Best Meal Delivery For Seniors

What’s The Difference Between Meal Delivery Services And Frozen Dinners

Now, you might be wondering how meal delivery recipes differ from the frozen meals or classic TV dinners you find in the grocery store — and it’s a fair question. For one: Most are made just before shipping to you, so each individual meal is significantly fresher — which you can often taste. Because they don’t sit on grocery store freezer shelves, most are free from unhealthy preservatives or mounds of salt, too.

Lastly, these prepared meal delivery services often use higher quality ingredients and get a bit more creative with their rotating recipes, although it does vary from brand to brand. Prepared meals range anywhere from $5 to $18 per serving, depending on the service and specific meal plan you choose.

Which Is The Healthiest Prepared Meal Delivery Service

The healthiest meal delivery service for you will depends on your specific nutrition goa. You can find healthy, prepared meals for vegetarians, vegans, folks keeping to a keto or paleo diet, diabetic-friendly meal plan and just about any other. A big bonus is you can easily see all the nutritional information for every meal, which is not always the case when cooking from scratch or eating out.

Even if you’re not trying to overhaul your entire diet, committing to eating healthier even a few times a week can have a huge impact on overall nutrition intake and help create good eating habits. It helps when that healthy food actually tastes good, too. But if you don’t have the time to start meal-prepping and macro-counting, or learn a whole new set of healthy cooking skills, eating healthier probably feels daunting.

Read here for a more detailed breakdown of the healthiest meal kits and meal delivery services in 2022.

Does Medicare Cover Senior Meal Delivery Services

Original Medicare generally doesnt pay for meal delivery services. Medicare Advantage is a healthcare option you can choose to replace your original Medicare coverage and is purchased through a private insurance company. Some Medicare Advantage plans offer meal delivery as a benefit, but it isnt guaranteed with every plan and is usually for a limited time. Consult your specific plan to see if it is covered.

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The Best Meal Delivery Services For Aging Adults

From 2020 to present, while in the midst of a global pandemic, there was an exponential growth in online meal delivery. Caregivers and seniors were unable to shop due to quarantine or sickness and were left with relying on online meal delivery services to fill that gap.

Social isolation, even before the pandemic results in poor dietary habits and poor nutrition. Worse yet, lack of appetite and skipping meals is fairly common in socially isolated seniors. There have been numerous studies on how loneliness and isolation affect health and food choices. Technologies, such as Zoom and video calls have proven to help fill that gap when loved ones are unable to visit in person. Some families have even set up dinnertime meals with their parents in which they schedule a Zoom call and can eat a meal together, talk and socialize.

Best For Nutrition Consultation: Bistromd

• Starting Price: $10.99 per serving
• Delivery Area: 48 states
• Products Arrive: Frozen

BistroMDs signature program provides calorie-focused meals with custom input from dietitians to help support weight loss.

• Doctor-designed weight loss programs with dietitian support

• Meals are ready to eat in 5 minutes or less

• Offers over 150 meals

• Limited vegetarian options and no 100% plant-based options

• Does not disclose sourcing information

BistroMDs key focus is delivering individual, heat-and-eat, calorie-restricted meals for weight loss with special attention on women over age 35. The company also offers meals for heart health, diabetes, menopause, and gluten-free needs. With dishes like low-carb lasagna and salmon with dill mustard sauce, bistroMD provides familiar flavors and a customizable registered dietitian designed-diet program.

• Full Program : $219.80
• Full Program : $187.35
• 7 Days of lunches and dinners : $188.86
• 5 Days of lunches and dinners : $149.90

• Chicken, rice, and cheddar casserole
• Salmon with dill mustard sauce
• Turkey breaks with cranberry apple chutney
• Oven-fried catfish with spicy tomato leek sauce
• Baked pasta marinara with chicken sausage
• Meatloaf with honey bourbon glaze
• Mojo pork with black beans and rice
• Chicken pad thai
• Grilled salmon with creamy pesto
• Lasagna with garden marinara

• Starting Price: $9.43 per serving
• Delivery Area: Must check zip code for availability
• Products Arrive: Frozen

• Shipping costs extra for small orders

• Buffalo cauliflower pasta bake

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Senior Meals By Magickitchencom

Let MagicKitchen.com prepare and deliver the meals for seniors in your life. As we get older, it often becomes hard for us to do for ourselves like we used to, and cooking is one of those things. Seniors usually only have one or two people to cook for and so large meals are no longer needed. That’s where our prepared meal delivery service is ideal! Just because seniors no longer feel like cooking doesn’t mean they don’t still enjoy a great meal!

We provide healthy meals for seniors allowing them to maintain a certain diet if needed. We have prepared senior meals that cover conditions like diabetes, renal, chronic conditions, and so on. Chances are, if you need it, we can prepare it! Simply order online and get prepared meals for seniors delivered.

