Meal Prep vs. Meal Delivery – What’s the Difference?

Let’s just start by saying that meal prepping and meal delivery are very different, but they can sit under the same umbrella. 

So let’s cut to the chase and start by defining them. 

What is Meal Prepping?

Meal prepping is the process of preparing whole meals ahead of time.  It is usually done to save time or manage portions. Typically, this will be done by researching recipes, shopping for the exact ingredients you’ll need, and then devoting a Sunday afternoon to cooking your meals and neatly storing them in resealable containers. 

• Make-ahead meals – this is the most common method of meal prepping.  It simply means that you cook your meal ahead of time, refrigerate it, and when it’s time, heat it up to eat.
• Batch cooking – this is done by taking one recipe and making a lot of it at the same time. Then you can neatly divide into portions to be stored in the freezer over some time—usually a few months. Another batch cooking method is to cook up various proteins and veggies separately on a given day to have in the fridge for mix-and-match meals throughout the week. 
• Individual portioning – this is typically done using the make-ahead meal process. It usually involves cooking small, grab-and-go meals, typically portioned for one serving. 
• Ready-to-cook ingredients – this doesn’t mean you prep, cook, and portion out the entire meal in advance, no. For this method, you shop and chop the ingredients ahead of time, preparing them for the moment you cook later in the week. 

What is Meal Delivery?

Meal or retail food delivery is typically a service done on the fly. That is to say; you place the order through an app like UberEats, Favor, DoorDash, or Grubhub. The restaurant then works to prepare the order, and then a courier is dispatched by the app to pick up (and drop off) your order at your door. 

You can also place your order ahead of time and schedule a later pickup—for those that already know what they want for dinner at 2 pm. 😉

When it comes to Snap Kitchen meals, we deliver food directly to your door that has been pre-cooked, packaged in individually-portioned servings, so you don’t need to do any shopping, chopping, cooking, or cleaning! Plus, we deliver coast-to-coast weekly! Talk about efficiency and convenience. With Snap Kitchen, just consider your meal prep done!

Plus, our meals are cooked fresh daily, made-to-order, just for you, and our packaging is recyclable. So there’s no food or plastic waste. Just heat, and enjoy! 

Ready for your first Snap Kitchen order? Whether you’re keto, Whole30, or something in between, we have meals to suit your lifestyle. Start choosing yours today!