My New Favorite Meal Delivery Service

Recently we tried Hungry Root; A meal delivery service that focuses on grocery delivery with simple recipes. After completing a quiz at sign up, you pick a plan size and get either their suggested meals or ones you choose to substitute in yourself. And because it’s a grocery delivery service you can also order snack foods, and other a la carte grocery items that you might need for the week using a credits system. I do not quite understand how the credit system works, so I can't really explain it that well, but somehow the number of credits you have is based on your plan size and then that determines how much you end up paying for any a la carte items. Anything that you would get at the grocery store you can also get from them. Dairy, bread, produce. They have it all. 

Most of the work is done for you

Chile Limon Chicken Tacos (no Guac for me)

The simple recipe part really caught my attention. I am not a good a cook. I need simple because I like to be in and out of the kitchen as quickly as possible. I was pleasantly surprised at just how easy the meals actually were. Even for me. The recipe card indicated that all of our meals would take anywhere between 6-23 minutes to prepare. I hit closer to about the 20-25 minute mark because I'm so very slow and inefficient, but still, not bad at all compared to the hour it takes for most Blue Apron recipes or anything else I ever try to cook. These meals were all so easily prepped that to cook it on a work day after exercising was still doable. Most of the work is done for you. The vegetables are chopped, the sauces are already done, and the only thing left is to put it all together.

Cuban Style Black Beans+ Chicken Plate

Not only were the meals easy, they were nutritious. All the meals were between 280 and 780 calories. Additionally, Hungry Root caters to a variety of different dietary needs such as vegan, vegetarian, gluten free, and dairy free. The food is free of partially hydrogenated oils, artificial sweeteners, high-fructose corn syrup, and artificial colors and preservatives. The meat is preseasoned and sauces are prepackaged which make the prep easy, but it's also nice to know that they haven't been packed with a bunch of crap we don't want inside our body. 

Some of our meals: 

Beef burgers with sweet potato Fries.

Rotini Pasta with mushrooms and Spinach Artichoke sauce 

Braised Lemongrass Tofu Nuggets with Brown Rice Quinoa, Broccolini and Coconut Curry Sauce 

Spinach Ravioli and Spinach Garlic Chicken Sausage with Tomato Marinara Sauce 

Chile Limon Chicken n Guac Tacos 

Sweet Italian Sausage and Spinach flatbread 

Lemon Pepper Chicken with Rice Quinoa Blend and Brussel Sprouts

Beyond Burger with Baked Beans 

Grass Fed Meatballs with Fuseli pasta in Tomato sauce

Saucy Tomato Chicken Linguini 

Chicken & Guacamole Burrito Bowl 

Creamy Broccoli Alfredo Shells 

Cuban Style Black Bean Chicken Plate 

I do think the price is pretty decent for what you get, but it’s still more expensive than grocery shopping. No matter how you slice it, you really can’t get around that. You are paying for convenience and it’s going to cost you more than putting it all together and picking up the groceries yourself. The plans start at $59 for three meals for two. Our first two boxes had dinner, some lunches, plus snacks, so it cost $158 (we got a 40% discount off the first one). Our last box was five meals for two totaling $95.

Creamy Broccoli Alfredo Shells

One of the downsides of Hungry Root is that like most other delivery services you do have to remember to pause your account or skip your delivery or else you will get a delivery every week. With Hungry Root you can skip up to three deliveries, or pause your account. My husband forgot to skip or pause in time twice! That's why we we ended up with three orders. Some of the meals were more filling than others, but regardless of how "full" I was after a particular meal the portions are reasonable. That's important to me. If didn't feel completely satisfied I made sure to have a post dinner snack. Overall I really liked all the meals. There were some tasty vegetarian options. All the meat was full of flavor. There were a few sauces that we added some additional spices to, like the tomato sauces because it didn't have enough flavor for us, but most of them were good. The one meal that I liked a bit less than all the rest was the Creamy Broccoli Alfredo Shells. The Alfredo sauce didn't have a ton of flavor, but at the same time I couldn't be mad about it because a classic Alfredo sauce has lots of fat filled butter and heavy cream to make it super rich. You can't have it all! 

For someone who wants a more gourmet type of meal or enjoys complex ingredients this might not be the right fit, but it works perfectly for me. I loved having such a nice variety of delicious healthy meals every day, that were so easy to make. We have done Blue Apron in the past, and that food is definitely more gourmet, but the prep time is too much for it to be practical on a workday for me. The last time I did Blue Apron was kind of a disaster! I felt so spoiled having Hungry Root meals for three weeks, and not having to think about what are we going to do for dinner? even once! I didn't get sick of it at all. I'm definitely a fan. 

With this referral code you can save $50 when you sign up for your first delivery and we will also save $50 on our next one. https://www.hungryroot.com/r/3O9175H2 

The video review shows more of the food we got. YouTube video link is here and another video focusing on Nutritional Content here if you are interested.