If you're like us, you've tried a few meal kits over the last year.

And, like us, you also may have been disappointed by some of them: repetitive dishes, missing ingredients each week, or recipes that took 4 hours from prep to plate. We are not exaggerating.

However, we know too many people who absolutely love the convenience and ease of home cooking that meal kits provide, so we wanted to cut through the trial and error process for our readers and test out these kits one-by-one ourselves.

Over the testing period, we found that there's a meal kit out there for every type of household and price point. But understanding that a lot of people are getting ready for summer and revamping their eating habits after a long, difficult COVID winter, we wanted to focus on two specific kits that regularly hype up their wholesome recipes and high-quality ingredients: Green Chef and Blue Apron.

The pressure's on - and so's the oven! Let's get after it and see which plan comes out on top.

Key Similarities

• Both deliver pre-portioned fresh ingredients, colorful recipe cards with step-by-step instructions
• Both are subscription-based meal kits delivery services: pause, adjust, or opt-out at any time
• Both conveniently deliver right to your doorstep

Key Differences

• Blue Apron's locally sourced ingredients are non-GMO but not exclusively organic | Green Chef's products are USDA Organic Certified
• Blue Apron has 2 meal plans: Vegetarian and Signature | Green Chef has 4: Balanced Living, Keto & Paleo, Plant-Powered, and Gluten-Free
• Blue Apron has 7 recipes a week to choose from | Green Chef has 9
• Blue Apron's recipes take 30 - 50 minutes to cook | Green Chef's minimal prep takes 30 minutes or less
• Blue Apron's packaging is plastic-heavy | Green Chef offsets 100% of carbon emissions and plastic packaging from every box!
• Blue Apron starts at $9.99 a serving | Green Chef's meals start at $11.99

Green Chef Overview

We appreciate their chef-curated, international cuisine choices like Steak & Cheddar Melts with kale salad and carrots, dried figs, & white-wine vinaigrette and Japanese Vegetable Fritters with ginger-sriracha aïoli, broccoli & cashews, and rice with edamame. Variety isn't only the spice of life . . . it teases the palate and keeps the menu interesting.

Green Chef provides a really affordable way to consume more local, sustainably sourced produce, and we've all come to realize the importance of that. The cost per serving - especially with a new customer discount - is far less than organic markets, and with their pre-portioned ingredients, there's far less food waste.

Customers love the culinary choices and high-quality produce Green Chef delivers. On a Keto, Paleo, or plant-powered diet? Green Chef's there for you, offering 9 different meals for each plan. Say bye-bye to boredom!

Blue Apron Overview

Blue Apron's boxes arrive and they are simply lovely. All ingredients are laid out practically, but cooking time can take up to twice as long to plate because the recipes are often complex, including two or three separate sauces or dressings. All these extra steps lead to more dishes and pans, which can lead to a messy sink at the end of the night.

In other words, this isn't ideal for novices and busy moms, though it's perfect for someone who has time on their hands and wants to polish their cooking skills.

Despite tasty meals like Garlic-Caper Chicken with Fettuccine and Zucchini and Miso-Butter Steaks and Rice with Carrots and Bok Choy, we burnt out on Blue Apron rather quickly. With only 7 dishes a week to choose from, we found ourselves gravitating to the same types of dishes (pasta) instead of trying new things that we were excited about.

Plus, all too often a bag of limp yellowing kale would arrive. One week, 2 out of 3 meals featured kale. Enough said.

Final Notes

Green Chef's superior organic food and minimal prep put them way ahead of Blue Apron in our books. Add in the pre-measured portions which help you stick to your diet, and the choice is clear.

Green Chef is the clear crowd favorite for convenience, easy instructions, and overall presentation. We appreciated Green Chef's fresh ingredients, amazing customer service, and the variety of their gourmet meals. Plus, there are more plans available tailored to specific diets, which makes Green Chef more inclusive than Blue Apron.

While Blue Apron is definitely a contender in the war of meal kits, Green Chef's got it beat.

So there you are. Get Green Chef and get cooking! Remember, the oven's on.

FRIENDS AND FAMILY SPECIAL: Our friends at Green Chef are extending a limited-time offer to our readers! Follow this link to get $100 off across four boxes, including FREE shipping on the first box!