Whats for dinner…? HelloFresh!

I’m the one in charge of our food shopping at home but I have to say my shopping list is quite dull. As I always order from the same supermarket online, so now just saved a ‘regulars’ list, so usually I end up ordering all the same stuff, with my narrow repertoire of homemade dinners just go round on a cycle. I keep looking at things on Pinterest and thinking ‘I’ll make that one day‘ but it never happens and before I know it, there is another Old El Paso Fajita kit in my online shopping basket and we are back to square one. That is why I’ve absolutely been loving a new food home delivery service called HelloFresh.

WHAT IS HELLOFRESH?

HelloFresh works by delivering you a box of fresh ingredients for you to cook three different recipes each week. There are three box options, Classic, Veggie and Family, so you can cater it to your dietary requirements and the size of your family as each box comes with enough food for either 2 adults or 4 adults. Each box contains the exact ingredients to make up the recipes which are carefully explained on easy to follow recipe cards (which include pictures and everything, perfect if you are a rubbish cook like me!) All of the ingredients, (even the little things like herbs and spices) are measured into exactly the right amount, so there is absolutely no measuring involved, you just throw the ingredients together. FAB. Also, of note all the ingredients are sourced as locally as possible, I noticed nearly all of our fresh veg were British grown and organic.

The box is then delivered to your door in clever packaging to keep everything cool, so even if you are out, it’ll be ok on your doorstep for a while with everything keeping super fresh.

We were offered a two week trial, so I chose the Veggie box, plus we opted for the 4 adult package as we were still hosting foreign students at this point (and being teenagers they LOVE to eat). Here is how we got on during our first week:

MEAL ONE: HOMEMADE VEGETABLE PACKED CALZONE

Our first meal was the Homemade Italian Vegetable Packed Calzone, I think this was probably my favourite dish of the week too! With this one I was so impressed with how fresh the vegetables were, the tomatoes inside the Calzone, just burst with flavour. Plus, I’ve never made a Calzone before so it was a learning curve putting it all together, but I absolutely loved the fresh dough, it was absolutely delicious! This one was great as I felt like I was eating something slightly ‘naughty’ being a pizza, but with the fresh veg it was actually pretty healthy….. Winner!

MEAL TWO: VIETNAMESE PHO WITH CAVOLO NERO AND CASHEWS

Our second meal was the Vietnamese Pho with Cavolo Nero and Cashews. I was lucky enough to have V cook this one, she described making it as ‘dead easy‘ even though we don’t actually usually cook dishes like this at home. Even with new flavours and ingredients, the recipe card was just so simple to follow, you can’t go wrong. This was as tasty as a dish at Wagamamas, but cooked at home! We had so much of this dish we were still eating it two days later, there was so much to go around.

MEAL THREE: GREEK AUBERGINE RAGU WITH BASIL COUSCOUS AND FETA

Our last meal of the week was the Greek Aubergine Ragu with Basil Couscous and Feta. On the first glance of this recipe, this was the one that excited me the least, but I have to say I was totally surprised. The Ragu was so much tastier than I imagined, I think it was the addition of the olives gave the dish such a rich, fresh taste I was pleasantly surprised. Again, we had so much of this recipe, I had both a dinner and lunch the following day too, the portion sizes are just huge. Another hit!

OVERALL

We really enjoyed our first week of HelloFresh and went on to get another 2 boxes as we loved it so much. As Vee works shifts and we are not home together all the time, we don’t think we need a subscription every week, but plan to dip and and out (you can cancel any time) so when we have time together in the week so we can make sure we truly enjoy the boxes. We have also talked about getting the boxes when the baby first arrives as we will be super busy so it will be great to have some healthy food dropped round each week, or I think we might just end up living off pizzas! We have kept the recipe cards so will use them again too, it’s been really fun to try new foods and flavours and spice up our usual dinner cycle.

If you fancy a go at HelloFresh you can work out which box is right for you and see the prices here, plus if you fancy some money off you can use this referral code U5P66H £25 off first box (plus I get a little bit off my next too, so we all win – woohoo!).

 

I was sent a trial of HelloFresh boxes in return for an honest review – all words, opinions and photographs are my own.