Most of our life is centred around food. Meal delivery these days is much more than the pizza guy turning up at your home with your order. The food delivery concept is now built around the strategy of preparing pre-proportioned meals, packing them and delivering them at your doorstep. These boxes come with a recipe, so you still end up making a home-cooked meal without having to run around with a list to the grocery store.

What are Meal Boxes?

Today, the market is flooded with companies, providing meal kits services, for the customer to choose from. These are either subscription based or allow you to curtail your order at any time.

That said, they both adopt the same principle of choosing a meal option from the website of the service provider, decide what you want, set up an account and then placing the order. Once you are registered, the food will arrive at your home packed, frozen and with pre-measured ingredients along with instructions for making it.

Meal Kit boxes Vs Supermarkets – Which is better and why?

Convenience always comes at a cost, and the same also holds good for getting meal kit boxes delivered to your home. This service will always be more expensive than buying your own grocery from the supermarket to prepare your own meals. However, if you do a bit of research, you can find a service which can match your budget.

While some companies may offer discounts on the first order, others may provide free delivery to return customers. Again some may allow you to stop at any time without a cancellation fee. Meals start at a fixed rate per serving, and one can order any number of servings and recipes on a weekly basis.

While grocery shopping at the supermarket gives you the choice of picking up quality items, it has its drawbacks. The meal kit delivery service will only send what is needed to prepare the meal you order, while to make grocery shopping cost-effective one will have to buy in bulk. This increases the chances of food getting spoilt much higher. Moreover, grocery shopping is tedious and requires a lot of patience. In meal kit services, the recipes come in portion sizes and are delivered at your doorstep.

How to pick the right Meal box?

You need to try different meal kits to see what works best for you. Major players in US, UK and Canadian markets are Home chef, Chefs plate, Sun basket, Plate away, Mindful chef, Goodfood, Blue Apron and Hello fresh.

It is advisable to check all the reviews individually as well as pick based on your location. For example for Canadians, you can Goodfood meal box review and compare it to other top players such as Hello fresh and Chefs plate in order to make an informed choice between these top tier brands. For the UK, check out reviews and ratings for Balance box, One fine dine, Plateaway and more. So on so forth you can read reviews for meal box companies in your country and even pick based on meal types (vegan, organic etc).

Advantages of Meal boxes

Mealtimes are all about celebration and spending time together to make memories. Having said that, nutrition is as important as eating is to survival, a thought not considered by many at the dinner table. With age, this basic lifeline can become an obstacle, especially if you are living independently. With the advent of meal delivery companies, the art of cooking meals has been revolutionized for the good of the senior citizens who are striving for easy and nutritious cooking options.

As we advance with age, the concern about the food we eat occupies centrestage. Take-out can be a meal option, but we all know that restaurant dishes are loaded with fat, sugar, salt and other harmful ingredients which can aggravate any pre-existing health condition. Since meal delivery companies have a registered dietician on their payroll, you can be sure of getting the right amount of nutrition that your body needs each day

Besides any particular preference one may have, the health and medical problems decide on what food you can take. For example, if you are suffering from blood pressure, a low salt diet is required. Similarly if you have high blood sugar, you will need food with low sugar and carb content. No matter what your ailment may be, your meal delivery provider will ensure all the dietary requirements are taken care of.

Even if you are fit enough to make your scheduled grocery trips, these can start feeling like a chore with passage of time. You may also lose the desire to tackle these trips every week.This is why meal kit delivery services can cut the hassle and save time. At times, cooking a meal for even two persons can feel tiresome, as finding a fast and easy recipe which requires a long list of items can be tedious. Once you have found a meal delivery service which suits you, getting the meals of your choice delivered at your door each week seems a viable option.

All meal delivery services either use ice packs or dry ice to ensure the freshness of the food served. The ingredients will arrive at your door pre-packed in an insulated container to keep them frozen. The portions are separated in their own sacks to avoid any mixing. When your order arrives, you just need to take it out of the box and place it into the refrigerator till the time you want to use it.

Another reason why meal delivery services sound appealing is the minimal after meal cleanup which is involved. While cooking inevitably creates a mess, the after meal cleaning ritual is a bigger headache. When you prepare your ordered meal, all you may need to add is some kitchen basics like salt, oil, eggs or sugar. Since most meals require the use of very little cutlery and kitchenware, the cleanup usually takes around ten minutes to complete.

The sole object of all prepared meal delivery agencies is to deliver delicious meals at your door to save you time and effort. If you can’t make it to the supermarket or are physically unabled, these companies ensure you always have a healthy meal in your refrigerator. The plans may be expensive, but with time and experimentation you can surely find a service that suits your budget and your taste buds.