Daily Harvest (DH) is totally different from our usual, Sun Basket that we are still enjoying weekly. DH offers smoothies, soups and various types of bowls. They specialize in healthy, organic superfoods. I’m planning to use them to supplement Sun Basket for lunches, breakfast and snacks. After placing my initial order, I realized they also offer cookies. Maybe I’ll order them next time!
NOTE: I found several coupon offers on the internet saying they offer bigger discounts, but the reality is, Daily Harvest offers 3 free cups!
Beware of false offers.
Daily Harvest’s shipping is free. The products are shipped frozen using dry ice, and they offer weekly or monthly plans. I signed up for the monthly plan.
Dry Ice???
Isn’t that dangerous? I’ve never used or worked with dry ice. I know it’s used during concerts and theater to create fog. I wondered what I would do with it after I receive my shipment? Click here for Daily Harvest’s Answer.
Biodegradable Packaging?
I prefer to recycle as much as possible, so I researched to find out if Daily Harvest’s packaging is biodegradable. Click here for Daily Harvest’s Answer.
WOW! It was a busy, eventful summer! Time flew by. As things wind down, I now have time to share more about our meal time experiences.
After 4 weeks, we decided to let Home Chef go (pause/cancel the service) and try another meal kit service. My goal was to supplement our Sun Basket dinners with some quick lunch and snack items, not replace them.
I will say this about Home Chef…
Home Chef is affordable, and their main dinners taste like average, home cooked meals. Home Chef offers quick salads and smoothies – which initially intrigued me. During the 4th week with the service, we started to notice that the salads pretty much tasted the same for the most part. The smoothies were good, and easy to make.
I didn’t like the amount of extra shipping trash that came with Home Chef. (We haul our own trash to the dump/transfer station bi-weekly.) While the shipping material was biodegradable for the most part, it took up a lot of space in our trash compared to Sun Basket. On top of all that, the food flavor just didn’t compare to Sun Basket. (We are still enjoying Sun Basket.)
Next Meal Kit Experience: Terra’s Kitchen… (Update: They are no longer in business.)
We tried Terra’s Kitchen (TK) for a few weeks.
Love the shipping vessel.
TK ships meals in a reusable, climate controlled, delivery vessel that is return shipped (pre-paid) back to Terra’s Kitchen the following day. Shipping is free with orders of $100 or more or $6.99 (at the time of this writing) for orders under $100.
Everything fits inside neatly.
The vessel is empty and ready for pickup the next day.
The reusable vessel intrigued me, because I don’t like all the extra shipping trash that comes with other of meal kit services.
Ready to eat salads, perfect for lunch.
TK’s ingredients are “pre-prepped” which is supposed to shorten cooking time. The food is prewashed and individually packaged in recyclable containers. They offer meals, snacks, deserts, beverages, salads, meat, etc. They offer a variety of dietary options: Mediterranean, Paleo, gluten free, low cal, and vegetarian. Most products are antibiotic and hormone free, non-GMO and organic when possible. Pricing varies depending on what you order.
TK’s Vegetable and Chicken Couscous Bowl
I sent an email to TK’s customer serviced to find out if they delivered to my area, and they responded quickly with a friendly, yes! I downloaded their app and scheduled our first order.
We didn’t stick with TK very long. We quickly grew bored with their flavors and food selection to choose from. Absolutely loved the shipping vessel because I had minimal trash from the meal kit service; however, the pre-prepped items had a shorter, freshness life expectancy.
UPDATE: Since this post was written, TK is no longer in business.
Sun Basket is Still Our Favorite…
We’ve been with Sun Basket since January, 2018. We never grow tired of their flavorful recipes. We’ve cooked meals inspired by countries we’ve never visited. They save me shopping time, and are healthier and more affordable than going out for dinner at a restaurant. Plus, my husband and I enjoy preparing the meals together.
In fact, the featured picture on this post was one of our Sun Basket meals we recently cooked at home, Sesame-crusted Salmon with Orange and Roasted Carrot Salad. It tasted AMAZING!
We were ready to add another company to supplement our Sun Basket meals. I did some searching and decided to give Home Chef a try. They ship for free if you order over $45, so I ordered the following meals for 2: a meal to cook, a “no cooking required” salad meal and 2 smoothies = free shipping!
Here’s what’s on our 1st Home Chef menu this week:
Mojito Pork Chops
Sesame Chicken Salad
Strawberry Colada Smoothie(s)
The Home Chef menu will be added to our Sun Basket menu for this week:
Shrimp tacos diablo with pickled cabbage & lime.
Sicilian chicken breasts with salmoriglio sauce and broccoli.
Piri-piri shrimp with curried sweet potato-coconut mash.
Home Chef will be our 4th meal kit company we’ve tried. Our first experience was Blue Apron, the second, Sun Basket (our favorite), and third was Green Chef. You can read about our experiences by clicking the preceding links.
Our first Home Chef shipment arrives this week, so be sure to check back to find out how our meal kit experiencewith them goes.
I grew up during a time when girls were taught Home Economics. I was taught how to be a stay at home mom and manage a home and family. Kind of like that movie Pleasantville. It was never my desire to be a working professional, juggling a job and family. How could I??? I wasn’t even taught how to juggle home, family with a full time job.
Change happens…
Today, we live in a double income world. Most families juggle home and work life. Single parent families typically struggle to make ends meet. While a double income household is advantageous; it also has it’s disadvantages, like less quality time at home. Grocery shopping is the last thing I want to do after working all week. As a result, we have a tendency to go out to eat too often.
Are Meal Kits Really Worth It???
The idea of having meal kits delivered to our home seemed intriguing to me, but was it really worth it? After trying a few, I’ve concluded it is! Since we started to use meal kit services, we’ve enjoyed more home cooked meals and increased our quality time at home. We’ve seen less left over food waste at our house. We cook restaurant quality food at home. Time permitting, we can prepare the meals together. We don’t have to spend time shopping for ingredients. We don’t have to buy extra ingredients that end up spoiling. I get to review the proposed meals in advance and make changes based on what we might like to eat. I can skip a delivery week, which works well if we are going to be traveling. I can even change the delivery day if needed. All we need to provide is a few pantry items (IE: salt, pepper, oil) and kitchen tools (IE: pans, utinsels).
Sun Basket…
I recently cooked Sun Basket’s Braised chicken with carrots potatoes and thyme recipe. Cook time was 20-35 minutes. I was waiting for my husband to get home from work, so I extended the cooking time by reducing the heat. I chose to add Vermouth instead of white wine or water. We really enjoyed this meal, had plenty of food to eat and there was a small amount of leftovers.
We’ve been enjoying Sun Basket for awhile now.
I recently cooked Sun Basket’s