Hello and Welcome to Blog Post Thursday! For the next few Thursdays I’m going to be talking about our experience the last few weeks with Hello Fresh Food Delivery Service.
For those that don’t know, Hello Fresh is a meal plan that delivers boxes of food and recipes to your doorstep as often as you need each week. Choose your meals from a selection of curated, easy-to-follow recipes every week. Suit your lifestyle with a choice of extras, including desserts, wine and sides.
I’ll be honest I was approached with a deal I couldn’t turn down, 50% off my first box and 35% off the following 4 boxes. 4 meals for 4 people 4 days a week… bargain…!
(Quick disclaimer, we are not Vegan or Vegetarian in Our Between Green Home, however We try to reduce our meat consumption as much as possible)
So, week one, I went on the Hello Fresh Website and made my 4 choices. There’s a long list of options as well as some ‘premium’ options where you pay a small additional amount per person, such as the HFC, Hello Fresh Chicken that we had in week 3.
I chose Herby Chicken with Red Onion Mash and Garlicky Beans, Hoisin Sticky Baked Chicken Thighs, Bacon Penne all’Arrabiata and Cheese Burger with Wedges and Slaw.
The box was delivered to my house, luckily my husband is still on furlough so he was in to take the parcel. If you’re not in you can add instructions to be left somewhere else. The good news is the bag is sealed with insulation and ice blocks to keep food cool and fresh.
Each meals’ ingredients are separated into paper bags with numbers on relating to which meal they are for. All ingredients are pre-measured so there’s no weighing or measuring, and most importantly no waste! There is also a recipe card for each meal showing ingredients with images and step by step instructions.
Seeing how simple it would be with pre-measured ingredients and the step by step instructions card I thought this would make a great opportunity to get the kids (12 and 14 year old) in the kitchen.
So day 1, meal 1, Cheese Burgers with Wedges and Slaw. My son, accompanied by my husband cooked this meal. My son, Bradley, said
And I have to agree they were delicious! So far, so good…. 5/5
Day 2 we had the Bacon Penne all’Arrabiata with chives and garlic ciabatta. This time it was my daughter, Jaime-Rae, in the kitchen. She says
Empty plates all round, the high point being the garlic ciabatta…. Another success! 5/5
Day 3 was my turn, Hoisin Sticky Baked Chicken Thighs with roasted broccoli and red onion. I’ve never roasted broccoli before and WOW this was amazing! When it was plated up with plenty of Jasmine Rice and scattered toasted sesame seeds it was restaurant presentation worthy! 5/5
Day 4, me and my daughter in the kitchen, ready to make Herby Chicken with Red Onion Mash and Garlicky Beans.
I’m not a huge fan of green beans but these were delicious cooked in garlic, salt, balsamic vinegar and olive oil. 5/5
So, as you can see it was perfect marks across the whole week!
Apart from the delicious food what else I liked about Hello Fresh is just the total convenience. Its on your doorstep so no running to the supermarket, finding that supermarket doesn’t sell the ingredient you need or its out of stock, we know it happens!
Every single ingredient is used so there is no food waste at all. And with big appetites in our home there wasn’t any not eaten.
I love that the outer packaging, the cardboard box is recyclable and the PET liner that insulates to keep the contents cool is made from old plastic bottles.
However, there is still quite a lot of plastic packaging for the food items. Looking on the Hello Fresh website they are conscious of reducing their plastic waste and have already made some changes such as replacing larger plastic trays for certain vegetables and meat with ‘skin packs’ that use less material.
Come back for week 2 of Hello Fresh in our Between Green Home next Thursday…
Love, Light and Green Vibes,
Jodie
