Hello Fresh! Is it worth it?
Hello Fresh meals. Are you wondering if they are worth it? I gave it a try over the last few months and here is my review.
At the start of the pandemic when it was getting difficult to get groceries, my friend sent me a voucher for 3 free meals with HelloFresh. We decided to give it a go and kept the weekly subscription since we could cancel at any time. We got 3 meals delivered to our door every week. We’ve tried 27 meals so far and I think we have another week coming soon!
Hello Fresh meals are essentially a meal in a box to help you cook dinner from scratch. You pre-select your meals from about 20 different options and on your selected day you will receive a box with all of the ingredients needed to make each meal. Each meal is packaged together in a paper bag with the “protein” ingredient packaged separately. These are all included in the insulated box packed with ice packs and are delivered straight to your door. The cost for 3 meals, 2 servings each is about $80 and includes delivery.
Here’s what I liked:
- Good selection of meals
Every week there is a new selection of meals to choose from. It’s a pretty good variety using different types of meats and ethnic cuisines. There are lots of vegetarian options but we are meat eaters so we try to mix up the meat options.
2. Try out new recipes
I don’t call myself a chef by any means but I do like to try new recipes. The recipes were pretty easy to follow however; I would say that some of the steps were vague and some jumped around a little too much. This might be because they tried to write out the recipes in 6 pretty boxes. But within a step, there may be multiple steps for different parts of the recipe. For the most part the recipes were easy to follow, but for a new cook in the kitchen, I think some of the recipes would take longer than the 30 minutes marked on the card. We only had a couple of recipes that went over the 30-minute mark but this was usually due to waiting for the oven to preheat or if a recipe required more prep work. My favourite meals were bowls, burgers and tacos. I also like that they have fish and seafood options.
3. Groceries delivered to our door, especially during a pandemic
Buying groceries was very difficult during the pandemic especially at the beginning when grocery stores were running out of certain items. It made meal planning very difficult. I would place an order online and wait 2 weeks to pick up my order only to find half my items not available. This meant I needed to make another grocery run to pick up some of the items that were missing. With HelloFresh, they give you all the ingredients you need to make your meal. It was really nice to not have to think of what to make with the groceries I had available, when I could just grab one of the bags and have a meal ready in 30 minutes. I also liked that if there was an ingredient that you don’t cook with often like cilantro, you weren’t wasting the entire bunch just for a handful of leaves.
Here’s what I didn’t like:
- No left overs
The meals we chose were meant to be for two people and I would say that it was JUST enough food. There was not even enough to feed my 4 year old who doesn’t need that much. We are a family that likes leftovers. We often have leftovers for lunch the next day or later in the week. It helps us save money and time. If my husband works late he usually comes home looking for something to eat and will have some leftovers. I guess we could increase our meals to feed 4 people instead of 2, but we didn’t see the value in the extra cost.
2. Lots of packaging
Every week, our meals are delivered in an insulated cardboard box with ice packs and 3 paper bags with each meal. Within the paper bag, the ingredients come in their own packaging. The meats are vacuum sealed. It’s just a lot of packaging. They also take up a lot of space in our already full fridge.
3. High cost for ingredients we already have
The recipes are pretty good but at the end of the day, the food is usually stuff we already have at home. Like chicken, potatoes, ground meat, etc. I keep our house fairly stocked with food so when a recipe includes food we already have at home, it just feels a little foolish to spend extra money on the prepackaged meals. The advantage is that we get to try these recipes and make note of the ones we like and would do again ourselves.
We’ve been pretty happy with the HelloFresh meals so we’ve kept it going. It’s exhausting coming up with different meals all the time, especially now when we are planning 3 meals a day and have not been ordering as much take out. Would I recommend HelloFresh to friends? During a pandemic, yes I would! It takes a lot of stress out of planning what to eat. If there wasn’t a pandemic would I recommend it? Only to give it a try when you’re bored of meals at home or if you tend to order take out often and need to break it up with some home cooked meals. Actually, these meals would have been great pre-kids because I found cooking for 2 really wasteful sometimes. But for us right now with our well-stocked food supply, these meals are just be added on top of our grocery bills rather than a savings. There are often promo codes to try a free box, in fact, you are more than welcome to use my link!
Here are some of my favourite meals from Hello Fresh.
If you would like a discount for your first box, click here.
