Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, Etc. - Help with Meals

Nurses General Nursing

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This thread was inspired by the topic "Do you still have time to cook after a 12 hour shift?"

Have any of you tried a food service like this? I've read some reviews but want to hear from NURSES.

Are these services too time-consuming for a nurse who works 12+ hours shifts 3 days a week

Thanks in advance!!

Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

I've used Dream Dinners in the past. About an hour, meals for a month. It's just me, so I get plenty of use out of them. Sometimes I pony up the extra $25 to have them made for me, and then I just have to pick them up. Pretty quick to make most of them, although there are some I'll save for a weekend I'm not working.

Thanks!!

There was a place like this that I used a few times several years ago but it closed. It was fun to pre-make your dishes with other people!!

I tried Blue Apron.

Things I liked about it:

- it made me try new foods and new ways to prepare foods I ate regularly

- everything you needed (except olive oil, salt, pepper) came in the box

- everything was pre-measured

- if you needed 1T of a spice or condiment, it was included, so you didn't have to buy an 8oz bottle of something when you needed only 1T

- they give you step by step instructions, e.g. put a pot of water on to boil. Wash and dice your potatoes. Add to boiling water. While potatoes cook, shell your peas. Add the peas to the boiling water with the potatoes. Etc. If you don't cook a lot, that is helpful.

- the salmon

- You can skip weeks whenever you like.

What I didn't like

- The meals included a lot of starchy items (pasta, rice, potatoes)

- The sent a lot of ground beef, ground pork, and ground chicken. I'm not a big fan of ground meat.

- They used a lot of chicken thighs. Again I'm not a fan of thighs.

- Prep took me at least an hour. I don't cook much, so I'm slow at the prep. If you cook regularly, you could probably do the prep much faster.

I kept the service about 3 months. I canceled, because I hated feeling like I HAD to cook. Sometimes I just want to throw a chicken breast on the grill and a vegetable in the microwave- something quick and simple.

I tried Blue Apron.

Things I liked about it:

- it made me try new foods and new ways to prepare foods I ate regularly

- everything you needed (except olive oil, salt, pepper) came in the box

- everything was pre-measured

- if you needed 1T of a spice or condiment, it was included, so you didn't have to buy an 8oz bottle of something when you needed only 1T

- they give you step by step instructions, e.g. put a pot of water on to boil. Wash and dice your potatoes. Add to boiling water. While potatoes cook, shell your peas. Add the peas to the boiling water with the potatoes. Etc. If you don't cook a lot, that is helpful.

- the salmon

- You can skip weeks whenever you like.

What I didn't like

- The meals included a lot of starchy items (pasta, rice, potatoes)

- The sent a lot of ground beef, ground pork, and ground chicken. I'm not a big fan of ground meat.

- They used a lot of chicken thighs. Again I'm not a fan of thighs.

- Prep took me at least an hour. I don't cook much, so I'm slow at the prep. If you cook regularly, you could probably do the prep much faster.

I kept the service about 3 months. I canceled, because I hated feeling like I HAD to cook. Sometimes I just want to throw a chicken breast on the grill and a vegetable in the microwave- something quick and simple.

I wonder if you can pre-cook everything, freeze it then heat it up when you are ready?

You can see their menus on their web site.

Some of the things you probably could freeze and re-heat. Others definitely wouldn't work such as salmon on a spinach salad. The salad part wouldn't freeze. Another meal I made was tostadas with vegies and queso para frier. You cut the queso para fier into cubes and toasted it in a frying pan. I don't think the cheese would be crunchy on the outside after you froze it. (I had never even heard of queso para frier before that recipe which is one of the things I liked about Blue Apron.)

I'm single. The smallest order you could get was 3 meals a week for 2 people - essentially 6 servings. I would cook one night and eat the 2nd serving the next night. Most things were good leftover 1 day. (Most of the time I got 3 servings out of each meal - dinner, lunch, dinner.) If it wasn't something that would be good leftover, I invited someone to eat with me.

I have a friend who has tried Green Chef. She likes it better than Blue Apron, but it is more expensive.

Specializes in Oncology.

