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Hello Fresh: Meal Subscription Box Review

Feeding my family wholesome meals is really important to me. As is cooking from scratch. As is sitting down all together at the table at the end of our busy days to bond over a delicious meal.

It's all so important to me but it also takes time. There's the meal planning, grocery shopping, preparation and cooking and a toddler who would much prefer we play tea parties together rather than do any of that.

I don't mind doing it. It's important to me so I do, but in a world where there's a shortcut for everything, I was keen to see how I could cut some time out of all of those things and at the same time not cut out the important bits. There's been loads of different recipe and meal subscription boxes popping up on my radar recently and I was very interested to see how it worked.

A couple of weeks ago my husband J came home with a Hello Fresh voucher he'd received at Liverpool Street Tube station for £20 off your first two boxes.

Here's how Hello Fresh works:

Chose your weekly subscription box option. There is a classic selection which includes meat, a veggie box and also a family meal box catering for larger families.
Chose your delivery date and time slot
You have the option to pick from the following weeks selection of meals or have them send you a surprise if you fancy some adventure
The box arrives with detailed recipes for your chosen meals and the exact ingredients for all of them meaning minimal food wastage.
Keep your subscription box going and this will run like clockwork on a weekly rotation

I did some further research and a classic box for us and with the discount it ended up being £19 each for the first two weeks with the option to cancel the subscription at any time so I felt like it was a no brainer to try out.



How much does it cost?

Classic box for £4.90 per meal per person including delivery
Veggie box for £4.75 per meal per person including delivery
Family box for £4.00 per meal per person including deliver (For 4 - 5 people)

So I made my order, chose my preferences and my perfect little box arrived. Well it was actually quite big! I recorded a little unboxing and uploaded it to my YouTube channel. The video is at the bottom of the post if you want to see all the contents. (I'm still getting use to speaking to a camera, excuse the fact that I'm not very dynamic LOL!)


Along with all the food items you get a recipe card with step by step instructions as well as detailed pictures.



HERE'S HOW OUR MEALS TURNED OUT:

Day 1 - Peanut Satay Pork Burgers with Paprika Sweet Potato Wedges



Day 2 - Beef Bulgogi with Ginger Stir Fried Broccoli


Day 3 - Pan Fried Pork Medallions with Tarragon and Potatoes



Our verdict?

It was such a relief to know that I had ingredients for 3 meals in our fridge for the week without having to worry about anything. It meant that I didn't have to do a huge weekly shop or put too much thought into the week's menu. This instantly saved me time and stress.

The website was super easy to sign up to. It allowed me to either pick specific meals or get a surprise and also allowed me to pick the delivery slot I wanted. The slot options are really varied and there's even a slot between 5 - 9pm on Sunday which is great for planning the week ahead.

The box is packed well. There are three sections in the box. One is fridge stuff and it comes in an insulated bag and is on ice. One is for all the lighter household stuff and a section at the bottom for the heavier stuff. It's packed really well. I was really impressed by the quality of the groceries, you can tell they haven't skimped on price when it comes to filling the box up.

I loved that these recipes took me out of my comfort zone. I was seasoning differently, making salad dressings from scratch, making sauces differently. There is no pre made anything to go with the dishes, everything's from scratch.

I've been a vegetarian (that eats some fish) for a long long time and have only just recently started making meat dishes. For obvious reasons I never taste test them and often feel unconfident with the meat I'm plating so I feel like I'm also getting some cooking lessons by trying these boxes. On that note - choosing the 2 person option and making a little something on the side for myself to go with the dish (normally like a Quorn fillet), meant we had plenty for all 3 of us and sometimes even some left overs.

The food photography on the recipe cards is gorgeous and it did actually inspire me to plate the meals with a little more love than usual.

My husband J and Baby Girl are the two fussiest eaters I know, so it was going to be a real test to see if they enjoyed these meals. I'm happy to say that both of them wolfed down all three meals and loved them. Baby Girl ate her dinner three nights in a row. That is unheard of. UNHEARD OF! I also thought the meals were delicious. Our favourite was definitely the satay burgers with the sweet potato wedges but they were all really delicious.

My only gripe would be that I struggle to see the value for money with the vegetarian box. I was considering getting that and adding in some meat to the side but at only 0.15p difference per meal between the meat and the veggie box wasn't a big enough difference. Meat is normally the thing that hikes up our grocery bill. I also didn't manage to cook any of the meals in the 30 minute time the recipe suggested, it was more like 45 minutes to 1 hour. I don't know if that's because I'm a slow cook or these times are underestimated by expert choppers/ meal preparers?

