Review: HelloFresh Meal Delivery

There are a ton of these meal delivery services popping up all over - Blue Apron, Plated, HelloFresh - just to name a few. I was doing some research and saw that Hello Fresh had an offering of a free box for bloggers - so I applied! And yeah - I got to try it. They sent me a box with all the groceries for 3 fresh meals. 

HelloFresh comes in a good-sized cooler. The proteins are on one side and the veggies/spices are all bagged and packaged by recipe on the other side. It was fun unpacking and seeing what there was to make. You can also order a vegetarian box. I mentioned to them that my husband was allergic to eggs and they accommodated that as well. I liked the variety - there was a beef, chicken and shrimp dish.

Along with these adorable little soy sauce packets. They were little plastic fish filled with soy sauce! I totally used my fridge soy sauce so I could keep these.

It was a good time to try out this Julienner & Peeler - it worked slick on the carrot - much less work than a normal peeler.

 So you get the ingredients - it's basically they've done the shopping for you and the meal planning. All you do is open the bag - grab the recipe and go! First up was a Steak & Brussels Sprout Stir Fry. There were some veggies to chop and then a little small dicing with scallions, pepper, garlic & ginger. They provide all of the ingredients in their own little baggies and anything with a strong scent is vacuum sealed.

 The steak for this meal was amazing! I don't know how they packed this thing in that little package. I thought it had to be two steaks on top of each other. Look how thick this is?!? After chopping everything, I seared the steak and cooked for a few minutes on each side. Then I took it out and let it rest to continue cooking a bit and allowing the juices to soak back into the meat.

Then I cooked up the veggies - brussels sprouts, carrots, garlic, ginger and hot pepper. I was also cooking the rice while this was cooking.

Once the veggies were tender, I sliced up the beef - perfectly rare. I figure it'll cook a little more in the stir fry - so I wanted it nice and moo'ing. It took every ounce of will power to not just start eating right then! Srrsly!

Pop the beef back in with the veggies and the stir fry is ready! 

 This recipe was so easy to make! And it made enough for 2-3 people. Larry's not a big brussels sprout fan but he liked it. I had enough to take to work as well.

One of the other recipes was Lemony Shrimp Linguine with Roasted Red Peppers. I was really excited for this one - it's all my favorites together! If only it had mushrooms - it would have been perfection!

The recipe was super simple and I love the recipe cards they provide. They have big bright pictures with step-by-step instructions. They tell you exactly what you'll need and walk you right through making dinner.

And there we have it - Lemony Shrimp Linguine. It was very simple - you roasted the red peppers, sauteed the shrimp and mix it all together. So delicious!!!

With HelloFresh you can switch between 2-4 meals or vegetarian & classic. You can also pause whenever you need to (if you're on vacation or having a busy week). A classic box with 3 meals for 2 is $69 - but they also have a $15 discount on your first box. It comes out to about $23/meal - which is more than you'd pay at the grocery store for the ingredients but less than you'd pay for a dinner out. But when you think about all the time you save - it's a great deal! For me - meal planning takes a few hours - then a couple hours at the grocery store - and then trying to remember what to take out when - I could use some time back and a box waiting on my door step!

Thanks again to HelloFresh for giving me one simple week of cooking! Loved it!