Meal kit folks?

[Dmmetler]

With hospital visitation hitting right at dinner time (and, if I go back to teaching, my prime teaching time is between 4:00-7:00 PM), I’m realizing that I need options that are easy to cook-especially since I’m not sure my dad has ever cooked a meal in his life, and DH is often working as well.

 

So, I’m wondering if there is a meal kit service or something similar that would be a good option as a short term thing (and maybe be something that people who want to help, but don’t live close, like most of my parents’ church and my dad’s colleagues could contribute to). Because we’ve done far too much takeout over the last two weeks. 

[prairiewindmomma]

Most of the meal kits have a 20-45 min. prep time, and that is longer than what I do in terms of prep with my instant pot and a weekly grocery pickup order. 
 

We have staggering family arrivals back to home that stretch over 3-4 hours most nights. We have made lunch our big meal, and then do soups with sandwiches and salads for supper. 
 

Our current lineup is:

broccoli and carrot soup: frozen broccoli, pre-shredded carrot

chili (black bean heavy)

beef stew

chicken and noodles (Midwest style, with reames egg noodles and a bag of mixed veg)

soup du jour—chicken based, but rotating to mix it up.

No meal takes longer than 15 min of active prep. I buy bulk packages of chicken thighs and cook and shred those one Sunday a month. I divide it into quart sized freezer bags and freeze those. 
 

I don’t know if that idea is appealing, but if it is let me know and I can share recipes. This works for us just because once the soup is done, I can leave it on “keep warm” and people can eat as they come home. The meals are also easy enough that anyone 12+ can make them in my house. I keep the recipes printed in a binder. 

 

[OH_Homeschooler]

I believe Freshly is similar to what you are seeking. The meals are completely prepared, just pop in the microwave. But from some reviews I've seen, it's not much better than an average frozen meal you could get at the store but of course a lot more expensive. 

[vonfirmath]

This is what I was thinking. The Dinnerly stuff we had was more dinner prep than we usually do. We tend to make meals on weekends and plan on leftovers over the course of the week, supplemented with sandwiches if they don't hold out long enough to have an evening to make another meal that can be leftovers. We keep pre-cooked bacon on hand as well as lunch meat for meal alternatives.

[wintermom]

Can you plan to eat the "big meal" at midday and eat more simple and quick to prepare food later in the day? You could even eat the left-overs from "lunch" as a quick option.

[cjzimmer1]

I'll also say I don't think meal kits are necessarily what you are going for.  They would save you the time to grocery shop/meal prep but the actual cooking time isn't that fast and frankly at times I find the prep pretty tedious (and this from someone who like cooking to begin with).  There are usually several veggies to clean and prep and that means time.  And if you've has busy day (emotionally or physically) that might be more effort than you've got to give.

If you family can handle leftovers, I would plan to double or triple the amount and use it for several days.  For instance on Sunday (assuming you might have more time that day), Make something like a lasagna (even if it's nothing more than a family sized frozen one) for one meal and then get a rotisserie chicken and make some sides to go with that for the other Sunday meal.  That should get you enough leftovers for a couple of days at least.  Or try cooking a fresh meal for lunch if you have more time than and just have leftovers for supper.  If you don't have time to prep, getting precut veggies or even visit the salad bar and bring home things needed for recipes might be a better meal to speed up the meals you do cook.

 

[Jean in Newcastle]

Do you have an instant pot or even a crock pot that has a Delay Start option?  If so, I would explore using that so that it will be ready when you need it. 

[vonfirmath]

Our grocery store (HEB) has pre-cooked meals you can buy to just warm up -- individual servings. They have a lot more choices than typical frozen meals and I'd look into if your grocery store has anyhthing similar to supplement leftovers.

[Scarlett]

I agree meal kits are not what you need.  I would focus on big one pot meals that can last a couple of days.  Crock pot meals too that you can put on earlier in the day to be ready for dinner after you get home.  And be kind to yourselves.  A little take out, mixed with other easy things at home will be fine for a couple of weeks.

