Since moving into the new house, I’ve been doing a lot more cooking. Which is okay, but I’m by no means a chef, and we end up eating the same things in rotation. I wanted some ~ variety ~ in our meal plan, and after seeing my sister & her beau really enjoy HelloFresh, Seth & I decided to give it a try.
When you order your box, you pick from a menu of 6-8 dishes. The dishes vary widely – when we chose there was pasta, seafood, and classic meals. Something to suit everyone’s tastes!
We ended up ordering the Chicken Mummy Roast, the Pork and Thai Basil Stir-Fry, and the Crushed Peppercorn Steak. The other dishes on the menu either seemed a little too ~ out there ~ for my usual tastes, or were pasta. We eat way too much pasta already.
Chicken Mummy Roast
This was our first HelloFresh dish. I’m assuming the name was for Halloween. But it was a roast chicken, with cranberry stuffing and green beans.
When they say everything is packaged and portioned, they mean everything. I opened the kit for this meal and discovered a single, pre-packaged stalk of celery. It felt a little ridiculous.
Having never cooked more than a breast, I was worried about cooking a half-chicken. But the instructions were super easy to follow. I deviated a little (I pre-cooked the stuffing), but I was really pleased with how the meal came out. It was beautiful, and delicious. And now that I know how easy it is to make homemade stuffing, I may never go back to a box.
Pork and Thai Basil Stir-Fry
I was sooooo excited about this dish. I love Thai basil. One of my favorite local takeout dishes is a thai basil fried rice that is amazing. So I couldn’t wait to break into this.
The meal was super simple – ground pork, garlic, onion, bok choi, and thai basil over basmati rice. It was the easiest of all the HelloFresh meals, as far as preparation and cooking goes. While the Chicken Mummy Roast took nearly an hour, this was a 20 minute meal.
The dish was fragrant and flavorful, but surprisingly light. I’m not a huge fan of lime, but with the basil, sriracha, and fish/soy sauces it brightened up the dish. I was definitely not disappointed, and will be saving the recipe in my arsenal to make again.
Crushed Peppercorn Steak
I’m a big fan steak. It’s easily my favorite protein. So I was so excited to try this dish. However, when I went through the recipe and realized it contained a lot of sour cream, I was less than thrilled.
I strongly dislike sour cream. It ruins almost everything. But, as it turns out, it makes kale & steak absolutely fucking delicious. Like I-could-eat-creamed-kale-everyday delicious. And the sour cream in the peppercorn sauce was just tangy enough so it worked.
I can’t vouch much for the cooking process on this meal, as Seth made it, but I can say we used an exuberant number of pans for a single meal. But it was delicious!
The HelloFresh Experience
The meals were a hit with both of us. I tried new things and learned some great recipes. Oh, and the portions were perfect. Enough to be filling without being stuffed. The ingredients were obviously high-quality, and I was really impressed with the overall experience.
But, there were parts of it I didn’t enjoy.
It took longer than anticipated for our box to get to us – it was a day late. By that time, the chicken had leaked all over the bottom of the box, and I had to rinse off some of the packaging. Fortunately most items come pre-packaged, but it was still gross.
The complexity of the dishes was a little frustrating, too. They were delicious, but both Seth and I work all day. I like me some 15 minute dinners that don’t use a billion pots and pans. HelloFresh had me scrambling around my kitchen using all sorts of extras to get dinner on the table.
I also felt a little ridiculous and wasteful with some of the ingredients. I can’t imagine the damage being done to the environment by pre-packaging a single stalk of celery. I’m not a super eco-conscious person, but it did seem like there’s a lot of extra packaging involved with HelloFresh dishes.
My Final Thoughts
I would order HelloFresh again. The food quality was top-notch, the portions were perfect for two people, and the recipes were delicious. I learned I like creamed kale! And I enjoyed expanding my culinary horizons a little bit, because I know I can cook.
But I wouldn’t make it an every week kind of deal. Maybe once or twice a month, but I couldn’t see us subscribing consistently. It’s a little too ~ involved ~ for my tastes. Like I said, I enjoy easy meals that don’t stress me out. 🤷🏻♀️
Have you tried HelloFresh? What are your thoughts on the experience?