Dinner Kits Reviews & Comparisons

Dinner is a major task for families. It happens every day and takes a lot of time between planning, shopping, and preparing. While I love cooking and can meal prep like a boss, lately I’ve been looking for ways to shave a some time off this daily chore and make my life a little easier. So, I decided to try a few popular meal kits.

Here’s what I found.

DINNERLY

PC: Kristina Slaney

What it is: Dinnerly is a meal delivery subscription service. You sign up with the number of meals you want delivered each week, and they ship them to your front door. If you pay attention to deadlines, you can log into your account and choose or change your assigned meals to make sure you get dishes your family will enjoy.

You still need to cook, but the step-by-step instructions are easy to understand. The accompanying app makes managing your meal selections and finding your recipes easy!

The good: No planning, no grocery lists, and no shopping! They send all the ingredients you need straight to your door. Plus, my family loved all the dishes I tried from this company.

The bad: The effort and waste. I want meal kits to save time and make my life easier. However, one recipe I made required me to cut carrots into matchsticks, and another gave me a teeny plastic-wrapped piece of parmesan that I needed to grate. Recipes took longer than I expected, which didn’t meet my need for quick & easy weeknight meals.

Winner for: Low-price convenience; of the meal kits that get shipped directly to your door, this is one of the most affordable.

PC: Kristina Slaney

PC: Kristina Slaney

PC: Kristina Slaney

PC: Kristina Slaney

HOME CHEF

PC: Kristina Slaney

What it is: Home Chef has two delivery models – one is a ship-to-your-door subscription program and the other makes the kits available in your local grocery store. Some meals have prep work involved, while others are simple take-and-bake dishes. I tried the meal kits available at the grocery store.

The good: These are easy and require no subscription or regular commitment. Just grab a meal at the store!

The bad: The portion sizes were small, especially for the price. I found myself adding extra ingredients from my fridge and pantry to bulk up the meals.

Winner for: Grab-and-go convenience; if you don’t have dinner planned for a night you can just pick up one of these – no planning or pre-ordering required.

PC: Kristina Slaney

PC: Kristina Slaney

DREAM DINNERS

PC: Kristina Slaney

What it is: Dream Dinners is a brick-and-mortar storefront that helps with meal prep. You choose from a menu, schedule a meal prep session, and leave with a month of meals (or however many you ordered) for your freezer. You can also choose to have store employees prep your meals so you simply schedule your pickup. This was the option I chose.

The good: The variety, convenience, and taste. The number of meal options is generous, the creativity made it easy to try new things, the pickup went off without a hitch, and I found that meals were ready in under the time allotted. Unlike some of the other kits, I didn’t have to prep any ingredients at home (like chop chicken or slice veggies). These meals were fully prepped.

The bad: The cost. These meals were the most expensive of any of the kits I tried. However, they were super convenient and really tasty. Plus the serving sizes seemed significantly more generous than any of the other kits, which offset the sticker shock a bit.

Winner for: Time-saving; there were no ingredients to prep at home and meals were ready in the amount of time identified

PC: Kristina Slaney

PC: Kristina Slaney

PC: Kristina Slaney

PC: Kristina Slaney

EMEALS

PC: Kristina Slaney

PC: Kristina Slaney

What it is: eMeals is a recipe-based app that integrates with your local grocery-shopping service. You pick the meals you want to cook, the app sends the required ingredients to your grocery store account, you finalize your shopping list based on what you already have in your pantry, and you place your grocery store pickup or delivery order. eMeals charges a fee for your subscription but it’s very low.

The good: The selection and customization! You have access to seemingly infinite recipes. Specific ones are curated each week, but if you want, you can review past recipes and choose from them, too. There are menus for a huge variety of diets including keto, family-friendly, budget-conscious, quick & easy, plant-based, etc.

The bad: You’re still the one choosing meals, shopping, prepping, and cooking. However, I found that many of the “quick & easy” recipes included convenience foods which made prep & cook time minimal.

Winner for: Cost & selection; the price of the app is low and you’re not paying for someone else to prep or deliver ingredients, so this is the cheapest option by far.

PC: Kristina Slaney

PC: Kristina Slaney

CONCLUSION

At the end of the day, I’m glad I tried meal kits but I don’t think they’re the solution for my lifestyle. I think with a little planning & prep work, along with a willingness to spend a few more dollars on convenience foods at the grocery store to save myself some time & effort, I can find the balance I’m looking for to get a tasty, healthy(ish) meal on the table in a short amount of time. But what’s right for my family isn’t necessarily right for yours. Meal kits can save you time, help eliminate the need for takeout, and even make it easier to outsource the cooking chore to other family members who don’t normally take on the task (thanks to the clear instructions and organized ingredients). There are a lot of good options out there – you just need to find the one that works for you!

Do you use meal kits? Which one is your favorite?