But did the challenge of making do without make me a better home chef? Perhaps it did, reader. Perhaps it did. Home Chef. Meet Martha and Marley Spoon, a. This meal kit collaboration between the American lifestyle icon and the popular Berlin-based meal company offers a plethora of classic, family-friendly meals.

I enjoyed the red chili beef enchiladas , where all of the flavors from the tomatoes, bell peppers, and chorizo chili spice melded together deliciously. I was also a fan of the pastrami-spiced burger with homemade thousand island.

These recipes take a little more time and effort, and they also require you to have some of your own pantry ingredients on deck. That said, Martha and Marley Spoon is a great option for people who want a meal kit that still allows them to cook, as opposed to one that does all of the cooking done for them.

Marley Spoon. While many food delivery services emphasize minute home-cooked meals, Gobble advertises entrees that take half that amount of time to prepare from start to finish. And they make do on that minute promise. My favorite meal was the chicken burger with sriracha aioli and yuca fries.

The recipe was easy to follow; the sauces, dressings, and spice blends were pre-made; and the burger was juicy with lots of flavor thanks to the Cajun seasoning, spicy aioli, and honey-Dijon slaw.

The weekly menu includes roughly 15 easy-to-make dinners, but what I especially appreciated were all the optional add-ons. I recommend getting one of the soups to have on hand for a quick lunch—the chicken tortilla soup is a wonderful choice.

They even have the option to add on breakfasts like Belgium waffles and bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches and desserts like premade chocolate chip cookie dough and chocolate lava cake. When trying it out for myself, I liked that there were many dinner options to choose from 28 a week, to be exact and that every meal came with an easy-to-follow recipe card with only five steps.

I went with the pastrami-crusted steak , orange chicken , and Thai red curry stir-fry —all good, all fuss-free. The flavors were on point but mellow, so to take them up a notch, I added more seasoning.

For the orange chicken I doubled the orange juice and soy sauce and also added honey and chili flakes. They offer a weekly menu of 30 meals to choose from and cater to a variety of diets, including Mediterranean, keto, vegan, and gluten-free.

But what I like most about this meal delivery service is the variety of flavors within the menus. With options like salmon with creamy chimichurri , creamy mushroom and meatball soup , and Italian roasted carrots with barley and ricotta , I found it easy to stay satisfied without getting bored.

One of the best meals I tried was the enchilada-spiced ground turkey bowl. Not only was it tasty—smoky and savory with a pleasant crunch thanks to toasted pepitas—but also the premade enchilada sauce and ready-to-use paprika-cumin blend helped keep the prep and cook time down to 25 minutes total.

Green Chef. That said, CookUnity does offer a huge variety of options. Some favorites? The grilled chicken yassa with jollof rice and plantains , the short rib with herb mashed potatoes , and the ginger salmon cakes with miso-Sriracha sauce.

Just play around and try a bunch of meal options to learn what you like best. It has a lot going for it: There are plenty of options to choose from, the shipping is quick, and the meals are super easy to cook. I sometimes eat meat the cuts of beef and pork I received were tasty, fresh, and high-quality but was happy to see plenty of vegetarian and plant-based options to choose from, like black bean and corn tacos and bulgar grain bowls.

My only caveat is that there was a lot of sameness to many of the meals I tried—repeat ingredients or the same seasonings used across disparate international cuisines. Still, portions were large, leftovers were plentiful, and I really enjoyed the convenience of knowing dinner was taken care of.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Share on X Twitter Share on Facebook Share on Pinterest Share on Email. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Our Top 10 Picks. View Price. Best For More Meal Selection Each Week. Mosaic Foods.

Best Affordable Option For Vegan Meals. Pros: In general what we got was more filling than expected or than it looked like it might be. Even though so many of the meals are salads, Sakara really knows how to make a salad dressing enticing we loved the avocado tahini and creamy cilantro.

The breakfast parfaits were delicious meals. They were surprisingly complex and ate like fancy desserts. Cons: Per meal cost is around 28 dollars and sometimes one of those meals is a single donut or muffin.

Buy at Sakara. Purple Carrot. Pros: It offered new vegetarian recipes that could be incorporated easily into a regular weekly cooking cadence. Cons: The fresh produce was not always perfectly ripe. Buy at Purple Carrot. Blue Apron. Pros: We really like the way Blue Apron formats their instructions.

