Are Meal Kits Worth It? The Unexpected Ways To Spice Up Your Summer

Have you ever wondered if meal kits are worth it? While they are a cheaper alternative to eating out, meal delivery kits can still be more expensive than shopping at a grocery store. And what about all that excess packaging?

Are they worth it in the end?

Home Delivery Meal Kit Service

I became a regular consumer of home delivery meal kits several years ago when our family moved to a rural four-season area. That was when we discovered how time-consuming everyday things like getting to the grocery store could be:

(Image: looking for the propane tank, somewhere under the snow.)

Meal delivery kits, as it turns out, deliver the groceries, and the recipes, directly to our doorstep. This was a game-changer.

The recipes are designed to be as non-threatening as possible and are created to appeal to a huge customer base. The unforeseen result? Our family has enjoyed a steady sampling of multicultural specialties we probably never would have made otherwise. This was a life-changer.

Get an inside look from a long-standing customer to see if meal delivery services are right for you. Are they really worth the recurring added expense when you still have to grocery shop anyway?

The short answer is YES! Meal kits are worth it. At least for my family.

See what keeps us coming back, year after year, even when getting to the market is no big deal.

This post is all about the unexpected ways meal kits can spice up your summer.

Meal Delivery Kits

A quick Google search is proof positive that the popularity of meal subscription services has exploded over the past few years. In fact, this booming business is still growing. The meal kit market was worth just over 13 billion in 2021 in the U.S. alone – and projected to reach about 24.4 billion by 2024! 

The first home delivery meal service was Blue Apron. It’s also the first food subscription that I started back in 2015. My family (ahem, husband) is a picky eater, so I also signed up for one of its competitors, HelloFresh, at the same time.

To this day, I alternate between meal kit services based on what I feel like cooking. Home Chef offers a lot of “Oven-Ready” meals, so if I have super busy weeks ahead, Home Chef is my go-to for ultra-lazy meal prep.

I’ve tried several subscription delivery services over the years and they all make it easy to modify your weekly menus and delivery schedule and even allow you to skip weeks altogether. No fuss, no muss.

Are Meal Kits Worth It?

Food is one of those no-matter-what expenditures. But when comparing the dollar cost of grocery shopping versus meal delivery subscriptions, acquiring your own recipe ingredients is the cheapest way to go.   

The finance gurus over at Ramsey Solutions did a price comparison to prove just that. And it’s something a long-term customer already knows.

But the cost isn’t the only factor:

(Screenshot of HelloFresh’s Benefit Analysis Comparison – Click Here)

Meal Kits Recipes

The variety of cuisines available on a weekly basis is by far one of the best perks of weekly meal kit deliveries.

I already know our family’s favorite go-to recipes, the ones I’ve been making since I started cooking.

You know those meals too. Those are the meals that can be made without planning ahead because you’ve made them so many times, you already know what all the ingredients are without a list, and where to find them as you make your way through your local grocery store. 

Before meal kits, our meals stayed on a continuous and predictable rotation. Even though I enjoy cooking I’m pretty uninspired at the end of most days.

Sound familiar?

The convenience of home delivery meal kits drew me in, but the massive assortment of delicious doable recipes is what keeps us excited about dinner. 

This week’s featured recipes were from HelloFresh. On their website, you can choose from a smorgasbord of world cuisines:

• American Recipes
• Italian Recipes
• Asian Recipes
• Mediterranean Recipes
• Mexican Recipes
• Korean Recipes
• Indian Recipes
• Latin American Recipes
• Chinese Recipes
• Spanish Recipes
• Japanese Recipes
• Thai Recipes
• French Recipes
• Cuban Recipes
• African Recipes
• Cajun Recipes
• Middle Eastern Recipes
• Vietnamese Recipes
• Hawaiian Recipes

Did I mention each meal comes with reusable menu cards, with recipes laid out in 6 steps or less?!

Noodle Recipe Ideas 

We love noodles. But who doesn’t?

I only knew spaghetti noodles, chicken noodle soup, and whatever came in Chinese take-out growing up. On my own as a broke student, I discovered packaged ramen noodles and the ones you can buy already in a cup.

Who knew there was a whole world of noodle dishes out there?

Apparently, others. Noodle eating establishments started popping up everywhere. In fact, you can narrow a Yelp search down to “Best Noodles Near Me.“

I love this, but there is no need. Because the noodles come to me.

HelloFresh offers a massive assortment of noodle dishes to try. If you have a hankering for something specific, though, you’ll need to get precise with the type of noodles you’re after:

• Quick & Easy Noodle Recipes
• Ramen Noodle Recipes
• Rice Noodle Recipes
• Soba Noodle Recipes
• Udon Noodle Recipes
• Yakisoba Noodle Recipes

(Image: HelloFresh’s Noodle Recipe Menu – See It Here)

Spicy Coconut Curry Pork Noodle Soup

We used to live down the street from a great Thai food restaurant and miss the curry and coconut dishes we’d often get there, so we ordered the spicy coconut curry soup.

(The recipe came with one tiny chili, which I was too scared to use!)

The menu card gives instructions for both the 2-person and 4-person recipes. Since we get the 4 -person meal, the instructions were to dice the whole chili versus just half of it.

