I’ve always liked the idea of those food delivery boxes… fresh ingredients delivered to your door, with recipes to go with. You get to eat home cooked food, without the hassle of planning and the grocery store. However, I’ve never broken the seal on the idea, because every time I look into it I feel it’s just too expensive. I appreciate you’re paying for the convenience but I haven’t been able to justify it. So when I came across Dinnerly I thought it was time to give it a go. $5 a serving has got to be worth trying!
** This post contains affiliate links, meaning I may receive a commission if you choose to purchase from one of the links contained in this post. I was gifted our first Dinnerly box but the opinions expressed here are my own.**
Sometimes You need A break from meal planning
Life has been a bit hectic recently, and our meal planning has taken a bit of a back seat. I find we have waves of motivation when it comes to exciting home cooked meals, and then we start to slip into eating the same thing week after week. It was the perfect time to give Dinnerly a go, and I’ve got to say there is something extremely exciting about having a mystery box of food delivered to your door! It felt like Christmas when you open the box of goodies!
A Little Bit About Dinnerly
Dinnerly is a new affordable food delivery box from the creators of the upmarket delivery service Martha & Marley Spoon. Savings have been made by keeping the recipe cards online instead of printing them, and the recipes are kept simple with a minimal number of ingredients. This makes the Dinnerly food box delivery service the most affordable on the market, and they are currently charging $5 an adult portion (plus $8.99 delivery per box).
Dinnerly started earlier this year delivering to California, and have since been branching out across the country. Do check out their website to see if they’ve reached your area yet. You can look up online what recipes are headed your way and it’s easy to take a break for a week if you have other plans.
What’s in the Box?
Aside from the price of food delivery boxes, I also had concerns about the food getting to me unspoiled. We live in Arizona where the scorching temperatures really are an issue. However, the box was really well insulated with recyclable material and two oversized ice packs were placed either side of the meat. No worries there!
I couldn’t wait to bust open the box, and here’s what I found inside…
I had ordered the family sized box, which is designed to make three meals for four people. We have two adults, a seven-year-old and two giant toddlers, and there was more than enough to go round. The meals I was sent for this week were:
- Veggie Flatbread Pizza;
- Saucy Spaghetti and Sausage Meatballs;
- Cheesy Grass-Fed Beed Tacos;
The veggie meal suited us well as I don’t like to eat meat everyday. They were easy to follow recipes and the whole concept feels simple, affordable and convenient.
Elsie’s back in the Kitchen
I decided to put the simplicity of the recipes to the test… Elsie’s back in the kitchen and in charge of dinner. I purposefully picked the most challenging of the recipes for her to tackle, and apart from the chopping which I did, she was 100% in the driving seat. Regular readers know Elsie is in charge of my YouTube channel, so here she is cooking up a storm!
The meals
All three meals went down really well, the flatbread pizza was super delicious and probably my favorite. The meatball dish was crazy simple yet really tasty, I get the feeling that was the kids favorite… who doesn’t like spaghetti meatballs?! The tacos were good but the kids found them a little spicy. The spice came in a separate sachet so you can add as little or as much as you like… I was a bit ambitious on what they could handle!
The verdict
I am honestly surprised it has taken this long for a service like Dinnerly to emerge. Despite sneaking in the odd take-out like most people, we like to cook fresh meals at home. But as a family of five, we also like to keep things affordable… We can’t justify a high-end food delivery box, but we do like the idea of having a little less to plan.
Not every meal has to be something extravagant, those basic staples like a simple pasta dish or a fresh homemade burger are comfort foods most families like to eat. And knowing three affordable meals are heading your way without any planning is a comfort indeed. The box only covers three days a week so you still have the freedom to cook whatever you want on the other days.
The ingredients were fresh and easy to work with. There was loads of meat and although I stuck to the recipes this week, I totally see how I could play around with the ingredients and make the box stretch further. The beef was grass-fed, the products seemed high quality. As I mentioned earlier, Dinnerly have created such an affordable food box by keeping the recipes really simple, not by cutting corners on quality.
Could I go to the grocery store and rustle up the same things pretty easily? Yes. But sometimes it’s nice to take a load off… and I have to say, having a mystery box of food delivered to your door really brightens up your day and feels quite luxurious!
If you would like the find out more about Dinnerly and whether they have reached your area yet… visit the Dinnerly website here.