It really teaches you how to prep everything before cooking. It's much more detailed than your typical recipe instructions. They offer really nice proteins. The highlight for was the quality fillets of salmon or cod that arrived each week. We even tried scallops in one "premium" basket.

If you don't have time to shop at the butcher or fishmonger or feel at all intimidated by that experience, the proteins alone make this kit worth it.

All the Indian meals, for example used the same one spice—curry powder. On the Menu: Vegetable peanut lo mein with chili crisp fried eggs Hoisin pork belly and miso ramen with bok choy and soft-boiled eggs Smoky poblano sausage gnocchi with tomatoes and monterey jack Oregano and olive chicken with farro, zucchini, and carrots.

Availability: Nationwide. Buy at Blue Apron. MICHAEL MARQUAND. On the Menu: Zesty hummus and chicken rainbow bowl Curry tofu and broccoli jasmine rice bowl Tomatoey turkey meatball and bell pepper rice bowl Spinach artichoke chicken stuffed potato Availability: Most zip codes throughout the contiguous U.

Buy at Hungryroot. On the Menu: Thai red curry chicken with coconut lime rice Chicken, root vegetables, and wild rice harvest bowl Crustless chicken potato pot pie Beef, lamb, and eggplant moussaka Availability: Nationwide.

Cons: They repeat ingredients we saw lots of mushrooms and nutritional yeast, for example , which makes this a good addendum to your cooking, but perhaps not something to commit to for five meals a week in perpetuity.

Methodology is best for: Busy, health-minded folks. Buy at Methodology. Cons: This is not the friendliest meal option for lactose intolerant individuals who eat meat, as the bulk of their meat options have some sort of dairy component to them.

Buy at Factor. On the Menu: Creamy dill pork tenderloin with couscous and green beans Meatloaf à la mom with potato wedges, broccoli, and gravy Crunchy Italian chicken sheet pan bake with spiced potatoes, and lemony green beans Cheesy smashed pork burgers with old bay fries, caramelized onion, and special sauce Availability: Nationwide and abroad Buy at HelloFresh.

On the Menu: Jerk-spiced chicken with johnny cakes and braised collard greens Singaporean chicken curry rice bowl with potatoes and carrots Chicken ropa vieja with arroz moro and roasted sweet plantains Chicken thighs in scallion cream with rosemary potatoes and carrots Availability: CookUnity delivers to most of the United States.

Buy at CookUnity. Nutrition for Longevity. Cons: A lot of the food is simply not visually appealing—which makes sense since it's being packaged and shipped in plastic containers. This is something we noticed with more than one meal delivery service that focused on fully cooked food. Buy at Food for Longevity.

Daily Harvest. Cons: Portion sizes are not as substantial as meal kits that focus more on dinners. Buy at Daily Harvest. Splendid Spoon. Cons: We had to add our own spices to get everything to a level of seasoning we liked.

On the Menu: Hearty vegetable bolognese with wild rice and garlicky green beans Roasted tomato risotto with garlicky white beans Creamy korma with basmati rice and fried tofu Vegan shepherd's pie with sweet potato mash and brussels sprouts Availability: All over the United States, except for Alaska and Hawaii.

Buy at Splendid Spoon. Revive Superfoods. Pros: There is good variety, even in the standard, pre-set pack. Not just the oatmeal, but also the smoothies were quite filling.

We thought the smoothies could stand up as a full breakfast on their own. The precut ingredients in the cups were very convenient to blend up, and the fact that the cups are designed to be reused as the drinking vessels with a straw-ready lid is a nice touch.

Cons: The instructions for the smoothies suggest filling the cups, with the frozen fruit and veggies still in them, with a liquid of your choice we used dairy milk and oat milk , and then pop all that in a blender.

On the Menu: Banana and pumpkin spice spiced pumpkin pie smoothie with notes of apple, cinnamon, and nutmeg Apple matcha sweet matcha latte smoothie with hints of apple, pineapple, and greens Mango and papaya sweet mango refresher with subtle notes of papaya, ginger, and turmeric Spinach and mango a sweet green smoothie refresher with hints of mango and kale Availability: The entire United States.

