“We usually put on music and dance around the kitchen, cooking and catching up on the day. It’s a lot of fun!”

Sun Basket

This post is an honest review of Sun Basket. Now I say honest because – although I am an affiliate – I want you to know the pros and cons of the Sun Basket food delivery service so you can know whether it’s right for you.

Because for some of you, it won’t be a good fit at all.

But for the rest of you, it’s going to be a game-changer.

Why such a difference?

Keep reading…

Please note: Below I’ve provided affiliate links. I only promote products that I truly believe in. I may receive compensation if you purchase an item through one of my links , but this in no way affects the cost to you. Thank you for your support! It’s what keeps this blog running!

Why I wanted to try them

In case you don’t know, Sun Basket is a company that delivers meal ingredients right to your door every week. Now I say ingredients because you still have to cook them. While some food items are pre-prepared, you still have to turn on the stove or oven and do a little chopping. Sun Basket also delivers ingredients in the proper portions so it takes a lot of the guesswork out of how much to buy at the store. As well as taking the store out altogether.

These ingredient delivery services are booming, and I often see my neighbors with logo’d boxes outside their doors. The goal of these food companies seem to be the convenience of having all the ingredients for healthy – yet delicious – meals delivered every week to your home. In the age where fast food is ever present despite us knowing it’s not nutritious, companies are helping us take back good old healthy home cooking. And making it easier than ever.

So why Sun Basket?

They seemed to be a company focused on the meal’s nutrients as well as providing accommodations for a large variety of eating preferences. They have a TON of recipes to choose from (aka 18 choices) every week, and you can mix and match meal types. So for example, if you’ve selected the vegetarian diet plan, you can also throw in some meals with fish or other meats once a week if you want. It’s pretty flexible. Under each meal they also list which diets/restrictions the meal is compatible with.

The meal plans are:

• Chef’s Choice
• Paleo
• Lean & Clean
• Gluten-free
• Mediterranean
• Vegetarian
• Vegan
• Pescatarian
• Diabetes-Friendly
• Quick & Easy

They’ll also list if meals are:

• Dairy-free
• Soy-free
• Heart-check certified

Three recipes (enough to make 2 portions) are delivered every week, all developed by an experienced, award-winning chef. The food is shipped in a box filled with a huge ice pack and insulation. It’s easy to skip a week, say, if you’re out of town, and to cancel subscriptions – that was huge to me; I didn’t want a big inconvenience come holiday time with travel. And the price was doable. I’ll explain more about that in a minute.

First impressions – good, boxed well, on time, all recyclable, quality?

So I ordered! Not gonna lie – getting our Sun Basket food delivery was a little like Christmas morning. I love getting packages.

The food was delivered right on time and boxed well. I liked that all the materials were recyclable. All the ingredients were separated into three labeled bags according to meals. They also include a really thorough recipe booklet, with excellent pictures throughout and cooking tips in the back. I felt like I was getting a nice new cookbook because all 18 recipes were included.

To tell the truth, I was a little concerned about the quality of one of the meal’s ingredients. The bell pepper was a little past it’s prime and a few of the cherry tomatoes had broken. We luckily had a bell pepper in the fridge that we substituted it for. We also received chicken thigh instead of chicken breast, and I don’t like dark meat, but the recipe did actually say you may get either. I was hoping this was a fluke, as Sun Basket prides itself on quality ingredients.

The other two meals had really good-quality ingredients, including the produce. No ingredients were missing.

Meals

First meal

The first meal was a chicken Buddha bowl. Although I mostly eat pescatarian, I wanted to try out a meal with meat to assess the quality. Along with chicken, this bowl had black rice, brussel sprouts, apples, a spicy sauce, and the aforementioned bell pepper and cherry tomatoes.

Funnily enough, this was probably my least favorite meal from Sun Basket – and we’re now on our third week of deliveries. Part of that I attribute to my own tastebuds. I’m VERY picky about my meat and am not a fan of spicy foods. That being said, my boyfriend loved it, and I could still appreciate the sauce and rest of the meal.

We’ve now had a few other meals with chicken and the quality has been very good, even for my picky standards. We’ll probably mostly stick to the pescatarian/vegetarian meals anyway, but I feel comfortable recommending the meat recipes.

