The 17 Best Meal Delivery Kits for Easy, Healthy Weeknight Dinners

Sometimes, there’s nothing better than a home-cooked meal at the end of a long, stressful workday. However, shopping for, preparing, cooking and cleaning up said home-cooked dinner can add to your stress rather than help you unwind, and nobody wants that. Thankfully, there are meal delivery kits that take all the prep work out of the equation, so you can enjoy the cooking process and satisfaction that comes from preparing your own delicious meal.

Preparing meals is a task that’s time-consuming and labor-intensive. Or it was, until the invention of meal kit delivery services. The best meal delivery services take all of the hassle out of home cooking, and they can make any kitchen amateur feel like a real gourmet chef.

Instead of worrying about what to eat, these handy services allow you to outsource meal preparation to varying degrees. Some pre-portion out all the ingredients and give you step-by-step instructions for preparation that’ll lead you seamlessly to the final product. Others hand you a meal that only takes a quick zap in the microwave to prepare. Assess how much time and energy you’ve got to give, and choose from there.

Meal delivery services allow you to choose from a weekly menu, and because they control what you eat, they actually have the potential to provide an immense number of additional benefits for your health. Not only does this process save time, relieve stress and ensure you and your family are eating well, it also opens up your kitchen to meal types and recipe choices you may have never considered otherwise. Most importantly, it saves you from overbuying at the grocery store and wasting food and money.

Many people claim meal kit home delivery is the future. After you’ve tried it, we think you’ll find it hard to disagree. Below, we’ve reviewed our favorite meal kit delivery services for convenient, delicious meals any day of the week. Our favorite options include meal plans for everyone, whether you have a giant family, you’re a vegetarian, you’re trying to lose weight or you’re sticking to a paleo diet. There’s even an online butcher who delivers fresh, high-quality meat to ensure you’re only eating the best cuts.

Sign up for one of these services, and take about five items off of your to-do list almost instantly.

1. HelloFresh

BEST FOR FAMILIES

HelloFresh is one of the best meal delivery kits available for families and those with varied palates. Every meal kit comes with easy-to-follow recipes and all the pre-portioned ingredients you need. They offer meal plans for households with 2-4 people and allow you to choose between 2-6 meals a week, depending on your dining needs. They’ve got Veggie meals, Gourmet selections made with duck and sirloin, Quick and Easy meals and Calorie Smart options as well if you’re trying to stay trim. Each plan allows you to decide which recipes you would like to eat and when you want to eat it. Customers can skip a week or cancel their memberships without any long-term commitments. 

2. ButcherBox

BEST FOR MEAT DELIVERY

ButcherBox is one of our favorite meal delivery kits for high-quality proteins, and makes it easy to build out your entire weekly meal plan by always having your main dish within arm’s reach. They offer two plan options — a custom box with your personalized picks from their extensive library of beef, chicken, pork and seafood options, as well as a curated box with their selections. Both boxes come in two sizes, perfect for stocking small or medium households up for the entire month, and everything arrives frozen at peak freshness so you can thaw and cook as you like. Their options start at $142.00 per month, and now SPY readers can get $20 off their first box with custom code SPY20. This code is exclusive to SPY readers and live until February 14th. 

 

3. Blue Apron

RUNNER UP 

By teaming up with Weight Watchers, Blue Apron is able to offer customers a range of easy-to-cook recipes ideal for maintaining a healthy lifestyle. The delicious Freestyle meals include recipes like creamy lemon shrimp and orzo, spiced chicken salad and sweet-chili glazed salad to be enjoyed in a guilt-free environment. Their flexible meal service plans allow you to change menus each week, depending on who’s eating and what they want. The low level of commitment also means it’s easy to skip weeks if you’re eating out or away on vacation.

