If you are going to eat at home anyway, you do not have to settle for plain old take-out food from your favorite GrabFood or FoodPanda menu. Personally, I get little satisfaction from eating take-out delivery. For one, the quality of the dishes tend to drop when it has to take 30-60 minutes to get to you after it is prepared. That means it is normally no longer piping hot when you get it. If it is a noodle or pasta dish, it is even worse – it tends to get soggy and loses the “al dente”. Sorry, if I am dining in, I cannot get excited about meals delivered by GrabFood or FoodPanda.

No time to shop for ingredients? No idea what dishes to make? No recipe? No cooking experience? … but still crave for home cooked freshly made and piping hot dish straight out of the kitchen … try this for a change.

Here are the reasons why seniors should try DIY meal-kits:

Consider the idea of meal-kits delivered to your doorstep with everything that you need to put a freshly cooked meal together. In USA, meal kits gained popularity as an alternative to dining-in-restaurant or ordering take-out. In the past few years, meal kits took off commercially with the launch of Blue Apron. There are now literally dozens of companies that offer creative meal kits such as Sun Basket, Home Chef and Plated. You only need to order your delicious meal with a few simple clicks. All the ingredients that you need comes with instructions – delivered fresh and ready to cook right our from the box.

• Meals prepared fresh just simply tastes a lot better than take-out and costs a lot less than dine-in restaurants. You cannot beat the tastes of a dish that is served piping hot straight from the kitchen … instead of food having sat in a delivery warmer bag while being shuttled half way across town.
• Cooking is an activity that couples of any age can do together. Apart from learning something new, cooking together is often fun and offers an activity that two or more can participate. Cooking at home is also a great way to bond with your kids or grandkids. This sure beats watching TV and waiting for the door bell to ring.
• For those who are amateur chefs, the meal kits come with all the ingredients you need — from the cuts of meat or fish to spices or vegetables. Meal kits normally do a great job selecting only the freshest ingredients. And you get the convenience of not having to go down to the supermarket with a long shopping list. Often times, to get the freshest ingredients, you may even have to stop by the wet market as well.
• Meal kits also eliminates wastage. Cooking for just two persons is not easy and often involves keeping leftovers. Sauces & fresh ingredients in meal kits are packed in just the right proportion.
• Cooking is also a great way to keep your mind and body active and has therapeutic value that helps with dementia and depression.
• If you are out of ideas on what to cook, a quick browse of the vendor’s website will get your imagination going. Selecting your meal works pretty much the same way as ordering off a restaurant menu. Most meal kits comes with clear step-by-step instructions anyone over 14 can probably put together! No searching Google for the recipe.
• Most DIY meal kits are normally well tested before making it into your shopping basket. Menus are selected based on ease and time required to prepare the meal. Most meal kits will clearly indicate the preparation time, level of complexity and even have links to videos to show you how its done. You can select the level and timing that works for you.

While Blue Apron is not here in Singapore, we have a Singaporean version called HomeFoods that delivers creative menus in meal-kits right to your doorstep. Their selection of dishes change weekly and you can order everything on their website. If you are thinking about entertaining friends, you can impress them with restaurant quality food made right in your own kitchen. Anyway, HomeFoods’ Nobu Style Miso Cod looks really good …

Disclosure: BetterLiving65 has no business dealings with or commercial interest in Blue Apron(USA) or Homefoods (Singapore).