It’s normal to get bored of eating the same meals each day, and it can be exhausting to go grocery shopping and spend a considerable amount of time there trying to figure out what to get for your diet.
Overall, getting a proper diet can either make you spend too much time or money. However, there’s an alternative way to try new, delicious meals without going through that process. Meal kit services, such as Home Chef, Hello Fresh, Sun Basket, or Dinnerly, allow you to get fresh ingredients and recipes each week.
The best part about these meal delivery services is that they offer portioned-sized meals at a fantastic price. You can stop worrying about choosing each ingredient yourself since the companies take care of all the processes for you. Overall, the only thing you have to do is get a subscription, select your favorite meals based on your dietary preferences, and wait for the delivery!
It may be complicated to order one meal kit delivery service since each offers fairly different things. Our job at the Meal Kit Review is to compare these services to understand better which is the best one based on your needs.
Variety of Offered Plans
Freshly offers a fairly flexible service. You may select from four different meal plans, which come at four, six, 10, or 12 meals per week. All of the meals are individually portioned, so keep that in mind before choosing a plan.
Each recipe is already prepared and sent inside insulated packaging, meaning that you’re avoiding the cooking process, saving you some time.
Dinnerly offers a similar approach regarding its meal plan. The company offers two main types of plans: The “Two-Person Box” and the “Family Box.” You can request the two-person box or the family box with a three, four, five, or six meal per week option. The main difference is that the two-person variant includes two portions, and the family variant contains four.
Regardless of what you choose, you can opt-in to “Make your box vegetarian” at the bottom of the order, so if you’re looking for a veggie plan rather than a classic plan, this is the way to go.
Meal Variety
In the case of Freshly, you may select among 36 delicious meals every week. There are also some unique options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Most of these options are healthy meals, meaning that you can find dairy-free, low-carb, hormone-free, low-calorie, and gluten-free dishes. Freshly’s meals vary from 400 to 590 calories per serving.
Dinnerly offers a slightly smaller recipe list at 16 different meal options weekly. However, it doesn’t mean that you don’t have variety. Dinnerly offers delicious but straightforward solutions when it comes to meals, which is what most people need.
Additionally, Dinnerly meals include the most popular flavors and ingredients the average person consumes, so it has everything that picky eaters need for their weekly menu. Finally, Dinnerly’s meals vary from 400 to 650 calories per meal.
Style of Dishes in the Freshly and Dinnerly Menu
There’s an ongoing debate on whether frozen or chilled meals are better for you. While both options are good, you may prefer one or the other. In the case of Freshly, it delivers chilled, fresh meals each week to your home. Typically, you can heat these dishes in the oven for three minutes, and you’re good to go!
Freshly offers a mix between American dishes and international dishes, primarily Mexican and Italian cuisine. All dishes are gluten-free, hormone-free, and antibiotic-free.
Some Most Popular Freshly Healthy Meals:
- Freestyle Beef Lasagna
- Cauliflower Shell Beef Bolognese
- Sausage Baked Penne
- Swede-ish Meatballs
- Rutabaga Alla Vodka
On the other hand, Dinnerly offers a more “Classic” approach to its dishes, offering a wide selection of international meals that you may or may not have heard of. Most dishes include chicken, meat, seafood, and other fresh ingredients. All ingredients are delivered fresh inside an insulated box.
Generally speaking, Dinnerly’s food can take up to 30 minutes to prepare, although some weekly menu recipes may take a bit more or less time.
Some Most Popular Dinnerly Recipes:
- Smoky flavored Steak with Baked Potato and Sour Cream
- BBQ Spiced Steak & Mashed Sweet Potatoes
- Low-Cal Shrimp Souvlaki Pita with Salad & Garlic Sauce
- Berry Good Balsamic Chicken Salad
- Chicken Tacos with Marinated Tomatoes
Dinnerly and Freshly- Quality of Ingredients
As mentioned before, most of Freshly’s ingredients are sometimes organic and free of preservatives, hydrogenated oils, and other artificial ingredients. Additionally, all of Freshly’s meal kits are gluten-free, making them a much healthier option, especially if you request vegetarian meals.
Dinnerly is fully transparent with its ingredients list. The company has an “Ingredient Hub” on its official website, where you can check all of the ingredients that come in each recipe, its allergens, and more information. As we could notice in the meal kit boxes we got from the company, the ingredients present good quality and are appropriately taken care of and adequately packaged inside their box.
Dinnerly and Freshly Delivery Box
Both companies offer an almost fully recyclable box and packaging.
Freshly’s meals are packaged in a tray per meal and have a branded sleeve that includes the meal’s name, nutritional information, and the preparing instructions. After you get Freshly’s box, you can simply store your meals until you’re prepared to cook them. After the use, you can recycle the trays.
On the other hand, Dinnerly’s meals come with reusable ice packs used to keep all the ingredients fresh until you prepare the recipe. One of the most exciting things about Dinnerly is that it doesn’t include recipe cards. Instead, the company provides a digital recipe card to make the meals more affordable and encourage less paper waste.
Managing Your Account
Freshly and Dinnerly offer both a website and a mobile app to assess your subscription service and manage your orders. Keep in mind that you may choose to adjust your meal plans if you like or skip some delivery weeks in advance.
Step By Step: How to get started with Dinnerly and Freshly:
- Create an account
- Choose any subscription plan you want
- Fill out your shipping preferences to get your first delivery
**Keep in mind that both Freshly and Dinnerly charge an extra shipping fee for each delivery.