Americans Pay Monthly for Meal Kits to Learn Cooking

Immigrant confused by expensive ingredients with instructions

When Recipes Become Subscription Services

AUSTIN, TX – Kofi Agyeman watched his American roommate unbox a Blue Apron delivery: pre-portioned ingredients for three meals costing $60. The 29-year-old from Ghana had questions: “What is this?” His roommate explained: meal kits—services that send ingredients and recipes so you can cook at home. Agyeman’s confusion: “That’s just groceries with instructions. Why are you paying $20 per meal for groceries and recipes you could get free?” His roommate defended: “It teaches me to cook.” Agyeman’s response: “YouTube teaches you to cook. For free. You’re paying $60 for ingredients that cost $25 at grocery stores plus recipes from internet. You’re being scammed with vegetables.”

In Kumasi, Agyeman learned cooking by watching family and practicing. Cost: $0. In Austin, people pay $10-15 per person per meal for pre-measured ingredients and laminated instructions teaching them to cook food they could’ve cooked cheaper without the kit. “You’ve monetized learning,” Agyeman observed. “Home Ec class but it’s subscription service costing $240 monthly.”

When Cooking Requires Outsourcing Grocery Shopping

According to market research, meal kit industry is worth $5 billion annually—Americans paying premiums for ingredients plus instructions because grocery shopping and recipe-finding are “too hard.” Agyeman investigated his roommate’s Blue Apron meal: chicken, rice, vegetables, sauce. “This costs $10 at grocery store,” he calculated. “You paid $20. You’re paying $10 premium for someone to portion ingredients and print recipe. That’s $10 for convenience of not shopping or googling ‘chicken rice recipe.’ You’re paying $120 monthly to avoid grocery stores and Google. This is expensive learned helplessness about feeding yourself.”

Jerry Seinfeld said, “What’s the deal with meal kits? You’re paying them to not cook for you?” Agyeman wants to know the same thing. Meal kits don’t cook the food—you do. They just portion ingredients and suggest recipes. “You’re paying for groceries plus homework,” he told his roommate. “You have to cook anyway. You haven’t saved time. You’ve saved the ‘burden’ of shopping and choosing recipes, but you’ve paid $120 monthly for that service. If your time is worth $120 monthly in saved shopping, you should use that valuable time to earn money, not cook Blue Apron meals you’re overpaying for.”

The Recipe Card They Could’ve Found on Google

Agyeman read the Blue Apron recipe card: sear chicken, cook rice, sauté vegetables, make sauce. “This is basic cooking,” he observed. “Nothing here requires meal kit. You could Google ‘chicken dinner recipes’ and find 10,000 variations free. But you paid $20 for this specific recipe with portions. Why?” His roommate explained meal kits eliminate “decision fatigue” about what to cook. Agyeman’s response: “You’ve paid $120 monthly to avoid deciding what’s for dinner. Decision fatigue about food is not real problem—it’s first-world excuse to justify expensive convenience. People in my country don’t have decision fatigue about dinner. They have ‘what ingredients can I afford’ fatigue. You have ‘too many choices’ fatigue. These are not the same.”

Dave Chappelle said, “Sometimes you have to protect yourself from yourself.” Americans need protection from meal kit companies that profit from convincing people that cooking is hard, shopping is overwhelming, and recipes are complicated. “Cooking isn’t hard,” Agyeman told his roommate while cooking dinner from grocery store ingredients in same time as Blue Apron meal for half the cost. “You’ve been convinced it’s hard so you’ll pay for solutions. Meal kits are solutions to problems you don’t have. You can shop. You can google recipes. You can portion ingredients yourself. But meal kits have marketed themselves as necessary for busy people who want to cook. You’re not busy—you’re home cooking Blue Apron. You have time to cook. You just don’t have time to shop or plan meals? That’s selective busyness used to justify expensive convenience.”

When Convenience Costs Double the Food Price

Agyeman calculated: Blue Apron meals cost $20 per serving. Grocery store ingredients for identical meals: $8-10 per serving. “You’re paying 100% markup for portioning and recipe cards,” he said. “Double price for groceries someone else selected and recipes someone else wrote. That’s not convenience—that’s exploitation of people who’ve forgotten how to feed themselves without corporate guidance. For $120 monthly, you could buy groceries for entire month and cook more meals. But you pay $120 for three meals weekly. The math doesn’t math. You’re losing money and calling it convenience.”

Chris Rock said, “You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy.” Agyeman knows America is crazy when people pay double for groceries because portioning and recipe-finding are considered difficult. His roommate insisted meal kits reduce food waste—perfectly portioned ingredients mean no leftovers. “That’s not a feature—that’s a limitation,” Agyeman countered. “Leftovers are lunch tomorrow. You’re paying premium to not have leftovers? That’s paying more to get less food. Smart consumption is buying ingredients you’ll use multiple times. Meal kits sell you exactly enough for one meal, ensuring you buy again. They’ve eliminated leftovers and called it benefit when it’s actually mechanism to guarantee repeat purchases.”

