- Why spend yet another dinner eating the same takeout when you can impress yourself with your culinary abilities?
- With $4, you'll be able to make a meal that is better than anything you can get delivered.
If you want to save yourself even more time and effort while still eating right, check out our guide to $4.
It's not the cooking you're unwilling to do. It's the recipe planning, the ingredient sourcing, and the shopping for difficult-to-find spices and cuts of meat that's sending you toward the takeout menu and keeping you from your kitchen. But with the right meal kit, you'll be able to (re)discover your inner chef and save yourself from getting the same takeout meal for the fifth night in a row.
While the meal kit space seems more crowded than ever these days, there are certainly a few standouts that will make for an impressive dining room debut. Of course, there are various factors that you should keep in mind before deciding upon which service is best for you.
First off, are you a carnivore, an omnivore, or do you have dietary restrictions that generally make it difficult for you to be a dinner guest? While most meal kits try to cater to various preferences, some do so a bit better than others, so you'll want to determine from the get-go how picky of an eater you are.
Second, and this was a big one for me, you'll probably want to keep eco-friendliness in mind. While meal kits may be convenient, they're not exactly the best for the planet. After all, aside from the emissions that come from delivering boxes of pre-packaged ingredients to your doorstep, you'll also have to think about all the plastic, cardboard, and coolant that goes into ensuring that your dinner gets to you safe and sound. Luckily, there are some meal kits that are very careful about their eco-footprint, so you and the planet can eat clean.
You'll also want to consider how big of an appetite you generally have, and how many people you'll be feeding. I've found that some of these meal kits have different standards when it comes to portion sizes, so be sure that you have a sense of how hungry you tend to be after a day's work.
That said, regardless of which meal kit you pick from our favorites, we're sure you're in for a delicious future. We've tested several meal kits already, but stay tuned for more tasty additions soon.
Here are the best meal kits we've tried:
- Best meal kit overall: $4
- Best meal kit for sauce lovers: $4
- Best straightforward meal kit: $4
- Best comfort food meal kit: $4
- Best vegetarian meal service: $4
- Best pre-made meal service: $4
Updated on 12/30/2019 by Jen Gushue: Updated pricing, links, and formatting.
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