Disclaimer: I received a free box of 3 Hello Fresh meals because my friend gave me a promo code to redeem 3 free meals. I did not receive compensation from Hello Fresh in exchange for this review. The opinions expressed are my own.
I’m new to the whole meal delivery box world. I never took any interest in these services because I think I spend more time in grocery stores on a weekly basis, than I probably do on personal grooming. I kid, I kid. But seriously though, I love to cook. I love to improvise in the kitchen and make up recipes based on inspiration from other recipes or meals that I come across. I like to meander through the aisles of various stores like Trader Joe’s and Earth Fare to find inspiration from one ingredient to set the stage for the rest of the meal. So far this has worked out well for my palate and surprisingly well for getting at least one of my twins to try new foods.
So when I struck up a conversation with my friend last week about where we purchase our meats locally (exciting mom talk, I know), she mentioned that she primarily gets hers from Hello Fresh. I never really knew the particulars of the different meal delivery services, only that some of them are already prepared, while others provide all of the ingredients and instructions and then you have to cook it. She told me she’d send me her promo code for a free delivery and when I got home, I checked out the website.
I have to admit, it was a little confusing at first trying to figure out how to browse the options and make the selections, because it looked as though 3 meals were already pre-selected for me. After clicking around a bit, I figured it out and chose my 3 meals. I had a bit of a tough time selecting the three meals. Part of the reason is that my husband is, shall we say, a picky eater. The other part is that I’ve recently tweaked my diet and many of the meals included ingredients that aren’t in my new repertoire, or I felt the meals weren’t as healthy as I prefer to eat. I ultimately went with maple glazed pork chops, chicken pineapple quesadillas, and chickpea-powered mediterranean couscous. I mainly chose the first two for my husband, and the third one for myself.
Once you make your selections, you have to put in your credit card information, even if you have a promo code for the free delivery. This then subscribes you to the auto-ship program, which you can suspend or cancel anytime. The delivery was set for Monday.
The box arrived at my doorstep just before noon on Monday. It was fairly well packed with insulation and various sized ice packs. The food was cold and packaged individually by meal. The meats were separate and under large rectangular ice packs to ensure they stayed cold. I noticed that one side of the box was starting to get a little soft and saturated. There was condensation on the tape and some moisture on the cardboard. When I opened the box, I noticed that the area that was softening had a lot of ice packs directly touching the cardboard. After seeing how big the ice packs were, I was confident that the food would stay cold, even in the Florida summer heat if I hadn’t been home until the early evening to retrieve the box. Good to know for working families.
I decided to make the mediterranean couscous for tonight’s dinner. I opened up the bag and unpacked the ingredients.
Everything was very fresh. The only complaint I have about the ingredients is that the zucchini (which looked more like a cucumber until further inspection) started to freeze. It was kind of lumpy on the outside and you could see that the inside was partially frozen.
Otherwise, it was a very complete package, with pretty much everything you need to make the meal from start to finish, except salt, pepper, and olive oil-no biggie, y’all should have those staples in your cooking arsenal anyway.
I followed the instructions to a T. They provided beautifully designed instruction cards for each meal, with step-by-step directions and photos so that you can see how it should look at each step.
Here’s where it got fun. The instructions said to use two baking sheets: one for the chick peas and one for the vegetables. I popped them both in the oven and checked on them both to move the food around to prevent burning. One of the chick peas somehow jumped off the tray while inside the oven and wound up on the bottom of the oven and started to burn. ALL of the smoke detectors in my apartment went off. We’re talkin’ an ear-shrilling cacophony of out-of-sync beeping. So, there I was, running from smoke detector to smoke detector, waving a dish rag like a surrender flag, trying in vain to get them to stop. I can tell you that not only did I get the alarms to stop, but I also got in my arm workout for the day. I’ll be sure to do leg day tomorrow at the gym.
After turning the vent fan on and letting it run for a few minutes, I was able to safely open the oven to retrieve my food without sounding the alarms again. Phew. Veggies and chickpeas were perfectly cooked, thanks to the exact time on the instruction card, and I was now making the couscous on the stovetop. The nice part about this concept is that you don’t have to keep checking on the food as often as you would when cooking off the cuff. I also couldn’t keep checking on it because the fire department was probably a hot second away from showing up at my door. If they’re anything like the FDNY calendar firefighters, I’ll set those alarms off everyday! But I digress…
As I was preparing the couscous, I realized that this meal would not suffice for my husband. I knew that he would want to pair the couscous with a protein, like chicken. Also, from the looks of it, there wasn’t going to be enough food for both of us to feel full and satisfied. So, I cheated. I stole the chicken from the chicken pineapple quesadilla meal. I marinated it with my own seasonings and cooked it up to accompany the couscous for my husband. I made myself a piece of salmon to go with my couscous.
When the couscous was done cooking, I plated everything as pictured and added my salmon to the side of the plate. I omitted the feta cheese because I’m currently on a dairy-free kick. I have to say, the mediterranean couscous meal was delicious. The food was extremely fresh and the meal itself was very tasty. The spices and flavors married together perfectly and the food was very pleasing to the palate. However, had I not made the salmon and the chicken, I can tell you that we both would have still been hungry after that meal. My husband ate the entire chicken portion that was provided for the quesadilla meal that’s supposed to feed two adults. I was underwhelmed with the amount of meat they provide you for a meal for two people, but since I already have chicken on hand in my freezer, I was able to sacrifice the chicken from the next Hello Fresh meal to beef up (or chicken up?) tonight’s dinner.
Overall, the quality of the food is top notch. Arguably, it looks even better than most of the produce at any of my local grocery stores. The ingredients and recipe for the mediterranean couscous are very well thought out and the final product tastes delicious. There was plenty of couscous for both my husband and myself, but if that were the entire meal, we’d both still be hungry at the end. The meats that came in the other two meals are definitely not enough for two people, so that’s where I find Hello Fresh to be lacking. I will be providing my review of the other two meals that came in the box after I cook them. But after testing out the first meal, I can appreciate the convenience of the service. It takes the guesswork out of the cooking experience for novices, and allows you to throw a complete meal together in a short amount of time, especially for busy and/or working families. The instructions are practically fool-proof, and they provide the nutrition information, which is nice.
Personally, I don’t see myself subscribing to meal delivery services. I love to cook and one of my favorite parts about cooking is improvising and cooking off the cuff. I like to experiment with flavors and spices to mix things up. I did, however, get inspired by the couscous recipe, and will be replicating it for future weeknight dinners, but will be putting my own little spin on it.
Have you tried Hello Fresh? What were your thoughts on it? Do you use a meal delivery service that you love?
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Tamar Blazer is an attorney-turned-twin mom, with a passion for her family, friends, writing, good food, home decor and laughing. When she’s not lamenting on her lack of sleep, you can find her doing one of the too many projects she likes to take on, usually with a twin on either side.