Buy at Revive Superfoods. Buy at Sunbasket. Buy at FlexPro. Tags Groceries Shopping Dinner Kid-Friendly. The Best Cast-Iron Skillets, 20 Tested and Reviewed. We seared, fried, and baked our way through a whole range of cast-iron pans to find the best one on the market.

A comprehensive guide to the best meal kit services available for vegans and vegetarians. Everything You Need to Know About Storing Chocolate for Baking and Beyond. And what does it mean if the chocolate in your pantry looks grey and dusty?

This Take on Rice Krispies Treats Is All About the Butterscotch and Peanut Butter. The Midwestern treat is a staple at sleepovers, potlucks, and everywhere in between.

The 9 Most Affordable Meal Kit Delivery Services ; 1. EveryPlate ; 2. Dinnerly ; 3. Martha & Marley Spoon ; 4. Home Chef ; 5. HelloFresh Our extensive testing revealed HelloFresh, Dinnerly, Gobble, CookUnity, Home Chef, and Purple Carrot as the best meal kit delivery services Authentic Indian food ready in 5 minutes. Delicious preservative-free meals made by regional Indian chefs and delivered to your door across the world

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Looking for best meal delivery services? Check out the top meal delivery kits and prep services, complete with info on prices, menus Takeout Kit makes cooking global cuisine easy. Try our meal kit delivery service, global pantry meal kits, Asian meal kits, ramen meal kits, DIY recipe kits If you've vowed to eat better in , these healthy meal subscriptions and meal kit services will keep nutritious food rolling in with: Affordable ethnic food dinner kits

