Food boxes are everywhere these days, catering to every diet, and all the big outlets seem to have one. So, why do I use one when shopping at the supermarket might be so much cheaper?
My Issue
At home, the cupboards are full of at least five different cookbooks. When I try to plan meals, I get overwhelmed, trying to accommodate everyone when nobody really knows what they want is a challenge in itself, that is before even considering going to the store. If only “whatever” or “I don’t mind” was an actual food choice, the process would be 100 times easier. Because of this, we end up eating the same predictable foods week in and week out, which can be ok, but it isn’t healthy and after a while gets boring.
If I do manage to plan a weeks worth of meals, a trip to the shops is the next step, supermarkets are extremely overwhelming places, Whether I go in with a list or without a list, I always seem to walk out having forgotten something. You see, Supermarkets are NOT designed for neurodivergent people; there are too many options, they’re always busy and loud, adverts jumping out from all sorts of places, everything is on some kind of offer and the shelves are designed in such a way that everything looks the same, they also don’t seem to be arranged in a logical order that makes sense to my brain. For example, why is bread before tins of beans?
What works for me
This is where Gousto comes in. The food box creates stability for me. I know what is coming and when it is coming. One of the biggest challenges I face when planning weekly meals is choosing what to eat and ensuring that my selections are healthy and not just quick junk food.
Food boxes, like the one we get from Gousto, solves this problem. Each week, their app presents you with a selection of about 10 recipes based on your saved preferences.
It’s easy to choose 4 meals from these 10. Once you have made your selections, all you need to do is sit back and wait for delivery day.
When the selected delivery day arrives, the box gets delivered within a defined time slot and gets put away, the cards that come with it get organised into days of the week so that I know what recipe is going to be made when.
Gousto doesn’t put their recipes into numbered bags like some other food box vendors do, which is a slight inconvenience but not enough to make me stop using them.
However, Gousto does measure out all the things you need to make the meal into the correct amounts. You get the right number of carrots, the onions you need, and all the other bits come in little bags ready to be used; the only thing you don’t get are things like oil, salt & pepper etc., which it is expected you will have already, and I can live with that.
When it then comes to tea (evening meal) time, I can pick up the card and cook the meal without worrying about having all the ingredients in the cupboard or selecting a meal everyone is going to like. All I have to do is follow the recipe, and it’s done. This takes away so much of the stress that comes with cooking and actually makes the process enjoyable.
To sum up, food boxes work for me. They are easy, predictable, and don’t present 9 trillion options. Creating a meal plan this way means we get to eat a good, healthy meal without worrying if what we’re eating is junk or the same thing we had last week and the week before.
If you struggle with planning meals or get totally overwhelmed with the process, maybe a food box like this is something you should try, it doesn’t work out that much more expensive than going to the supermarket yourself.