Cooking is not my thing. I know how to cook and think I’m pretty good at it but just don’t enjoy it. This is why I’m always looking for the perfect balance between healthy, easy and tasty meals.
That quest led me to HelloFresh. I took advantage of a Groupon for two weeks (six meals total) of meals delivered right to my door. The regular price is $69 per week for 3 meals for two and the family plan (for four people) is $129. More than I would normally spend on three dinners but less than restaurant meals.
Meal Delivery
HelloFresh has a website where you place orders. With the classic plan (meaning meat/fish) you can select which three meals you want from five options every week. Another feature I like is that it’s easy to indicate which weeks you want to skip delivery for those vacations or weeks when you have other plans.
The meals arrive each week in a box from UPS. In the box the meals are packed in separate boxes containing all the ingredients except for the protein. They are packaged under ice packs. I almost threw them out the first week but fortunately my husband realized the box still had something in it!
Lastly, the box contained recipe cards, an ingredient spotlight card and and envelope with curated offers from other subscription box companies including gwynnie bee, Carnivore Club and urthbox.
Meal Preparation
The recipe cards are visually appealing and contain much more information than directions. As you can see the first page is an image of the finished dish, images of all the included ingredients along with cooking times and level of difficulty. Warning: Level 2 is not easy; I don’t know if there is a level 3 but I imagine it would have you deboning the fish or chicken!
The back of the card included nutritional information as well as ingredient measurements and the directions. Speaking of nutrition, 741 calories is more than I want in a fish meal of tacos and a slaw.
I was able to prepare the meals pretty closely to the image provided by HelloFresh but was very unhappy at times with the amount of prep work required. Our last meal was chicken fajitas, I made homemade salsa, guacamole and fajitas. It was 30 minutes before I started cooking anything and took an hour to finish. Not what I want to do after a long day.
End Result – The Meals
The end result was five great tasting, fresh meals. I say five because one of them, the grilled steak and nectarine salad, had ingredients go bad before the week was up. The salad was slimy and starting to rot when I went to prepare it. We did grill the steak and have sandwiches instead.
This Zucchini noodle lasagna was so good my vegetable-adverse husband enjoyed it.
I would never pick up catfish at the store but this blackened catfish with roasted potatoes and summer vegetables was delicious.
I changed up the potatoes included in the Parmesan crusted chicken meal and added the green beans. The chicken was a big hit with my husband.
We both enjoyed the tuna tartar tacos (which I cooked more based on our preferences) and the chicken fajitas. I didn’t take pictures of the latter because it wasn’t pretty but I got to admit homemade salsa is awesome!
Findings
For empty nesters or singles, the subscription service is a great idea to add variety to your home cooked meals. I am open to trying competitors of Blue Apron for comparison purposes. Whichever meal kit delivery service you use, they offer discounts for new customers via deal sites or coupons so be on the lookout.
What’s your experience with meal delivery kits?
It sounds like you found some new recipes for your rotation. I would agree with you that an hour and a half of prep/cooking is too much for a weekday, though.
I have a fridge stuffed with veggies from a CSA because I haven’t found much time for cooking lately. I’m about to post a “Beets, free to good home” ad.
Jen, I do like trying new recipes; after 40 years of cooking I’m bored with same-old, same-old. I wonder if you can freeze those beets?
Wow I must say all that food does look good. I was always leery about food deliveries like those, but after seeing this, I just might consider giving it a try. Thanks for sharing. We both need to get back on our diets and healthy living again!
Carolann, getting back to healthy living is on my agenda starting today. I put it on hold while my grandson was visiting two weeks.
While this sounds like a great service, I like to shop for fresh food and prepare them.
Understandable. What makes life interesting is that there’s something for all of us.
I have just eaten a full dinner, never the less I am going to start googling Zucchini noodle lasagna because that does sound and look fab! I have always been curious about HelloFresh, thanks for your opinion.
I must say it was delicious. Here’s the recipe I used: Zucchini Noodle Lasagna.
We have a local business called ‘What the Crock’ they sell complete, fresh frozen meals that you simply put in your crock pot. It is between 6.99 and 11.99 per person and so far the 2-person meal gets us 2 dinners and 2 lunches. I love it! Our grocery store delivers too. I will have to check out Hello Fresh, it sounds good!
Doreen, that sounds like a great business. The pricing seems like a good value for what you’re getting. I wish Trader Joe’s delivered. Most of my grocery purchases come from there.
I’ve never heard of such a service but AM SO EXCITED! Anyone who’s ever come over for dinner (or breakfast or lunch) KNOWS that I’m a disaster in the kitchen. Can’t wait to check this out!
Mona, glad to be of service! 🙂
My husband has a very prolific vegetable garden, so as long as we have chicken breasts in the house, we have a dinner. But this sounds good for someone who doesn’t have their own farmer!
Kim, how fortunate that you live with a gardener! We both have brown thumbs so buy it all.
This convenient service would have been perfect for my mother – but it wasn’t offered where she lived. I might try it some day.
Elaine, it is very convenient.
I tried Hello Fresh from a Groupon. I LIKED it…but the full price service is just too expensive for me.
Michelle, I agree it is expensive. I would do it one or two weeks a month if I enjoyed making the meals more.
I’ve been curious about trying one of these services. You’ve just given me the push I needed!
Lisha, I like trying them. Otherwise we get into a rut of “if it’s Tuesday we must be having cobb salad”.
I soooooo want something like this to work for me and my family of 5. Getting balanced meals reading on time before they all head off to sports is a major downfall of mine as a mother. Thanks for pointing out an option. Recipes look more complicated than I’d want, though, but something to consider.
I forgot to mention in my post that they have their recipes on the website that can be downloaded for free.
These seems to such a convenient service for people living alone. We have something called a ‘tiffin services’ in India where fresh, home cooked food is delivered regularly. This works well for singles and the elderly.
Corinne, I think I saw a story about the tiffin services on TV. Fascinating!
I haven’t tried, partially because my spouse is SO WEIRD about food freshness issues, especially bagged salads. But I think it’s a fascinating idea, and very useful for the times in which we live!
It is a great idea and I’m looking for the best one for us.
I have no experience with meal planning/delivery services. I can see the value in them, in terms of saving time in regard to grocery shopping, but if time savings is the main issue, I can certainly understand why you would object to 30 minutes of prep time before you begin the recipe.
We buy our veggies from a CSA, and we get what we get in our box.
So, I am familiar with the idea of needing to eat a whole bunch of the produce in the first few days, or risking having veggies that are past their prime. Food waste makes me sad, and as hard as I try, I do seem to end up wasting some veggies, each time. It’s not optimal, but the produce IS generally better than what I get at the store, and I do feel good about supporting local organic farmers.
Because I live 25 minutes away from a grocery store, it’s difficult to find the perfect solution to buying a lot at once to avoid trips out, and buying only what I need, but having to make more trips out to procure more.
Susan, we did subscribe to a CSA previously and I got out of the habit. I may go back to that once things settle down in a couple of weeks.
I think these are great services, as long as you consume quickly, as you point out. But a great way to get a balanced meal.
Carol, good point about the balanced meal. We tend to eat too many frozen meals left to our own devices and don’t supplement with enough vegetables.
I had considered meal delivery, but I was afraid of what you just mentioned – that the food would spoil easily. I might consider it at some point again though.
It is an important consideration. Meals need to be cooked/consumed fairly quickly after delivery.