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- Snap Kitchen is a meal delivery service that makes it easy to eat healthy, without ever touching your stove.
- Its ready-made meals, sides, beverages, and desserts are the most versatile and flexible we’ve seen yet — not to mention delicious and under 500 calories.
- You can shop the meals ($3.99-$11.99) a la carte or sign up for a meal plan subscription, which will save you a little money and provide a customizable, consistent flow of healthy, tasty meals.
As much as I appreciate the missions of popular meal kit delivery services today — to make cooking a delicious meal quick and easy — sometimes I just don’t have the time, patience, or energy to cook.
Despite the growing movement encouraging people to spend more time in the kitchen, you might remain a staunch non-believer (whether out of preference or necessity), but you still want to eat healthy and control what goes on your plate.
For busy, health-conscious eaters like you, ready-made meal delivery services are the better solution. In the past, we’ve reviewed the meals and meal plans from Veestro, which uses plant-based and organic ingredients, and Kettlebell Kitchen, which optimizes meals for active lifestyles.
We’ve found, however, that a company founded in 2010 called Snap Kitchen provides the most versatile and flexible selection of healthy, delicious ready-made meals. They’re sold at an average cost of $9.99 per meal, and can be purchased a la carte or as part of a meal plan.
Here’s how Snap Kitchen works
A la carte meals: Start by browsing its large menu of meals, sides, beverages, snacks, and desserts. Snap makes its own meals and also carries health food brands such as Barnana, RX Bar, Vital Proteins, and Zupa Noma.
Breakfast meals range in price from $3.99 to $7.99 and include options like egg and brisket tacos and sweet potato veggie Benedicts. Lunch and dinner are a little more expensive, and range in price from $6.99 to $11.99. You can choose from meals like hot chicken with fusili and cheese or sweet chili glazed salmon. All of these meals clock in at less than 500 calories, with most being around 300 to 400 calories.
There are also sides (called ‘components‘ on the site), small bites, soups and salads, desserts, and more.
For all these food choices, you can filter by diet type (keto, vegan, Whole30, etc.) and allergens (egg free, peanut free, soy free, etc.), so you’ll be able to shop the meals without wasting time inspecting ingredient lists.
Meal plan subscription: If you’re looking for a more long-term and consistent commitment, try Snap Kitchen’s subscription option, which saves you 5% to 10% on meal costs, gives you curated and customizable meal plans, and offers flexible delivery schedules.
If you know exactly what you want, you can go for the Build Your Own option. Otherwise, Snap Kitchen offers plans like Keto-Friendly, Paleo, Vegetarian, and Balance to make the process easier. You’ll choose how many days’ worth of meals you want (three, five, or seven), what meal types you want (breakfast, AM snack, drinks, etc.), and free delivery or pickup. There are currently Snap Kitchen stores in Austin, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, and Philadelphia, where you can pick up your meals.
After seeing your plan, which also breaks down the daily nutritional content and weekly subtotal, you can add more food items, or proceed to checkout.
Snap Kitchen wants to ensure you have the freshest meal possible, so it doesn’t deliver the meals all at once, unless you choose the three-day meal plan option. It will deliver twice a week for the five-day option and three times a week for the seven-day option.
Here’s what to expect when you receive your Snap Kitchen meals
The company sent the Insider Picks team a selection of meals, drinks, and desserts to taste for ourselves. They arrived in cooler bags that kept them cold and fresh.
I loved how creative the recipes were and how they didn’t fit my conception of what a typical "healthy" meal looked and tasted like. Some standouts included the bison quinoa hash, shrimp and cauliflower grits, and a surprisingly decadent brownie that satisfied my strong sweet tooth. The juices were also tasty and refreshing.
The meals are free of preservatives, and you’ll be able to recognize all the ingredients, many of which are also organic. You can heat them up in the microwave — perfect for rushed mornings and office lunches — or in the oven if you have a little more time.
Packaging waste can be a big concern about meal delivery services, but Snap Kitchen‘s packaging is actually compostable. While it doesn’t change the fact that you’re still going through a lot of meal trays, you can reuse them for other uses, and it’s comforting to know they’re compostable.
The bottom line
Speed and convenience often involves a sacrifice of some sort, whether that’s taste or nutrition value, but Snap Kitchen manages to nail all these priorities in one easy-to-use service. To make planning out and ordering meals even easier, it also offers an iOS app so you can always be in control of your healthy eating goals.
Order healthy meals and meal plans from Snap Kitchen here.
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Source: Business Insider – feedback@businessinsider.com (Connie Chen)