The Meal Kit Subscription They Forgot to Cancel

Agyeman discovered his roommate has been subscribed for 18 months—$2,160 spent on meal kits. “You’ve spent $2,160 learning to cook,” Agyeman calculated. “Culinary school costs $20,000 but you get degree. You got 156 meals and recipe cards you threw away. You haven’t learned cooking—you’ve learned how to follow instructions that come with expensive ingredients. Can you cook without meal kit?” His roommate paused. “Probably not.” “Then you haven’t learned cooking. You’ve learned dependency on meal kits. After 18 months and $2,160, you can’t cook independently. This isn’t education—it’s subscription dependency disguised as learning.”

Bill Burr said, “I’m not going to apologize for being right.” Agyeman’s not apologizing for thinking meal kits are expensive training wheels for adults who refuse to learn. “Every meal kit is practice at following instructions,” he told his roommate. “After 156 meals, you should’ve internalized how to cook basic dishes. You should be able to shop for ingredients and recreate meals. But you can’t because you’ve learned to follow Blue Apron instructions, not cooking principles. You’ve been trained to need meal kits. They’ve made themselves indispensable to you. That’s not cooking education—it’s customer retention strategy. They’ve taught you dependence, not independence.”

When Cooking Became Too Complex for Adults

Agyeman realized Americans have overcomplicated cooking to justify meal kits. “Cooking is simple: heat food until edible,” he observed. “Your ancestors cooked without meal kits. Your grandparents cooked without portioned ingredients and laminated instructions. You’ve decided cooking is complex, shopping is overwhelming, and meal planning is impossible without corporate help. You’ve outsourced basic survival skills to subscription services. What happens if Blue Apron ends? Do you starve? Do you re-learn cooking from scratch? You’ve made yourself dependent on service that could disappear, leaving you unable to feed yourself independently.”

Amy Schumer said, “I’m not saying I’m lazy, I’m saying I’m energy efficient.” Americans aren’t cooking efficient—they’re cooking-dependent on expensive services that profit from convincing them cooking is hard. Agyeman’s roommate explained meal kits expose him to new recipes he wouldn’t try otherwise. “There are millions of free recipes online,” Agyeman countered. “You could try new recipes weekly for free. You’re paying $120 monthly for recipe variety you could get free with Google. Meal kits haven’t enabled variety—they’ve charged you for it. The internet has infinite free recipes. You’ve chosen to pay Blue Apron $120 monthly to select three recipes for you. That’s not exploration—that’s expensive curation of freely available information.”

The Environmental Cost Nobody Mentions

Agyeman noticed meal kits generate massive packaging waste—individual portions in plastic, ice packs, cardboard boxes weekly. “You’re paying premium for groceries that create 10x the waste of normal grocery shopping,” he observed. “Every ingredient individually wrapped. Every meal in separate box. You get three meals with enough packaging to fill garbage bag. You’ve made feeding yourself environmentally destructive because you won’t shop or portion ingredients yourself. This is convenience at environment’s expense. You’re literally paying extra to generate more waste. That’s not sustainable living—that’s guilt-free destruction.”

Kevin Hart said, “Everybody wants to be famous, but nobody wants to do the work.” Everybody wants home-cooked meals, but nobody wants to do the work of shopping, planning, and learning. So they pay meal kit companies $120 monthly to do the planning and shopping while they do the cooking and call it “cooking at home.” Agyeman’s observation: “You’re not really cooking at home—you’re assembling pre-selected ingredients per instructions. That’s like saying you built a house because you assembled IKEA furniture. Real cooking is deciding what to make, shopping for ingredients, improvising when something’s missing, learning from mistakes. Meal kits eliminate all of that. You follow instructions with exact ingredients. That’s following recipes, not cooking.”

When asked if he’d ever subscribe to meal kits, Agyeman laughed while cooking dinner from grocery store ingredients that cost $6 and will provide leftovers for lunch. “Never,” he said. “I’ll continue shopping at grocery stores, finding free recipes online, portioning ingredients myself, and cooking real meals for fraction of meal kit cost. You people have been convinced that cooking is complicated, shopping is overwhelming, and recipes are hard to find. None of that is true. Cooking is simple. Shopping is necessary. Recipes are free online. But meal kit companies have profited from your learned helplessness about feeding yourselves. They’ve sold you convenience you don’t need at prices you can’t afford to solve problems you’ve invented. After $2,160 and 18 months, you still can’t cook independently. That’s not cooking education—that’s expensive recipe-following training that ends when you cancel subscription. Back home, we learn cooking by cooking. No subscriptions. No pre-portioned ingredients. No laminated instructions. Just food, heat, practice, and patience. You’ve outsourced learning to companies that profit from you never learning. Cancel Blue Apron. Go to grocery store. Google a recipe. Cook food. Learn cooking. Save $120 monthly. Gain independence. Stop paying corporations to teach you how to feed yourself while keeping you dependent on them. That’s not cooking—that’s subscription agriculture where you’re crop.”

SOURCE: Bohiney Magazine (Aisha Muharrar)

DATE: 11/30/2025