I Tried Yumble Meal Delivery So Now You Don’t Have To

After a disastrous attempt at food subscription with the company HelloFresh, I thought the world of auto-food prep was over for me. After a bit of research and planning, I discovered that my flop was actually a dive into a seemingly endless pool of meal subscription boxes.  The selection is almost overwhelming.

I narrowed my searches down to a box that could provide me either weekly or biweekly subscriptions of healthy food that I could easily eat for lunch at work. I work in a downtown office, and sometimes, the effort of reaching past my three favorite lunchtime digs can be too much to bear. Mostly,, I was just  looking for a box that had an entire meal I’d enjoy (so I wouldn’t have to pick out my favorite parts and throw out the rest).

This is how I stumbled upon Yumble. Technically known as YumbleKids on the interwebs, this brand promises to make lunchtime a breeze for busy moms. I was drawn to YumbleKids due to the portion sizes – if this ish can fill up a kid, it would be perfect to sustain me at work and not give me that horrible, too-full feeling while I’m sitting at my desk. Yumble boasts many vegetarian, gluten- and soy-free options such as veggie fried rice, mac and cheese, and veggie chili. At a glance, all of the meals on their website look healthy and delicious. So, I skipped the part where I thought about my actions, and I ordered my first box right away.

My first meal was the Yes, Please Mac ‘n’ Cheese. I picked this meal strategically because I only have a microwave at work. This vegetarian-friendly meal includes a high-protein mac and cheese with broccoli tater tots. After following the microwave instructions on the top, I plopped down at my desk to dig in. Ultimately, the mac and cheese tasted like a  microwaved version of what I typically get at my favorite restaurant. The tater tots were… questionable. The flavors were a little overpowering, especially considering that they were paired with the mac ‘n’ cheese’s more mellow tones. Also, when I imagine a tater tot, I envision a slight crunch with yummy goodness inside. None of that was present here and, to be honest, I didn’t even eat the second one. What I got was a mushy broccoli mess that totally overwhelmed what would have be a pretty solid-tasting mac and cheese. A swing and a miss.

The second dish I tried out was the Chicken Nuggets, and honestly, it tasted like I was back in elementary school, eating in the cafeteria. Was it bad? Ehhh, no. Was it good? Ehhhh, it was OK. This time, I decided to use an oven instead of a microwave to hopefully give the nuggets a crunchier exterior instead of the soggy mess that is usually microwaved chicken. I removed the chicken nuggets from the tray and heated them on a baking sheet. I tossed the ketchup they provided and opted for my own barbecue sauce. The nuggets themselves tasted very much like those terrible dinosaur shaped nuggets your mom used to make when you were a kid when you were watching Land Before Time. Nothing memorable. Nothing truly special. And, as a texture person, the slightly chewy consistency was a little much for me.

The last meal I tried before I tossed the rest of the trays in the trash and cancelled my subscription was the Pizza-licious meal. The meal went into the trash so quickly that I didn’t even have time to take a picture. I was horrified at the quality of the meal. The pizza will give you full-body flashbacks to the traumatic experience that was high school lunches. I only ate it since it was all I had at work. The chocolate-covered pretzels were the only real saving grace of this walking disaster, but naturally there were only like, eight of them in the included baggie. The moment I saw the dried apples, I threw in the towel. They looked like swollen alien fingers and were soggy. The instructions clearly said to not put the apples in the oven or microwave, so my best guess is that you were supposed to eat them straight out of the bag? This blew me away, and I refused to even open the apples All-around fail for me.

I was a little disappointed that my lunchtime solution went so horribly wrong. Yumble is advertised as a timesaving technique for  busy moms, but I am not sure how these meals would assuage any parent with an even slightly picky child. The textures and overbearing flavors of some of the items rendered them almost inedible. If you are looking for an easy answer to your work lunch woes, Yumble isn’t it.

Featured image via Pexels