Elderly and Senior Meal Delivery Solutions from the Experiences of Family Caretakers for New Family Caretakers
Healthy Chef Creations
Healthy Chef Creations Review of their Senior Meals and Meal Delivery Service
About Healthy Chef Creations Prepared Meals
The last time we taste-tested Healthy Chef Creations, owner and Chef John Procacci was at the helm turning out amazing prepared meals, cooked to order, delivered fresh, and shipped nationwide. Since then, the company has been sold. We thought the new owners of Healthy Chef Creations had made an excellent effort to keep the high-quality traditions of the company, but in comparing our meals before and after, we felt they fell a little short. Perhaps the attention to detail a chef, owner, and founder will give his meals is likely to be the differences we experienced.
- Some of our meals didn't come with sauce as advertised
- Entree portion sizes were inconsistent from meal to meal
- Some meals had some pretty cheap (or lazy) substitutions
- Some sides were unservable and were thrown out
- Many of the carb sides were dry and unseasoned
For family caretakers, this is a meal delivery service you may wish to consider for high-end prepared meal deliveries. They offer you the option of automatic weekly meal plans or a la carte ordering, rotating menus, organic food, and exceptional meal packaging, although the trays are vacuum sealed. A senior or elderly loved one might have trouble peeling back the film. We did.
Healthy Chef's average meal prices will be much higher than other senior meal delivery services, which you can expect, as this service claims it is like having a personal chef cook top-quality organic ingredients for your loved one. Also, shipping costs will be expensive, and higher than normal, if you live outside the Florida area. The question for family caretakers is if the high price is justified by the quality of the meals. We didn't think so.
Healthy Chefs do not offer a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee, nor do they post nutritional values for their meals. They do provide vague calorie guidelines, but family caretakers who are caring for loved ones on low sodium, diabetic, or other nutritional diets may have to look elsewhere. Food deliveries are only made on Fridays, which can be inconvenient for remote family caretakers.
Pricing
Meals plans can easily cost you over $50 a day. In the event you choose a la carte, lunch will amount to $11 to $16 while dinner might be between $16 and $20. Breakfasts cost $13 or $15.
Shipping costs can be on the high end compared to other meal delivery services, depending on where you live. Shipping costs aren’t free, and the rates depend on the amount of food ordered and your address.
Overall, we thought the food we recently purchased from this company was fair, with some great dishes and some poor ones. At this price range, we found Healthy Chefs to not be a realistic solution for family caretakers.
Most family caretakers may find the cost too expensive to consider as a regular meal solution, especially if you need a prepared meal solution for more than a few days a week. However, if the budget allows, loved ones could enjoy some delicious prepared meals to supplement their diet or as a treat.
Our Healthy Chef Creation Reviews
We say we review Medicaid senior meal delivery services on a curve, because they have to generate meals at a very fixed budget. We do the same thing for the high end services as a way of incorporating value into the equation. We accomplish this by listing meals we would, or would not order again, just like you would at a restaurant, and why we felt that way. You you are going to be a senior meal delivery service
that asks for a top price, then you should be able to deliver on the promise of quality, culinary skill, and value.
- Overall we found the side dishes to be dry, in need of seasoning, and cake-like. For example, mashed potatoes and risotto should be much creamier.
- While the sides were not seasoned, if some of the vegetables were, according to the names, we did not taste it.
Fancy Gourmet Names That Did Not Live Up to Expectations
We found Healthy Chef's using super creative names that do not come close to living up to their expectations. Their description of International dishes like Korean Chicken, Chinese Five-Spiced Broccoli, Classic Shepherd's Pie, Shrimp Pad Thai, and Mediterranean Garbanzo Beans would probably be considered an insult to the corresponding culinary cultures. Regionally speaking, we doubt any Southerners would consider the homestyle grits to be home styled.
A Before and After Breakfast Comparison
First we have complement Healthy Chefs for using real poached eggs in both of these meals, instead of the processed, pre-made frozen eggs most services use. Not only are they both excellent, they both reheat with a soft yoke. The steak and eggs breakfast appealed to us much more than the newer shrimp and eggs. The three shrimp were delicious and perfectly tender, but the grits came out of the tray in a sticky clump and were dry. We felt a more breakfast-tradition potato side would have been better than the mashed sweet potatoes, which is described on the menu as being mashed sweet potato hash.
Meals We Would Order Again
Filet Mignon with Broccoli and Root Vegetables - $18
This should be the first meal you add to your cart. The filet mignon is cooked to order, and it reheats perfectly. The sides were boring but good. Replacing these sides with something more traditional to what one might have a steakhouse would certainly improve the customer dining experience. The star is the Filet Mignon, and it reheats perfectly.
