Freshly isn’t really a meal kit—it’s more like a fancy microwaveable dinner. There’s no prep involved. Each meal comes in its own plastic container, ready for you to microwave and eat.
It's like a slightly fancier, slightly fresher version of a meal you'd be served in a first class cabin of a transatlantic flight.
While you’re paying a bit for the convenience, this actually worked out great as a lunch or light dinner option. One caveat is that some of the meals were a little lacking in terms of portion sizing, though you can always check out the calorie count on these if you want to cherry pick the more filling options (or do the opposite and choose a low-calorie meal).
If we didn’t live in a city where takeout options are vast and tasty, it would be even better. The food is pretty fresh, and the dishes are a little more interesting than you usually get in the freezer aisle: Recent menu options included sesame ginger chicken and noodles, a three-grain harvest bowl, along with comfort foods like mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, and vegetarian shepherd’s pie. Speaking of, there aren’t a ton of enticing vegetarian options here, but if you’re tempted by the conveniently prepless, ready meals, filter by the “Purely Plant” meal options.
Everything comes in individual servings, so you can choose exactly how many meals you want per week. Once you’re ready to heat and serve, the microwaving instructions are incredibly accurate (no burned tongues!). Table for one, please.
Price: Freshly is priced by each individual prepared meal—meals start at $9, and you can shop for up to 12 meals per week.
The Best Ready-Made Meal Kit for Feeding a Family, or Just One Hungry Person: Mosaic
Several meal kits specialize in blends and purees for babies who are finally getting into solids or toddlers graduating to finger foods, but if you're just looking to feed a few fussy kids and teenagers (or just one grown adult with a voracious appetite) without digging into the pantry, there's also Mosaic Foods. It's one of the rare meal delivery kits we've tried that offers ready-made, chef-prepared, family-size meals in a single serving, instead of having you order multiple servings of the same dish. It's a pretty welcome addition to the, uh, meal kit canon as you find out from testing these services that some of these meals aren't terribly filling.