Last week, Andrew and I tried HelloFresh for the first time! I love that their recipes are healthy, fast, and easy to make. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a meal subscription service where you get “a box of fresh, pre-measured ingredients and delicious recipes delivered straight to your doorstep every week.” (from their website.)
You can select 3-5 meals a week for 2 or 4 people, and there are options for vegetarians and kid-friendly meals. You make your selection from the available meals and your food is delivered on the day of your choosing.
Delivery
Are y’all ready for a good laugh? I was so excited for our HelloFresh box that I watched the tracking all day long. Around 6:30 pm (dangerously close to dinner time), the tracking status changed to “attempted delivery”. WHAT. I ran outside in pajama pants and rain boots (don’t ask) and frantically searched for the UPS truck. Defeated, I trudged back to our apartment, where I saw the UPS man standing at our door. I proceeded to run at him, yelling “I’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR YOU!” and scared the daylights out of him. Needless to say, we got our box after all.
I was extremely impressed with the packaging of the meats, which were so cold they were almost frozen. The box had been out since 3 am for delivery, so the near-frozen state of the ingredients made me very happy.
Cooking and Recipes
Each individual box has everything you need for your recipe, as pictured above. You also get a handbook with the recipes and instructions for each meal. They expect you to have the basics, like olive oil, salt, and pepper. I was pleased to see that all of the vegetables and herbs in each box were fresh and in great condition. PS. how cute are those mini jars of honey and coarse mustard?
Our Meals
The first night, we cooked honey mustard salmon with couscous and roasted asparagus. I probably should have read through the instructions in their entirety first, because I found myself going back and reading the instructions a lot. We didn’t love the honey mustard on the salmon, but the asparagus and couscous pilaf were tasty.
You don’t have to tell a Texan twice when tacos are on the menu. We were totally on board with these mole spiced tacos with sautéed poblano and red onion, a corn salsa and crema. As far as preparation goes, the steak came in cubes (sort of), and their uneven sizes made it difficult to cook. I found the meal to be a little heavy on sour cream- it was in the corn salsa and the crema. Overall, we wished the tacos had more spice and thought the meal was just ok.
Last but not least, MY FAVORITE MEAL. Crispy chicken parmesan salad. I love all of those things. The chicken was breaded with sour cream and panko (seriously, HelloFresh loves sour cream), and I liked it. Andrew thought it was odd, but ate it anyway (typical man). The spinach and roasted potatoes were tossed in a delicious lemon juice, olive oil, and (you guessed it) sour cream dressing. We cooked this meal before going to our Thursday night marriage class at church, and I loved that it was so quick and tasty. I also added some fresh rosemary from our garden to the potatoes. Yum.
Final Decision
Having meals delivered, pre-portioned and ready to go was so convenient. It would be perfect for a person or family who is busy or maybe just hates grocery shopping and interacting with people (Kidding). I wish there had been more leftovers, but that could have been achieved by getting meals for 4 instead of 2 people. I really appreciated the CORRECT PORTION SIZES, since 99.99999% of Americans eat way more than they should. All in all, I would definitely use HelloFresh again in the future when life gets a little busier. For now, my meal planning and prepping will do just fine 😉
If you’re interested in trying, ask me how you can get your first box completely free! (There’s nothing in it for me, promise 🙂 )
Thanks for reading,
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