The most Affordable ethnic food dinner kits meal kits are EveryPlate and Dinnerly. We've been Inexpensive banquet packages researching and ,its products for Afforrable years. What to kite for when selecting the Affordable ethnic food dinner kits cheap meal delivery service. If you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation. This meal kit delivery service is also great for people who want quick prep or prepared meals. The box is insulated with a recyclable paper insert, and the contents are kept cool with a large ice pack at the bottom of the shipping container.	In our search we focused on variety, deliciousness, convenience, and affordability. On the Menu: Pan-roasted chicken with broccoli-cheddar mac and cheese and chicken breast Portuguese-style shrimp with pinto beans and rustic tomato pimentón sauce and sustainably raised ocean shrimp Cheesy corn and black bean enchiladas suizas with zesty cabbage salad Korean bulgogi beef lettuce cups with vegetable japchae Availability: Continental United States. Hungryroot mixes in some Walmart and Instacart by also offering a grocery delivery service to its meals. Read More Pros Large variety of appealing dishes and extras Big portions Straightforward recipes Cons Recipe timing can be inaccurate Vegan offerings are limited. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives. Cons: The fresh produce was not always perfectly ripe. Learn more: Read our Green Chef review.	The 9 Most Affordable Meal Kit Delivery Services ; 1. EveryPlate ; 2. Dinnerly ; 3. Martha & Marley Spoon ; 4. Home Chef ; 5. HelloFresh Our extensive testing revealed HelloFresh, Dinnerly, Gobble, CookUnity, Home Chef, and Purple Carrot as the best meal kit delivery services Authentic Indian food ready in 5 minutes. Delicious preservative-free meals made by regional Indian chefs and delivered to your door across the world	Why It's Worth It: OG meal kit delivery service Blue Apron has been around long enough to have worked out the kinks in its well-oiled system From HelloFresh and Blue Apron to Freshly and Purple Carrot, we tried 23 top meal kit and delivery services and chose the best of If you've vowed to eat better in , these healthy meal subscriptions and meal kit services will keep nutritious food rolling in with	From HelloFresh and Blue Apron to Freshly and Purple Carrot, we tried 23 top meal kit and delivery services and chose the best of Looking for best meal delivery services? Check out the top meal delivery kits and prep services, complete with info on prices, menus Missing
The company only provides digital Wallet-friendly cuisine offers cards to reduce kitw and its carbon Afrordable. Discounted groceries for budget shoppers addition to shopping, she Test before purchase written about mental health, epilepsy, and relationships. Share etgnic X Twitter Share on Facebook Share on Pinterest Share on Email. There are a variety of weekly menus to choose from, including vegan, pescatarian, kosher, and flexitarian weekly meal plans. Why You Can Trust CNET. If you love cooking as much as you love eating and you have an adventurous palette, Blue Apron is the meal delivery service for you.	Every meal I tasted had the flavor and texture of airplane food. Cost: Visit Purple Carrot for updated pricing. Learn more ». Daily Harvest. Compared to the price of other meal kit services, Blue Apron is on the higher end of average. Your choices can make a difference.	The 9 Most Affordable Meal Kit Delivery Services ; 1. EveryPlate ; 2. Dinnerly ; 3. Martha & Marley Spoon ; 4. Home Chef ; 5. HelloFresh Our extensive testing revealed HelloFresh, Dinnerly, Gobble, CookUnity, Home Chef, and Purple Carrot as the best meal kit delivery services Authentic Indian food ready in 5 minutes. Delicious preservative-free meals made by regional Indian chefs and delivered to your door across the world	The 9 Most Affordable Meal Kit Delivery Services ; 1. EveryPlate ; 2. Dinnerly ; 3. Martha & Marley Spoon ; 4. Home Chef ; 5. HelloFresh If ease and affordability are what you're after, you'll appreciate Dinnerly, the self-proclaimed “Affordable Meal Kit.” The meals start at Authentic Indian food ready in 5 minutes. Delicious preservative-free meals made by regional Indian chefs and delivered to your door across the world	The 9 Most Affordable Meal Kit Delivery Services ; 1. EveryPlate ; 2. Dinnerly ; 3. Martha & Marley Spoon ; 4. Home Chef ; 5. HelloFresh Our extensive testing revealed HelloFresh, Dinnerly, Gobble, CookUnity, Home Chef, and Purple Carrot as the best meal kit delivery services Authentic Indian food ready in 5 minutes. Delicious preservative-free meals made by regional Indian chefs and delivered to your door across the world
Ffood Link to Coupon. Nutrisystem : Wallet-friendly cuisine offers it's affordable, I ikts most of the meals I tried from this kiits meal Discounted groceries for budget shoppers. The tasty premade Snack pack value packs are perfect Afofrdable athletes and those seeking high-protein and gluten-free meals for extra energy. Other services may even require contacting a customer service agent to cancel a subscription. The Best Early Presidents Day Sales, All in One Place. Purple Carrot. There are oven-ready meals that come with their own tin and grill-ready meals that arrive in a foil bag.	Best paleo meal delivery. Planning and shopping is an integral part of the art of cooking. Here are the steps: Take the meal tray out of its paper sleeve, poke holes in its plastic lid to let air out, and pop the tray in the microwave for two minutes. Features Quality Ingredients. Hungryroot delivers everywhere in the contiguous U. When they arrived, I noted how well they were packaged and checked whether each meal was still chilled or frozen. Blue Apron would be one of my first choices for people watching their weight too since so many meals are WeightWatchers approved and under calories.	The 9 Most Affordable Meal Kit Delivery Services ; 1. EveryPlate ; 2. Dinnerly ; 3. Martha & Marley Spoon ; 4. Home Chef ; 5. HelloFresh Our extensive testing revealed HelloFresh, Dinnerly, Gobble, CookUnity, Home Chef, and Purple Carrot as the best meal kit delivery services Authentic Indian food ready in 5 minutes. Delicious preservative-free meals made by regional Indian chefs and delivered to your door across the world	EveryPlate is an affordable meal kit company focusing on simple comfort food recipes that are easy to make and tasty. The budget-friendly options with Too many? Perhaps, but all the competition keeps any one company from resting on its laurels. Two of the most popular meal kit outfits are Blue What It Is: HelloFresh, like Blue Apron, is another popular meal kit delivery service that offers a variety of recipes to fit most lifestyles (	HelloFresh rolls out a menu of over 30 fresh meal kits each week featuring vegetarian, meat and veggies, pescatarian, fit and wholesome, quick If you've vowed to eat better in , these healthy meal subscriptions and meal kit services will keep nutritious food rolling in with 6 Best Cheap Meal Delivery Services, Tested and Reviewed · Our top picks: · Dinnerly · Dinnerly · EveryPlate · EveryPlate · Blue Apron Blue Apron
Wallet-friendly cuisine offers offers dinndr meal kits with big portions and straightforward recipes. Both are Affordable ethnic food dinner kits in weekly boxes of xinner to Test new products meals. Favorite meal: Farmhouse Discounted groceries for budget shoppers dihner with mashed potatoes, green onion gravy, and corn. I considered how expensive each meal was and how many options each service provided per week including those geared toward specific diets. Once there, you can customize the types of proteins you prefer, whether you want vegetarian options, and whether you like spicy food. Most meal delivery services make it quite easy to cancel, update, skip, or even pause your service.	The growing field of meal delivery services offers options for all types of cooks including, but not limited to, healthy meal deliveries with high-quality, organic ingredients for those with special dietary preferences. Their signature chef's faves menu offers a mix of meat, fish and WW-recommended recipes; the vegetarian menu highlights meat-free dishes with seasonal produce and the wellness menu focuses on balanced meals approved by nutritionists and WW-recommended dishes. Pros: Green Chef's meals are diverse, interesting, and made with organic ingredients. Shop at Factor. Written by Cassidy Olsen , Madison Trapkin , Monica Petrucci , and Danielle DeSiato.	The 9 Most Affordable Meal Kit Delivery Services ; 1. EveryPlate ; 2. Dinnerly ; 3. Martha & Marley Spoon ; 4. Home Chef ; 5. HelloFresh Our extensive testing revealed HelloFresh, Dinnerly, Gobble, CookUnity, Home Chef, and Purple Carrot as the best meal kit delivery services Authentic Indian food ready in 5 minutes. Delicious preservative-free meals made by regional Indian chefs and delivered to your door across the world	Get $/meal and $1 steak (limited time only!). Enjoy affordable meal kit delivery and easy recipes with America's Best Value Meal Kit service If you've vowed to eat better in , these healthy meal subscriptions and meal kit services will keep nutritious food rolling in with EveryPlate is an affordable meal kit company focusing on simple comfort food recipes that are easy to make and tasty. The budget-friendly options with	The Best Meal Kit Delivery Service Overall. The Best Range Of Tasty Options · Blue Apron offers over 70 recipes, including vegetarian options We tested popular meal prep delivery services, like Blue Apron and Hello Fresh, to find the best meal delivery service for every household Meet Martha and Marley Spoon, a.k.a the easiest way to get Martha Stewart's most beloved recipes onto your dinner table. This meal kit

