By Holly Reisem Hanna
Back in the day, when I worked in a cube and had a two-hour round-trip commute, I used to spend the last 15 minutes of my workday scanning the internet for something to make for dinner.
Having this loosely knit meal planning system worked well because I got to leave work around 3:00 pm, which gave me enough time to stop at the grocery store for the necessary ingredients. I'd make tasty seafood dishes and spicy Mexican food, and I actually enjoyed cooking.
Fast forward to the present time — I hate cooking and menu planning!
Working from home has a TON of perks, but because I don't have a daily commute, and because I batch my errands to be more productive. I only make it to the grocery store once a week. So, this means I have to be super organized with meal planning and my grocery list.
But, when Sunday night rolls around, the last thing I want to do is take an hour out of my busy schedule to sit down and meal plan. Besides hating to menu plan, I hate cooking. At the end of a busy day, I don't want to take 60 minutes to cook a meal, that's eaten in 10 minutes, with another 20 – 30 minutes of clean up. Ahhhh, I dread it.
Over the past few years, I've tried a lot of different solutions to solve the problem of what to make for dinner. During this time I've found a lot of good options for moms who hate to cook and menu plan.
Basic Meal Planning Systems.
The $5 Meal Plan is a weekly service that contains six dinner recipes, one breakfast recipe, one lunch recipe, and a dessert and snack recipe along with your weekly shopping list. Meals are family-friendly and supposedly cost $2 per person per serving. I have yet to try this one — but it gets good reviews online, and it's perfect for budget-friendly cooking.
The $5 Meal Plan offers a free 14-day trial, and after that, if you like it you'll be switched to the monthly plan which is $5 a month
- Cook time: 20 minutes or more
- Price: $5 a month (each portion costs $2 per person to make)
- Specialty diet plans: Regular and gluten-free
Menu of the Week is one of the first menu planning services I tried, and I used it for around six months. In fact, I still have many of the meal plans printed out, and I make some my favorite recipes on occasion. Each meal plan comes with five family-friendly dinner recipes, one dessert recipe, one brunch recipe, and an itemized grocery list. The one thing I didn't like about this option, was that you didn't get any choice with your menu selection — it's a one size fits all type of plan.
- Cook time: 30 minutes or less
- Price: $48 for 12 months
- Specialty diet plans: No
Lauren Greutman is a well-known personal finance blogger, who has come up with four different crockpot meal plans that can save you time and money. Each plan comes with ten different recipes that you prep, dump, and freeze for later use. I have yet to try this meal system, but the recipes sound appealing, and most of them are family-friendly. The downside with this plan is the ten recipes repeat themselves — so you may get bored of having the same recipe twice in one month.
- Cook time: 3 hours for 20 meals
- Price: $4.97 per plan (estimated $150 – $165 for food)
- Specialty diet plans: No
Subscription Box Services.
I believe this was the first meal-planning subscription box on the market. With Plated you have a lot of options. First, you select a meal plan either for two people or three (each serving is enough for one adult or 1-2 children). Next, you choose whether you'd like two, three, or four meals delivered (each portion is $12 a serving). Then, you choose from 11 original chef-designed recipes; some are recipes can be whipped up in 20-minutes, and the gourmet recipes take an hour. Once you've made your selections, they deliver the food and recipes directly to your doorstep in an iced-down box. I actually can't believe I haven't tried this one — the recipes look yummy! However, they don't appear to be kid-friendly.
First-time subscribers can get $30 off their first order; the coupon is right on their website.
- Cook time: 20 – 60 minutes per meal
- Price: $12 per serving
- Specialty diet plans: Omnivores, vegetarians, seafood lovers, and dessert lovers
Green Chef is the first meal-planning subscription box service I tried out. As its name suggests, all ingredients in these boxes are organic. Subscribers can choose between a two-person plan (comes with three meals) or a four-person plan (which comes with two meals). With the two-person option – you get to choose between 11 different recipes and with the four-person plan you get to choose between four different recipes. It's been a while since I've used this service, and the reason I stopped was that I wasn't crazy about the recipes and they're not kid-friendly.
If you decide to try this option out — you can get two free meals with your first delivery.
- Cook time: 30 – 45 minutes
- Price: $10.49 – $14.99 per serving
- Specialty diet plans: Omnivores, vegetarians, vegan, paleo, carnivore, and gluten-free
I recently tried this service, and I really liked it. The recipes were tasty, and they were super easy to make. With HelloFresh you choose between their classic plan (for two or four people), their veggie plan (for two or four people) or their family plan which feeds four people and consists of two or three meals. With the classic plan, you get to choose between six recipes that were created by celebrity chef, Jamie Oliver. However, with the other two plans, your choices are limited to three recipes. The recipes with this service tend to be more family-friendly.
With HelloFresh you can get $35 off of your first box.
- Cook time: 30 – 45 minutes
- Price: $8.75 – $11.50 per serving
- Specialty diet plans: Classic and vegetarian
A friend introduced me to Blue Apron, and I LOVED their recipes! In fact, I probably used this service for about six months. Like the other subscription boxes, you can choose between a two-person plan which comes with three recipes, or the family plan which comes with either two or four recipes and feeds four people. With the two-person plan, you make a choice between six different recipes, and with the family plan, you choose between four different recipes. While I loved their recipes with this option, it took me forever to make each meal — which is why I stopped ordering.
If you decide to try this option out, search online for a coupon code, you can usually find one for $30 off your first box.
