Over the past few years meal prep kits have enjoyed a rapidly rising popularity. Busy moms breathed a sigh of relief that they could create a home cooked meal without all the planning and shopping while inexperienced cooks saw it as a way to hone their culinary skills in an almost foolproof environment.
Families began cooking meals together and couples turned their dinner preparation into an intimate bonding time. But how can something this easy, this economical, this fun possibly be good for you?
Well, it is. Meal prep kits are surprisingly healthier – even surpassing most restaurant menus in nutrition and freshness.
Here's the skinny on meal prep kits as a healthy option.
Every meal has detailed nutritional information for each serving.
If you're counting carbs or calories or sugar to stay fit and lean, your meal prep recipes make it easy. The nutrition information is included right there on the printed recipe. That way you know exactly what you are eating and what impact it will have on your diet. How many restaurant meals offer that? Sure, you might be able to find the caloric content available, but you often have to dig around on their website to find out about fat, sodium, and cholesterol – if it's there at all. Meal prep kits offer complete food transparency. You always know just what you are eating.
Everything is already measured for you.
When you receive your kit, you will have everything you need to create the dish (some services may not include salt so you will have to use your own), all of it perfectly measured. While you may have to chop some potatoes or slice a couple of carrots, you will still have the perfect amounts for the recipe you are creating, and prep time is minimal. Best of all, when your meal is cooked, you'll have just the right portions per serving. You don't have to break out your food scale or use your measuring cups because all that work was done for you.
Food allergies and sensitivities are not a problem.
If you have certain food allergies or are sensitive to specific foods, you can easily swap out ingredients to meet your personal nutritional needs. Most meal prep kit services are fully customizable and offer menus for people with special food needs such as vegan, vegetarian, gluten free, organic, kosher, keto, and for those with allergies. There are also services that cater specifically to some of these dietary preferences if you want something that calls for less customizing.
You handle each of the ingredients, so you know exactly what's going into your body.
Face it, when you sit down at a restaurant or even at home with a frozen or canned meal, do you really know what you are eating? Do you know what exactly is in that food? Chances are, you don't. Even if you take the time to read the nutrition label, the regulations are pretty loose and allow for certain variances and discrepancies so what you think you're getting is not what you are getting.
Meal prep kits eliminate that uncertainty. As you prepare your meal, you handle each and every farm fresh ingredient. You don't have to wonder if MSG was added to your food or if your dish has a high sugar content because you put everything in, so you know what you are putting into your body.
The ingredients are fresh, often straight from the farm.
Most meal kits source their ingredients directly from the farm, so they are fresh. And we all know that fresh is best. This is so much better than your microwave mystery meals or that takeout that has you guessing about what's in it.
If you want healthy, then fresh is the way to go and meal prep kits give you the most fresh food bang for your buck. Add to that the ease of complete instructions and fully measured ingredients and you have a recipe for healthy, easy food.
You eat out less because you are cooking better and having fun!
The beauty of meal prep kits is that the recipes are so approachable. Even if you can barely boil water, the kits walk you through various cooking techniques, gently guiding and teaching you culinary skills that you can use on your other dishes. Before you know it, you are cooking like a chef (and feeling like one too) and eating in more as opposed to dining out because your skills just keep improving.
Cooking is an art but fortunately, it is a very forgiving, unbiased art. It can be mastered by young and old, seasoned foodies and those who rarely set foot in a kitchen. Meal prep kits make cooking approachable, friendly, less terrifying, and make you feel like you can prepare a beautiful, delicious dinner all by yourself. And you can.
