Ordering meal kits can help a lot with saving hassle-time. Meal kits hit the sweet spot with consumers who don’t want or don’t have the spare time to plan their meals and shop for long hours at the grocery store. Meal delivery services deliver pre-portioned ingredients with easy-to-follow recipes, or pre-made meals, straight to the doorstep.
However, for some people getting a once-a-week delivery can be too much. Because of this, you might think ordering a meal kit delivery service or even signing up for a subscription is not for you.
Meal Kits With No Subscription – Is There Such Thing?
Since we started reviewing meal kits a few years back, we have learned that almost all are operated as a subscription service only. Companies like Blue Apron, Home Chef, Green Chef, and Martha and Marley Spoon, just to name a few.
You would have thought you could just order them whenever without requiring you to subscribe – but that is, in fact, very rare!
However, with all meal kit service subscriptions, you can skip weeks of delivery, change your plan to get a box delivered only every other week (or more), and cancel with no extra fees or commitments. These options give you more control over your subscription and fit it to your needs.
If you want to learn more, we conducted a full handy review on how to skip weeks or cancel your meal kit subscription at the bottom of this review.
Best Meal Delivery Services With No subscription Or Flexible Subscription
1. Dinnerly
Most Affordable Meal Service With Flexible Subscription
The simple story behind Dinnerly is that it offers a cheap meal kit delivery service with easy and tasty meals! the service keeps prices low by reducing marketing costs, sending online recipe cards, and keeping the meals relatively simple (yet of high quality and in large portions)
The Dinnerly service offers a flexible subscription for a two-person box or four-person box, with an option to skip weeks when needed for weeks ahead.
This meal kits service offers a massive variety of over 40 weekly meals with options for a few specific diets and needs. For example, low-carb, vegetarian, low-calorie, fancy dinner options, desserts, meat packs, and more.
Affordable Meals We Loved From The Dinnerly A La Carte Menu
- Low-cal smoky chicken tacos with tangy slaw & chipotle crema
- Low-carb roast pork & apricot pan sauce with spiced carrots
- Pan-roasted chicken with pot pie sauce over cheddar biscuits
- Crispy chorizo-potato tacos with pico de gallo & sour cream
2. Balance by BistroMD – premade meal delivery service without subscription
Balance by BistroMD is a premade meal delivery service that provides a better way to eat healthy meals with no Cooking Required. They do the meal planning, shopping, cooking, and delivering the meals to your door.
The great advantage of Balance by BistroMD is that no membership is needed – no minimum order limits and no commitments! You can order what you want when you want it!
The menu is designed by dietitians and is chef-prepared with only fresh ingredients, free of chemicals and additives. You can choose from various entrees and snacks, including gluten-free meals, vegetarian meals, diabetes-friendly meals, dairy-free meals, and more.
Some Delicious Meals From The Balance by BistroMD Menu:
- Chicken and Andouille Sausage Jambalaya
- Grilled Salmon with Champagne Sauce, green beans, and lentils
- Hickory Smoked BBQ Pork with Peach Crisp
- Barramundi Seabass with Sweet Coconut Pineapple Sauce
- Breakfast – Dark chocolate chip crepe with pork sausage hash
- Breakfast – Caramelized Mushroom and Onion Frittata
3. Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon
Classic Meals With With Flexible Subscription
Martha and Marley Spoon is a meal delivery service with classic meal kit recipes that come straight from the kitchen of the famous home cooking queen – Martha Stewart. The recipes will make your dinner cooking easy and simply tasteful.
Martha & Marley Spoon offers a flexible subscription option that can be managed easily online. You can skip weeks, make your subscription for every other week, and select and change the number of your weekly meals. You can also pause the subscription online at any time with no hidden fees.
The Martha Stewart and Marley Spoon menu includes 45 meal kits weekly, including vegetarian, no-gluten, low-carb, and low-calorie meals, dessert options, fun breakfast, premade meals, and more.
From our long experience with this meal kit service, the Martha & Marley Spoon meal kits are filled with high-quality ingredients that are a pleasure to cook with.
Meals We Loved From The Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon Menu
- Steak & Mustard Pan Sauce with Roasted Sweet Potato & Kale
- Easy Bifteki with Lemon Potatoes, Roasted Zucchini & Tzatziki
- Sweet & Sticky Chicken with Jasmine Rice & Broccoli
- Baharat Chicken Pan Roast with Feta Roasted Tomatoes & Lemon-Garlic Sauce
4. Home Chef
Meal Kit Company With Easy Meal Options And Flexible Subscription!
From classic 30-minute meal kits to fast and convenient meal options – prepared meals, 15-minute meal kits, grill-ready and oven-ready – the Home Chef meals can meet almost every need. Moreover, the service offers meals for the carb-conscious and low-calorie diet that promote healthier eating habits.
When subscribing to the Home Chef service, you must order at least two meals per delivery. But remember, you don’t have to subscribe to a weekly delivery. You can opt for every other week. Plus, you can skip weeks whenever you need and cancel at any time!
