Prepared Meals
Feeding yourself takes more steps than people admit. You have to decide what to eat, plan it, shop, cook, and clean up, and after a long day, that can be more than you have left. A lot of late-diagnosed adults have spent years getting by on whatever was closest and blaming themselves for it.
Everything here is something I use myself or have recommended to autistic adults who told me it helped. Some of these meals arrive fully prepared and only need heating. Others take the planning and shopping off your plate and leave you with much less to do. Take what fits your life and leave the rest.
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NO COOKING!
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Factor is the service I use most when I want a meal I can take out of the refrigerator, put in the microwave, and eat in about two minutes. The food is delicious, and the variety means I don’t get tired of the same few meals. I gravitate toward the Mediterranean-style dishes, but you can choose what fits you, including higher-protein, plant-based, or lower-calorie options. Meals arrive fresh rather than frozen, and you can skip a week or pause whenever you need to.
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Home Chef is a Kroger brand, so you may have seen its meals in Kroger stores, but it can also be delivered to your door. Its oven-ready meals come ready to go, so all you have to do is put them in the oven. That makes it so easy. Home Chef also offers full meal kits for days you feel like cooking, and you can swap proteins or filter out ingredients you don’t eat, which helps if certain textures or foods are hard for you.
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Tempo comes from the same family as Home Chef and is built around single-serving meals that are ready in a few minutes in the microwave. Each meal comes in its own container, so there’s no deciding on portions and very little cleanup. Tempo focuses on balanced meals with plenty of protein. It works well when you know you need to eat but don’t have the energy to put a meal together.
HelloFresh is best known for meal kits, but it also offers Ready Made Meals that are delicious and ready in about three minutes. It’s one of the most popular services out there, so the menu is large and changes often. If you sign up, look for the Ready Made Meals section so you can skip the cooking entirely. On days you have more energy, its quick and oven-ready recipes are there too.
Daily Harvest delivers frozen, plant-based food that keeps in your freezer until you’re ready for it. Many of the smoothies come in a cup. You add your liquid, pour it into a blender like a NutriBullet, and you’re done. Its bowls, flatbreads, and soups only need heating. Having food in the freezer that takes almost no planning can make a big difference on the days when deciding what to eat feels like too much.
Hungryroot works differently from the others. It’s a grocery and recipe service that fills your cart with groceries and simple recipes based on your preferences, so much of the deciding is done for you. Some items are ready to eat as they are, and the recipes take about 10 to 30 minutes. You can edit your cart each week or pause when you need to.
