Hello Fresh Review

When my husband and I were dating, we went out most every weekend. Many of those dates ended with a movie, but almost always started at a nice restaurant. We loved fine dining and we loved trying new foods! Duck, alligator, frog legs, snails - these were a few of the foods we would eat out, but never at home. Not just because they weren't our normal meat and potato type meals that I was use to preparing, but I never thought they were the kind of meals I could prepare!

As the years went by and our family grew AND grew, we didn't go out near as much and very rarely went to an expensive restaurant. We save that for special occasions like our anniversary.

 

I was super excited to review HelloFresh for several reasons! The first being the obvious - it's food people! We all love to eat! At least my family does.

Reason two - one of my most hated chores is grocery shopping. It didn't use to be, but as my family grew bigger and my time to get things done became shorter, grocery shopping turned into a dreaded task. Why is this one of my reasons to be excited for this review? Because the food is delivered to your door! To YOUR door!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another reason - It's exciting and fun to get a big package in the mail, ESPECIALLY when it's food! And you known it's going to be something special when you read the "caution" note on the side of the box!  

 

 

What is HelloFresh?

"Tired of wasting time at the grocery store? On average, 90 minutes are spent on weekly grocery shopping! We want to give you more time for your children, family, friends, and time for that book you could never finish!
We do it all for you – from creating the recipes, to planning the meals, to grocery shopping, and even delivering all of the ingredients right to your door!

With HelloFresh you can save time by not making the weekly grocery store trips, but also the stress that it brings!"

 

How can food be safely AND freshly delivered to your door? Let's start with the packaging.

My meals came in a thick, sturdy, nicely, sealed box. Once I cut the plastic straps and opened the box, I was pleased to see how well insulated the package was. After removing the beautiful menu cards (more on those later), I could see my food was neatly packed in a thick, foam plastic type of packing material, along with two large ice packs - which I'm saving to use again. I was home when my package was delivered, but had I not been, I'm very confident the food would have kept for hours!

 

 

 Once I began emptying my box of food, I have to admit I was getting a little nervous about this review. I've cooked with most of the ingredients the box contained, but not all of them. Ashamed to say, but as the main grocery shopper in the house I tend to buy items that I like to eat or cook. I guess I don't really venture out in the cooking world very much. I mean who puts mustard on fish? I thought that was for hot dogs! So obviously I play it safe when it comes to cooking.

 

Since I cook a lot of fish and really like all kinds of fish, I decided to start with the tilapia recipe that was sent. AND I couldn't get the idea of mustard on fish out of my mind!

Here are what the ingredients looked like. All very well labeled and packaged.

 

 

The recipe card, in addition to being very colorful, is super easy to follow and I love that it shows pictures! That works out great for me as I'm a very visual learner.

I wanted to try this first recipe myself, but soon found my husband and kids were watching over my shoulder. So I did what any good mom would do - I put them to work!

Peeling, cutting, mixing - we had fun cooking together and it was so easy to follow the recipe card!

 

 

All of my ingredients were fresh and a good size. Check out my sweet potato! As big as my hand!

 

 

And finally, you guessed it, mustard on the fish!

 

 

Adding a few finishing touches before baking.

 

 

Having all the ingredients premeasured and ready to go is a fabulous idea! Talk about a time savor!

I did have a few cook helpers, but even if I didn't, I know I would have had this meal in the oven in about 20 minutes.

 

The final product - Dill Crusted Tilapia with sweet potatoes and cranberry medley. By the way, mustard on fish is delish! Really amazing!

 

 

The next recipe was entirely prepared by my 14 year old. She has cooked a little in the past, but never made an entire meal. This shows you how well planned out these meals are!

 

 

Apricot Glazed Turkey with Beets and Orzo. Again, everything premeasured, labeled and ready to go makes meal preparation so incredibly easy!

 

 

Maybe it's a girl thing, but all my daughters asked me to include the cute, little jam jar that came along with this recipe. I'm pretty sure one of them washed it out and kept it!

 

 

I've had turkey many times, but never prepared like this and I never had orzo, so I was excited to try that.

 

Orzo is VERY good! I really liked it and will definitely be making that again!

 

 

Our third and last meal that we were given to prepare was Stuffed Squash with Cherry Balsamic Reduction.

 

 

Once again we were not disappointed in how delicious this meal was. Preparation time was around 30 minutes and very easy to follow directions.

 

 

Each meal comes with a recipe card. These cards are really, very nice, a great size (not like your mom's tiny recipe cards). They include a list of ingredients, nutrition facts, tools needed, and the best part - step by step directions WITH pictures. You can't go wrong with these recipe cards!

 

 

All HelloFresh meals are created by their own chefs and nutritionist. I love the idea of someone else coming up with my menu AND be able to try new things. Every once in a while I come up with a new recipe, but I tend to stick with the same old - same old most weeks. HelloFresh is a great way to try new recipes, especially when you don't have to go shopping for all those ingredients! Sometimes when I do find a new recipe I shy away from it due to not knowing where to find all my ingredients or at least fresh ingredients if they're out of season.

 

This is a great idea for busy families that may eat fast food or take out too much, busy moms that deserve a break in the kitchen, singles or couples working full time and want to come home to an easy, already planned meal! HelloFresh works well for ALL family types, for any reason!

 

 

This is a subscription, delivery service, so your three weekly meals come automatically. You can pause meals if you'll be away or set up a delivery schedule that suits you. If you pick the Classic box subscription you can choose three out of five meal choices. They also have a vegetarian meal choice.

There is no minimum length for your subscription.

Prices for the meals depend on how many people you're ordering for. You have the option of ordering for two or four people AND picking between the Classic Box or the Veggie Box. Prices range from $59 to $129 for your three meals.

Visit HelloFresh where you can see pictures of their meals (and get hungry). They also have a FAQs page so all your questions can be answered.

 

I'm so glad to have been given the chance to review HelloFresh. I think this is a great service, an amazing time savor, and a wonderful chance to try new recipes! Wanna know what one of my new favorite meals to make is? Dill Crusted Tilapia WITH mustard! Thanks HelloFresh!