Switching to a meatless diet can be daunting, but four dine-in delivery programs make it deliciously doable

By Elyse Glickman

It’s been a long day and your body is demanding attention. Maybe you’ve had nonstop meetings or been racing from soccer practice to piano lessons. If you’re lucky, you hit the yoga studio or took a run to alleviate the stress of a ridiculously busy day. But even if you’re feeling ravenous, you’re not someone to mindlessly eat the first thing you see (at least not most of the time). What’s a busy person to do?

Like hundreds of Angelenos, you can take advantage of a meal service that makes mindful eating one less thing to worry about. Corporate diet-food delivery services may offer convenience, but most cannot deliver what you truly hunger for: fresh, satisfying, preferably organic foods free of unnecessary flavors, colors, preservatives and chemicals.

Happily, help is here with four food-delivery services that offer flavor, convenience and nutrition in line with your food choices.

MotherOrganica

Sepi Kashanian, executive chef and founder of MotherOrganica, prepares specialized meals for her clientele, but you won’t find a menu or diet plan on her web site.

“I started three years ago,” Kashanian says,  after having been “a private chef with clients who preferred to have their home and kitchen to themselves. I operate in the same fashion today, and have a very interactive relationship with my clients. They tell me what they want and do not want, as well as any food allergies, sensitivities and preferences.”

Kashanian’s personal approach is refreshing. She breezes into a client’s kitchen with a variety of dishes—perhaps Thai fusion cashew coconut curry, vegetable fusilli pasta, red quinoa meatloaf or barley salad with mixed veggies—along with simple cooking directions on how to “finish” each meal for a true homemade feel.

She explains, “My culinary training gives me the skills I need to prepare dishes that reconcile flavor and texture with nutritional needs advised by clients’ doctors or dieticians. Before I became vegetarian three years ago, I had eaten, tasted and cooked a large variety of foods, so it is still familiar in my taste buds for me to recreate the flavors and textures I know people crave.”

In addition to custom-prepared vegan meals, Kashanian also tries to deliver a greater awareness of the way food choices impact our environment and community.

RAWvolution

In 2001, founder Matt Amsden made it his business to think “inside the Box,” introducing health-conscious diners to nutritionally sound raw foods that go beyond the familiar vegetarian diet. RAWvolution prepares a weekly customized Box for each client, with raw meals that maintain the highest level of nutritional integrity. The dishes are made with organic ingredients, 90 percent of which are sourced locally and purchased directly from farmers. The philosophy extends to the company’s biodegradable/compostable containers, and composting food scraps.

“There were and are still few options available to those interested in prepared raw meals,” Amsden remarks. “I wanted to make them available to people no matter where they live in the country, and provide them meals they can take with them to work or have waiting for them at home when they return from a long day. The Box also allows people access to prepared raw meals wherever in the country they may travel.

The signature Big Matt with Cheese, a dehydrated seed and veggie patty with fixin’s on the company’s popular onion flatbread, is flavorful and filling, as are the soups and chilled green salads. Other offerings, such as an eggless salad and couscous, have textures and flavors that may require some getting used to for those new to a raw diet, along with the concept that raw foods, as the name suggests, should not be heated.

Vegin’ Out

Back in 2000, brothers Dan and Tim Boissy realized that although vegan and vegetarian food had become quite evolved and palatable, they were not aware of any meal services offering strictly vegan meals. They also realized most of L.A.’s meal delivery services were priced out of reach for the average person.

“Our mission is to provide a simple, affordable and sustainable way to get vegan meals delivered right to your door,” says Dan Boissy. “Most people are too busy to find time to cook a healthy meal every night, and Vegin’ Out is here to help and to educate. Before experiencing our food, many people think that following a vegan diet means that they have to eat bland food. That just isn’t true.”

Rather than offering limitless choices, Boissy says the weekly Vegin’ Out delivery takes a “Trader Joe’s-like” approach that keeps customer costs down and gives them the freedom to portion and pair the dishes however they like.
“Like Trader Joe’s, you don’t have a million choices for bagels. You have three or four, which ensures good quality products at an affordable price, as well as a low-stress shopping experience,”  he says. “I think we differ from our competitors on price and simplicity.

Paleta

As a 25-year cancer survivor, Kelly Boyer built Paleta out of her personal appreciation for the value of nutrition and how it affects not only physical health, but also mental well-being.

“We believe that everybody is different and should be nourished accordingly,” Boyer notes. “We encourage new clients to pay attention to how they’re feeling throughout the day so we can learn how their body reacts to certain foods, which helps to identify what is right for them. As a philosophy, Paleta eliminates 95 percent of gluten, dairy, soy and sugar from our meals.” However, meat is an option.

My customized meals were created based on a questionnaire through the user-friendly website, and although delivery is more private-home than apartment friendly, the effort of getting up to let the delivery man in was well worth it. I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that most of my meals were as filling as they were fresh, though my lunch items ranked highest in terms of flavor, seasoning and texture.

“When we started, organic food was a major trend, but now people realize that sourcing locally grown fruits and vegetables from small farms is just as important,” says Boyer. “Our meals and snacks are handcrafted for each client, allowing us to give them exactly what they need to meet their individual nutrition and fitness goals.”

You can’t go wrong with any of these options, you just have to decide which one fits best with your lifestyle and taste. You may as well enjoy trying them all.

❋❋ If you liked this story you might also enjoy . . . ❋❋

~ Thanks Be for Café Gratitude

~ Ventura Boulevard, the New Eden

~ Eat Peace at Native Foods Cafe

~ Stuff I Eat

Share:

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin

Pinterest

StumbleUpon