The Kroger Co., Cincinnati, and Home Chef, Chicago, announced a pilot to enhance its existing selection of meal kits sold in more than 900 Kroger stores nationwide.

Home Chef Oven-Ready meals feature fresh, ready-to-cook ingredients packed in an oven-safe tin to make both meal preparation and clean-up quick and effortless. Meals are designed to serve two people and will be priced from $8.50 per serving. The initial recipes are Garlic Butter Salmon, Blue Cheese-Crusted Steak, Tex-Mex Steak, Chicken Pesto al Forno, Arroz con Pollo and Feta-Crusted Chicken.

Home Chef Heat & Eat meals are fully-cooked, ready-to-heat meals, proteins and sides that can be prepared in as little as five minutes. Shoppers can choose complete meals or purchase proteins and side dishes separately to mix and match. The complete meals will be priced from $6.50 per serving. The menu will rotate, with new meals introduced every month, and will launch with three complete meal choices and a variety of mix-and-match options. The complete meals entail Chicken with Broccoli and Seasoned Mashed Potatoes, Pork al Pastor and Bacon Macaroni and Cheese, while the mix and match consists of Garlic Pork Sirloin Roast, Baby Back Ribs, Smoked Turkey Breast, Sirloin Steak, Broccoli and Rice, Green Beans, Red Potatoes and Carrots with Rosemary.

Home Chef Lunch Kits include salads, grain bowls, sandwiches and more with fully cooked proteins, and can be prepared easily at home or at the office. The lunch kits are priced from $6 per serving, rotate weekly and include Guacamole Chicken Salad Sandwich, Greek Pasta Salad, Chipotle Steak and Guacamole Salad, Buffalo Chicken Pasta Salad, Baja Chicken Salad, Green Chili Chicken Sandwich, Snappy Chicken Guacamole Tacos and Mediterranean Steak & Feta Sandwich.

"Our customers' dinnertime needs are constantly evolving," says Pat Vihtelic, founder and CEO of Home Chef. "We're thrilled to meet more of their needs with high-quality meal options that consider different lifestyles and levels of preparation and cooking times. Our new meal solutions provide additional flexibility for families and individuals who want to get a delicious meal on the table whether they have time to cook one of our meal kits from scratch or need something that can be prepared more quickly."

Home Chef's new meal solutions will first be available at select locations in Illinois (Mariano's) and Ohio (Kroger Cincinnati and Kroger Columbus), starting this month. Kroger anticipates rolling out Home Chef meal solutions to additional markets in 2019.