Meal delivery service

[Wildwaterfalls]

Going back to work after maternity leave soon, and already stressing about all the meal planning/cooking.

I've seen that there are companies that do a weekly delivery of ingredients for, say, 5 meals, plus recipes. Sounds brilliant as it takes the thinking away from it all.

Has anyone used these? Can you recommend yours? In particular, are there companies that deliver during evenings or weekends? The latter is pretty crucial to making the whole thing work.

Thanks!

I'm in the process of developing a meal planning service website where you choose from a selection of menus and then you receive the recipes and planning as well as an aggregated shopping list for all the meals for the week. You can remove any meals you don't want and drop in your own favourites or any new things you want to try which will integrate into the week's planning and shopping.

At its simplest you can send the order to your supermarket and have it delivered whenever it suits you. Or have some delivered and buy the rest at shops you like. Will be on ipad, laptop and phone so you cook from that in the kitchen and share the shopping list if you want and it will delete items as they are purchased.

Is that something that would work for you?

Hi

Thanks for replying. The service I have in mind involves me not even choosing recipes, but ingredients for five meals plus recipes being sent to my home. So I would never have to think of what to cook! Possibly with a facility to specify a few things we really don't like.

Anyway, the service does seem to exist - there are several companies that do it - but where they fall down is delivery slots, saying eg Tuesdays between 1pm and 6pm. People who can be at home for five hours waiting for a delivery would probably also have time to meal-plan!! Honestly!

I'm not sure if they are any good as I've never tried them but there's an ad up for jessica's recipe bag at our tube station. They deliver on a Monday night. Let me know if you do try one as I've just gone back to work after maternity leave too and can't face just eating M&S ready meals all week, which is what we've had so far.

I think there's one called "Hello Fresh" which does what you want OP. Sounds like a good idea for me for Mon-Fri cooking: no waste, no choice, no thinking.

Thanks both for those suggestions. I will investigate. I am very unimaginative when it comes to weekday food!

Wild - I think this is a fab idea. I am going to look into it for when I'm back at work.

Without trying to promote my business too much as I don't want to get into trouble with MNHQ - I offer another alternative. You tell me the kinds of things you like, and the kinds of things you don't...then I plan your menu, shop for it and then cook it in your kitchen (or mine!)while you're out, and leave it in the fridge ready for you to grab and reheat come supper time. My business operates in the Surrey area so if you're close by, I could send you some info, if you're interested?

Dairymoo that sounds like a lovely service... Which I expect is way out of our budget range! Do pm me the details though for when we win the lottery !

Dairy, I'd love the details too!

Thank you...I think it is! Am I allowed to post my website without breaking MN guidelines? It's The Little Cooking Company - I thjnk it comes up at the top if you search on Google for it directly.

Wow! Your weekly meal prep service sounds amazing! I wish you did central London. And very nice and professional looking website.

Thank you HandMini - my husband designed it, will pass on the compliment!

HandMini - where in Central London are you? PM me if you'd prefer.

Have just taken receipt of my first Hello Fresh box, and it will be the last. It arrived very late, and the driver said this was because there had been traffic in Birmingham (I live in Cambridge!). I threw the meat, fish, yoghurt and eggs out as they were warm and clearly they had been travelling around the country all day in a hot lorry - the ice packs had pretty much melted. One of the peanut sauces had leaked all over the other box and so everything was really sticky and disgusting. Not impressed, and I have emailed them for a refund.

I've had a couple of Gousto boxes and been very impressed - the produce is fantastic quality

I have been offered a poxy £5 refund, which is rubbish considering the stuff was inedible.

I have Made My Feelings Clear.

Boffy that is shit service from them and will cost them a fair few orders - I had looked into it from a link on the junk food v scratch and was considering using them, but not now.

OP agree that the deliver slots are crap too - someone who is busy needs an hour long slot poss two at a max

They have upped it to £20 but I spent more than that replacing the stuff that had to go into the bin.

Oh yes, and the recipes are designed for 2 on the cards and they are supposed to double up the ingredients, but some of them haven't been doubled up and they have made mistakes on that front as well.

Does anyone know if you have to sign up for Gousto or whether you can just do it as a one-off? I have a code for £20 off the first box but don't really want to do this every week!

Think you have to sign up for it, but nothing to stop you cancelling after one week.

Can't use the codes on Ocado which is a shame as can do one offs there easier.

Ha our first box this week. Have to say we have been impressed with the three meals, all generous portions too.

You don't have to sign up to Jessica's recipe bag - you can get a one-off. They do a discounted first delivery too - I tried them and really liked their meals.