Our favorite–lamb merguez sausage with a warm carrot salad

A few months ago, I decided to try a meal delivery service and after a quick once-over of sample menus, I selected Sun Basket. I settled on 3 meals a week and to serve four. My two oldest had just returned to college and one of the two still at home is a whitecarbavore (I made that up, but she pretty much lives on pasta with butter and parmaggiano reggiano, brie, really rare filet mignon, and cocoa puffs) We find the four servings to be plenty, but I often, especially on practice nights, will make a carb—either rice or pasta to go with the meal.

On the practical side, it is wonderful to open the bag and all the ingredients are there. As a hopeless forgot-my-shopping-list-at-home-again shopper, it is quite thrilling to have everything for the meal in neat little plastic jars or bags. The pre-made spice mixes have been amazing—flavorful, and not overloaded with salt. An added bonus is that I don’t have to buy several spices that I only need a pinch or two of and then they languish on my overcrowded spice shelf for years.

The best thing is that for three nights a week, I don’t have figure out what to make for dinner. I use the Sun Basket app to make my meal selections and that is the only decision I need to make about dinner until the weekend. Sometimes I think the overwhelming variety of ingredients, the endless Pinterest recipes, the globalization of cuisines make me less likely to cook dinner. When I can cook anything, sometimes I end up cooking nothing.

My meals for the week arrive at my door by Monday afternoon, packed with an environmentally-friendly freezer pack. The meat is in vacuum-sealed packages and everything else for the meal is in a labeled paper sack. The only things I use from my pantry are oil, salt, and pepper—really! Keeping in my mind that I get double of everything for my four servings, I need to store the ingredients in my garage fridge. (I could go on and on about the evils of the French-door refrigerator’s lack of storage, but realize that refrigerator space is needed if you want to try a meal service.)

What’s inside the bag, but the meat is packaged separately.

It’s definitely not cheap– I pay around $150 each week for 12 meals and that food takes care of 3 dinners for three people and 2-3 lunches for me during the week. Considering the convenience and that the ingredients are primarily organic, the seafood is often wild-caught, and the meat is humanely raised and antibiotic and hormone-free, I think, however, there is good value in the price.

Our reviews of the dinners have been overwhelmingly positive. The lamb merguez and falafel meals have been all-stars. I love that I can adjust the recipes to fit my family’s personal tastes and habits, like I use half the amount of onion called for in any recipe and leave out any red or green peppers. It’s almost like having a personal chef—I choose what we want to eat, someone else sources all the ingredients and the ingredients are all gathered together, then I get to do the part I like best—cook! Well, I guess it is more sort-of-like having a personal chef because there are still the dishes and kitchen to clean up, but most of the meals are made in one pan and I use a couple of bowls for prep or salads.

Steak au poivre (I upgraded to filets) with roasted parsnips and Brussels sprouts

I saved the best for last—using a meal delivery service cuts down on the time I have to spend grocery shopping with people who cannot steer their cart while talking on their phone, meandering aimlessly down the aisle, but with an uncanny ability to effectively block all attempts to pass them on right or the left.

Note: I’m not affiliated in any way with Sun Basket (other than I’m a customer) and I did not receive any compensation from Sun Basket for this review.