.20190116113344.jpg "The Best Organic Meal Kits")
While cooking at home can save money and be a healthy, at times even therapeutic exercise, it’s not without its hassles. Creating wonderful organic meals for your family can involve multiple trips to the store and can get pricey - especially if you go to the farmer’s market on an empty stomach. And, unless you’re wired with some sort of innate recipe planner, it can be hard to come up with new meal ideas and after a while, things might not feel so fresh.
This is where healthy meal kit companies have your back. If you’re trying to build a diet of organic, homemade food, signing up with one of the best diet delivery service companies can make it easier than ever. You’ll be sent a revolving set of fresh ingredients and recipes that you can make on your own.
Making brilliant organic meals at home has never been easier.
If you’re looking for fresh, organic and healthy food shipped directly to your doorstep, take a look at these top companies:
1. Veestro
Pros
- 100 plant-based
- Ready to eat in 5 minutes
- Gluten-free and high-protein options available
Cons
- Meals are delivered frozen
- Not ideal for meat eaters
Veestro offers a healthy solution for those who want to maintain vegetarian diets but don’t have time to shop or cook. Its meals come frozen and ready to heat-and-eat, with tons of attention paid to their nutritional content and health benefits. All of Veestro’s meals are plant-based and vegetarian. Plans include a chef’s choice option and weight-loss plan. Customers can further customize their orders to include meals without soy, nuts, and gluten.
2. Purple Carrot
Pros
- 100% plant-based
- All vegan
- Meals are fresh, never frozen
Cons
- Not ideal for meat eaters
- No family plan
Purple Carrot is one of the only 100% plant-based meal delivery services available. It abides by a clean-eating philosophy that aims to eliminate unhealthy additives and promote healthier lifestyles and a greener planet.
Unlike other meal delivery options, Purple Carrot’s meals are never frozen. This means they take about 30 minutes to prepare, but the freshness pays off in dividends. Entrees like Korean tofu tacos, penne mushroom florentine, and soba noodle bowls weave together flavors and recipes from around the globe and pack in plenty of nutrients. Customers can also take advantage of healthy snacks such as bundles of oat chocolate bars and bulk protein bites.
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Read the full Purple Carrot review
3. Diet to Go
Pros
- Customize meals to your health needs
- Vegetarian, weight-loss, and diabetic plans available
- Chef-prepared, ready-to-eat meals
Cons
- No vegan options
- Not great for families
Diet to Go goes to great lengths to keep its customers on the right track. Its meal plans are tailor-made to accommodate four different diets: vegetarian, low-carb, weight loss, and diabetic, and customers have the added option of customizing their plans to meet more specific dietary needs.
The menu operates on a 5-week rotation and includes a huge variety of breakfast, lunch, and dinner options. The meals are calorie-controlled and include fresh fruits, healthy snacks, and sides. Delivered frozen and ready to heat-and-heat, Diet to Go’s meals offer a healthy and convenient solution for those keeping to a tight diet. Additionally, the company offers support and nutritional advice to its members, making it a great resource for those invested in maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Read the full Diet to Go review
4. Plated
Pros
- Healthy recipes with premium ingredients
- Wide variety of menu options - 6,175 possible combinations per week
- Flexible plans, easy to cancel or pause
Cons
- Not 100% organic
- Doesn’t deliver to Alaska, Hawaii, and some cities in Texas
Take 40% off your first week with Plated.
“For food lovers, by food lovers,” Plated offers great variety and the type of premium ingredients and inspired recipes that really push the envelope for home meal kit delivery.
Each week you can pick from 20 recipes that are inspired from a variety of regions and culinary approaches. The recipes are easily searched according to a number of filters, including: under 600 calories, to no gluten, spicy, low carb, and quick prep.
While Plated isn’t a certified 100% organic company, the company only serves pork and poultry raised without antibiotics, sustainably caught seafood, no hormone beef, and fresh and seasonal produce. The company also supplements its offerings with organically sourced produce and makes a point of working with artisan and locally sourced distributors.
Take a stroll around the Plated website and look at some of the beautifully rendered menus. Just don’t do it on an empty stomach.