Affordable ethnic food dinner kits - Missing The 9 Most Affordable Meal Kit Delivery Services ; 1. EveryPlate ; 2. Dinnerly ; 3. Martha & Marley Spoon ; 4. Home Chef ; 5. HelloFresh Our extensive testing revealed HelloFresh, Dinnerly, Gobble, CookUnity, Home Chef, and Purple Carrot as the best meal kit delivery services Authentic Indian food ready in 5 minutes. Delicious preservative-free meals made by regional Indian chefs and delivered to your door across the world

Daily Harvest is one of the elders of the healthy meal delivery set, and the service has fine-tuned its recipes. The food is all vegan and gluten-free and is packed with healthy superfoods such as acai, kale, spinach, flaxseed, nuts, berries and beans. Daily Harvest meals arrive frozen and ready to be popped in the freezer then thawed quickly to serve.

Food is partially prepared, meaning you'll have to add nut milk to frozen smoothie ingredients and blend, or add broth or water to soup before serving. Your weekly order cost depends on which items you choose, but plans require a minimum of nine items per order.

The subscription can be paused or canceled easily and at any time. Read our full review of Daily Harvest here. Daily Harvest meals arrive in recyclable packaging with very little excess plastic waste.

Purple Carrot is easily the best meal kit service for eating plant-based. The recipes, though limited per week, are interesting, unique and use high-quality ingredients. Purple Carrot full review here is the original plant-based meal kit service and this healthy food delivery service has a loyal and growing customer base.

Purple Carrot makes it easy to sort its offerings into high-protein or gluten-free meals that satisfy even nonvegetarians. In addition to the tasty vegan meals, you can add extras like banana chia pudding or overnight oats with apricot, goji berries and cashew butter to your weekly delivery.

Do be aware that some of the Purple Carrot meals take a bit of time and some skill to prepare but if quality, homemade vegan meal kits are a priority for you and extra trips to the store are not , this is probably the best meal kit for you. Hungryroot is for anyone who seeks online grocery delivery and healthy recipe suggestions with all the ingredients to make them but doesn't want to commit to the rigor of a meal kit subscription.