- Cook time: 45 – 60 minutes
- Price: $8.74 – $9.99 per serving
- Specialty diet plans: No
One Potato is a relatively new subscription box service. Unlike the others, their box is geared towards people with kids. Each box contains organic, pre-prepped ingredients, with family-friendly recipes and special pricing for children's portions. Each kit includes three meals, which you get to choose from either three veggie options or three omnivore options. And here's the fun part — each box comes with an organic slice-and-bake cookie dough to complete your meal. I actually signed up for this option after doing the research for this post. Sadly, they're not available in my area yet — but you can sign up for alerts.
- Cook time: 45 – 60 minutes
- Price: $4.50 per child, $11.99 per adult, and $13.49 for gluten-free servings
- Specialty diet plans: Omnivore, vegetarian, and gluten-free
If you like home-cooked meals, this may be the perfect option for you. Home Chef offers a standard plan (three meals for two people) and a family option (which serves five people) for your convenience. Each recipe takes approximately 30 minutes to make. With the standard plan, you can choose between 11 different home-cooked recipes and the family plan allows you to choose from six different options. The cook time and pricing are comparable to the other options, and many of the meals are kid-friendly — but they are very meaty.
You can usually find coupons for Home Chef on Facebook for $30 off your first order.
- Cook time: 30 minutes
- Price: $9.95 per serving
- Specialty diet plans: No
Fully Cooked Meals Delivered to Your Home.
I use this meal service all of the time! These types of kits are similar to subscription boxes, but the meals are fully cooked. All you do is heat them up. In fact, you don't even have to clean up since they come in their own reheatable containers. With this service, you choose how many servings of each menu item you'd like. Chef ATX usually has ten different menu options to choose from, plus healthy sides, snacks, and dessert options. The only thing you need to be aware of when using these services is not to overheat the food — so you don't dry out the entrees. I usually add a little chicken stock to the tray before heating, so they stay nice and moist. Great option if you hate cooking and grocery shopping! This service is currently only available in the Austin area.
Chef ATX often has a weekly discount code — just like their Facebook Page.
- Cook time: Just reheat
- Price: $9.00 and up per serving
- Specialty diet plans: Regular, gluten-free, and paleo
With this service, you receive either 4, 6, 9, or 12 fully cooked entrees in an iced down box. There's a lot of variety on their menu — they had 19 different recipes to choose from when I did the research, plus an additional seven breakfast menu items to choose from. The food looks tasty, and some of the menu items are kid-friendly. I'm definitely going to test this one out!
If you Google, the words “Freshly Coupon Code,” you can score a deal of six meals for $36.
- Cook time: Just reheat
- Price: $8.99 – $12.50 per serving
- Specialty diet plans: Regular, gluten-free, and vegetarian
Delivers fully cooked home-style meals to your door. With this option, you can choose a starter box which comes with six meals (three pre-selected entrees) or their meal box which comes with ten meals (five pre-selected entrees). They also have a build your own box option which allows you to choose between 14 different recipes in packs of twos.
You can find a coupon code (usually $15 – $20 off your first order) for Meal Time by searching the keywords, “Meal Time Coupon Code.”
- Cook time: Just reheat
- Price: $9.50 – $13.50 per serving
- Specialty diet plans: Regular and gluten-free
In-Home Personal Chef.
Now, I've only splurged on this option once — but I LOVED it! I met a local chef who came to my house and cooked four restaurant quality freezer meals. I choose the recipes, and she came with all the pots, pans, tools and ingredients to make four meals (four servings each) with sides, and a dessert. She was at my house for about three hours, and the meals were fantastic! The cost was $200 for three chicken entrees and one ground beef recipe, plus I tipped 20 percent on the total. Really if you break it down ($15 per serving), it's not much more than the other options above.
- Cook time: Just reheat
- Price: $200 and up
- Specialty diet plans: Yes
Grocery Delivery.
Now, if you just hate going to the grocery store — there are a lot of options for you to have your groceries and spices delivered. Companies like Favor, TaskRabbit, Shipt, and InstaCart will shop for and deliver your groceries to your doorstep for a fee. So far, I haven't been able to test these options out, as I live just on the outskirts of the city and they don't deliver to my neck of the woods yet.
Other companies like Tastefully Simple and RawSpiceBar will send you spices and mixes along with recipes — so you can get out of the funk of what to make for dinner. I've tried both of them out, and I enjoyed them, but they didn't solve my problem of hating to cook.
So what's the best menu planning system for moms who hate to cook? That's for you to decide!
There is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to choosing a meal planning option — but I think each one of these is a viable option.
Now that I’ve shared my take on the best meal planning options – I want to know what you think!
Leave a comment and let me know:
1. What’s your favorite menu planning system, subscription service, or meal delivery option?
I was given a sample box from HelloFresh and RawSpiceBar — all opinions are my own. This page includes affiliate links. Please be aware we only promote advertising from companies that we feel we can legitimately recommend to our readers. Please see our disclosure policy for further information.
Six Sisters Stuff has a fairly new meal plan subscription. I think it’s $5 a month. We tried it for a few weeks and we loved almost all of the meals. Our evenings are so hectic, though, between sports and other activities that we were still grabbing takeout several times a week. I’ll probably try it again or the $5 meal plan you mention above when our schedules slow back down!
Thanks for sharing, Billie. I love their blog and but didn’t know they had a meal planning subscription.