I have another review that I am super ecstatic to share with you all. Do you remember when I tried Blue Apron, a food delivery service that sends you all the ingredients you need to cook a few meals? While I really liked the idea of having all the ingredients sent to my house to try new recipes, I had some issues with the service. Mainly, that the portions were small for the price and the recipes were a bit fancy for us.
When I saw a deal for a similar service called Hello Fresh, I jumped at the chance to try it out. I signed up to receive 3 meals for 2 people and was able to pick from five meals to determine the ones we wanted to try.
The regular cost of the package we got is $69, which includes shipping…however I have an awesome promo code at the end of the post that will save you some moola. Hello Fresh also has options for larger amounts of servings if your family is bigger than ours.
We received three meals in our order:
– Lemony Shrimp Linguine with Roasted Red Peppers
– Sautéed Chicken with Mushrooms and Mashed Potatoes
– Steak & Brussels Sprouts Stir-Fry
Our order was delivered on Thursday and I was able to make the meals on Friday, Saturday and Monday. Which I’m pretty sure is some kind of record for me cooking meals at home.
Here’s what we thought:
Meal #1: Lemony Shrimp Linguine with Roasted Red Peppers
After my last experience with a recipe subscription box, I was almost afraid to look at the recipe and I was so pleased to find this one clear to understand and relatively easy to make! I love that each recipe page comes with the nutrition information and that the recipe steps were really straightforward.
The only thing I changed on this recipe is that I sautéed the red peppers instead of turning on the oven and putting them on a baking sheet as instructed. I’m sure that would have been quite tasty too, but I try to dirty as few dishes as possible when cooking.
Travis and I both loved this meal. It was light and tasty and the portion was perfectly sized for both of us. I even grabbed away some of the noodles and a few shrimp for Jack to eat.
Meal #2: Sautéed Chicken with Mushrooms and Mashed Potatoes
For our second meal, I knew that we were going to love it because Travis and I both are big fans of mushrooms AND mashed potatoes. I was concerned that the provided potatoes wouldn’t stretch very far though, especially because Jack would want some, so I threw in a few more from my home stash.
This recipe was also relatively easy to make and all of us gobbled it up. We even had some leftover chicken that Jack inhaled the next day while telling me that chicken was his FAVORITE and NO mommy can’t have any. So I guess that makes this recipe a winner too!
Meal #3: Steak & Brussels Sprouts Stir-Fry
I only recently decided that I like Brussels sprouts, so I was excited to try and make them at home with this recipe. Once again, the recipe was super easy to follow and I am in awe of how well the steak turned out since I’m not very good at cooking steak (my theory is that I should just go to a restaurant to eat it because they don’t mess it up).
This meal was really good though and I loved the mix of steak, Brussels sprouts and a hint of lemon. Travis liked it too, but said that he didn’t like it as much as the shrimp and chicken meals. Once again, we had plenty of food to satisfy both of us. Jack wasn’t very interested in it, so he didn’t bother trying to share with us.
Oh and I just had to show you how incredibly CUTE the soy sauces were… because “cute” and “soy sauce” aren’t normally in a sentence together:
I’m so glad I tried Hello Fresh because I really loved the entire experience! The recipes were new to us and I feel confident that I can buy everything I need at the grocery store and make them on my own with their provided recipe sheets.The service got me out of my ‘let’s just have sandwiches’ rut and I actually enjoyed cooking and eating dinner at home. I don’t plan on continuing the service on a weekly basis, but I’m thinking a delivery once or twice a month will be perfect for us. I can’t wait to try three more recipes in my December 18th order!
Would you like to try Hello Fresh for yourself?
They have a referral program where if you use my special code on your first box you will be able to get $40 off. That brings your total to $29 for three meals which will serve 2 people. Pretty great, right?! When you get your checkout, just use this promo code: ETXYKD.
If you do decide to try Hello Fresh, please let me know what you think. A little tip though, when you sign up for your first delivery go in and immediately “pause” your second delivery date. That way you can try out a box and decide whether you want to keep the subscription before having to pay for a second box. Then, if you don’t like it just hit “cancel” and you won’t get any more boxes or be charged more than the initial payment of $29.
Have you ever used a food delivery service like Hello Fresh? Tell me about it in the comments!
{Disclosure: This was not a sponsored review. I paid for my Hello Fresh subscription with my own money. All thoughts and opinions in this review are my own. If you choose to use my special referral promo code, I will receive a credit towards my future Hello Fresh orders. For anyone who does decide to use the code… my tummy thanks you!}
I tried Hello Fresh and we liked all of our meals. I just didn’t feel like it was enough food and the full price is expensive. I enjoyed trying different foods and having everything pre-measured for me – I felt like I was on a cooking show! Maybe Ben and I are just fatties because “not enough food” is what we come back to with these meal delivery services.
I love the soy sauce fish!
It’s funny, I felt that way about Blue Apron but we were both satisfied with Hello Fresh’s portions. =) You should try Let’s Dish too (there is one in Columbia) — I normally cut their portions into two servings which are for 3 people each… so we get plenty and I usually have leftovers for lunch.
I want to do Let’s Dish with you!
I’ll let you know next time I go… maybe in January or February if the meal choices look good!
Okay!! 🙂
That’s exactly how I felt. It was really tasty, but I could easily get those ingredients and make the dishes for half the price. Plus delivery was not easy in the summer – as we’re not home until after 7 most nights and I get twitchy about food temperature.
Delivery worked out great for me, since it is super cold outside and I scheduled it for a work-at-home day. I know I can get the ingredients cheaper at the grocery store, but honesty the convenience of them providing me with exactly what I need is a huge benefit for me. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve scanned the store over and over and could never find some ingredient I needed for a new recipe!
Ok, so I did the same deal as you, but used it a few weeks early.
The downside, for me, is there are not a ton of options to choose from – I wish they had a few more. My husband doesn’t eat seafood, so that eliminated one the week we got it, and of the other 4 recipes, 2 included Brussels sprouts which neither of us care for, so I picked the one with it on the side. We ended up with 2 meals we really liked -though modified the recipe slightly for both (chicken burgers with Brussels sprouts slaw and Stuffed acorn squash with rice, beans, and spicy sausage) and one we didn’t (Ropa vijea – I totally spelled that wrong).
I found the serving sizes to be very generous (we had leftovers from 2 of the three), and everything was pretty tasty. Recipes were easy, and I liked having something to break me out of my dinner-cooking rut.
I wish they would have offered some suggestions on the recipes – like “don’t like spicy things, try this instead!” (our chicken burgers had a spicy sauce to make, I modified it and used ketchup in the sauce instead of the hot sauce provided).
Definitely not for picky eaters (cough cough my husband), but overall good and I would totally do it again (especially with a discount code).
I totally agree with the modification suggestions — on one of the recipes it said to use the included red peppers as lightly or heavily as we would like (so I left them out), but otherwise there weren’t any suggestions. Luckily none of us are very picky eaters, so we will pretty much try anything. =)