If you are a senior or have a senior in your life, let us prepare the meals for them. We allow you to select the meals you want, and when you want the meal delivered. You then simply pay for the meal and it will be delivered via UPS. Try our senior meal delivery!

What Type Of Meal Delivery Kits Does The Brand Offer

Mom’s Meals has more than 50 menu options in various categories. This comprises 26 dinners in the categories of American Classics or International Flavors, as well as a dozen morning meal alternatives and six soup or sandwich options.

Most customers will appreciate creating their meal combinations, so Mom’s Meals makes it simple with a one-click Chef’s Choice option.

Many dishes have a comfort food flavor, featuring American favorites like meatloaf, corn chowder, beef stew, and chicken with mushroom sauce.

Chefs make meals with the support of in-house licensed dietitians, who possibly modify the dishes to match diverse nutritional requirements.

The meals promote overall well-being, health issues like cancer, heart health, and gluten avoidance diets. It has a wide range of tastes, from traditional comfort dishes to those with a cosmopolitan flair.

To assist common health concerns such as type 2 diabetes, the firm offers refrigerated, heat-and-eat breakfast and main meal meals.

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Meal Delivery Service: Would It Work For Your Loved One

Having meals delivered makes life easier for seniors and their caregivers and ensures seniors get a good, balanced diet. When preparing to age in place, you should look into signing up for a meal delivery service, helping you avoid malnutrition or comparably costly takeout.

There are many senior meal delivery options, but most fall into two main categories: ready-to-cook and ready-to-heat. Lets compare them.

How We Chose These Meal Delivery Services

While researching the best meal delivery services for seniors, we considered the following factors:

• Price: We included services at a variety of price points to accommodate different budgets.
• Meals per week: Because some older adults may find it difficult to regularly shop for food and make healthy meals at home, we included services with various subscription options that will allow you to choose the number of meals you need per week.
• Variety of healthy options: We looked for services that provide nutritious meals and meal kits and offer recommended meals and diets for specific health conditions.
• Taste and ease of preparation: We looked for services that offer meals that are easy to prepare, and we tried many of them to find out whether the flavors and textures held up well to refrigeration and reheating.
• Customer reviews: We considered customer satisfaction with these services and looked at reviews based on experience with customer service, food taste and variety, and more.
• Vetting: The services on our list have been vetted to ensure that they align with Healthlines brand integrity standards and approach to well-being. You can read more about our vetting process.

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What Should Seniors Look For In A Meal Delivery Service

Knowing what you need from your meal delivery service makes it easier to choose the best one for you. Here are some things we recommend you consider:

• Your budget: Meal delivery services vary in costs, but they generally run about $12 per meal. This means getting a single daily meal for one person seven days a week will cost around $84. Of course, the cost will rise if you add in lunches and snacks. Knowing your budget helps you figure out if a service is a good fit.
• Your diet: If you have a special dietary requirement such as eating vegetarian or following a weight-loss diet, be sure to check that the meal service caters to these needs. Most services offer special dietary plans.
• The number of meals: Not everyone needs all meals covered by their service. Perhaps you can cook some meals but cant cope with doing it daily. Or perhaps you have a family member who can assist with meal prep or help prepare meals for the freezer.
• Delivery schedules: Every meal service has its own schedule, so make sure to find out how long delivery takes and the cut-off time for orders.
• Delivery costs: Most delivery services will offer free shipping when you subscribe, but youll want to account for any delivery costs to make sure you land within your budget.

The Homemade Feel Meal

While most of us enjoy eating out from time to time, it can get expensive. Plus, those delicious gourmet meals are often high in calories, and it’s harder to keep track of the ingredients and nutrients you’re getting. That’s where grocery delivery and meal kit services come in!

If you still enjoy cooking, these delivery services make it simple and easy. There are three main types of homemade meal delivery services:

Let’s take a look at some of our favorite homemade meal delivery services that we’ve reviewed from each of the above categories.

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Other Restaurant Delivery Options

While GrubHub and DoorDash offer the most widespread coverage and most extensive selection of restaurants, other options may also be available in your area. Below is a list of other restaurant delivery services we’d recommend!

• Uber Eats: Great for seniors who already use Uber for transportation
• Postmates: Gives users the option to order from restaurants even if Postmates isn’t partnered with them
• Seamless: Part of the GrubHub family with delivery in 600+ cities
• Caviar: Available in 20 major U.S. cities

Popular Recipes Of Hellofresh

• When Steak Met Potatoes

Cooking a date-night supper for a loved one should be simple and cupid. Showing off your grasp of the classics is more likely to impress than taking out the brulee blowtorch and nearly lighting anything on fire.

Steak and potatoes with creamed vegetables and a peppercorn sauce never fail to satisfy. If you want to be fancy, call it steak au poivre.

