EveryPlate is the lowest-cost meal delivery service I've tested that offers full, balanced, hot meals. At $7 a serving, it's also the only one that wouldn't require any particular adjustment in my grocery budget.

The pork chop meal I tried this May is the sort of meat-and-two supper that I probably took too much for granted when I was a child. Pan-seared chops. Crispy-leafed brussels sprouts baked in the oven. Fresh mashed potatoes. But what elevated the meal from basic staple to weekday extravagance was a thoughtful shallot-garlic-cream pan sauce, cooked with fresh thyme in the juices from the pork I'd just finished searing.

The sauce was rich, complex and aromatic, and just enough outside my usual repertoire that I felt like I'd learned a useful secret. This was a work-tired Wednesday, a day I'm more prone to regrettable DoorDashes than cogent meal planning. While the dish took 45 minutes to make—longer than most EveryPlate meals—the process was straightforward.

Each ingredient was pre-portioned and the cook times were pretested so that the sprouts and fresh mashed potatoes and chops all arrived together. If I would have rather steamed or pan-seared the sprouts, it was a quibble for a different day.