Do you love to cook but feel like you never have the time do everything involved? Let’s face it, making a home cooked meal takes time, especially when you take into account meal planning, getting recipes, prepping the food, and then actually making it. For those on busy schedules, even with groceries in the house, this lack of time sometimes leads to us spending quite a bit on fast food or having a very expensive dinner for 2 – that can be anywhere from $30 – $60 after tip. I will freely admit, this has been us more than once over the past few months and we didn’t realize how much we were spending until we started looking at the breakdown on our credit card. To say the least, it was quite frightening how much we spending on restaurants.
While I knew quite a few of my friends and family had tried meal services, many didn’t have much good to say about them and they seemed a bit on the expensive side, especially for subpar food. Recently, I was approached by Home Chef, who asked me to review a couple of their meals. After checking out their website, I decided to put my skepticism aside and give it a chance. When our box arrived, I was curious to open it up and check it out for myself!
Home Chef: What is It?
Looking for an easy to use meal service without a binding, long-term delivery contract, but with easy to follow meals that taste amazing? If so, we think you will love Home Chef! This innovative meal service allows you to skip the grocery store and prepare delicious meals in 30 minutes. Each week, they include new recipes and made with fresh, pre-portioned ingredients that are delivered right to your door. Best of all, they are the type of recipes that might leave you drooling when you go to Pinterest. To learn more about this meal service, make sure to watch the video below!
Home Chef: Our Thoughts
When our box first arrived, I will be honest, I had no clue what to expect. The last time I tried anything close to a meal service it was vegetarian stuff that you threw in the microwave and called a day. When my mother in law tried a different one, my little sister in law said it was a very tiny serving and a great deal of work, which honestly worried me a bit with our busy schedule. When I opened the Home Chef box though, I was completely surprised. Everything looked to be good size servings (without being heavily caloric), and all the meals were neatly packaged, with quite a bit already pre-cut and ready to go. They really took most of the work out of meal prep, leaving you with the fun part – cooking!
For the cooking part, everything was super easy, as long as you followed the directions on the recipe card. They really do break everything down to make it easy even for those who aren’t experienced cooks. Also, to make sure you aren’t surprised by any of the directions, they let you see all the recipes before you even order, making sure you don’t accidentally get in over your head. For our test meals, we tried Lemon-Pepper Steelhead Trout and Rosemary-Cider Chicken. We found that both meals were not just easy to make, but super tasty. My husband, even more of a skeptic than me, even liked the fish, which he is usually very picky with. Overall, I don’t think we could be happier, since each time we got a nice meal without a great deal of work, and without leaving our house. We both agreed this is definitely a service we want to use again. Based on our own experience, we are delighted to give Home Chef an A+ rating and highly recommend it to our readers!
Home Chef: Where to Purchase
Want to try this meal service out for yourself? Honestly, after our experience, we’re looking forward to ordering several more meals and might just kiss takeout goodbye. To see more for yourself, make sure to learn more about Home Chef here! Who knew that having great meals at home could be so easy!?
Want to learn more? Follow Home Chef on social media!
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Disclosure: Budget Earth did not receive monetary compensation for this review, but did receive products for review purposes and may include affiliate links. All opinions on this product are my own honest assessment, and may differ from our readers’ opinions.
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About Susan Bewley
Susan Bewley is a professional writer who has been writing content online & in print format for over 10 years. As well, she is an alumni of the University of Louisville with a Masters Degree in Special Education. When not working as an online business consultant or ghost writing, she can be found writing on Budget Earth, on her own novel, or working with various entities in the pet industry.
I love the wonderful food you can get. I have no imagination on making new dishes. This is what I need.
With the busy family lifestyle we have we are always looking for easy meals!! To have everything sent and ready to go to cook would be awesome!
That trout looks delicious. This looks like a great way to prepare delicious dinners during the week easily!
We are an extremely busy family, complete with two working parents, so a service like this would be great. The meals they send look amazing too!
This looks like a great service to have ! Especially for people pressed for time
I would like a service like this if I lived by myself. Then I wouldn’t have to do much food shopping. It sounds like I would be eating healthier. I wonder how long the food stays fresh? I am disabled and don’t drive anymore. A program like this would help keep me independent and fed ?
I would get the boxes once in a while for something different.
