I hate cooking. I always have. I do it more often now because I feel obligated to make healthy meals for Athena but most days we eat some variation of about five dishes that I know how to cook. With our recent move to Montreal and Athena in school, I looked for another solution to bland meals or monotonous dishes. I heard of healthy meal delivery services for diets before so I searched for something similar but for busy families or just parents like me who hate to cook and I found my heaven. 21st Century Food prepares fresh, healthy, gourmet meals and delivers them right to your door! We had restaurant quality food every night this week and it was delivered to our door.
Teriyaki Beef with rice and vegetables was our Monday night dinner. It was my favorite dish of the week. The sweet corn was absolutely delicious and even Athena ate all of the vegetables. It came in plastic containers and we opened them up and heated them on the stove. A sauce came with the dish as well. We poured it over everything, not just the meat. We didn’t have any leftovers on Monday night because we all loved it so much.
On Tuesday, we had Galvaude, a version of poutine, a gravy and potato dish made in Québec. One dish included three halves of potato with chicken and vegetables on the side. It was so much food that we saved the other dish for lunch the next day. By adding a side garden salad, it was plenty of food for the whole family.
We ate General Tao chicken and rice on Wednesday. I worried that it would be too spicy for Athena so I made her dish with very little sauce but once she tried it, she wanted even more sauce added to her plate. The Teriyaki Beef was my favorite meal but Athena loved the General Tao chicken the most.
Thursday was lasagna. I baked it in the oven to give the cheese a gooey goodness. The instructions were on the container and they were straightforward. It tasted like it was just baked and it was filled with flavor. Lasagna is my comfort food. My mom always made it for me when I visited from university. This lasagna would have made her proud. All the meals are home-made and never frozen. Maybe during her next visit I’ll order it from 21st Century Food and try to pass it off as my own. (I guess this will be a good indication of if my mother reads my blog.)
We ordered four family dishes for the first week to give it a try, but here’s what we learned:
1. One meal is plenty for two people.
2. The kids portions are ideal for lunches for adults.
3. If you order the Family Pack, it comes with two adult meals and two kid meals. It’s plenty of food for dinner and leftovers for the next day. I’d suggest heating up the two adult meals and one of the kid meals, saving one additional kid meal for a lunch.
4. Order the sides to add to a meal and make one meal large enough for the family.
5. Refer a friend and you’ll both receive $25.
6. The meal delivery takes place on Sunday so you can plan your meals for the whole week.
All meals were prepared fresh by Chef Joseph Mantagaris and delivered to our door on Sunday. The first week of meals cost about $125 and it was enough food for the three of us for the whole week of lunches and dinners. It’s certainly not cheap but we had no waste, minimal cook time, and no food planning other than picking out the meals we wanted.
This week, we decided to pick five main meals without getting the family pack. If I prepare a salad or a simple side dish, the five meals will be plenty for the three of us. It came to less than $100 plus it encourages me to add something basic on the side myself. With meal delivery on Sunday, we can plan for the entire week.
I’m so happy with the meal delivery service that it’s worth every penny. The menu is completely different this week and I can’t wait for the food to arrive on Sunday.
