I'm not one to spend a lot of time in the kitchen or do anything elaborate, but I don't actually mind cooking. What I really don't like is having to think up what we are going to eat. Like everybody, I have about four old reliable recipes that I use over and over, and I get just as bored of them as everybody else in the house.

So I tried Hello Fresh (a couple of years ago) and Blue Apron (last year), and I liked them. A lot. Somebody else thinks up what you're going to eat, sends you the ingredients, and then you just cook it up. The recipes from both services were simple, but they had sauces and marinades and sides that I would never have thought of. It was great. 

(It wouldn't have worked when the kids were still living at home, though, even if I ordered the family box-- it wouldn't have been enough food for MadMax in his Teen Eating Phase, which was astonishing. The boy can eat.)

But there are some problems with the whole system. One, of course, is the massive amount of packaging. You get a big cardboard box that is tightly fitted with another big styrofoam box, and then everything inside is individually packaged. And there are several fake ice packs. The only thing we can recycle around here is the cardboard box. The services go to great lengths to remind you that you can reuse the ice packs, but still they pile up. Who needs thirty ice packs?

The other problem is the same problem you get with any subscription service: the weekly shipment comes unless you remember to cancel it. With Blue Apron last year, you could schedule (or cancel) your shipment up to five weeks in advance (if I'm remembering right). I knew I wouldn't want any shipments in the summer when MadMax was home, so I went online and cancelled five weeks out.

Then of course I forgot all about it. The five weeks happened to run out while we were out of town for two weeks, so when we got back, there was a food box that had been sitting in our garage for a week, and another one that arrived the day after we got home. And then, because you have to cancel about a week in advance, we got ANOTHER box the next week. I used some of it, but most of it just went in the trash. *fume*

Now I'm trying something else, and so far I love it. It's called PrepDish, and instead of getting actual food, you get a weekly menu, with recipes for four dinners, a breakfast, a salad, and a snack. You also get a beautifully organized shopping list and a prep plan. The idea is to spend two hours one day per week doing all the prep work for all the meals--chopping, making sauces, baking potatoes,etc. Then most of your work is done and you can throw dinner together in 20-30 minutes. 

Honestly, I have yet to do the whole prep day thing, but it's worth the price (less than $10/month if you get the annual plan) to have someone send me menu ideas and organize my shopping. The meals are good ones: simple but different than the kinds of things I normally think of. I've modified them some-- we don't get good seafood in land-locked Montana very often, so sometimes I sub in chicken instead of fish or shrimp--but usually I just need the ideas. So far, thumbs up.

Oh, and one other thing-- she has three menu choices: paleo, gluten-free, and keto. We don't need any of those diet options, but it's easy enough to modify to suit yourself. Paleo is low carb, so I use that one and add a side of rice or whatever. 

Have you tried a menu subscription service? What did you think?

As always, this is not an ad, I don't get anything from it. Just telling you my experience.