Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Hello Fresh: Best Meal of My Life

We got to try out the Hello Fresh meal delivery service a couple of weeks ago and I'm excited to tell you all about it.  I'd always wanted to give it a try, but it seemed too pricey.  A friend was offering a code for three free meals so I took her up on the offer.  You got to use the code, but had to put in your credit card information signing up for a subscription.  If you didn't care to keep the service going you just had to cancel.

So let me tell you all the PROS and CONS about Hello Fresh!

PRO: I had the most delicious meal of my life!

CON: Overall, the service is too expensive for us to pay full price for every week.

Let me explain a little more.

I selected three 2 person meals for our family.  I planned on fixing other things for the kids those nights and picked meals Kevin and I would enjoy.  The menu items change a lot from week to week so be sure to start your meal service on a week that looks really delicious to you.

PROS:
1. It was really fun to try new recipes and some new ingredients.
2. The meals were fancier than my usual nightly dinners so that made for a fun week.
3. I loved picking out our dinners from all the options.
4. The recipe cards were really detailed and I loved being able to keep them to make the recipes again and again.
5. It was a fun change of pace for us.

CONS:
1. The meals take a fair amount of work - lots of dishes, lots of chopping and even the meals that were labeled easy were a bit of work.
2. There was a ton of packaging to manage from boxes, to cooler packs to everything being individually wrapped.
3. This service is expensive.  It's more than we usually spend on dinners since we eat at home so it's not something we would do regularly.  I'd definitely consider doing it for one of our birthdays, an anniversary gift, etc.  If you're used to eating out regularly for dinner, it is probably similarly priced.
4. The meals aren't all delicious after all that work.
5. Not all of the ingredients worked - the peaches for our salad were spoiled, I ran out of olive oil but a recipe called for it, one recipe mentioned parchment paper working best, but that's not something I keep at home and the portion size seemed a bit small on the meat.

MEAL 1: GRILLED CHEESE TACOS (AKA Best Meal of My Life)
(30 Minute Meal - took closer to 45 minutes)
How could you go wrong with this combo?!?!

I'd never heard of this grilling cheese before, but it was amazing.  So easy to slice and it just got toasty brown on the grill instead of spreading out everywhere like regular cheese.

The veggies were all delicious - roasted sweet potatoes, avocado and DIY pico.  I've also never really eaten radishes and they were delicious!  I love that this service introduced me to some new foods.

My mouth is watering just looking at these pictures.  I'm on the hunt for grilling cheese in my local stores and you better believe this will be a favorite meal of mine at my house.



 MEAL 2: STEAK & NECTARINE SALAD
(20 Minute Meal - took about twice that amount of time)
This was a yummy meal.  We both enjoyed it although the dressing wasn't amazing.


Meal 3: CRISPY FRICO CHEESEBURGERS
(30 Minute Meal - took about 40 minutes)
This meal was fine.  Nothing super special.  We loved the caramelized onions so I'll be doing that again when we make burgers in the future.


 In case you're curious...
The recipe cards - full color, two sided, TONS of information.  You could easily cook these recipes with very little cooking experience because they are so detailed.

Each meal arrives in its own labeled back with the meat packed in cooler pouches below.


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If you'd like to give Hello Fresh a try - use my link to get $20 off your first purchase.  In full disclosure, I get a small credit to my account for promoting Hello Fresh when you sign up for the service.
https://share.hellofresh.com/x/EMn1K0
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Well, what do you think??  Have you tried Hello Fresh before?
Which meal looked the best to you?


It's time to link up with my favorite Tuesday Talk ladies.
Be sure to link up with us.



9 comments:

  1. I completely agree with so many of your thoughts. It is such a neat, fun service but the price makes it WAY out of our budget and some of the stuff they send you is just plain weird. I hope you find that cheese and can eventually share a Whitney version of that recipe on the blog!

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  2. Thanks for sharing. I think these meal services look intriguing, and I'd be excited to try it sometime, but yeah, it's definitely too pricey to do all the time.

    -Lauren
    www.shootingstarsmag.net

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  3. Oh man, I want that taco recipe!! I've never tried a recipe service, but it certainly looks fun!

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  4. I agree with you that the meal services are a little expensive. But what a fun way to try new foods. I first tried grilled cheese in Greece. The cheese was called Haloumi and it was TO DIE FOR! I'm impressed that you cooked it at home.

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  5. We've done Hello Fresh (and Blue Apron) a few times when we get promo codes (fyi, now that you've cancelled, ignore their emails for a while and they'll eventually send you a half off deal to use hah). I do this with stitch fix too and every few months they'll say just try us again, no charge. ha! The meals are great and I love learning some new techniques and ways to use ingredients but I'm with you, far too pricey for regular rotation for us. HF black bean and sweet potato tacos are pretty much a weekly menu item at our house. I'll now be checking out those grilled cheese tacos!

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  6. I'm glad you got to try Hello Fresh! It's fun to try, and I agree with your pros and cons. That taco looks amazing - I've never grilled cheese like that either! You'll have to share your recreated version when you find that special cheese in stores!!

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  7. These meals look amazing! I love the fun and creativity that these meal deliveries bring with them. You get to try recipes that you may never attempt otherwise.

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  8. These meals look so good. I think it would be a fun once in a while thing!

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  9. Those CRISPY FRICO CHEESEBURGERS look good. I've tried Hello Fresh a couple of times. I agree with you on the pros and cons.

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