Everyone has heard of one of these companies that offer ingredients for delivery right? I know I had and will admit I had always been sceptical. I am absolutely fine to admit I am a bit of a food snob. I like fresh food, good ingredients and I like to know what is in it. I also like to cook and whilst I like the idea of having a service assist with this I wasn’t sure if I would be a bit too much of a control freak in this area to really buy in to it, but was willing to give it a try.
I headed over to the Hello Fresh headquarters for the launch of the new cook book a few weeks back over in Shoreditch. The office is super cool and includes a fully working demo kitchen where food was being made and handed out to everyone there so we got a chance to try some of the food that was featured in the book. Leaving with the Hello Fresh cookbook in hand I was excited about some of the recipes – to be honest I was excited about a lot of them!
I have been on a two week trial and signed up to three meals per week and a classic box. There are different options to chose from including:
- Family box – for kids and adults
- Classic box – all recipes including meat and fish
- Vegetarian box – the above minus the meat and fish
- Rapid box – based around meals that should take no longer than 20 minutes
I eat meat and my husband doesn’t but I opted for the classic box and was fairly confident I would be able to adapt if necessary and substitute meat for fish for him.
After posting on my social media about attending the launch night I was surprised how many people used Hello Fresh and how positive everyone was about it so I was stupidly excited about receiving the first delivery.
My first thought was that there was a lot of packaging, however, it is all recyclable and I really liked the quirky messages printed on everything including the plea to recycle.
In the box you get the recipe cards for the meals you have, which are colour coded, and individually sealed bags with a label to match the colour coded card and everything you need for that recipe is in the bag – simple!
The only additional things you have is some offers for related companies, discount vouchers to give to friends and family for their first order, and a bag, very cleverly made, with a woollen type material and ice packs and all dairy, meat and fish – such a good idea as you are not always in for the delivery and this keeps everything cool.
Both my husband and I have full time jobs, a son, a dog and train a lot so coming home and just following a card and opening a bag with everything I need was really quite nice! I particularly liked that I didn’t have to weigh anything or have lots of spice jars as it was all in one pot ready for me to use. Everything was fresh, everything was real proper food and not processed and it was delicious! The cards are also very similar in format to the recipes in the cookbook.
I have now had two weeks and six meals and in addition tried a number of recipes from the cookbook and I am really impressed! I actually purchased the cookbook for my grandparents and they are excited too.
I found it really easy to substitute the meat for fish so this worked for both my husband a I. I also found it easy to make the portions slightly larger if we had a guest. I cook a lot for our best friend who is also a PT and a qualified nutritionist and so she got to try some of the recipes out too and agreed they were really tasty – so much so that she signed up for her own box!
I really don’t have many negatives at all. There is no option to have these for one person, though you can use the other portion for lunch and help with meal planning in this way? Some of the recipes say to use the spice according to taste so it might be useful to give an indication ie half the pot would be a medium spice? I must admit I love the range of flavours and do like spicy food so I always used all the spices. It was easy for me to adapt to cater for both my husband and I though a pescatarian option would be handy but I think this would open a can of worms with so many different dietary needs so may not be as realistic.
The website and app are also really helpful – you can see in advance what the menu choices are and amend if you have been given something you are not as keen on. There are premium options to add items to for an additional charge. You can download the recipes. There is even a timer on the app if you follow that so when you put something in the oven, for example, for a required time you set the timer and continue and it counts down for you. You can choose to have the boxes for 2, 3 or 4 people and for 3, 4 or 5 times a week. You can also put the account on hold for up to 8 weeks should you wish or need to. You can cancel at any time should you want to.
I have signed up to continue with the deliveries – one very happy customer right here!
If you are tempted check out the website here where you can get 50% off your first order!
More Information:
How much: Recipe boxes cost from £4 for a family box. The Hello Fresh book costs £7 and can be purchased from Amazon.
Website: The Hello Fresh book costs £7 and can be purchased from Amazon
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