If on a daily basis, you find yourself rushing from one activity to the next and juggling work and family responsibilities, you may be wondering if you should explore ordering meal delivery kits to at least lessen the burden on you during meal preparations. Before you start a subscription, here’s what it’s like to actually cook meal delivery kits, regardless of brand:
- Meal delivery kits require varying levels of cooking ability from you.
If you’re going to explore ordering meal delivery kits to feed yourself or your family, you can’t assume that you’ll be able to execute all the dishes from the various providers successfully. Here are some tips you can follow before you buy a subscription for meal delivery services like boxedmealz.com:
- Read reviews on the target market of the different meal delivery providers. Some services will need you to be an experienced cook, while others assume you’re just beginning and will give out recipes with simple instructions. As an example, Blue Apron is advisable for people who are inexperienced in the kitchen, while Martha & Marley Spoon will work for you if you already know how to cook on a regular basis.
- Read the recipes of the various dishes you plan to order before you actually place your order. In this way, you’ll be able to assess whether you have the skills necessary to execute each dish faithfully.
- Once you’ve done your research, choose the brand that caters to your level of cooking ability.
- You can’t assume that the kit already comes with all of the ingredients.
In order to manage your expectations, the different meal kit providers may or may not include certain staple kitchen ingredients in the packages they send you. You might be receiving an order and expecting that you can immediately start cooking the moment you arrive home from work, only to realize that you’re missing essential ingredients such as oil or salt.
To help you be successful, stock up on the following in your kitchen pantry:
- Salt
- Sugar
- Pepper
- Your preferred cooking oil
- Eggs
- Flour
- Assortment of spices
Keeping basics in your kitchen supplies likewise ensures that you can add to the flavor of the various dishes in the meal kits, just in case you find a specific recipe bland or flavorless. Have ingredients ready to help you remedy or improve the dishes you’ve ordered in your subscription.
- The estimated cooking times indicated in the various meal kit recipes are broad estimates, and may vary from one cook to another.
When your week’s subscription arrives and you survey the various dishes you’ll prepare, keep in mind that the cooking time indicated for each recipe just gives you an idea of how much time you’ll need to set aside. Depending on whether you’re a beginner or a pro at cooking, you may need more time to actually carry out the recipe.
As a guideline, add 30 minutes more to the indicated cooking time. If the recipe says it will only take half an hour to prepare, set aside an hour for you to cook the meal. In this way, you give yourself room for error, and you take away unnecessary pressure on yourself. You can likewise give your family the heads up on what time to realistically expect dinner to be ready.
- You only get the exact serving portions, with no room for leftovers to be consumed the next day.
Prior to the creation of meal delivery kit subscriptions, you had no choice but to go to the grocery and shop for about a week’s worth of food. To be practical, you’d have to cook in big batches and make extra portions for next day’s breakfast or lunch.
While meal delivery kits save you time on menu planning, grocery shopping and having to search for and buy each and every ingredient, you have to be prepared that each meal will only give you the specified servings. Usually, these meals come in servings for two to four people, or for a small family.
If you’re used to relying on leftovers to save you cooking time the next day, you can’t count on meal delivery kits. You may order extra servings of the same meal if you want to make provisions for the next day’s food.
- You need to factor in the time you’ll need to clean up afterward.
Meal delivery kit subscriptions are wonderful ideas, especially if you’re a mom loaded with so many other responsibilities and leading a hectic schedule. However, whenever you study a recipe included in your subscription, try to estimate how much time you’ll be consuming to clean up afterward. The more complicated or fancier the dish, the higher the probability that you’ll have a lot more to clean up afterward.
For example, if you’re preparing shrimps that you have to dredge in flour and dip in an egg wash, cover with breadcrumbs, then fry, you can already imagine the cleaning you’ll have to do. While you’ll surely be able to prepare a lovely dinner for your husband and kids, evaluate if the meal is worth all the prep time and cleaning needed afterward. In certain cases or on very hectic days, you may still want to opt to order a nutritious family meal for delivery. Or you may order meal delivery subscriptions that generally feature simple recipes with minimal cleaning required after meal preparations.
Conclusion
Meal delivery kit services are actually a wonderful idea and are such homemaker lifesavers. However, these won’t solve all your time management, menu planning, and meal preparation problems. If you’re able to identify, however, the brands that can meet your family’s dietary needs or preferences, which also match your culinary skills as well as budget, you can count on meal delivery kits to save you on certain days of the week when you may really be pressed for time or are stuck in a cooking rut.