Tag: mealprep

Nutrition and Food, Product Reviews

Meal kit face-off Hello Fresh vs. Purple Carrot

Sarah Miller, RD

Meal delivery services and kits are one of the greatest ideas to have evolved in the last decade; especially for people who have a super busy schedule. Not only do these services take care of the grocery shopping but the mental fatigue involved with deciding, “what should we have for dinner” is also happily handed off.

I’ve always been curious about meal kit services but never tried one. Since I follow a pretty specific diet I wasn’t able to find a service that would meet my dietary requirements when they first came out. Luckily most delivery kits have some sort of plant-based option(s) available making cooking for me in my multi picky eater household a little easier. There are many out there to choose from but I decided to give Hello Fresh and Purple Carrot a chance.

Hello Fresh

I decided to try Hello Fresh when a friend of mine passed along a discounted trial coupon.

Pros of Hello Fresh

  1. No grocery shopping- huge time saver
  2. App was easy to use to modify and make changes to my delivery
  3. Meals designed to be crowd pleasers 
  4. Priced well
     

Cons of Hello Fresh

  1. Not enough vegan options 
  2. Menu was a bit boring and repetitive

Ultimately the deal breaker for me was the lack of vegan options. This meant I had to micromanage our delivery every week to make sure I was either choosing things I could later veganize, were already vegan, or needed to skip. Their menu options of plant-based items usually involved dairy, which is great for some people but a no for me. Price point was pretty good and I did feel that Hello Fresh is one of the best priced options available. If you follow a lacto-ovo or lactovegetarian diet then Hello Fresh might work better for you than it did for me. 

Purple Carrot

I can’t even remember anymore where I first heard of Purple Carrot. The decision to try came from a random day of me looking up new recipes to cook at home. One of the recipes was from the Purple Carrot website and next thing I knew I was signing up for a trial box.

Pros of Purple Carrot

  1. Entirely plant-based vegan menu- no need to micromanage delivery
  2. Exciting recipes and variable flavor profiles
  3. High quality ingredients
  4. Also offers a pre-made meal option and “plantry”

Cons of Purple Carrot

  1. A bit more expensive than Hello Fresh

The only con I’ve experienced is that Purple Carrot is a tad more expensive than Hello Fresh. However, the price point is on par with what you would pay at the grocery store for the week’s worth of groceries. And you didn’t have to go to the store, plan the menu, or micromanage the meals arriving in the box. Purple Carrot even offers pre-made meals and a “plantry” so you can include extras you would’ve picked up at the store.

Winner: Purple Carrot

If you’re vegan or vegan curious, or follow a mostly plant-based diet  I highly recommend Purple Carrot. The menu selection is huge- and it’s all vegan. All of it. There’s no need to micromanage or worry that you’re accidentally forgetting to swap an ingredient. The recipes range from easy to more advanced both in flavor profile and cooking skill. They even started including some produce items pre-chopped making it even quicker for you to make dinner on a busy night. Purple Carrot is great for people who like to taste new flavors- every meal I’ve made has been delicious. The recipe developers are amazing. 

 

flat lay photography of three tray of foods
Nutrition and Food

Meal Prepping Tips & Ideas

Sarah Miller, RD

Weeknight dinner planning can be a challenge. With long hours and long commutes, it’s sometimes impossible to find enough time available for preparing a healthy, delicious meal. 

Luckily fall is finally here and so are some amazing in-season vegetables!

One of my favorite meal prep techniques is spending Sunday morning roasting every vegetable I can get my hands on. Brussels sprouts, various squash including acorn and butternut, cauliflower, broccoli, potatoes, I could go on forever. The beauty of roasting vegetables is that they retain their flavor in the days to come after being cooked. They also tend to hold their texture where sometimes frozen vegetables end up soggy. I don’t know about you, but frozen broccoli is probably one of my least favorite quick foods. I’m much happier when I’ve roasted a head of broccoli in advance for the week instead of settling for heating up frozen broccoli.

Another tip for meal prep is to have canned beans in your cupboard. I have an instant pot and prefer to cook dried beans whenever possible, but sometimes life gets the best of me and I need food now. Whenever this happens I’m always glad that my pantry is stocked with backup canned beans. Simply drain, rinse, heat and portion out your serving to add plant protein to your meal.

Not really into beans? Try roasting a block of tofu, pre-make a batch of lentils instead of beans, or even heat and cut-up your favorite veggie burger patty to add! 

Speaking of my instant pot, other great food items you can prep in advance for weeknight dinners are quinoa, sorghum, rice, or bulgur. I personally love to cook these in my instant pot simply because I don’t like to stand over a hot stove, especially for 30min or more. Cooking extra servings of my grains to have throughout the week makes this food hack a no brainer.

You could also pre-make a pot of high protein pasta to store for portioning out during the week. Just make sure to mix with some olive oil if you plan to refrigerate it sans sauce. This will help to minimize the pasta sticking together.

Putting it all together

Using my roasted vegetables, beans, and grain of choice I find an easy weekday dinner or lunch is to portion that out into a bowl and top with my favorite fixings. Depending on the variety, I might add some fresh avocado, sprinkle on some hemp hearts, or even add a sauce or peanut dressing. Another way to add flavor is to add fresh herbs and some lemon juice to keep it low sodium friendly. Experiment with different combinations to find what you and your family prefer.

Stay tuned for more meal prep ideas and tips!