But if you’re working with a tighter budget, you’ll be pleased to know that you don’t have to commit to a pricey subscription. Unlike other meal delivery services, Blue Apron does not require a subscription, making this a truly hassle-free option for busy families. Just add whatever you like to your cart, choose your delivery date and head to checkout. You can even tell them which foods your family (or, honestly, your kids) won’t eat to guarantee each meal is a winner.
How much does Home Chef home meal delivery cost?
You can choose between 2, 3, or 4 recipes per box, with 2, 4, or 6 servings each. Delivery is weekly, and you can choose the day of the week that you prefer for delivery. During testing, the service scored highly for its meal variety, nutrition and ingredient quality, ease of preparation, and taste. Weekly and monthly meal planner to help you keep on top of things. And remember, some of the best planning is done in small steps. Whether browsing recipes while waiting in the school pickup line or prepping veggies while catching up on your favorite podcast, every bit counts toward making your week feel more manageable.
Eat Healthy Food
From my own personal experience, I’ve noticed a significant difference in my grocery shopping habits when I have a meal plan with a shopping list compared to when I don’t. Without a meal plan, my trips to the supermarket are less structured, leading me to purchase many items that catch my eye, often impulsively. This not only results in spending more money but also in buying foods that I don’t necessarily need. With a meal plan and a corresponding shopping list, every item has a purpose, and I’m able to stick to my budget more effectively. This focused approach helps prevent food waste and ensures that I’m buying exactly what I need for the week ahead.
Easy Salmon Teriyaki Bowl Recipe with Rice & Avocado
Please note the grocery costs are only an estimate based on the recipe’s serving size and on ingredient prices of a local grocery store. The generated shopping list above includes items like spices and other pantry staples you most likely have on hand, so we have left them out of the grocery estimate. To keep costs down and streamline groceries, refer to any Meal Plan Suggestions listed in blue above.
selectWe tested 32 canned mocktails — these 10 options make you forget they’re nonalcoholic
Whether you’re feeding yourself, a few people, or a whole family ― meal planning can help get the job done faster, easier, and cheaper. To get started, you’ll first complete a quiz, which asks questions about your reasons for choosing a meal kit service, your food preferences, and how many meals you’d like to receive each week. Box size options include two to six meals, with two, four, or six servings each. One main difference between meal delivery services is how they package and keep meals cold. Sydney appreciated that you didn’t have to commit entirely to one of the five offered cuisine options.
Some of these apps can cut your grocery bill by $20–$50 per week. The “right” app depends entirely on what you’re actually trying to solve. Once you understand your own priorities, the right choice becomes clear. We recommend asking yourself a few key questions before committing to an app. Our tester unimeal review thinks that importing a lot of recipes into the app could be an involved process but could be something that you do slowly over time as you find recipes you enjoy. Pete tested Prepear, rating it a 5 out of 5 for the initial sign-up and getting started.
Our Thoughts on Prepear
Filter recipes by time to cook, category, skill level, special diets, or allergies. You create a digital meal plan by choosing from a wide selection of recipes. Then they create a grocery list based on the ingredients in the meals. Start by trying one of these meal planning apps on a budget this week.
The service preselects meals for you based on your diet preferences. However, you can easily change your order by swapping one (or all) of the preselected meals for any of the 15+ recipes offered that week. I am an updates editor at NBC Select who has extensive experience covering meal delivery services, including gluten-free and vegetarian options. For this article, I spoke to six experts about what to consider when shopping for a meal delivery service and how to determine the best one for you. They also shared their favorite meal delivery services to try out. Free family weekly meal plan ideas using easy recipes and simple ingredients your whole family will love.
Evidence Based
For this piece, we consulted Kristen Smith, MS, RDN, LD, spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, to determine what aspects to look for in a family meal delivery service. Nancy Snyder is a registered dietitian and seasoned professional in nutrition and culinary expertise. With nearly a decade of experience collaborating with restaurant chefs and food manufacturers, Nancy has forged a path at the intersection of nutrition consulting and culinary innovation. Registered nurse and contributing writer Carrie Madormo is a former recipe tester for HelloFresh. She attests that the company is tireless about making sure chefs of any experience level can easily follow their recipes to create something tasty. I’ve tried HelloFresh three times, and can concur that the recipes appeal to kids and adults alike.
Step 5 Shop, prep, and store
Prepear offers the convenience of a pre-set recipe database alongside manual or online input options. Keep in mind that this app doesn’t have a calorie tracking component and doesn’t draw from its own database of foods. Another drawback is that you have to enter recipes and menus via the web, not directly through the app. When you save recipes, you can organize them into separate meal categories, such as breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks.
Caprese Chicken
- The Yummly Pro upgrade ($4.99/month) adds guided video cooking, advanced nutritional breakdowns, and direct Instacart integration.
- The initial setup requires you to populate your recipe library, but once complete, planning becomes incredibly efficient.
- We noted overall value (i.e., price versus quality), family-friendliness, freshness and ease and taste of the recipes.
- We tested Factor several times and asked each tester to rate the service in a few key areas.
- Mealime remains our top pick for 2026 because it nails the fundamentals better than anyone else.
- The right app will feel like an intuitive and indispensable partner, empowering you to reclaim your time, reduce food waste, and achieve your health objectives with confidence.
Little Spoon is known for its clean, tested ingredients and meals crafted with input from pediatricians and dietitians. They offer everything from baby cereals and puffs to toddler meals, snacks, and even big kid lunches. You can also filter by dietary needs (like dairy-free, gluten-free, nut-free, and more) to find the right fit for your child. I’m going to save this post and use a few of these recipes each week. What surprised me most was not just how flavorful everything was, but how filling the meals were, even without meat.
Automated Grocery Lists and Pantry Tracking
This daily calendar template has a monthly calendar on the top of the page. This easy, tasty Spinach Mushroom and Feta Crustless Quiche is low on carbs and big on flavor. This easy Biscuits and Gravy Bake turns a Southern breakfast classic into a cozy one-pan meal with creamy sausage gravy and fluffy cheddar drop biscuits. You’ll also find our recent testing efforts listed in the Others We Tested section above, with notes on Tovala and Gobble. Despite the cheaper price, the recipes are in no way lacking—our Dinnerly review confirms it. I was obsessed with the Seared Cheddar Bratwurst with Horseradish Cream and German Potato Salad.
Start by choosing your proteins for the week (chicken thighs, ground beef, leftover chicken), then build your meals around those. Add side dishes that are kid-approved and budget-friendly like new potatoes, rice, or frozen vegetables. The free version allows you to input your own recipes to create meal plans. You can also scan barcodes of foods to have them added to the database. However, if you want more meal planning features, you have to upgrade to premium. You can also SAVE your favorite recipes, create your own meal plans and shopping lists.