I tried Plated. I ordered two meals. The first I tried was a very complex recipe and took me longer to make than if I would have picked out my own recipe, gone to the store, bought the ingredients, and done one of my typical meals myself. To add insult to injury I didn't even like the meal.

The second meal I ordered I never made. Every time I looked at it I just kept thinking how much work it seemed like. What a waste. I hope my user name isn't the next one up top for defamation.

Specializes in Psych, Addictions, SOL (Student of Life).

I have used Hello Fresh, Sun basket and freshly. The first two ship you ingredients to make a healthy organic meal for two to as many people as you would like. The recipes are easy and fun but there is still coking and cleaning of the dishes. The recipes are tasty but the portion sizes are small and not very filling for the men in my house. I currently get premade frozen meals from Freshly. I take them for my lunch because they are again made from fresh ingredients and are microwavable. None of these are exactly cheep in fact they can become quite pricey once your trial period expires. I really only cook on my days not because I'm tired after work but because when we all role in we are so darn hungry no once wants to wait for a home cooked meal.

Hppy

Specializes in Pediatric Critical Care.

I have never tried any of them, but a friend of mine recently tried all of them! She isn't a nurse, but I thought her opinions might be helpful anyway - sorry if not. With permission, I will post her (very unscientific) findings:

So a lot of you have been asking me which company I like most out of all the ones I've tried after all of my 'dinner reviews'. Here's what I have to say about them:

If I had to rank each company, these are the things I'm keeping in mind: Quality (meaning quality of produce and how much we enjoyed the meals), Price, Customer Service, Ease of Instructions/Preparation, & Variety (variety of meal options given). This would be the order I would go in:

1. Home Chef. They get an A or A+ in all of these areas. They are the least expensive option and you have the most menu options weekly, each week having at least 1 steak, 1 pork, 1 chicken, 1 vegetarian option. There are typically 10 dinner options, plus 1 breakfast option. You can also add on smoothies and/or fruit if you choose. Every meal we have enjoyed thoroughly. Some were good, not mind-blowingly awesome, but we have never been disappointed. I have had a couple issues with produce being sub-par, and their customer service has credited me justly. Their instructions are super easy to follow and anyone could make them. The ONLY thing negative I can say about them is that their customer service center is closed on weekends, and our box arrives on Fridays, so if we have issues with anything, we have to wait until Monday to receive a response. But that's super minor.

2. Marley Spoon. This is another A company, but they are a Martha Stewart company so is this really a surprise? Their food has been phenomenal. There were a few weeks where their menu options didn't thrill me, but we would just pause that week's delivery and go with Home Chef for that week. Easy peasy! There's no penalty for skipping weeks with any of the companies which is a major plus. Marley Spoon is a little more expensive per serving than Home Chef, but the quality of the meals/ingredients explains itself. While they do not have as many options to choose from as Home Chef, they do offer a nice variety of options each week. I haven't had any issues with this company so I haven't had an opportunity to test their customer service, but I would rather never have issues and not have to try lol. Jim says that their meal instructions were a little harder to follow than that of Home Chef's, and Jim is a complete rookie in the kitchen so to him that's a big deal. I think the more time he spends in the kitchen, the easier it will become, but it is something to think about.

3. Plated. Most expensive out of all the companies I've tried, but not much more than Marley Spoon. The meals we tried were all phenomenal, but their menu each week hasn't tempted me as much as the two listed above. I will keep them around for the sake of variety though. Their customer service is phenomenal though. They sent me an email before I even had an issue to tell me that if I had any problems to just let them know! I did have one very minor issue, I don't even remember what it was, but I brought it up with them and they credited me $8 toward my next meal. So yeah, A+ there. Instructions were easy to follow as well. Again, really easy directions to follow. Another cool thing is that Plated offers dessert options and 'chef picks' which are more expensive more upscale meals, but it's a neat option.

