Make Meal Planning Easy
We are constantly hearing our clients say that meal planning is the hardest part of eating healthy. Yes, it’s hard to meal plan and it is time consuming. Luckily there are ways to make it easier. The following companies have streamlined the art of meal prepping. They can help you pick recipes, make grocery lists and optimize your food budget.
Meal Planning Service:
There are many Pros for using a meal planning service and a huge one is that it is cost effective. These companies can help provide you with a variety of recipes and generate a grocery shopping list. That way you don’t have to spend time researching recipes and creating your own grocery list. Some of these companies will also create a grocery delivery cart from the vendor of your choice so that all you have to do is pick your recipes and then order your food online. Most services will have you choose from a specific number of meals each week.
Cost: as low as 5$/month
Unique Type of Meals: Kid Friendly, Budget Friendly, 30 minute meals, clean eating, low carb, vegetarian, gluten-free, keto, etc.
This service gives you a list of recipes to choose from for the week. You add extra portions for your lunches or leftovers. This service also creates an online shopping cart through a number of grocery delivery services. They provide a nutrition label for each meal, which makes food journaling easier.
Cost: as low as 7.50$ per month
Unique Types of Meals: Gluten free, Vegetarian, Low Carb, Budget Friendly, Quick and easy.
This service also creates a grocery cart using Instacart. They plan to make more services available soon. Your meals can also be sent to Myfitnesspal.com to help with food journaling. Each meal also has a nutrition label if you journal on your own. You also have access to their entire archive of menus at any time.
Cost: around 14$/month
Types of Meals: Features a FOR 1 meal planning system, 20 minute meals
This service is unique for its “Singles” meal plan. They advertise that you only need 20 ingredients for the week. They also try to ensure that you only have to cook for 1 hour per week. The grocery experience is streamlined by the shopping list being organized by locations in the grocery store.
Cost: 69$ for 6 months, 100$ for a year
Unique Types of Meals: Low FODMAP, Keto, Paleo, etc.
Platejoy has the ability to try and personalize the type of diet plan they help you select. The process begins with a questionnaire that results in a suggestion for the type of diet that is best suited to fit your nutritional needs. You can input the pantry items you already have so that these items will be incorporated into ingredients used for the meals. They will also remove those items from the grocery list so that you do not waste money.
Food Delivery Companies:
A big benefit of using these companies is time saved by limiting trips to the grocery store. The food they deliver is usually partially prepped and only requires some washing and chopping. There is also very little waste due to providing only the food needed for the specified number of servings.
Types of meals: vegetarian, family friendly, quick and easy recipes, calorie controlled.
I am sure everyone reading this blog has heard of Hello Fresh. They are able to deliver the recipes and foods required for your weekly meal prep. You can choose the number of people you are serving and the number of meals a week you want to prepare (2,3,4) and the food is delivered weekly. There is a set number of recipes to choose from each week. The recipes change on a weekly basis to offer more variety. With Hello Fresh you still have to spend some time in the kitchen for your meals but this time is greatly reduced.
They market themselves as the most affordable food delivery system by using fewer ingredients and more simple recipes. They do not offer different styles of diets with this service. The recipes do change weekly to help with variety and you can choose the number of meals to cook each week.
Types of Meal Kits: Paleo, Diabetic friendly, Vegetarian, etc.
Sunbasket is unique because it uses organic produce and responsibly farmed meats and eggs. Their meals can be cooked in 15-40 minutes. They also have weekly recipes that rotate. Meals are around 8-10$ per serving and you can choose the number of meals and servings per week.
We hope that these resources can help make your meal planning and prep much easier.