 

[Scarlett]

I am just remembering our congregation cooked meals for us for about 2 weeks.  That was super helpful.  So if anyone offers to organize that for you take them up on it.

[City Mouse]

Home Chef has options for oven meals and quick prep meals where all the ingredients come  prepared and everything just has to be dumped together. They aren’t always my favorite choices, but they are quick and easy.

[Grace Hopper]

Not a meal kit recommendation, but maybe the way I used to do things would work for you. I didn’t/don’t cook before eating, but after. We eat, clear up dinner, then I make the next day’s dinner. All that’s needed is to reheat and pull fresh items (prepared salad, cut fruit and veggies) out of the fridge. That way I’m not in a time crunch  for meal prep and if we aren’t all around to eat together, everything is still ready when needed. 

[Emba]

I’m another who thinks a crock pot of soup that is prepped earlier in the day when you have a little time will serve you better, though I have no experience with meal kits.  
 

or just go with stuff from the frozen section of the grocery. It will be cheaper and probably healthier than takeout. There are lots of microwave steam in the bag veggies that are quick and easy, but also healthy.

Edited January 11, 2022 by Emba

[fraidycat]

Instant Pot, crockpot, or Sunday meal/meat prepping for the week will be easier than meal kits. IME, many of the the meals are "fancier" than we would normally make for weekday suppers, so required more prep and reading/learning time. I could have popped some pre-cooked frozen meatballs into some red sauce, boiled a package of pasta, steamed some veggies in the microwave, eaten, and loaded dirty dishes into the dishwasher by the time I finally got a meal box meal cooked.

If you can pre-brown some ground beef, pre-cook a few chicken breasts or thighs, and hard boil some eggs on Saturday or Sunday, you can use the meats for soups in the instant or crockpot, meat sauces, tacos or taco salad, chili, chef salads, chicken caesar salads,  chicken or egg salad sandwiches, etc. That along with frozen veggie steamer bags, a couple frozen casseroles like lasagna or shepherd's pie, or a frozen pizza with a bag or deli counter salad from the grocery store is probably quicker, easier, and cheaper.

[Clarita]

I've tried several different meal kits in the past. In my opinion they are not what you are looking for. They do the grocery shopping for you which is great but then the meals themselves usually include a few courses that you make, and really they only provide you with enough ingredients for just that one meal. So, they really take more time than if you went with some of the online crockpot/instantpot/frozen meal planning stuff online.

I've enjoyed meal kits in the past but what I really enjoyed about them was they taught me how to cook and expanded my cooking abilities.

[katilac]

7 hours ago, wintermom said:

Can you plan to eat the "big meal" at midday and eat more simple and quick to prepare food later in the day? You could even eat the left-overs from "lunch" as a quick option.

You don't even have to eat it then, just have it cooked! 

In my part of the south, it used to be very common to cook supper in the morning, probably bc it's often stupidly hot. Even if  you have a/c, cooking in the the afternoon will heat up your kitchen fast. Nobody I knew ate it for lunch, though, it just got shoved to the back of the stove until later. 

It's less common now, I'm partially bc so many houses have both parents working, but it's a handy way of doing things. I love it when I manage to cook early! If people are around, they might eat early, but I only cook once a day, lol. 

An in-between-ish strategy is to find a grocery store that has pre-seasoned meats. Like a whole chicken or stuffed breasts or a pork loin, all prepped and ready to go, you just do the actual cooking part. If you have a butcher or meat market, they might have more choices. Stock up on frozen veg and use the rice cooker, and prep and cleanup are both pretty minimal. 

If your dad is physically able, lots of the time-consuming prep doesn't require experience, just instructions (pull them up on the internet and point him to that, you don't need to write them out). It could be a good thing for him to keep a bit occupied. 

For when you're really crunched for time or just exhausted, I would choose making a list of the healthy-ish take-out options versus a meal kit. A literal written list, bc that's the only way I would ever remember any of the choices I decided on. Apparently meal kits are more about not knowing how to cook than they are about quickness. 

If people offer monetary help, you might suggest a grocery gift card to help cover the additional people PLUS the more expensive convenience foods.

Would housekeeping or lawn money help?