It was not long ago that Blue Apron was the only meal kit company on the market. Now, meal kit companies are launching every day to meet a wide variety of diets and food allergies and cater to a mass consumer base. When trying to choose which meal kit program is best for you, you have to decide whether you want ready-made meals that only need to be heated up, or if you’re comfortable spending 20-40 minutes prepping the meals yourself. Here are some of my favorite meal kit options for people looking for ready-made meals, fresh and speedy ingredients, or plant-based alternatives.
Ready-Made: Freshly
The best meal kit on the market for ready-made food is Freshly. Freshly offers fully-cooked, nutritionally balanced meals that take only a few minutes to heat up. Freshly meals are perfect for busy students with no time to cook, who likely only have a microwave for a kitchen.
These meals are conveniently cost-effective, each one costing about $10 including tax and delivery. I’ve compared Freshly it to its competitors, Factor 75 and Daily Harvest, and in my opinion Freshly offers the most variety and balance between proteins, vegetables, and starches. Factor 75 is geared towards people with high-protein diets like Paleo and Keto. Daily Harvest has more sugary products like fruit-based smoothies, but the choices are more limited.
My Freshly Favorites:
Cauliflower Bolognese, Mexican Enchilada Bowl, Chicken Parmesan, and Chicken Tikka Masala.
Fresh and Speedy: Sun Basket
Sunbasket is my top pick for all types of eaters. Sunbasket is organic and has eco-friendly packaging- an added plus! The week-to-week variety is so extensive that even after using it for 2 years, I’m still not tired of the meals.
When you set up your profile with Sunbasket, you choose your dietary preference from a list of options: Vegan, Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Keto, Carb Conscious, or Paleo. Then, Sunbasket will pre-pick meals for you that you can keep or replace with another choice. Each meal costs $24 and serves two people, so if you’re only ordering for yourself, you’ll get two meals from one kit! The portion sizes are generous but appropriate, so you’ll rarely waste any food. Home Chef, Hello Fresh, and Blue Apron are some competitors that offer a similar concept, but they aren’t as easy to prepare as Sunbasket, and in my opinion they don’t seem as healthy.
My Sun Basket Favorites:
Pork Tacos, Turkey Burgers on a Lettuce Wrap, Bok Choy Pork Stir Fry, and Mediterranean Turkey Kabobs with carrot and squash ribbons.
Plant-Based: Sakara
My top pick for a plant-based meal kit is Sakara. I first heard about Sakara on a hiking retreat at The Ranch in Malibu, California, a trip focused on plant-based eating. While Sakara is expensive and not available everywhere in the country (NYC based), it is the freshest, organic plant-based meal kit on the market.
Sakara offers plant-based, dairy-free, gluten-free, and sugar-free meals. They deliver a daily eating program that includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner. All the meals are ready-made and only need to be heated up. Sakara has a pretty steep cost, at $169 a week for their two-day breakfast to dinner meal plan, but the food is worth it! They also has a Clean Boutique, an online store offering products like metabolism super powder and nutritional supplements like Sakara RX, and their best-selling Complete Probiotic Formula. If you’re looking for a full detox and reset while also getting delicious meals, Sakara will give you this result!
My Sakara Favorites:
I love Sakara’s creative salad options for lunch like the Winter Sun Salad (tri-colored quinoa, roasted Brussel sprouts with a honey Dijon dressing) or the H2O Below salad (white beans, celery, and cucumber with a fresh herb dressing)