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I have not tried the meal delivery places -- I am trying to SAVE money on food (while still eating very well) and none of my homemade meals come CLOSE to even the sale prices per meal of those services. (I DO understand that they work for a lot of people, but if I'm going to splurge on food, it will be Lou Malnati's deep-dish pizza out of Chicago or something like that a couple of times a year! )
It helps that I really like to cook and try new recipes. I cook for one most of the time these days (very few house guests recently, which is unusual for me) BUT I usually make several portions at a time and freeze some in plastic containers (LABELED -- I have gotten good at that, finally! ). I have found that many of the things I make multiple portions of on the stovetop or slow cooker -- like curries, Moroccan dishes, tagines, thick beef-and-veggies-and-barley soup -- freeze BEAUTIFULLY and the leftovers (from frozen) are just as good weeks later.
In fact I am going to have a Moroccan-style chicken-and-lots-of-veggies-with-sauce leftover meal tonight. It's been defrosting in my refrigerator for a day, although I likely could nuke it right out of the freezer (haven't needed to do that though).
I've never had delivered meals except a handful of times by Doordash fast food from restaurants.
I just go to the store, buy some food and cook it when I feel like it. That's my cooking for one and have been doing it for years. It works well for me.
That's not what this thread is about, though.
Doordash delivers fully cooked food, ready to eat, not ingredients for you to cook, such as do the services the OP is talking about, like Hello Fresh and Blue Apron.
We did Hello Fresh for a few months. But then they raised prices by making "premium" the selections we liked.
However, I saved their recipe cards and the rest can be found on their site. So now we use what we learned and just buy the food at the grocery store as needed.
I will have to look at Home chef because it might be a nice break from cooking depending on price. Now I cook something and eat it 3 days in a row freezing the rest. I have company once a week that I cook for.
We did Hello Fresh for a few months. But then they raised prices by making "premium" the selections we liked.
However, I saved their recipe cards and the rest can be found on their site. So now we use what we learned and just buy the food at the grocery store as needed.
I save the cards too, in a big binder, and go back to the recipes when I happen to have the ingredients on hand. I've learned so much about cooking, especially seasoning, since starting HF. I never used to salt and pepper anything during the cooking process! Duh!
I also found online the ingredients of every HF spice packet so I've been putting those together too for my own use.
I have not tried the meal delivery places -- I am trying to SAVE money on food (while still eating very well) and none of my homemade meals come CLOSE to even the sale prices per meal of those services. (I DO understand that they work for a lot of people, but if I'm going to splurge on food, it will be Lou Malnati's deep-dish pizza out of Chicago or something like that a couple of times a year! )
It helps that I really like to cook and try new recipes. I cook for one most of the time these days (very few house guests recently, which is unusual for me) BUT I usually make several portions at a time and freeze some in plastic containers (LABELED -- I have gotten good at that, finally! ). I have found that many of the things I make multiple portions of on the stovetop or slow cooker -- like curries, Moroccan dishes, tagines, thick beef-and-veggies-and-barley soup -- freeze BEAUTIFULLY and the leftovers (from frozen) are just as good weeks later.
In fact I am going to have a Moroccan-style chicken-and-lots-of-veggies-with-sauce leftover meal tonight. It's been defrosting in my refrigerator for a day, although I likely could nuke it right out of the freezer (haven't needed to do that though).
I am old school and used plastic to freeze and reheat food items. But, my attitude has changed since reading about stuff "leaching" from plastic when it gets hot. So, I still use plastic to store food in the fridge, or to give to others if I make enough to share, but I now use glass containers to freeze food in, and to reheat as well. Just "food for thought", lol (pun intended).
I am old school and used plastic to freeze and reheat food items. But, my attitude has changed since reading about stuff "leaching" from plastic when it gets hot. So, I still use plastic to store food in the fridge, or to give to others if I make enough to share, but I now use glass containers to freeze food in, and to reheat as well. Just "food for thought", lol (pun intended).
Honestly, I always forget about that, probably because I've been reheating plastic containers for probably a couple of decades now.
These days, I usually nuke the plastic container only if the food is not fully thawed, then I dump the food onto an actual plate because I'm typically making fresh rice, beans, or whatever as a side dish. Tonight it was a rice-and-lentils side dish so I heated that up slightly on the plate, then dumped my now-thawed food over it and heated THAT in the microwave for several minutes. (It was the chicken tagine-like meal and SO good!! I still have one more frozen portion, then I'll be cooking this again! )
I am old school and used plastic to freeze and reheat food items. But, my attitude has changed since reading about stuff "leaching" from plastic when it gets hot. So, I still use plastic to store food in the fridge, or to give to others if I make enough to share, but I now use glass containers to freeze food in, and to reheat as well. Just "food for thought", lol (pun intended).
I find a lot of the hoopla about plastic leaching to be overblown and sometimes used as clickbait. Where it can be a problem is if there is overheating to the point the plastic starts to melt, such as in a container that has a glob of fat that gets thawed in a microwave too long. The BPA is limited to just SOME plastics.
Plastic food storage bags and cling film are benign. Any number of sous-vide users have asked pointed questions and the consensus is in and just about unanimous that they are safe at sous vide temps.
Even if you are concerned about heated plastic, you can wrap your food in cling film, stuff it in whatever container that allows you to easily get it out (think yogurt or cottage cheese container) and then you can peel the film off cold, or set it in a pot of room temperature water to loosen it before peeling it off.
While you are doing that though, consider that the yogurt or cottage cheese was shipped in that container, and just might be food safe.
I currently get Green Chef meals that I cook, delivered once a week. I have been doing this for many months now. I really like it. The ingredients are organic, which I also like. I can choose from a wide range of diets - I chose gluten free. The meals aren't necessarily low calorie but still, I've lost about 25 pounds very slowly over time as I've incorporated these meals into my life. Each kit makes two meals so I always have one for dinner one night and then one for lunch the next day. I get three kits per week delivered. Till the holidays it was perfect but since the holidays and more gatherings and all that stuff, I generally cook two instead of three kits per week. I expect things to get back into a groove over January but if not, I will need to cut back to two kits per week instead of three.
I enjoy them regardless and have saved a lot of wasted food, not to mention trips to the grocery store!
I have numerous glass bowls that I store the extra meal in. One thing I really like is that I can easily grab one and take it to work. Beats the heck out of spending $20 on a lunch somewhere.
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). I have found that many of the things I make multiple portions of on the stovetop or slow cooker -- like curries, Moroccan dishes, tagines, thick beef-and-veggies-and-barley soup -- freeze BEAUTIFULLY and the leftovers (from frozen) are just as good weeks later.
