10 RD-Approved Meal Delivery Services That Are Perfect for Families

When it comes to easing the unique struggles of feeding kids, Little Spoon has two big wins for parents: A focus on kid-friendly foods loaded with hidden veggies and a simple tiered system for transitioning babies to solids. This meal delivery service is geared specifically toward babies and toddlers, featuring baby cereal, organic purees, and freshly prepared meals. The company also offers “Junk-Free Snacktime” snacks that contain veggies and superfoods, low-sugar and no-added-sugar recipes, and non-GMO ingredients.

Little Spoon offers meals that encompass six stages of development, from single-ingredient purees meant as first-time foods and multi-ingredient blends with chunkier textures to transitional finger-food meals designed to introduce table foods (with whole pieces of veggies, legumes, and grains) and “big kid” meals. One of its most popular options is the Chicken Super Nuggets, a nutrient-dense twist on a children’s classic, with kale, cauliflower, and carrots added.

Big kids can handle their own breakfast, choosing Oaties, a jar of overnight oats packed with fruit and hidden veggies, or Superfood Smoothies, which prioritize whole fruits and vegetables with no added sugar. Nurture Life’s Super Sammies are individually wrapped, crustless sandwiches made with sunflower seed butter and real fruit. With 3 flavors options — Strawberry Smash, Blueberry Blast, and Choco-Berry Bliss — kids will get a kick out of packing their own lunches.

You can also filter for specific dietary needs, such as pork-free, coconut-free, vegetarian, and more. Except for coconut, all of Nurture Life’s products are peanut- and tree nut-free. While many of the meals are traditionally kid-friendly, like Mac & Cheese and Chicken Taco Pockets, some meals are surprisingly sophisticated for kids, like the Teriyaki Salmon and Greek Lamb Meatballs.

The meal kits from Marley Spoon bring recipes and fresh, preportioned ingredients to your door on a weekly basis. While the company caters to a wide range of dietary needs, vegetarians will appreciate a menu that exclusively offers meat-free options. There are at least eight new plant-based meals each week, including recipes like falafel burgers, Buddha bowls, pastas, salads, and Indian curries. “I jumped at the chance to try Marley Spoon, hoping it would cater to my family’s busy schedule, save me time and money, and maybe even teach us a new recipe or two,” says Lindsay Modglin from Indianapolis, who tested Marley Spoon for EverydayHealth.com.

For home cooks who thrive on novelty, Marley Spoon makes more than 100 recipes available each week to suit a range of dietary needs and preferences. To help you narrow down your options, each meal is tagged with a label, such as Low Carb, Gluten-Free Friendly, Quick and Easy, and more. What sets this company apart from other meal kit services is its wide variety of flavors and cuisines, says Modglin. The menu features Italian, Mexican, Asian, and Middle Eastern recipes and includes a good mix of grains and vegetables.

Purple Carrot is a meal delivery service crafting exclusively plant-based recipes. Customers may choose between premade meals that are ready to heat and serve and meal kits with preportioned ingredients for cooking at home. Breakfast items, snacks, grocery products, drinks, and desserts are available as add-ons.

The protein options include a variety of tofu, legumes, nuts, and seeds, and recipes can be filtered by tags like soy-free, gluten-free, nut-free, and more. “The premade option I tried was the Thai Peanut Fried Rice With Super Greens. I liked that I could see the vegetables ─ broccoli, kale, edamame, corn, carrot, and mushrooms. It had spice (from red chili flakes), but not too much,” says Beale. “My husband ate most of this one for lunch one day. He said it was satisfying, had the right amount of spiciness, and that he would eat it again if we had more.”

With Hungryroot, customers select recipes, freshly prepared meals, smoothies, and grocery items. For anyone with food allergies, the company has several ways to ensure your meals meet your dietary needs. When you sign up, you’ll be prompted to share allergies and food intolerances. Next, after completing a food profile, Hungryroot will only display recipes that fit into your diet. “There are more than 1,000 recipes to choose from in all. To make selecting recipes easier, you can filter by dietary needs (such as allergy-friendly, vegan, etc.), protein type, spice level, meal type, cooking time, and cooking appliances used,” says Ashley Brafman, MPH, RD, owner of Food Peace Nutrition in Lansing, Michigan, who tested Hungryroot for EverydayHealth.com. As an added safety measure, all recipes and ingredients are labeled if they contain an allergen or are processed in a facility where cross-contamination could occur.

