Tasting Toronto on Wheels is featuring three popular meal kit companies. They are a good option not only for individuals with a busy lifestyle, but also for people with physical disabilities and seniors who may need assistance preparing meals or have difficulty grocery shopping. If you're looking to try one of the companies out, most of them offer discounts for the first week of delivery and have a straightforward cancellation policy if you want to end your subscription.
After my first experience using a meal kit didn't go as planned, I decided to give Chefs Plate a try.
This time around I got 50% off of my first week of meals. Like Hello Fresh, Chefs Plate allows you to choose from different meal plans and they do not charge for delivery. Chefs Plate has four options: Classic, Family, 15 Minute and Vegetarian. The Classic Plan serves two or four people and allows you to get two, three or four recipes per week for a total cost of $9.99 per serving. The Family Plan serves four people and give you two, three or four recipes per week for a total cost of $8.99 per serving. The 15 Minute Plan serves two or four people and gives you two, three or four recipes per week for a total cost $12.95 per serving. The Vegetarian Plan serves two or four people and give you two, three or four recipes per week for a cost of $9.99 per serving.
I decided to stick to my mission to find a meal kit that was quick, so chose the 15 Minute plan. The meals I picked were Pork Adobo Stir-fry with Basmati Rice and Bok Choy, Baked Feta Shawarma Bowl with Hummus Dressing, and Two Cheese Chicken Pasta with Spinach and Marinara Sauce.
Since the cooking time of my meal kit from Hello Fresh was nowhere close to what I expected, I was skeptical of Chefs Plate's 15 minute promise. In order to test the accuracy of the cook time, I decided to use a timer for the Pork Adobo Stir-fry and Two Cheese Chicken Pasta and the timing was pretty accurate. The stir-fry took me 22 minutes, while the pasta took 15 minutes. I didn't use a timer for the baked feta shawarma because Sean and I made it together, which made it difficult to calculate the cooking time. One of the biggest reasons why I was able to cook these meals so quickly was because everything was measured out and cut up. I had to do very little prep other than whisk the dressing for the shawarma and mix the sauce for the pork adobo.
Overall, the meals were good and the portions were substantial, but we did not have leftovers like we did with Hello Fresh. I liked that I could include a vegetarian dish with my recipe choices but I wish there were more 15 minute meals to choose from instead of only four recipes. Since there was a limited amount of recipes to choose from, I ended up choosing the pork adobo, which I initially thought was Mexican-style adobo. It turned out the recipe was for Filipino-style adobo and although it was good, it was not nearly as good as my mom's adobo, which has tons of garlic and is marinated overnight. The feta shawarma was a good vegetarian dish and I wasn't hungry after since there was couscous in it. The only thing it could have used is acid (i.e. lemon) to cut the saltiness of the feta. The two cheese chicken pasta was the simplest of all of the recipes. I felt like this dish was catered towards families with children because it had less robust flavours than the other dishes.
Chefs Plate was much more suited for my needs than Hello Fresh. All of the ingredients were cut up and took less than 30 minutes to make. Even though it might not be cost effective to order meal kits on a regular basis, Chefs Plate is the ideal option for people with a busy lifestyle and need a quick weekday meal and people with limited mobility or require assistance making their meals.
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