The season of endless entertaining and lengthy to-do lists has arrived, which means cooking dinner tends to get put on the backburner. After all, grocery shopping, slicing, dicing, sautéing, and cleaning up is exhausting. Enter pre-prepped meals delivered to your doorstep! We tested a handful of popular services and spill the beans about our favorites below.

 

Blue Apron

One of the first and most most-well known services (the company launched in 2012), Blue Apron offers chef-designed recipes that empower home cooks to embrace their culinary curiosity and challenge their cooking chops. With a plethora of plans and varying price points, plus customizable choices (including options to add appetizers, desserts, or side dishes; and “heat & eat” single-serve meals that are ready in five minutes or less), Blue Apron is a fan favorite for good reason.

Starts at $8.99 per serving

 

MY THOUGHTS: All three dinners I made were restaurant quality, full of flavor, and well-received by my family (i.e., no leftovers). I enjoyed learning some new cooking techniques that I’m eager to try again, discovering new-to-me ingredients (never had I ever cooked, or heard of, kohlrabi before), and the easy-to-follow instructions.

 

Green Chef

What’s in a name? At Green Chef, it means recycable packaging, USDA-certified organic ingredients, and 100% offset of the direct carbon emissions and plastic from every box sold. But besides their commitment to being green, the company—whose motto is “powering the pursuit of eating well”—offers a variety of curated plans (keto, paleo, plant-powered, etc.) crafted by expert chefs. The simple-to-make recipes (think sesame-ginger shrimp bowls, beef tenderloin with truffle cream sauce, and squash & mozzarella flatbreads) come inclusive of perfectly portioned, pre-measured, and mostly prepped ingredients, ensuring dinner is served with minimal struggle and in minimal time.

Starts at $11.99 per serving

 

MY THOUGHTS: The green packaging was a huge plus (particularly the ice packs filled with soluble, non-toxic gel that can be drained), but the quality of the proteins and produce an even bigger pro. The meals I made featured straightforward ingredients and techniques, but the signature, chef-curated sauces, dressings, and spice blends really elevated the dinners from ordinary to extraordinary.

 

Good Eggs

Based in the Bay Area, with no subscription required, each 3-Dinner Kit comes inclusive of ingredients that are 70% local (many labels included bakeries and farms based right here in our region) with a convenient cook time of 10-15 minutes. Another bonus? The company offers absurdly fresh groceries delivered straight to your door, so you can order everything—from locally made wine to fresh-baked bagels and organic produce—along with your meals. The dinners are anything but basic and will have you opening your palate to an array of fun flavors and mouthwatering ingredient combos (like Calabrian chile butter noodles with cauliflower) that’ll have you saying: “Why didn’t I think of that?”

$8.33 per serving

 

MY THOUGHTS: Instead of pre-portioned ingredients in separate boxes or bags for each recipe, Good Eggs delivered everything together with generous portions (so much so that my family had enough for a second, sometimes third, meal). As someone who’s comfortable in the kitchen and dislikes unnecessary packaging, I found Good Eggs’ approach to be a welcome change from all the other services. Each of the three dinners I made used clever techniques (sheet pan gnocchi with roasted veggies, for example) that resulted in three incredibly delicious dinners I’m eager to recreate again.  

 

Mosaic

Vegetarians pressed for time and seeking some new dinner ideas are in luck. Mosaic makes good-for-you (and good-for-the-planet) plant-powered frozen meals that are convenient and full of flavor. Unlike other services, where you’re required to read a recipe, prep produce, and make your meal, Mosaic’s offerings come oven-ready and are sustainable—simply bake, serve, and recycle. With their new Family Meals, you can feed up to four hungry people with colorful, bold entrées that range from a Buffalo Cauliflower Pasta Bake to Italian “Sausage” & Pumpkin Lasagna and BBQ “Meatloaf” with Sweet Potato Hash.

$4.99 per serving

 

MY THOUGHTS: Forget the frozen food of your youth—the sodium-studded gut bombs that essentially provided empty calories and left you satisfied for mere minutes. The Family Meals I enjoyed from Mosaic were nutritious, delicious, and packed with veggies in a subtle way that ensured everyone in my household—yes, even our two-year-old—licked their plates clean. I especially appreciated the heat-and-serve convenience, lack of dishes, and generous portions.

By Megan Wiskus