We’ve experimented with Blue Apron, Plated, and now Hello Fresh over the past 4 years or so. We love that there’s very little food waste, but there’s plenty of packaging and a big box has to get driven to our door once a week. I know how to cook, and I enjoy cooking, but I find we fall into a rut when I do the menu planning. I like that the planning and shopping are taken care of and exactly match what we need for each meal. It’s made it possible for us to cook good, balanced meals at home 4-6 nights per week while holding down our jobs and spending time with our toddler. But I know in my heart that it would be better to walk (or bike) to the store or farmer’s market to buy fresh ingredients, reuse bags whenever possible, and do our best to eat leftovers and find uses for extra ingredients. So how to phase out the meal kit?
One thing I’m experimenting with is Real Plans, which (for a small fee) provides a personalized weekly menu plan that you can tweak in all the ways you’d want to. It even generates a shopping list for you! Right now, we’re sticking with Hello Fresh and I’m just using this for the other dinners that we need to plan, to see how it works and start to get in the groove.
everything I can 