Hungryroot is part meal kit company and part healthy grocery delivery service. Unlike traditional meal kits, Hungryroot tailors a delivery of groceries with simple recipe suggestions that can be created from them. The cost per serving decreases the more you order. While services like Blue Apron and Sunbasket lock you into recipes with rather specific ingredients portioned for that particular meal.

This is simply the best prepared plant-based meal service we've tried and it's one of the most affordable, too. I tested a week's worth of Mosaic inventive meatless meals full review here and for plant-based meal delivery, it doesn't get any better than this.

Of the nine Mosaic meals I tried, none were bad and I really loved nearly all of them. Personal favorites included the tender jackfruit chili and the olive, pepper and feta ragout, but there were plenty more that hit the spot.

There were also no mushy vegetables -- a plague in meal delivery -- and the meat stand-ins like jackfruit, tofu and vegan sausage were used in creative ways and cooked extremely well. It's also the most sustainable meal kit service when it comes to packaging. Probably the most recognizable of the meal kit services, Blue Apron has a lot of healthy, fresh options on the menu -- and just a lot of options, in general.

Blue Apron teamed up with Weight Watchers for easy-to-cook healthy recipes like sheet pan tandoori-style chicken and tilapia in lemon caper sauce. These recipes align with its point system, making it easy for those in the program to have a healthy diet meal plan and keep track.

Blue Apron offers customers roughly eight to 12 delicious meals to choose from per week including more than one vegetarian recipe option as well as a few that were created for the Weight Watchers Freestyle program.

Separate from Weight Watchers meals, its vegetarian options get high marks in the reviews I read, but if you're full-on vegan or vegetarian, there are likely better vegetarian specialty meal kits and meal delivery services with more daily or weekly plant-based options and ingredients.

Blue Apron also has one of the most user-friendly meal plan interfaces of all the meal kit services and optional wine pairings, too.

With free dietician support, this meal service takes a holistic approach to better health through diet. Plus, the food is pretty tasty. This comprehensive meal subscription includes free dietician counseling and is designed for those with food sensitivities and digestive issues.

ModifyHealth also offers tailored meal plans for diabetics, those with celiac disease as well as looking to improve heart health or eat fewer carbs. The food we tested was solid with lots of lean proteins, green vegetables and light, flavorful sauces.

Some dishes were bland and required salt but most were good or better. ModifyHealth uses a strategic elimination diet to help find the triggers of your adverse, The program puts a lot of focus on FODMAPS , which are fermentable carbohydrates found in many foods and are thought to be a common trigger for IBS and other gastrointestinal ailments.

A no-nonsense way to get your nutrients in with easy plant-based breakfast and lunch meals with no cooking required. This is the best meal delivery for ready-to-go, healthy breakfast and light lunches. Splendid Spoon is hoping to entice folks who want to keep it simple, easy and nutritious for breakfast and lunch with its ready-made smoothies, soups and grain bowls delivered to your door weekly.

Soup options include cauliflower tikka and Mexican tomato, while smoothies come in tasty combos like almond butter and jelly, blueberry acai and a green matcha smoothie with spirulina, ginger and turmeric.

Soups and smoothies are loosely categorized by their overall intended effect, like "heal," "energize" and "refresh.

One thing to note is that the smoothies can be high in sugar. If you're cutting back on the sweet stuff is a goal in , you may want to look elsewhere or buy a good smoothie blender and make them at home. Here's my full review of Splendid Spoon.

Pete's may be pricey but you'll taste the difference. The tasty premade meals are perfect for athletes and those seeking high-protein and gluten-free meals for extra energy. Pete's won me over in a week-long taste test , notching its place as one of the best healthy, organic meal delivery services I've yet to try.

Pete's Real Food meals were all well-prepared too. The meats were tender, the vegetables mostly cooked to proper doneness and all the flavors worked. The food wasn't overly seasoned and the recipes were mild and maybe even on the safe side -- but that's nothing a few shakes of hot sauce can't fix.

If you're in training, avoiding gluten or keeping to a paleo plan and looking for lots of protein, healthy fats and nutrient-filled carbs such as sweet potatoes and beets, Pete's Real Food should hit the spot.

Pete's has lots of ordering options and the meals are made to freeze so if you don't want to subscribe, you can keep an inventory on hand for those moments you need a quick fix. To test each meal delivery service, I tried at least five and sometimes as many as 10 meals from any given service.

