I tried Home Chef’s new no-mess meal-delivery service, Tempo – my review

Some nights of the week, there’s nothing I look forward to less than cooking dinner.

Please don’t think any less of me. I am but one man with a job and an hour-long commute home. Leaving the office, especially in the wintertime to already darkened skies, shoving myself between other commuters, and sweating in my winter coat, the thought dawns on me: I have no idea what I’m going to eat tonight.

There’s only so much takeout my budget can handle (not to mention a lingering feeling of guilt at having ordered delivery multiple times in one week), and I can’t imagine following a recipe right now. I’d love, more than anything, for someone else to handle this for me. But I’m too old to live with my parents and too young to do any meal planning or prep with my spouse.

Over the years, we have seen and heard a litany of buzzwords and phrases trotted out for this exact predicament:  #Adulting, Burnout, Yuppie Culture, First World Problems. What am I if not a product of my times? As Kamala Harris so aptly put it just a few weeks ago, quoting her mother, “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree? You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.”

For me, eating dinner in New York City means zillions of options and delivery services, but exceedingly few that actually make my life any better. Is there a way to eat healthy and sustain myself without having to think about it (or it costing an arm and a leg)? 

Readers, such an option does exist. Its name is Tempo, and it is by Home Chef.

As I discovered this week, Tempo is the newest brand featured under the Home Chef umbrella. It offers feel-good, single-serving meals designed to be ready to eat in just four minutes.

If you’re in the market for chef-crafted meals delivered to your door that are even easier to prepare than a meal kit, Tempo is for you. As I outlined earlier, it also perfectly suits my solo dinner needs.

For my review, I had the opportunity to try four different meals from Tempo, all of which came in individually wrapped packages, pictured below:

Each non-vegetarian meal promises at least 30 grams of protein, with vegetarian meals offering at least 15 grams. 

Each week, Tempo’s team of seasoned chefs offers 20 new recipe options to choose from. While you might find yourself torn between trying some of the delicious meals, Tempo promises that each contains less than 600 calories, uses whole grains where possible, and comes with one full serving of vegetables. There’s no need to worry about not getting the nutrition you need, even if you aren’t doing the prep yourself.

The meals I was able to sample include:

• Tuscan-Style Turkey
• Chipotle Beef Grain Bowl
• Beef Meatballs au Vin
• Southwest-Style Chicken Thigh

All of these hit the spot, but I found the Chipotle Beef Grain Bowl particularly good. And perhaps that’s no coincidence; the Chipotle Beef Grain Bowl is part of Tempo’s Dietitian-Approved series of meals, created in collaboration with Registered Dietitians at Kroger Health, ensuring that “each recipe serves as inspiration to nourish your body and love what you eat.”

And if that’s what inspiration feels like, I can see why people speak so highly about it. It tastes great!

Even better? Right now, as a new customer, you can claim 50% off your first box of Tempo meals and 20% off the following four boxes. It’s like they’re giving this stuff away!

All in all, I can’t recommend Tempo enough. For easy, no-stress meals that start at just $11 per serving, I couldn’t ask for a better meal option when I just want to collapse on the couch – cooking and dish-doing be damned.

If you’ve ever thought: “Boy, I sure would love to eat healthy and treat my body well, but I don’t feel like putting any effort in whatsoever! Plus, I don’t want to pay very much money,” then Tempo is the easy meal delivery service for you. 

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