Second meal

For the second meal we made these AMAZING rosemary potato pizzas. They were sooo good, and unlike anything I would have ever thought to make. They included shallots, mushrooms, baby potatoes, and arugula on a flatbread.

The food quality was extremely good- the arugula (of which we had lots of leftovers) lasted longer than the greens I get from the grocery store.

Third meal

The third meal was a lemon ramen soup, with mushrooms, bok choy,, tempeh, fresh mint, kombu, and shichimi togarashi.

Again, a unique combination of flavors, created using two ingredients I’d never even heard of before. And wow, it was so good!

Subsequent deliveries

I’ve been very happy with our Sun Basket food delivery for the following weeks. The quality has continued to be very good. We’ve now had 7 Sun Basket meals and have really enjoyed them.

Overall impressions

– I still think the first meal ingredient quality was likely a fluke. All our other meals have had really good-quality foods.

– They sent a survey via email after the first week asking about our experience so far. I really liked that, and gave my honest feedback about that first meal’s food quality. They had a box I could check if I wanted someone to follow-up, but it wasn’t like the bell pepper was rotten or anything. I didn’t feel the need for that.

– They’ve made some recipe substitutions, and I actually appreciate that. For one recent recipe we got, they swapped out types of kale and put in a note that it was due to quality purposes. I can respect that!

– Pretty much every meal has offered a new flavor I wouldn’t otherwise have tried. Though maybe these are just the meals we’ve chosen.

• Can be a good or bad thing
  • Good: If you’re adventurous and love to try new flavors/cuisine from other cultures. Then it’s right up your alley.
  • Bad: If you’re picky. You’ll need to be more careful in your selections. They list all the ingredients for the recipes when you pick your 3 for the week, so be sure to read over them.

– Not all meals are quick to make so you’ll need to be selective if that’s your goal.

•  Conveniently, they let you know which recipes are “super speedy” or a “20 minute meal” when you make your selections. Remember, one of the meal plans is “Quick & Easy”, so there will always be at least 3 quick options.

– It can be hard to choose meals if you and your partner/roommate have different tastes.

• We do a little compromising, but isn’t that what good relationships are all about??

– Overall the meals taste amazing.

• We both agree on that topic.

The final verdict?

I’m still getting a Sun Basket food delivery every Monday at my house. Why?

– It’s so darn convenient.

– We often have leftovers.

– It’s MUCH healthier than eating out. I’m big on healthy eating and knowing what’s in your food. I love that the options are nutritious and have lots of produce. That makes it especially great this time of year so you can eat healthy during the holidays.

– We’ve never missed making a meal. While I may not have motivation to cook well-balanced meals every night, 3 nights a week I can do. We also then have flexibility around occasional late night work schedules, eating out, and making super simple/fast meals when we honestly don’t have time to cook.

– The cost isn’t so bad. With shipping it comes out to $78.93 a week. Now it may seem like a lot, but that’s feeding two of us for MORE than 6 meals a week; there are almost always leftovers that I pack for lunch the next day. So when we split the cost, it’s $39.46 a person.

• For 6 meals, that comes out to $13.15/meal. Though it’s truly more like 9 meals at $8.77. I’m telling you, these recipes make a large amount of food.
• After Sun Basket, I only have to purchase food for breakfast, my meal prep lunches, and very cheap staple dinners (things like spaghetti and tomato sauce with frozen vegetables) or a Modern Table meal (if you don’t know what Modern Table meals are you NEED to click the Amazon link below! They are so good!)

– My significant other is excited to make the Sun Basket meals – because they are pretty darn good.

– Sun Basket brought back consistent cooking to our household.

– We have fun! It sounds really cheesy, but we usually put on music and dance around the kitchen, cooking and catching up on the day. It’s a lot of fun! We’ll definitely be keeping Sun Basket for awhile.

Oh! Also speaking of cost, they always do a discount for at least your first week. We got our first week half off, so just trying out a week and seeing if we liked it was a low-risk, low-cost no-brainer.

Right now they’re running a promotion that gives you $35 off your first week and $10 off your second week. So $45 off total. Click the link below to get the discounted rates:

$45 – Take $35 & $10 off your first and second deliveries

If you have any questions about the Sun Basket food delivery process or meal plans, please ask in the comments! As I said above, I absolutely wouldn’t recommend them unless I truly believe they’re a good company with a good product.

Happy healthy cooking and eating!