The Preparation and cooking time is 30 minutes. It has 525kcal calories and has 19g of total fat, of which 9g is saturated fat, and 0g is trans fat. It contains 44g of carbohydrates and 45g of protein.

• Hearty Steak and Potatoes

Cabbage, potatoes, and cranberries may conjure up ideas of New England and boiled dinners, but this dish adds a more international twist.

The sauce that garnishes the steak contains balsamic vinegar and soy sauce for a fusion of Italian and Asian tastes. In addition, the potatoes are roasted with rosemary until aromatic, and the cabbage is boosted with acidic white wine vinegar.

The Preparation and cooking time is 40 minutes. It has 535kcal calories and has 15g of total fat, of which 3g is saturated fat and 0g is trans fat. It contains 59g of carbohydrates and 45g of protein.

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Which Meal Delivery Service Is Best For Seniors

When choosing a meal delivery service, its important to consider the individuals dietary needs, budget, and medical conditions.

For example, for an older adult with kidney disease, choosing a meal delivery service that offers meals suitable for someone following a renal diet is critical.

For older adults on a budget, choosing a service covered by health insurance plans like Medicaid or Medicare or a plan that offers low cost meals may be best.

Also, a meal kit delivery service may be a better choice for older adults who enjoy cooking and preparing meals for themselves.

Meals For One: Freshly

Freshly is a great option for seniors living on their own as they offer single-serving meals . Every meal is designed to be popped in the microwave for convenience, so your loved ones wont have to worry about meal prep or dishes.

Their plans range from 4-12 meals per week, with a shelf life of 3-5 days in the fridge, or longer if frozen.

Preview their menu:

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Meal Delivery Service Categories

Meal delivery services usually provide either meal kits or fully prepared meals, packed in ice and delivered to your door in a large box. Many companies from either category let you purchase meals through a subscription that can be paused or canceled at any time.

Review our brief descriptions of meal kit services and fully prepared meal services below, then check out our guide to discover some of the best brands available in these categories.

Meal Kits

What you get:

• A recipe card: The card will have easy step-by-step instructions and may include visuals and nutritional information. Many of these recipes can be completed in 30 minutes, though some may take up to an hour.
• Ingredients: These will probably be individually wrapped, will come in the exact amount you need, and in the case of produce, may already be washed. Youll need to do some chopping and cooking but probably will do little or no measuring.

What you need to already have:

• Standard appliances: Youll need a sink, stovetop, and oven to use most meal kits.
• Cookware: Youll need some pots, pans, cutting boards, knives, and utensils. Recipes wont call for specialized cooking tools, just the basics.
• A few staples: Some companies will assume that you already stock the most basic items such as salt, pepper, and olive oil.

Fully Prepared Meals

What you get:

What you need to already have:

Why Prepared Meal Delivery Is So Popular In 2022

Making dinner can be enjoyable, but dinner burnout can catch up to you quickly. Since most restaurants charge a pretty premium for takeout and delivery, and meal prep can eat up precious hours of your work week, an easy meal plan from one of these services can help lighten your daily load without busting your budget. And if meal delivery elicits thoughts of overly salted instant mashed potatoes and mystery meat, know that prepared food — both fresh and frozen — has come a long way in the past few years.

I’ve tested more than 20 of the top meal delivery services and many of them churn out healthy meals that take minutes to heat and can help keep your nutrition goals on track.

Fresh N Lean is the best meal delivery service for most people.

For those who still want to cook but need a little helping hand, an oven-ready meal kit delivery service will cut out the prep, shopping and planning. But if it’s a fully prepared meal you’re after, there are services for that and we’ve tested some of the best-known meal delivery operations — along with a few newbies — to see which ones cut the mustard and which ones need a lot of ketchup just to be eaten.

Pete’s Paleo is an excellent meal service if you’re adhering to that eating plan.

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Can I Give A Meal As A Gift

Many meal delivery services offer gift certificates. Plus, many of those aimed at seniors also make it easy for caregivers to manage the meal plan accounts. Services that are subscription-based will require the recipient to set up an account to redeem their gift certificate, and the recipient will have to cancel the subscription if they no longer want to receive meals.

The Best Premade Meal Deliveries For Seniors

When you want to enjoy the taste of a homemade meal but youre not quite up to doing the prep yourself, a premade meal delivery service might be the best option. These services are ideal for seniors with mobility issues and for those who find it too time-consuming or dangerous to cook themselves.

Best Premade + Marketplace Option

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Bottom Line: Are Meal Delivery Services Worth It For Seniors

Meal delivery services and meal kits can be a great option for people of all ages especially older adults looking to save time and energy and make meal planning easier. For seniors, we recommend looking for a plan tailored to your specific dietary needs to help take even the guesswork out of selecting meals. If you still enjoy cooking and preparing food, there are plenty of options that deliver ingredients instead of pre-prepared meals.