After months of isolating at home with my family (and I mean, months), I’ve settled on one frustrating realization. There’s nothing I hate more than constantly making food for my children. At least while I’m balancing my job with two hyperactive kids, I can give them the stern glare that “Mommy is in a meeting” and buy myself 20 minutes of sitting still and staring at my computer screen. And at least when I’m homeschooling, there’s some tangible progress I can feel good about. My incoming kindergartner can now do basic addition and my 3-year-old has finally realized that “elemenopee” is not a letter of the alphabet.
Turns out, parents can opt out of cooking entirely while still giving their kids nutritious meals.
But whipping up innumerable snacks and meals like a short-order cook at a 24-hour diner? It’s thankless, it’s messy, and it’s unending. And unlike Zoom book club, I don’t get to opt out of making them lunch when I don’t feel like doing it.
Or so I thought. Turns out, parents can opt out of cooking entirely while still giving their kids nutritious meals. And although these outsourcing options are certainly not the cheapest solutions, for many parents having to do it all these days, it’s a small price to pay for having one less pot to clean and one less picky eater to relentlessly disappoint.
Here, six options – many of which can be delivered right to your doorstep – that offer just that.
Related: Tired of Prepping 5,743 Meals a Week For Your Kids? This Pediatrician Has Tips to Keep You Going
Nurture Life
Nurture Life
Cooking up a meal that one kid will eat is challenging enough, but having to make multiple meals to cater to kiddos at different life stages is an Olympic-level feat of strength and resolve. Nurture Life‘s team of dieticians has designed options for literally all age groups – including finger foods for babies to meals for toddlers, teens, and, yes, even parents – to ensure the right portions and nutrients for their exact developmental stage. There’s no faster way (seriously, it takes two minutes to serve these freezable delivery meals) to ensure everyone in the house is getting the healthy foods they need. And, if the idea of categorizing meals for different family members seems like too much work, they’ve got you covered with a simple family-style option that comes complete with a main dish and sides to share. They’ve thought of everything.
Tovala
Tovala
If you’ve day-dreamed about a future in which you scan a QR code onto the side of your stove, and poof, a perfectly cooked meal pops out, well, the future is now. The Tovala Smart Oven ($299) features “scan-to-cook” technology that can transform what may otherwise seem like an old-school frozen TV dinner into a chef-quality dinner. And although the oven can scan, steam, and heat just about anything (we’re talking more than 750 grocery store items, including that Trader Joe’s pizza in your freezer), the service includes weekly meal deliveries that take just 60 seconds of prep – you don’t even need to set the temperature or start a timer. Plus, you can save $100 on the oven if you order its meals just six times! Tovala doesn’t offer kid-specific meals yet, but this is a great option for parents who, after whipping up a box of mac-and-cheese for the kiddos, just don’t have it in them to make themselves something special.
Better Blends
Better Blends
Healthy smoothies seem like such a perfect “quick fix” – until you have to get out all the ingredients, discover you’re missing half of what you need, and then end up serving your kids some pureed strawberry and banana. Sure, it’s a fine morning kick-start or afternoon snack – but we all know they’ll be complaining of hunger pains 20 minutes later. Better Blends has created a range of flavorful, nutrient-packed smoothie kits made of ingredients that are washed, cut, and assembled for you, and they are available in the frozen food aisle of your local grocery store, right be all the frozen fruits you normally have to stash to DIY your smoothie drink. The only downside is that the folks behind this company can’t come and wash out your blender every morning. Maybe someday.
Yumble
Yumble
This kids’ meal delivery service has even the pickiest eaters covered. Parents can pick a weekly meal plan that suits their needs best, which includes curated boxes with options tailor-made for those kids with more food sensitivities and top picks that have more than 25,000 five-star ratings. Plus, the program’s “buy more, save more” plan (for instance, each meal costs just $6 if you opt to order 12 meals per week versus $8 meals when purchased six at a time) gives tired parents incentive to outsource a bit more – and it’s a great option for families with two or three mouths to feed!
Farmer's Fridge / ISAIAH JAY
Farmer’s Fridge
Lunchtime has replaced dinner as the most stressful meal of the day for parents, now that they’re tasked with feeding the whole family amid meetings, deadlines, and homeschooling assignments. In response to the changing landscape of communities because of the pandemic, Farmer’s Fridge – once exclusively positioned as a healthy, upscale spin on typical office vending machines – now delivers its affordable eats to families’ fridges in select cities. So work-from-home parents can keep their refrigerators stocked with no-heat eats, like $8-or-less salads, burrito bowls, sandwiches, yogurt parfaits, and bite-sized snacks. Plus, the brand’s trademark clear jars are so inviting that you won’t for a second forget they’re ready for you.
Good Eggs
Good Eggs
Schooltime lunches, even if they are being eaten at your kitchen table instead of a cafeteria, get boring . . . real fast. Good Eggs offers a changing seasonal assortment of fresh-cut fruits and veggies paired with healthy snacks and protein, like cubed turkey, hard-boiled eggs, or summer sausage. These bento-box style meals aren’t available nationwide yet, but at $30 for five servings, it’s a steal that will get everyone through the week a little easier.
