Tag: Subscription boxes

Trying New Recipes with Hello Fresh

After months and months of seeing posts on meal subscription boxes, we finally took the plunge and ordered our first Hello Fresh box a couple of weeks ago.

I got a referral code from a fellow blogger so that she received a discount off her next order which is quite a nice thing to do.

You can sign up via the website or via the App (iphone and Android). I downloaded the App which is so easy to use.

The choice of meals is really good, and there are several different categories to suit your palette including Family Recipes, Quick Meals and Chef’s choice.

How does it work?

When you first download the App you will be asked for your preferences. Ours are family meals and quick meals which as a busy Mum takes the hassle out of looking for new recipes that both kids will eat and we will enjoy also. You select the number of people the meals are for. There are four of us, but Freddie doesn’t eat very much and Chris has quite large portions so we opted for the four people. Then you pick how many recipes you want per week. We opted for three and then the rest of the week we eat relatively simple meals. I’ve started to meal plan which works so well for us, and reduces the food shopping bill as well as my sanity at having to come up with seven meals each week. Choose your delivery date and enter your payment details. It’s as simple as that! All of the food comes already portioned into the exact amount that you need for the recipe. The meat and chilled products come in a separate insultated bag with cool packs and the remaining ingredients come in numbered brown paper bags each relating to the correct recipe card. The cards are really easy to follow and can be kept to use time and again.

Choosing what to eat

This is the fun part. It’s like ordering from a menu. If you don’t make a selection one week, it will be made for you based on the preferences you have chosen which could be a nice way to try something new. Otherwise you just log into you app and make your weekly meal choices. I’ve included Belle in the meal selection as she’s become quite particular about what she eats reently which is hopefully just a phase.

Are you locked into the subscription?

Absolutely not. You can pause the subscription whenever you want and reinstate it again when you’re ready. So if you’re going on holiday you would pause for the duration, but you could change the delivery date so that you get a box the day that you get back when there’s usually nothing in the fridge.

What about all the packaging?

This was one of the things that I had thought about before placing an order. As everything comes pre-measured there are a lot of little sachets and plastic packaging to enable this to reach our door as fresh as it can be BUT Hello Fresh have obviously thought all of this through and you can read about there commitment to sustainability and reduced carbon foot print here. Receiving your ingredients individually portioned means a reduction in food waste which is a huge thumbs up.

Our thoughts

I love it! I love a subscription box or service and the time it saves me constantly looking for new ideas to feed the family. Our first box was discounted, and there are always lots of discounts around for new customers. We thought that the price of the boxes after the initial discount was a little bit pricey, but having said that, the rest of the week we eat relatively simple meals such as pasta, jacket potatoes and salads so it evens out the cost of the shopping.

We’ve had three deliveries so far and there’s only two meals that we’ve enjoyed all the meals except maybe a couple of dishes. One was a pasta dish that just didn’t have enough flavour for us and the other was lovely but took a lot longer to make than the recipe card stated.

This post isn’t an #AD in any way as we are paying for this subscription ourselves, but if you would like to try a box and get a £42 discout (essentially a FREE box) then send me a DM through Instagram for the code.