Are Food Boxes for You?
I have an ongoing problem that seems to worsen in the summer and I think many of you can relate. As a mom, and fitness professional, it’s extremely important to me to feed my family healthy, home-cooked meals. The issue? TIME! Time to research and plan these healthy menus, shop for the ingredients and then prepare in an already hectic schedule. Often I find I don’t have key ingredients, forgot to take something out of the freezer or it’s so late and the whole family is hangry and devouring everything and anything, like a scene from Jaws. Cue the online food box delivery businesses, which are sprouting up almost monthly it, seems. Take some of the work out of weekly meals by having someone else plan, shop and deliver the ingredients to your door. Check out just five I found:
Select from pre-determined menus (option of 2-person or family) and get “fresher than the grocery store” produce from local growers delivered for FREE to your door. All meals come with step-by-step recipe cards (they boast no recipe is repeated in a year), complete with pictures, and access to cooking videos. They use local ingredients to make healthy meals in 35 minutes. Choose from a minimum order of 3, 2-person meals ($ 59.94) or 2, family plan meals ($69.92). No long-term commitment.
This is similar to Blue Apron. Local growers provide the ingredients needed for the set recipes you choose from. There is also a vegetarian box. The meals are all meant to be prepared in about 30 minutes. Taking the convenience one step further, Hello Fresh pre-measures ALL your ingredients for you. There is a minimum weekly order of 3 meals for 2 people at $69. Subscriptions are flexible and easily paused, restarted or changed.
Coined as “an adventure in a box”, this is analogous to the first two. Each week, choose from 4 chef-inspired, seasonal recipes (2 are vegetarian) and get all the ingredients shipped to your door. The spin on this box (if you haven’t already guessed) is all recipes are “Southern – infused” meals. All ingredients are pre-measured for you keeping prep time to a minimum. Each meal is $12.50 and the standard box is 2 servings of 2 meals for $50 with the ability to increase the servings in increments of 2.
Strictly for Manhattan and Brooklyn, in house chefs prepare and pre-measure all the local and organic ingredients for the recipes you’ve chosen. These are delivered to your door; all you are required to have on hand is olive oil, salt, pepper and 25 minutes or less. This works out to $17.50/meal with NO delivery or order minimum – you can truly cater to your lifestyle.
And for the more adventurous is this monthly delivery box with a twist. If you love food AND music and don’t mind doing a little more work for your meals this is a must try. Operating out of San Francisco, you receive your pairings box with recipes for an original menu featuring unique ingredients and new music in the form of vinyl or a mixed tape. Great idea for a date night or if you’re having guests over.