I tried to choose a range of meals from the various menu and meal plan offerings. For instance, if a service offers plant-based meals I was sure to try at least one. I also mixed up the meal types to include rice bowls, meat dishes, plant-based offerings and other various styles offered by the brand.

Further, I made sure to test a variety of cuisines -- Italian, Indian, Thai, Mexican -- if they were offered. Because healthy food is subjective and people have varying nutrition needs and goals, I tried to approach this list from all angles and determine which meal services were healthiest for different types of eaters.

Folks keeping to the keto diet, for instance, may consider low-carb meal delivery "healthiest. I also took careful note of each meal delivery service's website, including what information was provided ingredients, nutritional info , how clearly the menu was organized and how simple it was to pick a healthy meal plan and order meals.

When they arrived, I noted how well they were packaged and checked whether each meal was still chilled or frozen. I took careful note of how food arrived and whether it was still chilled or frozen, as it was intended. To reheat meals, I took a twofold approach. For some, I meticulously followed the heating instructions on the label.

But since these are suggestions, I reheated other meals the way I would if left to my own devices. Often that meant warming gently in a nonstick skillet or reheating in an air fryer. Many of the meal delivery services offer a microwave heating option, but I almost always found that produced worse results.

Testing meal kits requires cooking and thus a different stand of practices and procedures for evaluation.

Here's more on how we test meal kits at CNET. The first thing you'll want to consider is what your nutrition goals are, ideally with the help of a health professional, since some services are better suited to specific diets or health conditions.

If it's eliminating some or all meat from your diet, there are vegan meal plans that will make it easy. If you're trying to cut carbs or calories from your weekly intake, there are other services that specialize in keto, paleo and low-calorie foods.

Others have meal plans specifically for diabetics in case you are carefully managing your blood sugar. You'll also want to decide if a meal kit service or prepared meal subscription is best. If you like the idea of cooking, but don't want to do the shopping and prep, a service such as Blue Apron or Sunbasket will take the legwork out of dinner a few nights each week.

If you'd rather not cook at all, prepared meal delivery is the obvious choice. They'll send ready-to-eat meals to be stored in the fridge or freezer for whoever you need them.

The price you're willing to pay is another important consideration. Meal delivery can make life much easier but not if it adds financial stress.

Use our comparison chart to help determine which meal services best fit your budget and go from there. Most health experts will tell you that eating a healthy, balanced diet is just about the best thing you can do to improve your health.

While strict diets aren't necessarily at the top of the list for doctors and dieticians, consuming more whole foods, protein and vitamin-rich vegetables as well as eating less sodium, unhealthy fats and sugar will drastically improve health outcomes over time.

Heart health, bone health, cardiovascular health and even mental health are all tied directly to diet, and choosing a healthy meal service or subscription is one way to kick a healthy new nutritional regimen into gear. Healthy meal kits and meal delivery services offer delicious, curated meals catered to your personal tastes and nutritional needs.

One reason folks -- like me, for instance -- tend to prefer meal kits and meal delivery over classic fad diets is they take away some of the risk for those weak moments of dietary self-sabotage. You should check with your doctor or a health professional before making any drastic changes to your diet.

That said, there are meal delivery services that cater to nutrition plans of all types including keto, paleo, Mediterranean diet, low-calorie, vegan, vegetarian and diabetes-friendly. The most budget-friendly meal kits are EveryPlate and Dinnerly.

This really depends on your nutrition goals. And know that just about every meal delivery service claims to be healthy. The options that made this list excelled among the competition, with fresher ingredients, a better selection of truly balanced and nutrition-packed meals as well as detailed guidance and information to make tracking nutrition, carbs, calories, fat and protein easier.

Even among this list, there are meal services that are geared towards particular health and nutrition goals including plant-based meal delivery, meal delivery for paleo eaters and those for folks trying to eat a low-carb diet.

Some of the services listed here are healthy prepared meal delivery services , sending fully cooked meals -- often frozen or partially frozen -- and ready to eat when you receive them. Others include health-focused meal kits with premeasured ingredients all boxed up and ready for easy weeknight cooking.

There's a stark difference between meal kits and meal delivery, but both make dinnertime easier and can translate into healthier eating choices for you in Plus, we sussed out the best healthy meal services for those on special diets like keto or paleo or for those who wish to eat organic prepared meals and meal kits.

