Working and parenting full time is not something I would recommend. Our days are non-stop from when Alivia wakes Stephen and I up with shouts from her room to when we shut down our work laptops and head to bed. Meal planning, grocery shopping and cooking 3 meals a day, every day takes a lot of time. It’s also not something we’re completely used to because we ate out a lot and had help from my inlaws once a week. We are starting to ease up with getting take out and trying to cook in batches on the weekend, but it’s still stressful when you have a hungry toddler asking if lunch or dinner is ready immediately after finishing a conference call.
We had the opportunity to try out HelloFresh for a week and I was hopeful a meal kit service could be the solution to reduce some of my weekday meal time anxiety.
Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post in collaboration with Hello Fresh. All ideas and opinions expressed are wholly mine.
The Basics
HelloFresh is a meal kit delivery service based in Germany that entered the Canadian market in 2016. Customers can choose between receiving 3 or 4 recipes per week for 2 or 4 people starting at $11.49 per serving. There are 22 recipes to choose from each week. When picking your recipes, the preparation time, calories, difficulty level, allergens, included ingredients, not included ingredients (ie. oil, salt, pepper) are all clearly listed on a pop out window. There was a good mix of proteins within the recipe choices and a handful of vegetarian options.
What I liked
All three recipes I chose from HelloFresh were simple with a handful of quality ingredients and steps to prepare. This was great and exactly what I was looking for. I really liked the sauces in both recipes and how recreatable they were. Why wasn’t I making a dill sauce with every meal? The produce was fresh and kept in our fridge for over 5 days. Packaging was minimal and only when really necessary like with creams, sauces and spice packets. Portion sizes were generous. We ordered the 4 people plan and my mom was staying with us that week so it was great timing. There was easily enough leftovers to pack for my lunch the next day but one of our 4 people was a toddler.
Another plus was the wide variety of recipes to choose from. There were options for all the traditional proteins, plus seafood and vegetarian recipes. For me, being able to quickly identify low-carb options would’ve been a plus.
Other things to consider
The week I placed my order, most of the recipes that caught my eye had an additional charge per plate. This makes sense with the high quality cuts of protein (often steak or multiple proteins/plate), but it was a bit disappointing. Each week only 3 out of the 22 recipes had an additional charge per serving, which isn’t unreasonable, and the pricing was clearly indicated.
With generous portion sizes, the calories per serving on the majority of recipes was >700cals. For my size and current health goals, this is a lot. However, the recipes were easy to adjust with reducing sides/sauces to accommodate my preferences or even saving leftovers for lunch the next day. This was really not a bad problem to have.
In Conclusion
Overall as a meal kit, I found Hello Fresh hit the mark on all the key points. The recipes were easy, quick and appetizing. All the ingredients were fresh, good quality and lasted over 5 days in our fridge. A+ for convenience during a busy week and Alivia approved.
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