Best Meal Kits for New Parents
These make it possible to eat healthy, homemade meals without spending hours planning and prepping.
By Babylist Team
Being able to quickly get a from-scratch dinner on the table is a godsend when you have a lot going on, whether caring for a newborn or keeping up with a toddler.
Meal-kit delivery services make it possible by delivering easy-to-follow recipes and fresh ingredients to your door. Whether you’re a chef or not, meal kits make it entirely possible to eat healthy, homemade meals without spending hours planning, prepping and cleaning up.
You’ll pay more per meal than if you did all the work yourself, but skipping the meal planning, grocery shopping and food prep can be worth it—especially if it helps you avoid yet another night of fast food.
There are several services to choose from, but keep in mind that not all of them are available in every part of the country (we’ve added region info link to services that don’t deliver in the contiguous United States).
Check out our list of popular meal-delivery kits that can help you pull together a no-hassle, nutritious dinner fast.
Super-Fast Meals
Prepare to make the speediest homemade meal ever with Gobble’s everything-is-done meal kits. Ingredients come chopped, peeled and measured out so there’s zero prep work (and dishes!) for you to do. Choose from 24 dinner options each week—chicken, beef, pork, fish and vegetarian—all designed to be cooked in one pan in 15 minutes. While Gobble runs on the pricier side, it’s the only meal kit on our list that comes fully prepped.
Additional Specs
| Dietary Options: | Gluten free, dairy free, low carb and vegetarian |
| Plans | Three dinners per week for either two or four people |
| Delivery: | Weekly unless you pause or cancel subscription |
| Packaging: | Most parts of it are recyclable or reusable |
Gourmet Taste
Blue Apron was the first to offer meal kits, and they definitely know how to put together delicious dinners, although they tend to take more time to whip up than other meal-kit lines. Choose from eight chef-designed, seasonal recipes each week. Your box of clean ingredients (think: non-GMO, no hormones or antibiotics) from family-run farms arrives with everything premeasured—although you’ll still need to do the chopping and peeling. They also offer Mediterranean diet recipes and run Whole30 options at various times. Note that these restaurant-quality meals are better suited for grown-ups than for feeding kids.
Additional Specs
| Dietary Options: | Includes a variety of meat, fish and vegetarian meals |
| Plans | Two to four dinners per week for either two or four people |
| Delivery: | Weekly unless you pause or cancel subscription |
| Packaging: | Most parts of it are recyclable or reusable |
Health-Conscious Eats
If you only eat organic, Sun Basket has you covered. They offer 10 types of plans—from paleo and Mediterranean to vegetarian and pescatarian—all made with organic ingredients. You can even choose the “quick and easy” plan to get their most effortless recipes. Each week they have a total of 18 recipes that take about 30 minutes to make and come with delicious, premade sauces that punch up the flavor.
Additional Specs
| Dietary Options: | Paleo, low-calorie, vegan, vegetarian, Mediterranean, gluten-free, pescatarian and diabetes-friendly |
| Plans | Three meals per week for two or four people |
| Delivery: | Weekly unless you pause or cancel subscription |
| Packaging: | 100% recyclable and compostable |
Simple, But Tasty
HelloFresh’s basic but not boring dishes use fewer ingredients and are easy to whip up in 20 to 30 minutes. Every week, dieticians and chefs collaborate to come up with 15 new recipes for you to choose from, and ingredients arrive already organized in individual mini boxes for each recipe.
Additional Specs
| Dietary Options: | Some recipes are egg and nut free, and there is also a vegetarian meal plan |
| Plans | Two to four meals per week for two or four people |
| Delivery: | Weekly unless you pause or cancel subscription |
| Packaging: | Most parts of it are recyclable or reusable |
Gluten Free
At Freshly, the 30-plus meals on offer each week are made with all-natural ingredients—no hydrogenated oils, artificial ingredients or refined sugars—and are all gluten and nut free. Even better? They’re pre-cooked and just need to be reheated. Portions are a good size (13 ounces on average), but their meals still clock in at only 500 calories and include about 30 grams of protein.
Additional Specs
| Dietary Options: | High protein, low calorie, paleo, vegetarian and low carb, and all meals are gluten and nut free |
| Plans | Four to 12 single-serving meals delivered per week |
| Delivery: | Weekly unless you pause or cancel subscription (get region info) |
| Packaging: | All packaging is recyclable and biodegradable |
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