And are they worth the money?
If you’ve been reading our blog posts for a while, you’ll know that Jess really enjoys cooking and is generally pretty organised about meal planning and food shopping.
But she’s always been honest about the fact that sometimes life gets in the way, and that doesn’t happen. Enter meal delivery kits!
Over to Jess…
Our baby was born in October and as it is for all parents, sometimes we’ve been too busy or tired to get to the shops. But we also didn’t want to live off take away food.
To solve this problem, we’ve had a few weeks of using meal delivery kits. And I wanted to share with my views with you. Because while financially they may not be a viable as a week in, week out option for families, I think they’re great for those weeks when you’re feeling overwhelmed!
Here’s why…
Meal delivery kits are easy to order ahead – so deciding what to eat that week is taken care of.
This not only takes away one thing to stress about; it also means you’ll be less likely to make less favourable choices by shopping at the last minute. You know. Like buying several chocolate bars at the counter because you’re starving.
The quantities of each ingredient are well-portioned – so there’s no chance of you “accidentally” eating double portions.
Portion control is a significant cause of weight gain. The meals we get served in restaurants are nearly all much bigger than we need, and at home we’re generally consuming much more than we did a generation ago.
Our experience with the meal delivery kits, however, has been pleasing – the ingredients for each recipe produce a sized portion that many will find satisfying.
(However if you don’t feel satisfied, that’s OK too! Everyone’s requirements are different. For some meals I thought that the portions were a little on the smaller side and wasn’t quite enough to make me feel completely satisfied. Trust your internal cue and adjust accordingly.)
The recipes are FULL of vegetables.
If you’re someone who struggles to get enough veggies into their diet, following a meal delivery kit recipe will make it much easier for you.
All recipes contain several veggies, salads and/or fruit. It’ll add more variety to your diet and you’ll soon be feeling great due to all the extra nutrients you’re getting.
Meal delivery kits often employ great use of herbs and spices.
Herbs and spices contain plenty of vitamins and minerals. But just as importantly, they add an abundance of flavour to a dish.
You get to broaden your horizons and try new recipes!
One of my favourite things about meal delivery kits is that you get to discover recipes that you wouldn’t have found otherwise. And we’ve now got a stack of recipe cards that we can refer to in future.
There’s minimal waste – both in terms of packaging and food
Food is delivered in recyclable cardboard boxes and packaged in brown paper where possible. There’s also very little food wasted – as much of an ingredient is used as possible. We all know that convenience items are generally full of plastic or wasteful – and we’ve been pleasantly surprised by the fact that this isn’t the case here.
You’re unlikely to have leftovers.
As I mentioned earlier, each meal is well-portioned, so there’s little chance of eating more than you need… but we all know that there a serious time-saving benefits to cooking up a large meal and saving some for a busy day later that week. Using meal kits probably meals that you’ll be cooking every night.
A word of caution.
OK, “caution” is exaggerating a bit – more just something to be aware of! I’ve personally found that many of the recipes are low on the carbohydrate side of things.
Carbohydrates, despite often getting bad press, are really important, especially if you have high energy needs such as a very active lifestyle or if you’re pregnant or breastfeeding.
If this applies to you I’d recommend adding a portion of rice noodles or pasta to your meal so it’s a bit more balanced.
A week’s worth of meal kits is a reasonable cost for the convenience.
Don’t get me wrong; buying your own ingredients and cooking a meal from scratch will always be cheaper. But my husband and I have tried a few services now, including Perth-based Dinner Twist and Hello Fresh, and we feel that the quality and freshness of ingredients plus the easy-to-follow recipes are well priced.
It’s not something we’d do every week, but for those periods when we know things are going to get really busy we’d definitely look at ordering some meal kits.
I’d love to hear your experience with meal delivery kits!
If you’d like to get some advice on developing or maintaining positive eating habits, don’t hesitate to book in with us for a consult. My team works in various suburbs around Perth!
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