I like how they break everything down on the recipe card for you! I’m not a cook, but with their help I could put together some fabulous meals!
The Rosemary Chicken looks really good! Not a big Trout fan even though we have lots available here in Arkansas. Gonna look at Home Chef again after your review. Thanks!
I love that these meals are preportioned and are ready in 30 minutes. I need help with portion control and I love that the recipes are included.
The meals look good. I like the ingredients have already been prepped and are ready to cook.
This seems like it might be a great idea. We love cooking together, but we hate having to shop for the ingredients or come up with an idea. This would solve our problems
I took a look at their menu and there are certainly many tasty and healthy looking options. This would be a good way to eat healthy at home.
I’d love to try this. I hate grocery shopping and I like that all of the ingredients are there. I also like that the recipes are easy because I’m not much of a cook.
Oooh just had that trout one the other day. It was so yummy!
This sounds like a great thing to have! Great way simplify complicated dinners.
I buy the most inexpensive things on sale that are healthy.Enjoy cooking!
I love these kind of sub boxes, I can make meals I might never even consider otherwise
This sounds like an excellent service. Like you, I think it’s terrific that you can see the recipes before you order and can thus avoid a recipe that’s more complicated than you desire.
This is a fantastic idea for people who are extremely busy or on the go,instead of hunting the grocery store it’s all in the box.
I think this would make a great gift for my mother. It would save her a lot of time and make things easier for her.
The quality of their foods looks awesome from your photos. Sometimes i wish my food was already cooked and waiting for me to eat. This Home Chef Site seems right up my alley.
This is a super idea,and the foods look so yummy and fresh.
(Make Eating at Home Fast & Easy with Home Chef) These home delivered meals are really good and very healthy for you too-
I think it’s really great that you can try it some months without a contract for a set amount of months. I also love the fact that you get just what you need. No putting away extra produce in the fridge, or putting away extra onions you just chopped. That sort of thing makes cooking feel like a break.
The food looks very tasty! Something like this would be nice and make eating at home really easy!
I have been thinking about trying this because grocery shopping is such a pain and you always forget something for the recipe your planning. It would be great to not have to worry about that on top of having to worry about cooking. Thanks for the review!
I think this is a great way to try a new recipe for those that don’t have the time to plan a meal. I’m on a tight budget so it would be better for me to buy the ingredients for a recipe on my own.
I would love to have everything together, I wouldn’t have to worry about running out to get one item. New recipes are always fun to try.
Great review–you really broke it down as to how this service is different from others and it sounds really excellent. I’d love to try one of these services if I could afford it regularly.
This is a perfect idea for busy parents who are working until 5 or 6 and still have to pick up children from day care. The shopping is done and you have all the ingredients. That is always the problem with trying to make a recipe. Having all the ingredients on hand
I think these are just wonderful! I really like how they package everything and you know when you get your package through the mail , everything is fresh and ready to use.
@tisonlyme143
This would save me so much time and stress! I have 5 kids, so I could use all the dinner help and ideas I can get! I’m definitely interested.
I love that they give you everything you need to make a great meal. Plus, it gives you an opportunity to try something new.
This would be a breeze! The food looks wonderful and I’m sure it is easy to prepare.
busy family lifestyle we have we are always looking for easy meal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This sounds so awesome! I would really love to try the classic veggie lasagna it looks so good.
this is good they give you what you wnat and then the direction on how to make them right and you should be able t do it less than 1 hr
This is so great! So many families don’t have the time to cook. We live in a fast paced society for sure.
The box and its contents all look so delicious! I thank you for the review and information on obtaining one of these, and a subscription to go along \with this.
Home Chef sounds great. With a busy lifestyle it is a challenge to prepare a great meal every night for the family.
I’m not one that really likes to cook, so the easier the better!
It sounds like too much work. When it comes to food, I want to see it. Especially meats and produce.
This may work for some people. I like to see the food first. I don’t cook, but am picky about the quality of meats and produce.
Great info–thanks!
I really like that you aren’t committed to this service but can use it as needed. My kids are getting to be more adventurous eaters so this might be an option now and then.
I’m too picky about the quality of foods I eat. There’s no way with a company to see if it is organic, non-gmo, or allergen free. I’m allergic to everything, so I have to make everything from scratch. If this would really work for me, I’d do it in a second.