The difference between a GOOD day and a BAD day rides on two critical things:

  • My sleep
  • My meals

Seriously.

I know you put a lot of energy, blood, sweat and tears into feeding your family too.  And you probably find that the harder you work in the kitchen, the more pressure you subconsciously put on your kids to eat it? 

That’s me 100%.  Or it used to be.

The success of my kitchen endeavours can truly make or break my day.  All that time invested in making a new recipe…only to have my kids say those 4 words detested by every parent on the planet:

“I don’t like it”.

Those words are like daggers!  The harder I work in the kitchen, the more hurtful they are.  But when meals are simple and require little work, I’m not fussed by their reaction.

So, when life continued to get crazy, I gave myself permission to release the pressure of doing it all in the kitchen. But I didn’t want to pay through the nose for it.

 

Enter meal delivery services.

Prepared or planned meals DELIVERED right to my doorstep?  Someone pinch me!

It turns out other parents who follow me here and here, or whom I help in the Family Health-ification package feel the same way.

…They want to get out of the RECIPE RUT.

…They want HEALTHY meals their family will happily eat (most of the time).

…But they also want FREEDOM in the kitchen.

 

Enter Meal Delivery Month.

Over the past few weeks I’ve had the opportunity to review some of the best meal delivery services in Toronto and in Canada.  My family was spoiled with some tasty meals.  And I was spoiled with less time in the kitchen (meant more time to do laundry, go to Barre classes, and take my kids to the park).

And now I’m so excited to take you through our experience with each meal delivery company, so you can decide which one is perfect for your family.

For the following 6 days I will be posting reviews for each of the following amazing companies (come back each day to see the next review):

  1. Farm to Table Meals (see review below!)
  2. Green Zebra Kitchen
  3. HelloFresh
  4. Fuel Foods
  5. Chefs Plate
  6. Gaby Flores Vegan Meals 

 

Pssst…I also have awesome discounts for virtually every one of them (you’ll find them at the bottom of each review).  So go crazy and try them all!

If you have other meal services you’d like me to review, please reach out!

Last words…

As a Nutritionist and someone who is uber passionate about the environment, I will admit that there was room for improvement for most of the companies I reviewed (isn’t there with everything?!).  While my family and I loved virtually every meal, there were two things that stood out:

Too much packaging

I know this is a common piece of feedback/frustration from people in general…but many delivery services seem to use a lot of packaging.  And plastic makes me crazy!

The good news is that most (if not all) can be recycled.  Yet I still cringed at the thought of putting plastic containers, plastic baggies, cardboard boxes, and ice packs out on the curb every week.

Some companies used glass jar and containers which is wonderful (but easier for prepared meals).  There’s a return deposit which I’m totally cool with paying.

If you have any suggestions on how to ease the environmental load for these meal delivery services, comment below!

Too little veg

If you’ve done any of my challenges or programs for families you know that I prioritize veggies and fibre at meals.  And we eat A LOT of veggies in our home.

Yet for most of the meal delivery companies I noticed an emphasis on starches (rice, quinoa, and even starchy veggies like potatoes). In some cases, salads were served alongside the protein which is great (particularly for the adults as salads can be challenging for young kids).  Overall, there weren’t enough veggies to go around the table for my veggie-loving family.

So with almost all meals I ended up having to make an extra batch of broccoli, cauliflower, chopped salad or something else to compensate.