I had never used this particular chili before so ended up just using half to avoid over-spicing the dish. As it turned out, it wasn’t enough heat. 😂 I should have followed the directions! 

I ended up supplementing with my favorite spicy chili paste, Sambal Oelek to get the right spice level.

Our meal only took 20 minutes, but multi-tasking was heavily involved.

I prepped the limes and chile while the pot of water came to a boil. I start with piping hot water from the tap and cover the pot with a lid so it doesn’t take long to get going. 

While the noodles boiled, I browned the pork. Then, added the seasonings and the bok choy and cabbage mix, which was already washed and cut. I liked the textural contrast between the heartier bok choy and the fine shred of the napa cabbage. 

This hearty soup was surprisingly light, and even with the chili fix, a 10 out of 10.  The broth was luscious and that squeeze of lime at the end took the dish next level by adding a surprising pop of brightness.

As a bonus, this comfortably fed 5 adults.

Coconut milk was made for curry, don’t you think?

Lunch Ideas

If meal kit customers are only cooking their meals for dinner, they’re missing out!

And who says meal kits can only be cooked on the stove? 

The beauty of meal kit meals is that there is a constant flow of passive inspiration that shows up on my doorstep every week. Yes, I order the meals and get the ingredients delivered. But I see the recipe instructions as suggestions. I end up doing what I want with the groceries that arrive. 

When the weather is nice, I order more burger meals than we usually eat just so we can grill them. 

Ancho BBQ Burgers

The recipe card called for cooking the burgers in a skillet on the stove. The magic that comes from a grill, however, can’t be beat. You can actually see the amped-up flavor in burgers done on a barbeque:

(Pickled onions instead of grilled onions offset the sweetness of the BBQ sauce)

The recipe also called for thick slices of grilled onions, and they sent plenty: 2 large red onions for 4 burgers. We absolutely LOVE grilled onions, especially done on a grill, but I had to make some adjustments.

The BBQ sauce, especially mixed with the red pepper jam, was way too sweet for my taste…even with the ancho chili powder added in. To be fair, BBQ sauce is always too sweet for me, but the husband loves it and went crazy over the ancho chili BBQ sauce.

While the grill was out, why not grill the buns too? This made the inside nice and toasted but the outside was still soft. The smokey flavor it gave the buns was an added treat.

This burger was an explosion of flavor and texture. The pickled onions were crunchy, tamed because of the pickling, and full of a sweet tartness. They were also the gift that kept on giving when the leftovers topped a platter of tacos a few days later. 

I served our burgers with summer accompaniments: white peaches and gorgeous “picked this morning” tomatoes from the farmers market. How do you serve yours?

Picnic Ideas

Meal kits at the lake? In a camper? On vacation?

Of course!

HelloFresh packages its ingredients in conveniently labeled bags. These happen to travel extremely well, as well as do double duty as trash bags while prepping your meal. It’s almost like they want you to take their meals on your adventures.

Meal Kit Packaging

(Click here to learn more about HelloFresh’s Packaging & Recycling Practices)

Sesame Soy Pork Bowls 

Our home is surrounded by beautiful lakes, which we make a point of enjoying in the summer. (Check out: “Lake Almanor Camping – Northern California’s Best Kept Secret”)

The week prior, our family took the makings for a charcuterie board to a neighboring lake. We gathered an assortment of cheeses, crackers, a baguette, meats, spreads, & fruits, the leftovers of which needed to be repacked, now a mess, and taken back home to be put away. As usual, I overshot how much food would be needed. 

The afternoon was was fun and the snacks delicious, but as of this publication, half of them are still in the fridge. What didn’t get thrown away, that is. 😕

This week we took our perfectly portioned-for-4 lunch to the lake instead. We brought home leftovers in a single container, gone by the next day.

(The makings of a picnic…)

The original recipe was for pork, but I switched the protein to turkey when I ordered the meal. Luckily, all the makings for our sesame soy bowls could be done on a 2-burner Coleman stove. The only thing I had to pack was a little camping gear, a measuring cup, and a container for leftovers. We even reused the ice pack that came with our food box to keep our food cold in the lunch bag. Perfect.

We’ve made multiple versions of these rice bowls before and like to mix the rice into the meat instead of serving the meat over the rice… all the rice gets coated in sauce this way!

(Be prepared for lookie-loos… and improvising if you forget a kitchen tool!)

The turkey bowls got thumbs-up (and dog drools) all around. Everything was lightly coated in a sweet soy sauce. We didn’t make the chili sauce mayo. Instead, I added the sweet chili sauce into the meat and carrot mix, along with some red chili flakes to add some heat.  I also squeezed in the entire lime, a needed addition in order to balance the sweet saltiness of the dish. The carrots were a must for texture, and they were plentiful.

This was a great day. A perfect day. 🧡

A steady supply of meal kits in my refrigerator makes days like these possible. We had no plans for a picnic earlier that morning, and our son had to be back for work by late afternoon. With little effort, less than throwing together a charcuterie board, we have cherished memories. 

Would that make meal kits worth it to you? 

This post was all about the unexpected ways meal kits can spice up your summer.