Welcome to Part Three of our experiment with a Meal Kit Delivery Service. If you haven’t read Part One click here if you haven’t read Part Two (I’m gonna cry) click here. As you should be familiar with by now, I’m hopping, we’ve been doing the Meal Service for three months and things are swimming along. The food is still great. We’ve enjoyed everything, even things I wasn’t so sure about.
Shall we start?
As teased last month, I’m gonna tell you about how we save 20% on our meals and provide you some general advice and s few tips and tricks that we’ve learned. So here goes.
Our trick for saving 20% on our Meal Kit Delivery Service is to buy gift cards. We go to Costco (if you don’t have a Costco Membership talk to a friend who does) and buy the gift cards for the service it saves us an instant 20%. Not very exciting and maybe a bit anticlimactic but that’s how we save money. Every couple of weeks we head to Costco for whatever we need and pick up the gifts cards. We don't make a special trip so getting the gift cards makes sense.
Another way you can save money on these services is to try a different one for the length of the free trial period. I’m not a big fan of this method, but people do it and it works for them. There are several different meal delivery services out so bounce around and try different ones. Just don’t ask me what they do when they’ve tried them all and have to pay for it, cause I’m not sure.
Anyway, moving on.
What we’ve found with our Meal Kit Delivery Service is don’t be afraid to shake things up and experiment with what they give you. We’ve got several spaghetti (red sauce) type dishes, and they were all right. When we got the next one I decided I was going to shake things up, and I added my own Italian spices and it took the sauce to the next level, which really made me happy.
Don’t be afraid to add a little butter, yes it’s bad for you. Yes the meal services are trying to present you with a healthful meal option. Still, a little butter goes a long way for flavor. So, if you want to add some buttery flavor to what you're cooking or to vegetables go for it. I won’t tell.
Two of my co-workers, who are on the same plan as us, will put the spice rub or marinade on the meat the night before they cook it. They say it adds a lot more flavor and I believe them. I tried it once, and it really does amp up the flavor of the meat.
The other trick I have is, watch the salt. Almost ever step instructs you to ‘salt and pepper to taste’ remember it’s ‘to taste’ so if you want to cut down on the salt do it. To me this seemed like a no brainer, but you would be surprised at how you get caught up in following the step-by-step directions.
Speaking of directions. Do yourself a favor and read through the direction at least twice before you start. Then decide the steps you can combine and the ways to lower your pan and bowl count, cause you’re gonna use a lot of them.
When it comes to the oil always use olive oil or extra virgin olive oil. It’s really the best way to cook everything.
When it comes to pans we use non-stick or cast iron. So if you don’t have non-stick pans or cast iron get one. It makes clean up so much easier.
When it comes to clean up, do it while things are cooking. You’re gonna go through a lot of pains, bowls and knives so clean as you go. Otherwise you’re gonna have a lot of clean up at the end.
And there you have it. Everything I’ve learned about our Meal Kit Delivery Service. If you want to try it, go for it. The options are great and the food is good. Even the stuff you may not love. We plan to keep going. If we stop I’ll let you know and tell you why.
As with Part One and Part Two here are photos from our dinners.
I hope you enjoyed this series and found it interesting and fun. Feel free to ask questions. In fact I encourage it. I love hearing from you.
Until next time have a great week.