As appealing as Pinterest tries to make it look, no amount of mason jars or color-coded plastic containers can make meal prep actually fun. Even if you have the foresight (and time and energy) to meal prep all at once, meal planning usually involves sacrificing precious Sunday hours to grocery shopping, chopping, seasoning, roasting and packing a week's worth of meals -- and then you're stuck with the same meal for every meal, which usually isn't improved upon as the days of the week slip by.

Enter: Meal delivery services. Sure, you've heard of Blue Apron (and probably utilized a coupon code or two before canceling your delivery once you realized you were paying to cook for yourself). But have you tried getting meals delivered right to your door? These home delivery meals come ready to eat, or just take a few steps to create. If that sounds expensive, well, it usually is. That's why we tried these meal delivery services for you. Here are the ones that are actually worth your dollar.

Image via hellofresh.com

Availability: Southern California: Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Orange County and San Diego

Price: $18.66 per meal when on the three meals per day plan. Price goes down by 10 percent if your order 40 or more days. You can add up to five dietary restrictions (gluten- or soy-free, vegetarian, nut-free, etc.) for no additional cost.

Good for: People with eating restrictions or special dietary needs

Pros: Ease of delivery, ability to customize based on dietary choices, zero mess and cooking

Cons: Could not choose specific meals

Tester's Notes: These meals will make your life easy. The ordering and scheduling is easy, the preparation (put it in the oven or microwave for a few minutes) is easy, and you can just let Crateful do the nutritional math for you if you're looking for a calorie-restrictive diet. Everything tasted incredibly fresh -- the blueberries on the pancakes were first-day-grocery-shopping crisp, according to our taster. And the presentation is pretty darn thoughtful, considering almost every meal came with a literal sprinkling of edible flower petals. The meals (like lemon risotto, vegetarian burrito and lasagna, for example) leave you feeling full, but not heavy.

However, this meal plan isn't the best for picky eaters who want to select their meals rather than be surprised. You may be able to customize a lot about your Crateful meal, but you can't pick exactly what is served. Tomatoes, for example, were in almost every meal -- poor luck for our tomato-averse tester. If you don't have the palate of a toddler, that shouldn't be a problem, but picky eaters beware.

Image via @eat_crateful

Availability: A lot of major cities, like New York, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, Tucson, Las Vegas, Seattle, Sacramento, Salt Lake City and Reno. Check the full list here.

Price: Starting at $10.50 for main meals, plus a $3.95 delivery fee. They also have cooking kits in some areas that start at $9.50 per serving. You can order sides starting at $3.75, and add on desserts and drinks starting at $2. Kids' meals are listed at $5.25 and up.

Good for: Foodies who are too busy to cook or a split meat-eating/vegetarian household

Pros: You can see exactly what you're ordering ahead of time, and you can decide the day of or the night before. The food quality is fresh, recipes are delicious, and prices are comparable to takeout. Complete nutrition information is available.

Cons: I can't think of any.

Tester's Notes: Getting a delivery from Munchery feels like Christmas morning. You can choose from a plethora of beautiful meals and the fancy kind of beverages you might find at a natural foods store (Kombucha! Matcha tea!) and have it delivered right to your door within a certain window. Once delivered, all you have to do is heat it up, and it tastes like restaurant quality food, according to our taster. The salads, in particular, were so flavorful and complex. For $85 per year (around $7 per month), you can become a member and have access to special discounts. This service is ideal for those nights you don't feel like cooking, or if you live in a household that can't agree on food options (like a carnivore/vegetarian situation).

Image via Munchery

Availability: Everywhere in the U.S., including Alaska and Hawaii

Price: Starting at $10 per meal for the a la carte option or $8 per meal if you do a meal pack

Good for: Vegans and vegetarians strapped for time

Pros: Ease of preparation, healthy-ish plant-based meals

Cons: Not always filling, much more expensive than your typical frozen meal

Tester's Notes: These frozen, easy-to-prepare meals are great for those who are transitioning into or committed to a plant-based diet. Our taster found it easy to move her meal for the day from the freezer to the fridge in the morning. Come lunchtime, you're only four or five microwaveable minutes away from a delicious, vegetarian meal.

At $8 to $10 a pop, these meals were probably cheaper than what you'd get on your lunch break, and definitely healthier. They are slightly more expensive than some vegetarian frozen meals you might find in the freezer section, but you can rest assured that they're organic, non-GMO and preservative-free. They also have gluten-free and calorie-restrictive options, which is good if you're looking for a strict regimen. Our taster particularly liked the country fried chick'n with veggies and mashed potatoes and gravy, calling it "hearty" and "amazing" tasting.

Image via @veestrofood

Availability: All of California, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, Arizona, Idaho, and Utah

Price: $11.95-$13.95 per meal

Good for: Cooking newbies who are intimidated by food preparation and/or short on time

Pros: Tasty meals, interesting menu, easier to prepare than cooking a meal from scratch, easy clean-up

Cons: Not quite as quick and easy as advertised (though still pretty quick and easy)

Tester's Notes: Wannabe chefs can keep their day job as long as they have this meal kit to cut out grocery shopping and menu selection. Gobble sends meals almost entirely pre-prepped (think: pre-cooked lentils, pre-boiled eggs, already-poached potatoes), so all you have to do is put everything together. With the prep work out of the way, dinner no longer seems like a giant effort at the end of your day. "All of the meals were much more ambitious than something I'd attempt if I were flying solo, which was nice because it allowed me to break out of my food rut," said our taster.

Recipes are relatively easy and quick to prepare. The extent of your hands-on cooking will involve chopping veggies, sautéing meat and boiling water -- and most of the meals can be prepared in one pot or pan, which makes clean-up easier. The directions are easy to follow, the portion sizes are generous enough for two people, and each meals has a mix of veggies, grains and meat.

While Gobble says each meal can be prepared in 10 to 15 minutes, that might be a slight understatement, or maybe only true for real chefs. In reality, sometimes the cooking time alone is 10 minutes. Our taster found it was more like 20 to 30 minutes to get a meal on the table, but still stressed it felt like minimal effort for a really delicious meal that costs less than takeout.

Image via @gobbleinc