Favorite Meal
Brown Butter Orecchiette with Spicy Sausage and Peas
Prep time: 20-30 minutes
840 calories/serving
.20180411105439.jpg "Plated organic orecchiette with sausage")
5. Factor
Pros:
- Guided by nutritional science
- 100% natural ingredients
- Paleo and keto diets available
Cons:
- Only the produce is guaranteed organic
- No family plans
Thoroughly rooted in the tenets of nutritional science, Factor puts health at the forefront of all of its ingredients and meals. Each entree is made with 100% organic produce, pasture-raised meats, and ingredients that are completely free of gluten, soy, and preservatives.
The meals themselves include culinary selections from around the globe. A quick glance at the current menu shows entrees like moroccan vegetable stew, Thai red coconut chicken, and garlic tomato shrimp, which rotate by week and always include ketogenic and paleo offerings. To top it off, the menu features a variety of cold-pressed juices and healthy snacks. Factor's meals are premade and only need to be heated up. Five available meal plans offer customers plenty of options for eating well throughout the week.
Why Eat Organic Food?
Organic food has gotten so popular that it’s almost hard to imagine that just a few years ago it was seen as something of a niche market. These days you can hardly walk down a supermarket aisle without finding an organic version of something, be it avocados, floor cleaner, or even dog food.
Eating organic food is a great way to cut out potentially harmful pesticides and herbicides that are used on commercial agriculture, and to avoid food from animals that have been given growth hormones and antibiotics. These chemical additives make their way to consumers through the food we eat, and with organic food you can steer clear.
Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are plants and animals that have been put through genetic engineering in order to make them more resistant to pests and weather, and more productive. Research has found that GMOs have the potential to harm us when we consume them, and by cutting them out you can avoid any health risks they may pose. In addition, studies have found that organic foods are healthier and more nutritious - and most of us can agree, more flavorful.
Also, if you’re concerned about conservation, the farming methods used for organic crops are more earth friendly and responsible.
Nonetheless, even with the wide acceptance and mainstream popularity, buying organic produce can still be costly, and not every grocery store really delivers the goods.
Eating Organic with Meal Kit Delivery
The meal kit delivery industry realizes how important organic food is to consumers, and most companies put their organic food front and center as a main selling point. Sun Basket has taken this principle all the way, and is a USDA-certified organic handler with over 99% organic produce.
While few companies have purely organic ingredients, most offer a wide range of USDA certified organic food and GMO-free ingredients. Companies also put a big emphasis on conservation, with Blue Apron, for instance, touting their support of sustainable fishing through their partnership with Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch.
With Freshly, the company’s logo - “all natural, all the time” - speaks to their emphasis on quality ingredients that don't contain artificial preservatives or ingredients, or anything from a list of 85 banned ingredients, including corn syrup, artificial smoke flavor, and a long list of chemicals. HelloFresh says that while the company isn’t entirely organic, it is committed to selecting high-quality ingredients and “helping our customers make those first steps towards cooking well-balanced meals at home,” and leading healthier lives through adding more fruits and veggies to their everyday lives.
With Plated, the company provides meat raised without antibiotics or added hormones, sustainably caught fish, fresh and seasonal produce and supplements “premium quality produce with organic when possible.”
And if you love to start your day with a tall, delicious smoothie - you’ll be happy to know that Green Blender serves nothing but organic and non-GMO ingredients.
Why Use Meal Kit Delivery for Organic Food?
Save money
Buying organic produce can be pricey at times, but partly that’s because it's hard to know how much to buy and the fresh fruit and veggies can go bad before you figure out what you want to make. With meal kit delivery, all of the ingredients are shipped according to precise portions so you don’t have to worry about waste or overspending.
Spare yourself the headache
There’s no shame in admitting it - it’s hard to think of recipes or new dinner ideas every night. You may have no clue which extra ingredient can really take a dish to the next level, or which root vegetable you’ve never heard of goes perfect with that wine you like. With home meal kit delivery services, you don’t have to take a refresher course on organic ingredients or wait for a sudden stroke of inspiration. The company provides the recipes and the ingredients, you just have to put it together.
Home meal kits also save you the hassle of having to go out and shop for the ingredients, which in the case of organic foods can be more difficult than just popping down to the convenience store.
Live Your Organic Life
Organic food is more mainstream than ever and the benefits to the organic lifestyle have never been clearer.
The home meal kit delivery industry has taken note, and if you’d like to incorporate more organic food into your healthy diet, there’s a clear way. So take some time to look at the options and what your household needs, and trust us - you’ll never look back.
