From special offers arriving in your mailbox to ads on all your favorite podcasts, you’ve probably heard all about meal kits, the freshest idea in meal planning and preparation. Not just a passing fad, they’re growing in popularity, and with good reason! Whether you’re an experienced home cook or just starting out in your first kitchen, adding meal kits to your repertoire can help you expand your culinary horizons, cut back on wasted ingredients, and help you get weeknight dinners on the table faster.
What Are Meal Kits?
Meal kits are a quick, convenient way to get a delicious, healthy meal on your table. The system is pretty straightforward: you order the meals that you’re interested in from the service’s website, and on a weekly basis, they deliver all the pre-measured ingredients right to your door. All you have to do is follow the enclosed recipe cards to turn those fresh, healthy ingredients into a finished meal!
The Advantages of Meal Kits
If you’re new to cooking for yourself, meal kits can be a great way to get started on your own culinary adventure. However, even experienced home cooks can find a spot for meal kits in their kitchens as well! Let’s look at the ways that meal kits can not just make meal prep easier, but also help you expand your culinary horizons.
Trying New Recipes
It’s easy to be tempted by mouth-watering recipe videos on Instagram or TikTok, but once you’ve looked at the ingredients list, you may decide against adding that new dish to your repertoire. Sometimes they call for ingredients that you don’t have in your pantry or fridge, and it may be easier to fall back on your tried-and-true recipes instead. However, meal kit services make it easy to try a new recipe without having to invest in large quantities of unfamiliar ingredients. You’ll find pre-measured ingredients such as sauces or spices in your meal kit, eliminating the need to search them out on your own.
Reducing Food Waste
60 million tons of food are thrown out every year in the United States. That’s nearly 40% of the total food supply! Meal kits can help cut down on that waste, as they include the precise quantities of ingredients called for in each recipe. This way, you won’t find wilted spinach or spoiled meat lurking at the back of your fridge, unused and no longer fit for consumption. This is better for both your pocketbook and the planet.
Making Weeknight Dinners Simpler
Even the most experienced cooks need to take it easy sometimes, or can be short on time to prepare dinner. While ordering in is one solution to this, it’s less expensive to create a meal using a meal kit, and that way, you don’t have to wait impatiently for the delivery to arrive at your door. You can have a fresh, home-cooked meal on the table in 30 to 40 minutes, and there are many options that take as little as 20 minutes from fridge to plate!
Cooking for One Simplified
If you are living on your own, using standard recipes can be a frustrating experience, as most of them are meant to serve two or four or more people. Meal kits, however, can be ordered in single quantities, so that you can prepare a healthy, delicious meal just for yourself, and not have to deal with a mountain of leftovers for the next few days!
360 Cookware: The Perfect Partner for Meal Kits
Of course, to prepare your meal kits, you need to have a bare minimum of cookware. Especially if you’re just starting or have a small kitchen with limited storage, you will want versatile, high-quality pieces.
360 Cookware has two meal delivery sets to get even the newest cooks off to a good start in the kitchen! Our triple-ply stainless steel pots and pans are free of forever chemicals and will last a lifetime. With an aluminum core sealed between inner and outer layers of surgical-grade stainless steel, they’ll provide you with a premium cooking experience.
The Meal Delivery Set for Two includes a 10" Fry Pan, 2-quart Saucepan with Cover, Mini Jelly Roll Pan, and a Jelly Roll Pan. Our Meal Delivery Set for Four features a 3.5-quart sauté Pan with Cover, 2-quart saucepan with Cover, a Mini Jelly Roll Pan, and a Jelly Roll Pan. With these essential pieces, you can prepare meal kit dishes on the stovetop or in the oven.
There’s no downside to trying out a meal kit delivery service: you can try out new recipes with high-quality ingredients in exactly the quantities required. This saves you money over eating out or ordering in, and takes up less of your time than traditional planning, shopping, and preparing a home-cooked meal!
