Stress Free Meals During COVID-19

I tried four major meal prep services during self isolation, so you don’t have to. Here’s what I learned…

Let’s face it, this pandemic is tough. Hyper-vigilance is exhausting. And staying at home, especially in New York City, means many less trips to the store. There are so many things to stress over that I’m stressed that I’m missing something that I should be stressed about.

One of the ways I find peace is through cooking. My father was a Sous Chef when he was young (unverified, but believable) and he taught me the way around a kitchen. If you follow me on social media you know that my bio says I have pretty good mise. Knife work is my happy place. And yes, I too am making a lot of sourdough. But cooking from the pantry can make food a bit routine and I wanted to know that I had at least three meals each week planned and sourced. So, I decided to use this as an opportunity to try four meal kit subscription services and see how they fared.

Friends of mine have used these to save time and add variety to their meal plans. I always scoffed at the idea, knowing that I could buy the ingredients for a far less cost per plate then the cost of the service. Spoiler alert: I was right. They do, however, have some benefits:

• They remove the time burden…