4. Hello Fresh. They were overall, Okay. Our first box wasn't thrilling, and we had received rotten corn, but we decided to give them another shot to see if they improve. Their customer service has been decent. They're at least open on weekends, and they did credit me for the meal with the corn. Overall their dinner options are decent looking, but they never jump out at me like "oh wow that looks delicious!" So we will see how they do the second time around. I may have to edit this. One thing I wasn't a fan of was their directions. They were not as easy to follow as others, and they come in this weird book that includes the directions to the meals you didn't order, so it's confusing at first. **UPDATE** We got our second Hello Fresh box and here is the conclusion: out of the total of 6 meals we have tried with Hello Fresh, only 2 of the 6 were we pleasantly pleased with. 4 of the six were just 'okay' meals. Some of them have pretty small portions as well compared to other companies. Overall, I maintain that Hello Fresh is just 'okay'. We will keep them around for the sake of variety though juuuust in case none of the other companies have a good menu one week.

Last & Least

5. Blue Apron. C- if not D. This one surprised me because I have seen SO many people RAVE about this company. I think they rave because they get the 'family box' as opposed to the '2 person box', because let me tell you, the menu options are NOT the same. If I could order from the family box, I would give them another shot, but the meals they offer to us 2 people households are just not as appealing. Some very out there recipes with lots of grain type ingredients to make them filling. They also use much cheaper meat than all the other companies. A lot of ground beef/fish/dark meat chicken recipes as opposed to all the others that offer steak and pork and white meat chicken (typically). I've even read other customer reviews that have stated that their menu options have gone down hill as of lately. My BIGGEST peeve with Blue Apron is that you really don't have any choice in what you get each week. I'm not a picky eater, but I like to decide what I do and do not eat. They give you a grand total of 5 menu options to choose from (Half of what Home Chef offers), but get this... if you try to edit your box, and click on one of the dinners that sounds good, 2 of the other options will drop off and no longer be available! So, you really DON'T get a choice whatsoever. Lame. I haven't tried their customer service, but I really don't care to use them again. Their meals were just okay & their variety really stinks. You WILL get at least 1 vegetarian or fish option each week. I need protein. This doesn't work for me. I tell people "If you get a free box, take it, it's free food and free is free!" but, I have kept all my subscriptions since I originally signed up for them all (about 6 weeks ago now), and I still haven't ordered a second Blue Apron box if that says anything.

Specializes in LTC, Rehab.

This is obviously just my opinion. I'm not going to use or try any of these companies because I'm a decent cook, and to me it's just not that hard to buy whatever I need to cook something without using a special service to pack up all of the exact ingredients I need, whether I'm halfway making up my own recipe or looking at one.

I tried Plated. I ordered two meals. The first I tried was a very complex recipe and took me longer to make than if I would have picked out my own recipe, gone to the store, bought the ingredients, and done one of my typical meals myself. To add insult to injury I didn't even like the meal.

The second meal I ordered I never made. Every time I looked at it I just kept thinking how much work it seemed like. What a waste. I hope my user name isn't the next one up top for defamation.

Right???? After I made my post, I thought of that so......

THANK YOU TO YOU BRAVE POSTERS!!! :woot:

I have never tried any of them, but a friend of mine recently tried all of them! She isn't a nurse, but I thought her opinions might be helpful anyway - sorry if not. With permission, I will post her (very unscientific) findings:

So a lot of you have been asking me which company I like most out of all the ones I've tried after all of my 'dinner reviews'. Here's what I have to say about them:

If I had to rank each company, these are the things I'm keeping in mind: Quality (meaning quality of produce and how much we enjoyed the meals), Price, Customer Service, Ease of Instructions/Preparation, & Variety (variety of meal options given). This would be the order I would go in:

1. Home Chef. They get an A or A+ in all of these areas. They are the least expensive option and you have the most menu options weekly, each week having at least 1 steak, 1 pork, 1 chicken, 1 vegetarian option. There are typically 10 dinner options, plus 1 breakfast option. You can also add on smoothies and/or fruit if you choose. Every meal we have enjoyed thoroughly. Some were good, not mind-blowingly awesome, but we have never been disappointed. I have had a couple issues with produce being sub-par, and their customer service has credited me justly. Their instructions are super easy to follow and anyone could make them. The ONLY thing negative I can say about them is that their customer service center is closed on weekends, and our box arrives on Fridays, so if we have issues with anything, we have to wait until Monday to receive a response. But that's super minor.

