Consumer Packaged Goods are Now Meal Delivery Services in All Shapes and Sizes
Since 2010, countless meal delivery services have popped up all over the country. From pre-prepped smoothies and soups to gourmet breakfast and heat and eat dinners, consumer demand for quick, nourishing meals has taken off. We take a peek at a few favorites, companies with an eye on flavor, ease of preparation, and environmental friendliness, whose packaged goods arrive on the doorstep and make meal prep as speedy and painless as opening one of the portion-sized boxes. Meal delivery services, which serve up some of the best consumer packaged products on the market today, continue to expand and, since convenience is key – we all want to eat foods that are good for you but our lifestyles increasingly call for us to do so with increased time efficiency, it seems – our list captures a few of the best consumer packaged goods products we like to call special.
Chef’d
Chef’d partners with famous chefs and national brands to create name-recognizable recipes that you can recreate at home. From Atkins and Weight Watchers to The New York Times Cooking and Spoon University, select recipes from meal plans are built to meet your lifestyle and wellness goals. Choose your recipes and Chef’d will send you all the needed ingredients, perfectly portioned, to cook and serve yourself or your family a delicious home-cooked meal. A few basic cooking skills, some proper cook’s tools and salt and pepper are all you need to put restaurant-quality meals on the table in a jiffy.
But dinner is not the only meal solution. Chef’d breakfast offerings are extensive and they recently partnered with Quaker Oats to launch a breakfast meal kit featuring Quaker’s Overnight Oats. Assemble at night in a Mason jar with the included oats, Greek yogurt, honey and blueberries and a nourishing breakfast is ready for you before your morning coffee.
Munchery
At work since 2010 and in the news earlier this year for lay-offs at their San Francisco production facility, Munchery’s meal plans require no cooking skills at all. With ingredients pre-cooked and ready to be reheated, simply pop the prepared dish into the oven or microwave. Dishes like Cauliflower Shawarma and Chicken Teriyaki take little more effort than turning on the oven. They offer more than a meal here, from entrée and salad to dessert, drinks and chips (mmmm…chicharrones). If you can pour salad dressing onto greens, you’ve got this. Mom would be proud.
Blue Apron
It is not every food company that supports regenerative agriculture (a sustainable farming system that removes carbon from the air and puts it back into the soil to nourish plants) or building menus around a crop rotation schedule. But Blue Apron is on a mission to replenish the land and grow higher quality ingredients, all while making your cooking more seasonal, efficient and less wasteful. Humanely raised beef for Beef Tacos with Radish Salsa comes pre-sliced as do the sweet potato wedges. Just toss with olive oil and pop ‘em into the oven for a fresh take on fries.
Daily Harvest
With a laser focus on whole-food smoothies and soups, Daily Harvest is aiming at the perpetual motion of traveling eaters who power up with superfoods like chia and cacao. Arriving in their own pre-portioned cups, just add liquid to the ready-to-blend smoothies and ready-to-heat soup ingredients. Pop into your freezer to prepare later or turn on your blender and toss in a cupful of smoothie goodness. (The Cacao and Avocado Smoothie is boosted with pea protein and is delicious.) For soup, pop a Mushroom Miso Restore Soup into the microwave for a minute or two. The convenience cannot be beat and there are no leftovers to worry about. Some extra space in the freezer is all you need for super-convenient powerfood nutrition.
Green Chef
Certified organic by CCOF (California Certified Organic Farmers), Green Chef goes to the next level of food packaging, using the plant-based fiber, jute (no Styrofoam here) insulation and offers a detailed explanation for how to recycle the ice packs included with each delivery. Their commitment to cleaner eating and shipping does not mean they slouch on flavor. Dishes like Saag Halloumi with Curried Spinach and Dijon Maple Chicken with Herb Roasted Parsnip Fries and Snap Pea Cabbage Slaw overlay a world of flavor. A nutrition facts label is included with each recipe, too.
