Admittedly, I don’t like cooking all that often. But I love eating. So I cook all the time every week. It has never been easy to make a menu every single week with something different every time. Generally, I will cook the same dishes all the time that it gets boring. So I decided to try Home Chef.
What is Home Chef? And How Does it Work?
Home Chef is a company that helps make the goal of eating and cooking a good dinner possible. They deliver fresh ingredients straight to your door and give you easy to follow recipes that make cooking a nice meal simple. It truly is a wonder why I didn’t try it earlier.
Everything has been easy. After creating an account, you can create your taste profile. Like what you prefer to eat and what you want to avoid eating. Now one thing I want to mention is that this feature isn’t very detailed, but it is nice to have. Once your profile is done you can select how many people you will be cooking for on a weekly basis. For example, if you plan on always cooking for 2 people all week every week you can put 2. Then, you can finally begin choosing your meals after inputting how many meals per week that you wish to receive.
There are some things that I wish to let you know in advance that I wish I paid attention to earlier. Don’t worry. It’s not good or bad, but something that may make your life easier. You can always change the number of people you are feeding each week. In addition, you can change how many meals you can have delivered each week as well. Not only that, but if you wish for leftovers then you can increase the amount of servings for any of your meals that week. And all meals for the upcoming week are finalized on Friday at noon of the current week.
The Details
Packaging
Now lets get into all the details here. First of all, they always have a different assortment of dishes that you can choose from every week. So, if you find a dish one week, you may not find it in the next week. When your package arrives, everything you need for all your meals will separated into individual meal bags. One bag will be filled with the ingredients for your chicken risotto for 2, and another will be filled with your ingredients for steak and green beans for 4 (if you decided to have leftovers or have a few extra people over that day). The bags make it easy to differentiate meals since they are labeled, as well as the ingredients inside the bag. A nice thought is that they also separate the meats into a bag of their own. No need to worry about cross contamination.
Meals
Lets discuss the meals for a bit. The meal choices are amazing. And there are Many. With something different to choose from every week means that you will never get tired of any of it. Also, if you are not a huge fan of anything too hot or spicy, you can adjust those flavors to your liking just by putting in more or less of that ingredient.
Don’t worry too much about wondering what each meal actually consists of. All meals available to you can be looked at beforehand with the directions on how to make it, the ingredients included, the cook/prep time needed, nutrition, spicy level, and the difficulty level. If you are expecting less time to cook, don’t worry there are easy/express options to choose from too. Or if there is something specific you are looking for there are filters you can use. Like cook time, meal type, or protein. The meals will also mention if they are keto-friendly or warn you of things like milk, soy, or eggs. You know, in case you are allergic.
Now, lets go over all the pros and cons of Home Chef. This is from my personal experience, so everything is based on my personal opinion.
The Pros
- There is lots of variety, and so many different choices you will never get tired of it
- Each meal’s ingredients are individually packaged and labeled, and each meal is put in its own bag
- So far, all the meals have been easy to make; even the ones with a difficulty of expert. It generally just required more work
- Any adjustments to the servings, amount of meals per week, or number of servings for a specific meal are easy to make; as long as these changes are made the Friday before the shipment
- All meals give really good proportions, and let me tell you I can eat quite a bit
- All the produce looks very fresh
- All the ingredients are portioned out
The Cons
- When the meal kits arrive, some of the more delicate veggies and what not can get squished. So some of those leafy greens may not look so good when they arrive
- Now this has happened a few times now, but the fresh produce won’t seem right. They aren’t rotten, but they can feel or look wrinkly, or soft. Like my zucchini was really soft instead of firm when I checked my ingredients
- The meal kit packaging isn’t always secure. It doesn’t happen all the time, but I have found some of the meal kit bags partially open
- Now, I’m not limited or restricted by a diet or food allergies, but looking at all the different meals available I don’t believe they have a lot of options for those looking for specific meals that fit their diet. And a lot of meals contain milk so if you’re allergic or are lactose intolerant there aren’t a lot of options left
Is Home Chef Worth it?
Now I cook three to four meals every week for two people with enough for leftovers the next day. And mind you this is before Home Chef. I would generally spend around $90-$120 a week for my groceries. Honestly, ordering Home Chef amounts to almost the same as the amount I spend on my groceries if I order 5 meals a week for 2, and this is without my coupon code. So, the overall price isn’t bad at all.
Considering all the pros and cons I believe that it is not a bad option. Learning from my past experiences, just avoid meals that don’t have root veggies or green beans as the veggie side. Those green beans are really, truly delicious. Also, if you don’t mind doing the dishes often if you order a lot of meals for the week then you are fine. I believe that getting 2 meals per week is the sweet spot to spice up your week with something new without having to do all those dishes.
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