The best budget meal kit we’ve tested

There really is a meal kit out there for everyone. Is EveryPlate for you?

I wanted to find out for myself, and after testing 23 different meal kit companies over four years, it was time for a deeper dive into a crowd favorite – EveryPlate.

The meal kit service is marketed as “America’s Best Value Meal Kit,” with affordable prices and accessible recipes aimed at satisfying a plethora of tastes. With a rotating weekly menu, they offer entrees starting at $4.99, with entrees starting at $2.99.

Need more convincing? I recently put the meal kit to the test once again in my work-from-home test kitchen. How was it done? Read on for the full dish and then make your own.

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How EveryPlate works

EveryPlate is quite simple and works for almost any palate.

The meal kit brand offers a variety of meals and supplements to fill a weekly box. When you create your account, choose your household needs, meal pacing and serving size. Choose two, four or six people and then a pace of three, four or five meals a week. The best part is that no matter the combo, every standard meal is $5.99 per serving and even less with a coupon. Plus, this is one of the only meal kits that allows for a six-person serving, perfect for larger families.

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Price of each tile

This is truly one of the most affordable meal kits I’ve found, and I still don’t quite understand how they can offer such delicious, full meals for such a low cost.

Meals start at just $5.99, or $2.99 ​​with an introductory coupon. If you opt for premium food choices, there may be an added cost of $1.99 – $6.99 more per serving due to higher quality ingredients such as fine cuts of meat, seafood and more. a lot.

Shipping is also a flat fee of $10.99, regardless of the box.

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Any meal with a plate

EveryPlate keeps costs low by having fewer options than some meal kit brands, but all are filling and delicious. They currently offer meals for carnivores, vegetarians, and pescatarians, as well as calorie-smart, family-friendly, and quick-to-cook recipe options.

Regardless of the meal, I noticed that the box of fruit, vegetables and other ingredients always arrived fresh and quite large – no odd-looking tomatoes or bruised cucumbers here.

We have tested:

• Chicken and tomato sausage soup with Israeli couscous and parmesan
• Scallops with brown butter over corn and tomato risotto
• Creamy potato and ham soup
• Stuffed meatloaf
• Cheesy Chicken, Broccoli and Rice Casserole

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Our EveryPlate review

After cooking my share of meal kits, I’d say I’m somewhere between a novice and a chef when it comes to home cooking. Meal kits that are easy to order, recipes that are easy to follow, and food that is easy to eat are really my top three criteria.

EveryPlate checked them all.

To get the full flavor of EveryPlate’s offerings, I wanted to sample a few of the different categories of options on the site. I chose two meals for my weekly picks, with a customer favorite option of “Chicken Sausage and Tomato Soup with Israeli Couscous and Parmesan” and then a more premium choice of “Brown Butter Scallops over Corn and Tomato Risotto” as pleasure for the weekend.

It should be noted that every recipe, premium or not, came with easy-to-follow recipe cards printed in full color with no more than six steps at most. This is especially appreciated when cooking something unfamiliar, as the pictures help guide the way almost as much as the text.

Also of note were the ingredients themselves. EveryPlate does an amazing job of both providing fresh produce and high-quality protein while also using less packaging to minimize waste. I appreciated that all the ingredients for all three meals came in a well-packaged box, with the chicken, scallops and dairy packed below in ice to keep them fresh.

For 2024, I also made a delicious Creamy Potato and Bacon Soup and a Homey Stuffed Meatloaf, which ended up being my favorite. While that recipe called for an oven, I ended up using my toaster oven and cooked the mini meatloaves with chips, so they turned out caramelized and delicious. One of the many things I love about EveryPlate is that you can play around with the recipes as needed, as they start simple and come with very simple instructions – follow them exactly or have fun!

Compared to other meal kits, EveryPlate is the easiest to follow and the most affordable, making it one that I would personally subscribe to. It might be more suitable for a larger family, but for me, I was able to save the second part of the meals for two people for lunch.

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Final decision

So how did it go once in the kitchen? According to the plan! When the time was up, each recipe took the estimated time listed on the card, and in my humble opinion, looked just like the photos. The timing makes it easy to plan family meals, as well as when you’re in a rush and only have a set amount of time to cook, while the quality ingredients made it look like I’d slaved away for a Instagrammable the moment of food. Win-win.

Check out EveryPlate for easy dinners and lunches for the whole family, as it’s available to serve up to six servings, without breaking the bank or spending too much time in the kitchen.

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How we tested it

• Ease of ordering: When viewing the menu, EveryPlate is simple to set up and order for each week. I always consider how to customize the order, make changes and stop a membership during testing.
• Preparation, cooking and cleaning time: A major selling point of meal kits is that they save time. Each dish takes between 15 and 45 minutes per meal, sticking closely to what the recipe calls for. I still noticed how long it took me to eat a full meal from packaging to cooking, eating and recycling afterwards.
• Taste and fullness: Meal kits are meant to take all the guesswork out of cooking, including seasonings. While testing EveryPlate I considered whether any of the plates I ordered needed to be tempered or altered to make them more tactile. I also thought about how satisfied they left me and for how long.
• Durability: Not all meal kits are eco-friendly or use sustainable practices. To determine where EveryPlate stood on the eco-consciousness scale, I reviewed its manufacturing policy and looked at how it sourced its ingredients. Other things I considered were its packaging and whether it could be recycled.
• Price: Meal kits typically cost between $7 and $15 per serving, and so EveryPlate sits on the very affordable side of the spectrum at $2.99 ​​- $5.99 per serving. I also consider how many meals per week and how many portions you get for the price.

FAQ: What to look for when choosing a meal kit

Diet: Pay attention to the dietary options that each service caters for, from vegetarians and vegans to Keto and paleo.

House size: Count the number of people in your family and then calculate how much they eat to best calculate how many servings you need to feed everyone. Some of the kits detailed above have larger portions, while others are only for one serving.

Budget: Meal kits and services have a wide range of prices. Some offer free shipping, while others have a minimum spend, and other specialty or health plans may cost more.

Time: Think about how long you want to cook each night. Some meals take 30 or more minutes to cook, not including cleanup. Others are microwaveable and thus require no cleanup time.

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