I had avoided these meals-by-mail services only because they seem very environmentally unfriendly: single portions packaged and shipped individually, somewhat logically, eliminates the efficiency of scale. However, NPR reported back in 2019 on a study that found that meal kits were better in several ways:
Results indicate that, [1] on average, grocery meal greenhouse gas emissions are 33% higher than meal kits [and] A Monte Carlo analysis finds [2] higher median emissions for grocery meals than meal kits for four out of five meals, occurring in 100% of model runs for two of five meals.
However, the environmental friendliness of home delivery with other types of shopping is much more uncertain.
So, how did the meal go? I am an average to less-than-average cook–cooking quite infrequently–so there’s a handicap in how I might view the process, but overall I was extremely happy. First experience last night was Smoky Butter Shrimp & Orzo with Zucchino and Tomatoes.
The unboxing:
Well insulated and two little freeze-o bags with a bunch of nitrogen-rich gel to use on your plants after it thaws. And I mean a bunch of gel. You could use all of this if you have a full garden–maybe–but my two little succulents would be drowning in gel. You can (and I did, with most of it) rinse it down the drain but that still feels icky. Maybe I’ll dump next week’s in the soil outside our garage.
Seeing this, it’s still hard to believe that this is more eco-friendly than the grocery store. But then, there is absolutely no food waste with these meals and grocery stores are notoriously and shamefully wasteful. All/most of the packaging is recycled and recyclable–though some from last night’s meal might have gotten thrown away, a few of the packages were unyielding when trying to unwrap them. It was a bit of a mess. You can peruse some of the producers they partner with to get a sense of where everything comes from.
The shrimp, garlic, and tomatoes were fresh but the zucchini was a little soft, which probably wouldn’t have mattered if I didn’t overcook it. Still you couldn’t tell with the final results. Total prep and cooking time was estimated at 30 minutes. I was a little fumble-y with the prep but it was coordinating different parts of the cooking that tripped me up. Maybe… 45 minutes total? It was an enjoyable cooking experience.
Their results:
And mine:
There’s a German saying “die Augen muss auch essen”, but this ugly meal was absolutely delicious and only 550 calories for each serving, two total. The next two meals this week are Beef over Curry-spiced Rice and Cumin-Sichuan Salmon. Beats my standard can-of-soup or frozen fish.