Subscribe to a Meal Plan Delivery Service: Snap Kitchen
- Lea Chen
- Sep 25, 2018
- 5 min read
If you ask me what feeling I look forward to most in a day, "eating yummy food" would quickly come to mind. And if you asked me what feeling I look forward to least, I would say "choosing" - whether it's deciding what I'm going to wear in the morning (refer to my latest post where I attempt to dress like Instagram outfit posts) or what I'm going to eat in 2 hours, I am unfortunately indecisive. And the problem isn't that I'm indifferent to the choices but rather that I'm quite picky. I often don't know exactly what I want in the moment, but I'm very in tune with detecting when I'm not down for something.
And throw in the factors of college from a lack of time in-between classes, trying to not be broke and limited options, choosing what to eat can be a process for me. I've juggled 8 options a once, wrote up a list of food options on campus for personal tracking and even walked 20 minutes because I couldn't decide quickly enough (and trust me, I'm not a walker).
My roommate told me about a meal plan called Daily Harvest that she had been happy with; vegan and healthy, Daily Harvest would deliver cups of smoothies, harvest bowls or soups that you could quickly prepare. Seeing the little amount of effort she had to put in to put food into her mouth appealed to me...because as you see, I have a lil bit of an issue.
I let myself spend 40 minutes Google all the meal plan options out there and dang, real question: why are there so many meal plan companies??? Didn't you see Blue Apron's IPO? It did not go so well.
These companies vary slightly on factors like the diet they cater to, their price, effort required and their possible customization. While many plans had meals that sounded a bit too good to be true, they had a minimum of 7-day meal plans, assuming you'd be eating these meals every day. But I quickly realized the plan I was looking for: a flexible one with the minimal amount of meals for me to try such that they're all ~$7/meal, healthy, require no preparation beyond the microwave and aren't vegan. As much as I needed to be healthy, if I forced myself to go vegan that'd be a whole 'nother level.
Snap Kitchen was the ultimate winner. They allowed me to pick 3 meals at minimum with the option to customize what meals I wanted. Additionally, because I had tried Snap Kitchen's prepared meals through Uber Eats a few months ago (also recommended by my roommate!) I knew that the food wouldn't be poisonous. Good enough for me!
I essentially ended up being comfortable trying the plan because I had a $20 coupon and my total came out to around $15 in total for 3 meals. Talk about a save.
Meal 1: Crunchy Coconut Shrimp
I was most excited when I chose this meal because I never would have thought to have a shrimp dish as part of a microwaved meal plan. Also, from my lack of cooking knowledge, I'm pretty sure microwaving crunchy foods always sogs (is this a verb) them out. So I was curious how this dish would turn out.
Immediately taking this dish out of the fridge, I was nervous about the portion. If you know me, you know I'm part pig because I can endlessly eat. But the wave of coconut that hit my nose gave me some hope for the dish.
So I downed this in a flat 5 minutes (ok I didn't time myself but I'm doing some strong guesstimation) and didn't feel full from the few pieces of shrimp, cabbage and few spoonfuls of rice. While the meal tasted good and had texture considering it was microwaved, it was the mango sauce that was the standout.
So I felt a bit bummed from this first impression of Snap Kitchen. Now to check if it was actually healthy.
Calorie-wise this dish definitely was low and no surprise there given my 5-minute food chomping achievement. So... I forgot to take the photo of the actual daily percentage value... and I'm not one to know if the gram amount is high or not. Oops.
But don't worry, I took photos for the next two meals.
Meal 2: Butternut Squash Macaroni
I will be frank - when I chose this meal, I thought it was like classic mac and cheese... that also happened to be healthy.
Now that was not what I received but I ultimately didn't mind. This dish definitely felt healthy while also tasting like nothing I have ever eaten before.
Walnuts, squash, ground chicken, wheat macaroni and a dollop of goat cheese. There were lots of textures and a little bit of cheese to work off of. I'm a huge fan of all these ingredients separately, so I had high expectations for the dish. What intrigued me most was how nutty it was...like even the chicken had a nutty taste, reminding me of turkey.
I took a bit longer than 5 minutes (maybe 8 if I have to guess) and felt more satisfied for sure. Maybe it's because when you grind something up, you have more little pieces to get through.
Nutritionally, I felt in the middle - does anyone know why microwaved meals have high saturated fat? Once again, I'm not a health expert so I'm not sure the daily percentages I'm normally eating say from my daily food truck, but when I'm presented with double digits across the board, I question if what I'm eating is actually healthy.
Meal 3: Butter Chicken with Broccoli Rice
I saved the best for last, and I would never have thought that this was the dish I'd enjoy most.
I'm a huge Indian food fan, so seeing butter chicken jolted excitement through my heart. And I don't mind broccoli rice but have been trying to find carb substitutes because #health so I thought this would be a good dish to pick.
I know Gordon Ramsey would say you "eat with your eyes first" so don't judge this mushy lil mess. Once I took my first bite, I was like hmm... because I enjoyed the full flavor of the tomato-based sauce. The chicken was soft and the broccoli rice didn't even taste like broccoli. Granted, it didn't taste like rice or anything particular but there were raisins inside to add surprises of sweet.
I reallllly liked this dish because it tasted like the butter chicken I had grown up eating while having its own flair.
But the nutrition facts (that I looked at after completing the meal) made my heart drop.
80% !!! Saturated !!! Fat !!! all from one tiny tray of a supposedly "balanced" meal plan. And we don't even have to touch on the sodium or cholesterol % daily values.
It unfortunately hit me that the dish I enjoyed the most was the least healthy.
Immediately after reading the nutrition facts, I went online and cancelled my meal plan subscription for the following weeks. This wasn't the healthy experience I had anticipated and especially, for the upcoming meals I wouldn't have my first-time discount code so I'd still pay ~$13 for a tiny dish.
Unfortunately, not worth it. And trust me, I really really wanted to like this meal plan.
Takeaways
1. A label =/= reality because healthy apparently is something you can skew to your perspective
2. Having meals waiting for me in my fridge resulted in me staying home longer in the mornings until lunch time hit. While for some this might be nice, being home too long can often get me a) unproductive or b) in my head. A con I didn't anticipate.
3. Meal plans are for sure convenient but beware if you have some particular tendencies like needing large meals to be full, being a picky eater, requiring healthy foods.
Comments