5. Dinnerly

BEST FOR KIDS

If you have little mouths to feed and like the idea of doing it at a budget-friendly price, then Dinnerly could be just what you’re looking for. By replacing paper recipes with digital ones and simplifying the ingredients inside each meal, Dinnerly has lowered prices to become one of the most affordable meal delivery services on the market. Meals include options for kids, picky eaters, speedy prep as well as low-calorie choices and more. Simply choose your plan, pick a delivery day and enjoy easy-to-prepare food when you want it.

Read More: Best Cupcake Delivery Services

6. Hungryroot

BEST FOR GROCERIES

Hungryroot is a different kind of meal delivery kit, designed to provide you with all the groceries you need for a week of meals, with flexible options for each breakfast, lunch and dinner. You can opt for their recipe program which functions much like other meal kits, or their grocery program where they send you a variety of produce, proteins, grains, snacks and desserts for a week of eating and make it super easy to stock the fridge. SPY E-Commerce Editor, Taylor Galla, tried out the service and loved how fresh and delicious everything was. They’ve got hundreds of top-rated products you can choose from or you can take a quiz and let them deliver a grocery plan for you. On average, Hungryroot customers save $22.00 per week on their grocery bill, avoid wasted food, and plans start at just $65.00 per delivery.

7. Every Plate

BEST VALUE

By offering delicious, budget-friendly meals that are ready in 30 minutes or less, Every Plate is a great way to take the stress out of mealtimes. From garlic rosemary chicken to pork and pineapple rice bowls, there’s something for everyone’s taste buds with this weekly meal delivery service. With Every Plate, you can cancel or skip a week without worry and tailor your deliveries to your dietary requirements. Choose how many people are eating and how many meals you want delivered each week. And, trust us, the adult-sized portions ensure no one ever goes hungry.

8. Freshly

BEST FOR SINGLES

Eating alone? Freshly is definitely the choice for you. Freshly delivers single-person meals of one serving for one sitting. Each meal arrives pre-prepared and generally only requires a few minutes in your microwave. This is an ideal choice for people with a busy lifestyle or anyone who generally struggles to find time in the day to cook but still wants to eat delicious food. There are also meal options for every diet, including meals under 500 calories, paleo-friendly meals, vegetarian dishes and dairy-free options. Whatever you want, you can get it with Freshly’s meal kits.

9. Daily Harvest

BEST FOR SOUPS AND SMOOTHIES

The Daily Harvest meal delivery service is a great choice for anyone looking for a balance between healthy and tasty food. You get to pick the meals that are included in your monthly food delivery. Options include smoothies, harvest bowls, soups, oat bowls and more. It’s easy to change the size of the delivery each week or skip it altogether if you’re away on vacation. You’ll also find that trying something new is especially simple as each meal is listed on the website with plenty of information like its ingredients, what it’s good for and, perhaps most usefully, customer ratings. This meal plan is a great way to make sure you’re eating enough fruit and vegetables, and we’d bet it won’t be long until things like the sweet potato and miso puree, green chickpea and kale curry and strawberry and peach smoothie are your favorite dishes.

Read More: Best Smoothie Delivery Services

 

10. Green Chef

BEST FOR HEALTHY EATING

Whether you’re following the paleo diet, keto diet or just looking for an easy way to provide a balanced diet for your household, Green Chef has everything you need. Simply pick and choose the right meal plan for your family, and then personalize your menu by choosing the dishes you want delivered. All meals arrive pre-measured and prepared, meaning the input required is minimal for enjoying delicious food every day. Each dish includes step-by-step instructions and photos, so even the worst cook can follow along. The Green Chef company is USDA-certified organic, environmentally conscious and delivers food free from GMOs.

11. Territory Foods

BEST FOR BUSY PEOPLE

Spy’s E-Commerce Editor Taylor Galla got a chance to try out Territory Foods earlier this year and loved how easy to prepare, healthy and fresh the meals were. Each meal comes pre-portioned and already prepared in a microwave-safe container. All you have to do is pop it into the microwave for 3-4 minutes and your meal is ready to go. They’ve got delicious meal choices like Quinoa-Crusted Chicken with BBQ Sauce and Roasted Potatoes and Chicken Enchiladas with Salsa Verde and Zucchini-Corn Relish, and they offer a seasonal menu of 35+ weekly choices. They make meal recommendations based on your health and wellness goals, and their whole menu is made without gluten or dairy.