Week one done and I'm sold! If every week is as amazing as the first I will be one happy, less stressed Mama with a well fed family. Even though we have only one more week with our discount I'm happy to keep going paying the full amount of £39 per week for a box of 3 meals for 2 people.

Want to try out a Hello Fresh Box and get £25 off your first box?

I logged into my account today to change my preferences for next week and noticed that the lovely people at Hello Fresh were offering me a discount code for my friends that gives £25 off their first box. You guys are all my friends so I wanted to extend it to you :) 

Let's do the maths here. If you order a Classic Box for 2 people with 3 meals, it's normally £39 but with the discount it will be £14. You couldn't do a meal plan for cheaper than that with the quality of these meals if you tried! The only rules to using this code is it can't be used in can't be used in conjunction with any other offers and you must be a new customer.

Discount code:  59U7BQ


MY UNBOXING


I would love to hear if you've tried Hello Fresh or any other similar subscription boxes and what your thoughts are?

* I genuinely wanted to try Hello Fresh and as someone that shares all my family food secrets it was only fitting I reviewed it on the blog. Minus the discount my husband got me I have paid for my subscription. By chance I noticed the discount code attached to my account today and I genuinely wanted to share it because I think it's such a great deal, should you sign up it means that I will also get £12 off my next box - just wanted to be totally upfront about that.

Kat x

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25 comments

  1. this is a really interesting concept and I too love the idea of having everything there for me. part of the problem with cooking for me is having all the ingredients I need. and I hate buying stgh obscure that gets used once and then goes to waste! #MinisMeals

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Exactly. I'm forever having to buy so many different ingredients when I'm trying something new or alternatively cooking the same recipes on a rota which can get boring too. That's why I love this concept x

      Delete
  2. I haven't tried Hello Fresh but I did try out the Mindful Chef plant-based box for a week for a blog post a few months back and I LOVED the convenience of having everything measured out for me and thought that the quality was excellent. It is just too expensive for us to do regularly though, but as an occasional treat it's definitely worth doing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've not heard of Mindful Chef, off to have a google now. I think this meals in a box thing is defiantly the way forward for me! The cost is definitely a factor but it saves me so much stress and time I've been sacrificing other areas of the budget to make it work for us x

      Delete
  3. We tried Hello Fresh a while ago for a few weeks and loved it, we've kept all the recipe cards and still make the dishes but stopped getting the boxes just because of cost. I think we'd definitely use them again in the future though, it really is so convenient and easy :) #TriedTested

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We've loved so many of the recipes, I can't wait to try so many of them again. This week was our third week and Hello Fresh sent me a little binder to keep all my recipe files in which I love x

      Delete
  4. Thanks for adding to #CookBlogShare x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're very welcome. Thanks for having me x

      Delete
  5. I love subscription boxes that basically make up a meal for you so you don't even have to think about it. It looks delicious. I must check if they deliver to Ireland. But I doubt it to keep the ingredients as fresh. #triedtested

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes! Amen to that. They are fairly international so there would probably be a good chance they do have a little base in Ireland x

      Delete
  6. I'm a big fan of cooking from scratch too, however there is never enough time in the day and if there are shortcuts to help me deliver this then bring them on! I do like this idea and especially with the discount, it's a great way to feed your family
    xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I feel you sister! Especially when it's a recipe you haven't tried before - it takes time. We're 3 weeks in now and still really enjoying it x

      Delete
  7. I've always seen these voucher offers for Hello Fresh but was never really sure what it was about. Now I know! Thank you for sharing X
    #twinklytuesday

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  8. I have used a recipe box from river ford and I was very happy with it. It does make things so much easier to have all the ingredients ready and in the right quantities.
    I too found that it took me a little longer than the recommended time, but I was taking pictures as I went and I had a toddler 'assisting', as I'm sure you did as well :)
    I'm curious to try this box as well, is the produce organic?
    #triedtested

    ReplyDelete
  9. Great review - we tried (and reviewed) a Gousto Box recently and Hello Fresh sounds very much a similar kind of service - they are really useful services aren't they? Love the lack of meal planning and the fact you have everything all weighed out and ready to go! Really loved the little vlog you added of you opening the box. Great idea! Eb x

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  10. OOOh this looks really good, I have often wondered about it but never bothered to look into it, I will now though, thanks for sharing on #TwinklyTuesday

    ReplyDelete
  11. Love the sound of this, and it would definitely encourage me to try new things! Thanks for linking up with #TriedTested

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