Meal Kits with Sun Basket and Home Chef

A few months ago, on Valentines Day, I introduced a meal kit delivery service called HelloFresh. Today, I’m going to further explain how meal kit delivery services work, as well as introduce two other meal kit companies – Sun Basket & Home Chef!

The simplest way to explain a meal kit is by taking the pros of doing your own grocery shopping, while having the convenience of ordering take-out food. Let’s say you decide to order a meal kit from Blue Apron, Sun Basket, or Home Chef; with either company, when you receive your meal kit, the meal won’t be prepared, all you’d be receiving are all the ingredients needed to cook the meal you had your eye on!

Why would you have an uncooked meal delivered?
We can all admit that cooking is fun, especially when it is done with your significant other. Unfortunately, the downside of cooking from scratch is making frequent supermarket stops, and then constantly keeping tabs on your purchases not expiring! A meal kit attempts to solve that issue by delivering all the ingredients required, as well as only sending you just enough to complete the meal. If you’re sick and tired of throwing out spoiled product from your fridge, then meal kits might just be the solution for you!

Lastly, while many of us love to cook, that doesn’t necessarily mean that are capable of consistently putting out great tasting recipes! Whenever you order from a major meal kit company, they typically have highly prized chefs coming up with the recipes.


Now that we better understand the reasons for using meal kit services, let’s dive into Sun Basket and Home Chef!

When you do decide to order Sun Basket, keep in mind that each meal will cost $22.98 on average, and is good for two servings! I highly suggesting picking up a promo code from ReviewingThis or MyFoodSubscriptions before placing your first order as well as reading their own experience and review of Sun Basket!

What does Home Chef offer?
If you’re not someone with any dietary restrictions, then Home Chef has much to offer you. Unlike Sun Basket, Home Chef has a wider selection of options such a smoothies, salads and fruit baskets.

When you opt for a typical meal, you should expect to pay as much as you would with Sun Basket. In the event that you want a salad, you’ll pay around $16 for two servings. A fruit basket? $10 for two servings. A smoothie? $10 for two servings again.

Whenever you’re deciding on your meals with any meal kit delivery service, you will always have the opportunity to view all the ingredients and nutritional values before deciding on a meal.

Home Chef also provides a great interface for planning future deliveries/meals as you’ll see in this screenshot:

What does Sun Basket offer?

Sun Basket is prized for being one the only meal kit delivery services that cater to an audience that might have dietary restrictions. For example, are you looking for meals that are possibly vegan or gluten-free? Well unfortunately neither HelloFresh or Home Chef offer much of a selection for either dietary need; Sun Basket on the other hand has 12 new meals weekly for each restriction! Here’s a list of all the dietary restrictions that Sun Basket caters to:

• Vegetarian
• Vegan
• Gluten-Free
• Soy-Free
• Paleo
• Mediterranean
• Pescatarian

Well, what about those of us that are watching our calorie intake? Sun Basket has a “Lean & Clean” meal plan!

With the “Lean & Clean” plan, Sun Basket will only present you with options that are typically 550 calories per serving, with 20g of protein and 5g of fiber in every meal, and absolutely no use of refined flour, sugar and dairy!

For the first of April, I was able to queue in a chicken dinner, a smoothie and a fruit basket for a little bit under $50. Since my order is over $40, shipping is free!

If I want to select meals for a future week, I select that week out of the calendar on the left and go through the meal options.

MyFood Subscriptions has put together a pretty good Home Chef review and shared a $30 coupon for new customers. In their review, you’ll get a better idea of how the ingredients are delivered and a snippet of the quality of the meals.

Are meal kits right for you?
Undoubtedly meal kits are an expensive, and the least cost-effective way of preparing your dinner. But, if you have a little bit of room in your budget, it’s a worthwhile experience. I can’t imagine a person ordering 5-7 meals per week from any meal kit company, but 1-2 meals? Doable!

Post in collaboration with Sun Basket.