Last month Tyler’s mom offered to send us a few weeks of Plated, one of those meal delivery services.
I was a little skeptical of these places before. It seems like so much waste when I can just go to the grocery store and buy everything. Less cardboard, plastic, deliver person, etc. Also it costs less to do it myself. In fact, it almost costs about the same as ordering takeout, and that’s already cooked for me. But, not one to pass up free food, we decided to give it a try.
And now we’re totally hooked!
Seriously, I love it. The recipes push us to try things we would probably never order as takeout (like vegetarian meals), and for sure wouldn’t shop for just walking around the grocery store (our new favorite, acorn squash). Plus we don’t waste food buying big amounts of herbs and other ingredients when a recipe calls for much less.
My other favorite thing is that it’s so simple Mason and Milo can make dinner themselves if I’m busy with Arlo. And Mason is actually proud of his finished products (although he’s still squirmy at raw meat, so Milo is called in for those steps).
We also (thanks to the other grandma) tried Hello Fresh a few weeks ago just to see the difference. So far Plated wins.
Although Hello Fresh does a family plan, the price and quantity ends up being around the same as ordering for three adults on Plated. But Plated has the advantage of 11 different options to choose from each week versus Hello Fresh’s three. Also we’ve liked more of the Plated recipes we’ve tried (we’ve even duplicated some ourselves).
Overall I still think the delivery service is a little pricey, definitely compared to just buying groceries, but the convenience is very nice. Right now we get two meals a week, but I skip about every other week (I love that you can skip as much as you want). And since it’s actually decreased our takeout ordering, I figure it’s kind of even.
Anyone else enjoying delivery meals? I know there’s quite a few out there and I’d love to hear about other options we haven’t tried.
emily says so 
Only drawback, imho, is they don’t allow straight forward Gift Certificates. Instead a person has to open their own account, signing up. After you’ve signed up, then you can give a GC. 😬😞