Grilled Turkey Au Jus Greek Roasted Vegetables and Seasoned Corn - $15
Ours came without any Au Jus gravy at all. The portion size for the turkey breast was tremendous. Some family caretakers may be able to get two meals from it. The Greek roasted vegetables, which were carrots and zucchini, were good, but we couldn't see what was "Greek" about their cooking technique. The seasoned corn was what you would expect from a can, without seasoning. We would buy this meal again for the perfectly cooked, amazingly moist, huge portion size of turkey.
Poached Salmon with Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Chinese Five-Spiced Broccoli - $16
The Poached Salmon was amazing and it was a huge portion size. The Garlic Mashed Potatoes must have come from the same dry and unseasoned batch that appeared in all of our other meals. Here's another Healthy Chef fancy name: Chinese Five-Spiced Broccoli. The broccoli was amazing. It was crisp and perfectly cooked. We did not taste anything spiced or Chinese about it.
Korean Barbecued Chicken with Roasted Cauliflower and Seasoned Peas - $15
If you are going to call something Korean Barbecued then you have an understanding of the amount of tangy sauce traditionally used for this dish. This chicken falls far below that goal, but it was a very good grilled chicken breast. The roasted cauliflower stole the show though, it was absolutely delicious. The peas were not seasoned and are standard fare you can get anywhere. We would order this again for a healthy lunch. We are quickly learning Healthy Chef's use of fancy menu names over promises and under delivers.
Meals We Would Not Reorder
If Healthy Chef Creations offered a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee, like most meal delivery services, we would asked for a credit on these meals.
Fisherman's Shrimp and Egg Breakfast with Grits and Sweet Potato Hash - $13
The three shrimp were perfect, as were the poached eggs, but the grits came out of the tray in a solid lump and were very dry.
The culinary insult of the day was their Sweet Potato Hash. If you click on the picture you will see a proper hash vs. a scoop of mashed, and obviously not even close to the description.
Caprese Frittata with Apple Turkey Sausage and Turkey Bacon - $11
Our food bloggers did the taste test on the Frittata blindfolded. None of our five experienced bloggers were able to identify the Frittata, but our resident chef blogger was the closest to guessing a breakfast item. It had no flavor at all and a soggy, spongy texture. The turkey bacon was closer to jerky than bacon, but the Apple Turkey Sausage was good.
Tuscan Omelet with Breakfast Potatoes and Maple Chicken Sausage - $13
The Maple Chicken Sausage wasn't anything you get in the freezer section of your local market. The breakfast potatoes were okay, but certainly nothing special and in dire need of seasoning. We felt the omelet was so overloaded with vegetables it did not feel like we were eating breakfast. There was no hint of "Tuscan seasoning" or cheese normally associated with this recipe.
Classic Shepherd's Pie with Herbed Risotto and Lemon Garlic Spinach - $15
Being from Europe, our resident chef food blogger has a special place in his heart for Shepherd's Pie, and he would have liked to try one. A Shepherd's Pie is made with lamb. A Cottage Pie is made with beef. From the mashed potato topping to the tasteless beef and the way-to-dry risotto our European chef was disappointed at every turn. There may have even been a scowl. We thought the serving size of the spinach fell below a standard serving size, and we did get a hint of garlic, but no lemon.
Turkey with Stuffing and Gravy and Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Seasoned Corn - $15
We can't imagine any chef being happy to put his name to this meal. We would have been very disappointed with this meal had we ordered it for our loved one for the holidays. The size of the turkey breast was very small, and it sat in a bed of soggy, washed-out stuffing. The garlic mashed potatoes were dry and unseasoned. The corn was standard fare and nothing special. A TV dinner would have been better.
Shrimp Pad Thai with Herbed Risotto and Mediterranean Garbanzo Beans - $15
Here is another fancy name dish that doesn't deliver the flavors it claims. Again, the shrimp was good but absent of any Thai flavoring except for a hint of peanuts. We couldn't identify what made the Garbanzo Beans "Mediterranean." They came with some diced tomatoes and drowned in excessive water. As was our other risotto sides, this one was dry and cake-like.
Shared Experiences from Other Family Caregivers
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Submitted Reviews and Comments
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Your Healthy Chef Creations Review
Our reviews are written only
from the viewpoint of a family caretaker who has the responsibility of feeding one or two senior or elderly loved ones. We take into consideration shipping, packaging, storage, reheating, food quality, and price per meal to determine if the meal delivery service is a good value, convenience, and an option to support their family caretaking responsibilities. Advertisers do not influence our reviews.
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