The days of spending hours grocery shopping, reading cookbooks, searching for recipes online, and measuring and prepping ingredients are well and truly over. Kids and a full-time job leave little time, so it’s all about convenience now, and meal kit services are a marvelous solution.
Whether you’re entirely new to meal kits or trying to figure out which one is perfect for your family, our editors have done their research. We’ve sampled the top tier: Home Chef, HelloFresh, and Blue Apron, and it’s fair to say there’s a clear winner!
Here’s how these popular meal kit services compare:
Key Similarities:
All send pre-portioned ingredients right to your door
All offer a variety of chef-curated recipes each week
All offer flexible subscription models
Key Differences:
Home Chef Family is separate from their regular offerings – you get to pick from a menu designed specifically for families and enjoy a better user experience | HelloFresh and Blue Apron only offer family-friendly meals within their regular menu
Home Chef Family 4-serving meals start at only $6.99 per serving | HelloFresh 4-serving meals cost $9.29 per serving | Blue Apron 4-serving meals cost $7.99 per serving
Home Chef offers new customers 18 free meals | HelloFresh offers new customers 16 free meals | Blue Apron offers new customers $200 off across 6 boxes
Home Chef Overview:
Home Chef recently launched a convenient and affordable menu designed specifically for families. These simple, familiar recipes appeal to adults and children alike – from mouth-watering burger kits like Tex-Mex Style Guacamole Beef Burger to delicious one-pot dishes like Sausage Penne. Their dinners are just about effortless to cook, so there’s no experience needed. Even the kids can pull on their aprons and help!
Meals start at just $6.99 a serving – the more you order, the more affordable it is. And with their new customer offer – 18 Free Meals – you save more.
We love that Home Chef Family Menu is separate from their regular menu, which makes the whole ordering process so much easier. You can choose from over 10 weekly rotating meals that cater to different needs and preferences – From classic meal kits with options like One Pot, One Pan, Burger Kits, and Taco Kits that involve a bit of cooking, Oven-Ready meals that require little-to-no prep, and microwavable Fast & Fresh options for those super busy days.
You can find all the family faves on their menu, like Chicken Fajitas and BBQ Beef Meatballs – even picky eaters will finish up their plates!
HelloFresh Overview:
HelloFresh offers weekly shipments of recipes, ingredients, and spices for easy homemade dinners. The service is a smart way to reduce the burden of meal planning and grocery shopping.
However, HelloFresh doesn’t offer a separate family menu – just family-friendly recipes within their menu which makes picking the right meals more challenging. They have over 100 options every week with lots of recipes that aren’t suited for kids like Argentinian Bavette Steak with Veggies.
In our opinion, the whole ordering process is very time-consuming because it took us forever to review all the options, and finally settle on 5 meals.
Another downside is that they don’t offer microwavable meals, so they’re not a great option if you need something quick. You have to make most meals from scratch, and cleanup is always involved.
A 4-serving HelloFresh dish, 5 days a week, prices out at $9.29 a serving. This may seem reasonable but it’s more expensive than the other meal kit services.
Blue Apron Overview:
With Blue Apron you can choose between 2 and 5 weekly meals for either 2-person or 4-person servings. Like HelloFresh they only offer family-friendly meals within their offerings. If you select their 4-serving plan you’ll only find 1 to 2 family-friendly options each week.
Their traditional meal kits also take the longest to cook, with an average prep-to-plate time of 35 – 45 minutes and lots of clean up afterwards.
Blue Apron meals cost $7.99 per serving if you select the 4-person plan with 5 meals per week. Good value, but it still doesn’t beat Home Chef.
We found their meals to be quite challenging and less suited for children. They definitely require at least some cooking experience.
Final Thoughts:
All three meal kits provide a quick-and-easy solution to home-cooked dinners. But when it comes to meals geared to families, Home Chef’s Family Menu is a true standout and offers the best recipe selection.
Their meals are the most affordable – 25% cheaper than HelloFresh meals – and the most convenient since they also offer Fast & Fresh options that you can simply pop in the microwave. But also, regarding taste and freshness, Home Chef Family won this battle hands-down with delicious, picky eater-approved meals.
If you’re looking for a fantastic dinnertime solution that your kids will love just as much as you, Home Chef Family is for you. Less time brainstorming recipes and grocery shopping. More quality time with your loved ones!
