A Week of Meals with HelloFresh | A Review

You can find a subscription box for pretty much anything and everything these days, so why wouldn’t there be one that delivers all of the ingredients you need to make a fresh meal as well? I’ve been feeling rather uninspired lately when it comes to meal planning, so when HelloFresh reached out to me about reviewing their meal delivery service, I couldn’t say yes fast enough.

At this point, I’m up for anything that makes my life more simple, so naturally, that includes not having to go to the grocery store with three kids in tow. I had been curious about services like HelloFresh for quite awhile, so to say I was excited about the arrival of our first box, would be a HUGE understatement.

What is HelloFresh?

So what is HelloFresh you ask? Aside from being a busy moms best friend, it’s a meal subscription service that delivers you a box full of the fresh ingredients and recipes you need, to make delicious and easy-to-prepare dinners at home. Literally everything that you would need to make an incredible meal is right in the box. They offer classic, veggie, and family plans, and an option to choose the size (2-4 people) and frequency (2-5 meals) that suits you best, each week. All of the ingredients come pre-measured, resulting in minimal prep time, and the included step by step recipe cards make preparing the meals a breeze.

What was in our box?

I know you’re all just dying to know what came in our box, so of course, I’m sharing all of the delicious details. We chose the classic plan, for 4 people, and decided to try 3 meals for our first box.  We were able to select which 3 meals we wanted from a predetermined menu that changes each week. Our box included everything we needed to make Steak and Brussels Sprout Stir Fry, Cauliflower Pancetta Macaroni and Cheese, and Pan Roasted Chicken with Dijon Mushroom Sauce and Israeli Couscous… I’m drooling just typing the titles of these recipes.

What did we think?

For the record, I am someone who loves to cook.  I also used to really enjoy grocery shopping.  Lately though, I’ve been feeling a little bit overwhelmed about planning ahead for our meals, and finding new and exciting dishes to try. It seems like each week I end up at the grocery store a handful of times, and making those trips with three kids under the age of 4 can be pretty stressful. The idea that the majority of our meals, including all of the ingredients, could just arrive in a box at our front door had me feeling pretty excited.

When the box arrived, I couldn’t wait to open it and see what was inside. It was so cool how the contents were packaged in the refrigerator-style box. All of the produce and dry ingredients came in individually portioned bags, and the meats were packaged separately and placed on ice. I loved how HelloFresh designed the box to stay fresh all day long, so even if you aren’t home when your box arrives, you don’t have to worry about your food going bad.

After looking everything over, I unpacked all of the the items and stored them just as I would our regular groceries, without the hassle of hauling a ton of bags (and children) into the house. That night dinner time couldn’t come soon enough. We chose to try the Pan Roasted Chicken first, and it did not disappoint. In fact we loved every single meal that came in our box. I must mention that the Cauliflower and Pancetta Macaroni and Cheese was the unanimous winner of the three!

For me, the simplicity was really the key. I was totally delighted to find that the meat came already trimmed and ready to go, as this is something that I do not enjoy doing, and it saved me a lot of time. The recipes were super simple to follow (even if you aren’t someone who loves to cook), and none of them took more than 30 minutes to prepare. Also, thanks to the pre-portioned ingredients, there was zero waste, which for me was another big plus.

Another thing that I was really pleased about with our HelloFresh box, was the fact that it encouraged us to try new ingredients. It isn’t often that we dine on Israeli Couscous, and I would have never thought to include brussels sprouts in a stir fry, but we thoroughly enjoyed them both. Overall, I felt really good about putting delicious, yet simple to prepare and nutritious meals on the table for my family.

The Overall Verdict

Because my goal is to always be honest with you guys when reviewing products, I will say that the one con that I could find with HelloFresh’s meal service is the price. I you are on a tight budget, and big on using coupons and saving money when shopping for food, then this might not be for you.  For me though, the pros far outweigh the only con that I could come up with. In my opinion, the convenience and simplicity alone makes HelloFresh worth it to me. If you really wanted to take the price into consideration (plans start at $69.00 per week), you need to understand that not only does HelloFresh provide you with top notch ingredients, they also do the shopping, planning, and prep work for you, and on top of that, they deliver it straight to your door.

We have decided to sign up and to continue to cook with HelloFresh for awhile, simply because it made my life as a mom easier, and as a family we really enjoyed the food!

Wanna give HelloFresh a try?

If you want to give HelloFresh a try for yourself, they have generously offered to give you guys the chance to check out their service with $35 off of your first box. Just use the code: KOZYANDCO35 to get your discount. If you decide to try it, please let me know what you think… I hope you’ll love it as much as we did!

***This post was sponsored by HelloFresh. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own.