Are you tired of cooking? Is going to the grocery store and then throwing out half of your spoiled ingredients a drain on both your time and your wallet? Is eating out causing you to spend thousands a month on your credit card? Well, fear not, there are other options. 2020 saw an explosion of the “meal prep” industry, as people looked for easier ways to eat at home without having to go out in public so much. As we enter 2021, we see tons of new entrants offering delicious in-home meal options, ranging from freshly prepared and ready to heat, to frozen, to recipe kits with parceled out ingredients and detailed instructions you can cook yourself in 30 minutes. So, check out some of these offerings to see if they fit your needs.
Territory Foods
Save $75 off your first three orders + free shipping. Never get bored with Territory because they have 35+ meal options. You can change it up every week, add or remove meals, skip or even pause your deliveries in a given week. Meals are made to order using sustainably sourced ingredients. They arrive to you in packages which are environmentally friendly, and are shipped to you twice a week, locally and fresh. All you have to do is heat them up and eat, no messy dishes or cleanup. Coupon code “MADEINLA” will get you $75 off across your first three orders and free shipping. Territory works with registered dietitians and well known local chefs to make nutrient rich meals to comprise a balanced diet. You can check out the menu here.
Trifecta
Trifecta meals are never frozen and are shipped safely to your door, ready-to-eat. Their “farm to fork” supply chain means the time from farm to you is fastest in the meal prep industry. They offer meals with whole grains, lean proteins, and organic veggies. They also have meal options for people who want to eat a Keto or Paleo based diet. They even have vegan options, animal-free and 100% plant based, with high amounts of plant-based proteins. Trifecta offers a money-back guarantee and free shipping, so you have nothing to lose to try them. If for any reason you are not satisfied, they offer your money back up to 10 meals or $119 of a la carte foods; they have a customer service team that can tend to your needs via call, chat, or email. Trifecta packaging is also majority-recyclable as well, so it is mostly biodegradable and other pieces of packaging can mostly be recycled.
Cookunity
Cookunity is a bit unique with some higher-calorie meal options, if you are looking for something more filling and tasty than a bowl of organic quinoa. With a large number of meal prep vendors focused on healthy eating, it can be hard to find meal options with more than 500 calories, but Cookunity has many meal options in the 700-800 calorie/meal range (in addition to the requisite sub-500 calorie meals). They add new dishes every week, and there are always dozens of options. Meals are delivered every week with sustainably-sourced ingredients, and then you just heat and plate to enjoy. According to the Wall Street Journal, it is the new “Spotify for Food,” and their hook is that meal prep doesn’t have to be completely joyless, 110% full of whole grains, and without taste. Meals are sourced from local culinary artists in shared kitchens, and meals tend to range from $10.50 to $13.50 per meal, depending on their plan.
Nutrisystem Plans
An old name trying to enter itself into this relatively new space, Nutrisystem meals are a comprehensive diet and eating solution that makes sure you get to eat six times a day while losing weight and feeling full. Currently you can save 50% or more when you choose to pay for multiple shipments at once, which can mean as low as $11.07 a day, for all of your meals. There is also an option to add fat-burning shakes for another $39.99 a month. Nutrisystem meals are complete (they are frozen unlike many other players in the meal-prep industry), but the system is comprehensive for your entire day. You get breakfast and a morning snack, such as a cinnamon roll and string cheese. You then can have something like a sandwich for lunch, with nuts and cranberries as afternoon snack. And finally you get a filling dinner, such as beef and broccoli, along with a desert like a brownie sundae. Orders are shipped free in the Continental 48 and come in a specially designed cooler with dry ice to make sure everything stays fresh.
HelloFresh
One of the biggest players in the home food delivery space, HelloFresh offers 50 weekly items. You can add ready to eat salads, sandwiches, soups, and many more items. Pre-measured ingredients and instructions come right to you and can be on the table in under thirty minutes. This means your meals will be absolutely fresh, because you will be cooking them. If living off of microwaved meals does not sound appetizing to you, checking out HelloFresh can save you both time and effort versus “conventional” cooking. HelloFresh lets you change your weekly orders up anytime, skip a week, or change your delivery day or meal choices. With HelloFresh, you don’t wind up wasting ingredients as you might with a normal trip to the store and cooking your favorite dish. They are also the first “carbon neutral” meal kit company, meaning they offset their carbon emissions and make sure that packaging is sustainable. Right now they are offering 14 free meals plus free shipping for new customers.
In Conclusion
There are many, many meal prep options to check out right now as we head into the second half of 2021. Many new meal prep companies are being established every week, and this leads to very attractive offers, from both incumbents and new entrants. Some other companies with aggressive offers include Freshly, which is currently offering $80 off, BlueApron, which has offers for $110 off, and familiar household name Martha Stewart is offering a whopping savings of $120. EveryPlate even offers introductory meals at $1.99/meal. So, if eating out is becoming too expensive for you, or if you’re tired of the constant struggle that is putting meals on the table every day, be sure to check out some of these meal prep companies and see if they are right for you.