In a unique twist, when you select a recipe, it will automatically add food items to your cart, including a suggested protein, pasta, grains, vegetables, and sauces. If you don’t like something in the recipe, you can swap it out, further ensuring that you don’t receive anything in your box that you may be allergic to. “The meals used high-quality ingredients, and I was happy with all the fresh and ready-to-eat items I received,” says Brafman. “Every recipe I received came with large servings of fresh produce.”

Sunbasket takes a thoughtful approach to navigating dietary preferences and food restrictions. Customers are prompted to select from a range of diet types, such as pescatarian, low-carb, paleo, diabetes-friendly, keto-friendly, and more. While the full menu is always available to view, Sunbasket defaults to showing only the recipes that meet your dietary needs. Customers can also filter out recipes that contain particular ingredients they wish to avoid, including shellfish, soy, tree nuts, dairy, and sesame.

“Some meals allowed for protein swaps and upgrades,” says Tori Martinet, RD, owner of Tori’s Table in California, who tested Sunbasket for EverydayHealth.com. “For example, a noodle dish with chicken allowed for a change to plant-based chicken, tofu, jumbo shrimp, or steak strips.”

With a focus on customizable menus and flexible deliveries, the meal kits from HelloFresh are a good fit for families of any size. Plans are geared toward two, four, and six people, with a maximum of six meals per week. Customers can easily add additional subscriptions to accommodate even larger households. For example, a family of eight may purchase a six-person plan in addition to a two-person plan in order to cover meals for the whole family. Parents of picky eaters might opt for two subscriptions as well — one to feed the adventurous eaters and another to cover those with more limited tastes.

Prepping for meals is minimal, which can be a huge time-saver when you’ve got hungry kids in the house. “Most meals included some level of chopping vegetables, but sauces were premade, which helped the overall workload,” says Martinet.

What’s more, HelloFresh allows families to tailor meals to their dietary preferences, making substituting proteins and sides an easy task. “The menu is enormous, with about 50 different options each week; plus, some proteins can be swapped or customized to create additional variety,” explains Martinet. Busy parents may also appreciate the flexibility HelloFresh provides, making it simple to add meals and skip, pause, or cancel food deliveries to fit the family’s schedule and budget.

For teenagers who are new to cooking, the Dinnerly meal kit delivery service is a good way to learn the foundations of food preparation. This company focuses on simple, five-step recipes, lean ingredient lists, and basic cooking methods, all of which can help novice chefs gain confidence in the kitchen. “Cooking required basic tools and cookware that would be found in most kitchens, which is not necessarily true of other meal delivery services,” says Ashley Ziegler from North Carolina, who tested Dinnerly for EverydayHealth.com.

Each week the company makes at least 100 recipes available, and customers can view upcoming menus a few weeks in advance. A list of recipe tags, such as “one pot meal,” “under 30 minutes,” and “kid-friendly,” may help teens search for meals that meet their needs and skill level. “It offers 10 meal plans (with multiple combinations of servings and number of meals) and more recipe choices per week than many other meal delivery services,” says Ziegler. “This makes it a pretty safe bet for families with picky eaters.”

Despite its name, Dinnerly isn’t limited to dinner options. Customers can choose to include ingredients and recipes for breakfast and lunch, too.

MagicKitchen.com is an on-demand meal delivery service that offers a popular meal plan with frozen, ready-made dishes geared toward seniors. The company doesn’t require a subscription, instead billing itself as commitment- and contract-free. Without stressing over recurring fees, customers can order meals on a schedule that works for them.

“MagicKitchen.com has a registered dietitian who reviews the nutritional composition of all meals, specifically those that are medically tailored, to ensure these meals meet the dietary standards to support, treat, and manage chronic diseases and health conditions,” adds Scanniello.

EveryPlate provides affordable meal kits and reasonably priced grocery items for home delivery. It’s focused on lowering costs to the consumer and bringing the ease of meal subscriptions to families on tighter budgets. While the company states it uses simple ingredients and less-costly packaging to keep prices low, EveryPlate still manages to offer variety for consumers interested in vegetarian, low-calorie, family-friendly, and 30-minute meals.

“Each meal took less than 10 minutes to prepare and less than 30 minutes to cook, which busy adults and families might appreciate,” says Sydney Greene, RDN, owner of Greene Health in Colorado, who tested EveryPlate for EverydayHealth.com. “Of the meals I ordered, the easiest to cook was the Sweet Chili Turkey Rice Bowls. The chopping was minimal, and it only required one pan to cook the turkey and vegetables and a pot for the rice.”

Recipes from EveryPlate tend toward family-style comfort foods and include options like smoky paprika pork chops, chicken meatballs, and carbonara. “Many of EveryPlate’s dishes are customizable, so you can swap proteins or, for an additional fee, add portions of protein or vegetables,” adds Greene.