While waiting for our first Factor 75 order to arrive, we decided to try Home Chef’s retail meal kits sold at Fry’s. After all, we already tried their meal kit service.
Comparing them to their home delivery, there’s definitely less trash buying them this way! (Read my Home Chef home delivery review here: https://rusticcountrymarket.com/meal-time-update). There’s also less meal choices when buying the retail version of Home Chef.
For the most part, we enjoyed the meals. The food is average quality and flavor. Definitely better priced than a restaurant; however, the retail portions don’t leave much left overs.
Did buying the retail version of Home Chef cause us to want to return to using Home Chef’s delivery meal service? To be honest, no. We will occasionally buy the Home Chef retail version in the future if there’s a meal we like available to purchase.
I’ll be sharing our Factor 75 meal experience soon. Until then…
Inspiring Home Life,
We aren’t just a market, we are Rustic Country Market Living.
After nearly 2 years and a Sun Basket VIP membership; I’m back to the drawing board (or should I say cutting board?) in search of a new meal kit service company that will deliver despite Arizona’s extreme temperatures. If you want to know why I’m no longer getting Sun Basket delivered, read my previous post. https://rusticcountrymarket.com/why-i-suspended-my-sun-basket
I’ve received invites from the following companies:
Gobble: They do the food prep work. You cook.
Hello Fresh: Promise Simplicity.
Purple Carrot: Plant based meals.
Freshly: They cook and deliver the meals. You heat them up.
Home Chef: Already tried them.
Green Chef: Sorry, didn’t really like them the first time.
Factor 75?
And then I happened upon Factor 75. Their meals are precooked. They offer Keto, Paleo, low carb, gluten free, dairy free, and spicy meals. All Factor 75 meals are free of gluten, soy, hormones, antibiotics, and preservatives. All their meats are pasture-raised and grass-fed and their produce is organic. Their emphasis is nutrition, and healthy living. They even offer nutrition coaching. They are based out of Illinois.
After reading up on them, I was pretty excited to give them a try. My only disappointment is that they use OnTrac as a deliver provider. Historically, they do not deliver on time, if at all. I put delivery directions on my order, so we shall see if our food arrives. If not, I’ll be calling Factor 75’s customer service.
Stay tuned: I’ll let you know what we think of their meals!
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!
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.)
UPDATE: Since this post was written, TK is no longer in business, but I’m keeping the post because I liked their delivery method.
Next Meal Kit Experience: Terra’s Kitchen…
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.
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.
