Meals kits are a recipe and series of ingredients delivered fresh to your door. Those ingredients must then be sliced, diced, and prepared according to the instructions.
Prepared meals come in one of two ways. Some are already fully cooked and are packaged in serving sizes. Preparation is done using a microwave or oven to reheat only. Others come fully prepared with fresh but uncooked ingredients, requiring the recipient to bake the meal in the oven or saute it in a pan.