12. Sun Basket

BEST FOR PALEO

If your top priority is 100% organic produce with antibiotic and hormone-free meat, organic eggs and responsibly, wild-caught seafood, it’s definitely worth looking at what Sun Basket has to offer. This meal delivery kit offers a range of dietitian-approved meal plans, including paleo, lean & clean, vegetarian and Mediterranean. These delicious yet health-conscious programs make eating healthy simple. Plus, the included flexibility in the meal plans allows you to choose recipes from across the full range, no matter which plan you’ve chosen.

13. Rastelli’s

BEST FOR MEAT LOVERS

With plans like The Beef Plan, The Chicken & Beef Plan, The Salmon & Shrimp Plan and The Steak Plan, it’s pretty obvious why Rastelli’s is the best option for meat lovers. This online butcher subscription service has over 40 years of experience. Rastelli’s delivery plans are available with a subscription or as one-off purchases and can be customized to suit your family’s meat-eating needs. All the supplied meats are responsibly raised and free from antibiotics, steroids and hormones. That means you can include ethically-sourced proteins in all of your favorite recipes.

14. Butcher’s Box

BEST FOR STOCKING UP

Similar to Rastelli’s, Butcher’s Box is all about delivery quality meats and seafood to your home once a month. They’re all about convenience and quality which is why their boxes get delivered to your home for free — all you pay is the cost of the meat. The meat, by the way, is 100% grass-fed and grass-finished beef, heritage breed pork, free-range chicken and wild caught seafood. You have so many choices with Butcher’s Box from classic steak cuts to premium bacon, ground beef, scallops, pork shoulders, Alaskan salmon and more. The cost varies based on what you order but certain configurations can cost as little as $6 per meal and the shipping is totally free. The meat you receive is sourced locally based on your location and always comes fresh and ready to freeze until you cook it.

 

15. Purple Carrot

BEST FOR VEGANS

If you’re looking for a way to cook vegan in an affordable, sustainable and healthy way — Purple Carrot can help you get there. They offer delicious plant-based breakfasts, lunches, dinners and healthy snacks in their boxes aimed at making people healthier and lowering their carbon footprint all in one. Turns out, meal kits have a smaller impact on the environment than their grocery store equivalents which is why they want to make the 20,000 edible plants on this planet delicious and motivate everyone to eat more of them and less meat. A few of their meal options? Loaded sweet potatoes, bbq jackfruit sandwiches, tofu marsala and mint walnut pesto, among others. They’ve got a few different plans you can choose from including High-Protein, Gluten-Free and Chef’s Choice where they curate your menu for you or you can customize your order every week. They offer 2 and 4 serving plans and you can skip or cancel your deliveries at any time.

16. RealEats

EASIEST TO PREPARE

Meals from RealEats are seriously easy and quick to prepare and healthy at the same time. Each meal comes vacuum sealed to preserve the freshness of the flavors and is ready to enjoy in six minutes or less. The chef-crafted meals are available without a subscription and only require popping the bag in a pot of boiling water or in the microwave to prepare, so if you’re really not a chef you have nothing to worry about with this meal subscription service. They’ve got low-calorie, gluten-free and high protein options to choose between so there’s something for everyone in their selection.

17. Martha & Marley Spoon

BEST CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENT 

Cooking with Martha Stewart? Sign us up! This brand delivers 22 meals to your door each week curated by Martha Stewart with pre-portioned seasonal ingredients that are easy to prepare to make recipes that’ll excite any appetite. Each recipe comes with easy-to-follow recipe cards and favorite spice blends that make the taste and experience of these recipes unique. Your meals are totally customizable, you can skip at any time and each recipe only takes about 30 minutes to complete.

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