Easy meals We Loved From The Home Chef Menu
- BBQ cheddar burger with fried pickles and black garlic fries
- Lemon garlic beurre blanc chicken with mushrooms and green beans
- Sweet and spicy shrimp tacos with poblano slaw and cotija
- Maple mustard glazed pork chop with roasted potatoes and bacon Brussels sprouts
- Oven-ready-to-eat french onion meatloaf with mashed potatoes and green beans
5. Blue Apron
Chef-Designed Meal Kit Company With Easy Skip weeks Option
Blue Apron was the first meal kit delivery service operating in the US. The service withstood the ten years time test as one of the most known meal brands in the country.
Blue Apron offers creative chef-created dishes with pre-portioned ingredients and restaurant-quality flavors. The menu includes fancy meal kit options, but also a few ready-to-eat meals and recipes with easy and fast meal prep.
Blue Apron allows you to skip weeks whenever you need or subscribe to the service for every two-weeks delivery. You also can pick the number of meals per box – from two to four meals per delivery. That can be done through the account setting online.
Delicious Meals We Tasted From Blue Apron:
- Ready to cook oven-baked three-cheese lasagna with spinach and pesto
- Seared steak & garlic-herb butter squash with roasted brussels sprouts
- Ready-to-eat sweet & spicy beef rice bowl
- Turkey & mushroom lettuce cups with peanut-soy sauce
6. Sunbasket- The only meal delivery with no-subscription needed
Sun Basket is one of our most favorite meal kit services for many reasons!
Sun Basket makes sure to deliver only organic and sustainably raised ingredients, mainly from local farms.
The company offers the most intense variety of meals to choose from every week, with over 20 easy to cook and oven-ready meals to choose from – all designed for easy cooking using an easy to follow recipe card.
The meals range from Asian-style meals to Mediterranean, Mexican style meals, and more – so anyone can find something he loves to eat.
Sunbasket’s menu also supports many diets like gluten-free, low-calorie, low-carb, vegetarian, and more. Plus, many add-ons fare offered like breakfasts, pre-cooked and fresh proteins, healthy bars and drinks, fresh pasta, and more.
All of this can be ordered on a subscription basis that you can cancel at any time or as a one time purchase!
And did we mention it is SO GOOD? We tried so many Sun Basket meals over the years, and one thing comes in common to all – It’s delicious!
Here are a few examples of recommended meals from their vast menu:
Blazin’ Balinese chicken with cucumber-cabbage salad
Shrimp diablo tacos with roasted peppers and queso fresco
Spicy Sichuan dan-dan noodles with tofu and spinach
Spicy chorizo and tomatillo chili with sweet potato and pumpkin seeds
Lunch or snack – Chipotle Chicken Empanadas, 2-pack
Fresh Pasta menu- Ricotta and broccoli rabe ravioli or Ricotta and broccoli rabe ravioli
How to Skip Weeks on Meal Kit Delivery Subscription Services?
With most meal services, skipping weeks is very straightforward to do online through the website once you’re sighed into your account.
For example, you can see below the “skip week” process for Dinnerly and Hello fresh meal delivery services. We assure you that other meal kits offer the same easy-to-follow process.
Here Is How You Skip Weeks In A Few Easy Steps With Dinnerly:
- Log into your online account and go to the chosen meals section.
- Select the delivery week or weeks you wish to skip.
- Click the “Skip This Order“.
Here Is How You Skip Weeks In A Few Easy Steps With Hello Fresh:
- Log into your online account and go to the “Edit Delivery” section.
- Select “Skip This Week” for the weeks you wish to skip.
- Answer the question about the reason for skipping the week and press “Skip This Week”.
As you can see, the skipping week process is straightforward and can be done for weeks ahead! You simply need to do this at least five days before your scheduled delivery.
Since the terms of skipping weeks can differ between services, please make sure to check your chosen services’ policies. We don’t want you to get charged for meals you didn’t want to get!
Edit delivery Hellofresh:
Skip this week page Hellofresh:
As you can see, the online cancelation process straightforward. You simply need to make sure to do it at least five days before your scheduled delivery.
Is It Worth Getting Meal Kits?
Yes! After reviewing meal kits for many years now, we do think that it’s totally worth it.
Here are some clear advantages of using meal kits:
- Meals delivered to your door.
- Flexible and don’t require a big commitment.
- Less visits to the grocery store for grocery shopping.
- Less meal planning for you.
- Less food waste.
- Chef-designed meals.
- High-quality Of ingredients.
- Supporting many diets.
- Divers your mealtime at home.
- Some offer healthy meal options for better balanced life.
Our mission at The Meal Kit Review website is to help make informed decisions about various meal kit services.
We surveyed meal kits service on the market to find the best ones for couples, families, vegetarians, and specific diet needs.
We make sure to give our unbias and honest reviews, based on purchasing, cooking, and tasting meal kits from popular companies. Our reviews provide information on plan offers, meal variety, flavor, sustainability, pricing, and more.
Read more about our review process and why you should trust us here.
Bottom Line Of Our Review
Indeed, most meal delivery services are offered only as subscription-based services. There are, however, a few good options without a subscription or with a flexible subscription that you should check out, as we listed above.
The right way is to start by trying a few dishes from each company. That way, you can get a good understanding of each company’s style of meals.
One thing is for sure – A meal kit service will help you minimize the time spent on planning a balanced menu and going to the grocery store. Moreover, it will enable you to try different flavors and upgrade your culinary horizons.
We hope this detailed review helped you choose the best meal delivery service to match your needs!