2. Marley Spoon. This is another A company, but they are a Martha Stewart company so is this really a surprise? Their food has been phenomenal. There were a few weeks where their menu options didn't thrill me, but we would just pause that week's delivery and go with Home Chef for that week. Easy peasy! There's no penalty for skipping weeks with any of the companies which is a major plus. Marley Spoon is a little more expensive per serving than Home Chef, but the quality of the meals/ingredients explains itself. While they do not have as many options to choose from as Home Chef, they do offer a nice variety of options each week. I haven't had any issues with this company so I haven't had an opportunity to test their customer service, but I would rather never have issues and not have to try lol. Jim says that their meal instructions were a little harder to follow than that of Home Chef's, and Jim is a complete rookie in the kitchen so to him that's a big deal. I think the more time he spends in the kitchen, the easier it will become, but it is something to think about.

3. Plated. Most expensive out of all the companies I've tried, but not much more than Marley Spoon. The meals we tried were all phenomenal, but their menu each week hasn't tempted me as much as the two listed above. I will keep them around for the sake of variety though. Their customer service is phenomenal though. They sent me an email before I even had an issue to tell me that if I had any problems to just let them know! I did have one very minor issue, I don't even remember what it was, but I brought it up with them and they credited me $8 toward my next meal. So yeah, A+ there. Instructions were easy to follow as well. Again, really easy directions to follow. Another cool thing is that Plated offers dessert options and 'chef picks' which are more expensive more upscale meals, but it's a neat option.

4. Hello Fresh. They were overall, Okay. Our first box wasn't thrilling, and we had received rotten corn, but we decided to give them another shot to see if they improve. Their customer service has been decent. They're at least open on weekends, and they did credit me for the meal with the corn. Overall their dinner options are decent looking, but they never jump out at me like "oh wow that looks delicious!" So we will see how they do the second time around. I may have to edit this. One thing I wasn't a fan of was their directions. They were not as easy to follow as others, and they come in this weird book that includes the directions to the meals you didn't order, so it's confusing at first. **UPDATE** We got our second Hello Fresh box and here is the conclusion: out of the total of 6 meals we have tried with Hello Fresh, only 2 of the 6 were we pleasantly pleased with. 4 of the six were just 'okay' meals. Some of them have pretty small portions as well compared to other companies. Overall, I maintain that Hello Fresh is just 'okay'. We will keep them around for the sake of variety though juuuust in case none of the other companies have a good menu one week.

Last & Least

5. Blue Apron. C- if not D. This one surprised me because I have seen SO many people RAVE about this company. I think they rave because they get the 'family box' as opposed to the '2 person box', because let me tell you, the menu options are NOT the same. If I could order from the family box, I would give them another shot, but the meals they offer to us 2 people households are just not as appealing. Some very out there recipes with lots of grain type ingredients to make them filling. They also use much cheaper meat than all the other companies. A lot of ground beef/fish/dark meat chicken recipes as opposed to all the others that offer steak and pork and white meat chicken (typically). I've even read other customer reviews that have stated that their menu options have gone down hill as of lately. My BIGGEST peeve with Blue Apron is that you really don't have any choice in what you get each week. I'm not a picky eater, but I like to decide what I do and do not eat. They give you a grand total of 5 menu options to choose from (Half of what Home Chef offers), but get this... if you try to edit your box, and click on one of the dinners that sounds good, 2 of the other options will drop off and no longer be available! So, you really DON'T get a choice whatsoever. Lame. I haven't tried their customer service, but I really don't care to use them again. Their meals were just okay & their variety really stinks. You WILL get at least 1 vegetarian or fish option each week. I need protein. This doesn't work for me. I tell people "If you get a free box, take it, it's free food and free is free!" but, I have kept all my subscriptions since I originally signed up for them all (about 6 weeks ago now), and I still haven't ordered a second Blue Apron box if that says anything.

This was awesome!! It's ok that she's not a Nurse!! I've never even heard of Home Chef and am shocked to hear the Blue Apron did so poorly in your friends opinion! I didn't know that your choices were so limited either!

Thank you and also your friend!!!

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