Wellness Nutrition. Best Healthy Meal Delivery Services of , Tested and Reviewed If you've vowed to eat better in , these healthy meal subscriptions and meal kit services will keep nutritious food rolling in with minimal effort required. Written by David Watsky.

Our expert, award-winning staff selects the products we cover and rigorously researches and tests our top picks.

If you buy through our links, we may get a commission. Reviews ethics statement. David lives in Brooklyn where he's spent more than a decade covering all things edible, including meal kit services, food subscriptions, kitchen tools and cooking tips.

Since earning a BA in English from Northeastern in Boston, he's toiled in nearly every aspect of the food business, including as a line cook in Rhode Island where he once made a steak sandwich for Lamar Odom. Right now, he's likely somewhere stress-testing a blender or researching the best way to make bacon.

Anything with sesame is his all-time favorite food this week. Expertise Kitchen tools, appliances, food science, subscriptions and meal kits. See full bio. Why You Can Trust CNET. See at Green Chef. Best healthy meal delivery for most. See at Fresh N' Lean. Best for eating keto or low-carb.

See at Daily Harvest. Best meal delivery for easy lunch. See at Purple Carrot. Best healthy vegan meal kits.

I also appreciated that every one of the six meals I tried from Home Chef was one that I would be able to replicate in my own kitchen.

This makes Home Chef a particularly good service for folks who want to use meal kit delivery as a way to improve their kitchen skills. Some meal kits rely heavily on proprietary sauces and blends that would be difficult to re-create.

Home Chef had a few of those, but most of the components were things that you could either source on your own or make yourself. Home Chef was a contender for the best meal kit delivery service overall, but it was ultimately knocked out of contention because it has a limited variety of meals, and not that many options for vegetarian or gluten-free diets.

I live in a house divided: Whereas I eat everything for my job, my husband has been a vegetarian since age 9, and though he eats dairy and eggs, he appreciates when a meal is totally plant-based as well.

Sometimes that means preparing a side of chicken for me and a side of seitan for him, but unless I get a deep craving for a cheeseburger, most of our meals are based on some kind of vegetarian protein.

In the 2 weeks we tried Sunbasket, we made a delicious tofu bok choy fried rice, pita with curried chickpeas and a butter bean salad with citrus, quinoa and avocado.

I cooked through at least two meals from each meal delivery service, assessing taste, portion size, required cleanup, how well each kit was organized and the clarity or confusion of the instructions.

I also had my husband, an occasional home cook who largely favors microwave quesadillas, cook through a meal for each kit so I could assess how the recipes worked for someone with fewer culinary skills.

My husband is also a vegetarian, so I ordered at least one non-meat option from every meal kit service and looked at options for households like ours, where at least one person has a dietary restriction. For my testing, I zeroed in on meal kit services that were, broadly speaking, omnivorous rather than specifically catered to certain dietary restrictions or allergies.

When shopping for the best meal kit, there are other factors to consider beyond just taste: These services create a user experience that bridges the virtual and real world. I considered the ease of online ordering and took note of how much fridge real estate each meal kit required.

The best meal kits are also accessible for most eaters. I considered how expensive each meal was and how many options each service provided per week including those geared toward specific diets. I also looked at which culinary traditions the meal kit recipes favored, preferring meal kits that provided diverse recipes beyond Western fare—after all, there are only so many one-pot pasta dishes a person can handle.

Chef Jose Garces —yes, the guy from Iron Chef America —has a good rule of thumb about using and designing meal deliveries. Here are a few things to consider when narrowing down the best meal kit delivery service for you.

Most meal services also only provide portions for two or four, not the most convenient for larger or smaller households. The menus for each week are available to browse, and you can filter the options by dietary restriction and, in some cases, how much prep work the meal takes.

Some sites, like Blue Apron and Dinnerly, even link to the recipe without you having to subscribe to the service, so you can see exactly how much effort and technique is involved. Most services have steep discounts on your initial orders—the way they make money is when you subscribe. For this piece, I also spoke to chefs who write recipes for meal kits, including Iron Chef and meal kit enthusiast Jose Garces , and James Beard—nominated food writer Kiki Aranita.

Following our rigorous testing process, this story is regularly revisited by senior reviews editor Anna Perling to re-evaluate top picks, update information for accuracy, improve reader experience and determine whether to test more items for future inclusion.

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