid=Cj0KEQjwwMi7BRDGptbvwOCDj8oBEiQAIALyDHV0ohBz4ojDi0kmRoVmf2Fd8hHOrfbsncxn2vW_Mt0aAgIT8P8HAQ&utm_campaign=nb30&utm_medium=search-paid&utm_source=google
- http://www.eater.com/2014/8/4/6176895/new-delivery-box-service-recreates-actual-chef-recipes
