I’m no cook and I don’t meal plan. So when a box lands on my doorstep that makes me feel like I have a handle on both those things, I’m a happy Momma.
Maybe you’ve heard of Hello Fresh, maybe you haven’t. Hello Fresh is food delivery service that delivers three meals to your doorstep, complete with all the ingredients you need to make the entire, tasty meals that have been chef-curated! They have options for number of mouths you need to feed, if you are plant-based or cooking in a hurry.
I love that we’re trying new recipes and don’t have to go out to buy a whole bottle of this or a bunch of that to cook it up. The meals are so flavourful and tasty!! I’m not one to branch out much with my cooking so this is the perfect way to push me outside my comfort zone and prepare different meals for my family.
One of the biggest questions I had was about the packaging. I mean, they are shipping meat! But, with an insulated box and lots of ice packs, I wasn’t concerned about that at all. The three meals arrived in three brown paper bags, with all of one meals ingredients in one labelled bag, excluding the meat. The meat was packed at the bottom of the box with a cardboard layer separating the meat from the bags of ingredients. I’m sure the reasoning is two-fold – first, to eliminate the chance of cross contamination and secondly to keep the meat really cold, but the other ingredients from sitting on ice packs { no one loves frozen greens }. Within each brown bag, each little package of sauce, seasoning or condiment was labelled so you knew what it was so you could add it at the right time in the cooking process.
One of my friends asked if it was weird getting meat by mail 😉 Let me tell you, it’s not weird, it’s wonderful!! And the ice packs stay so cold in the insulated box – 24 hours after I unpacked the box, those ice packs were still 1/2 frozen even though they were in the warmest room of our house! And with the crazy cold snap we were in, I worried about the veggies freezing during shipping but they were just right, too!
They also include beautiful, simple recipe cards that takes the guess-work out of any of the steps of preparing your Hello Fresh meals. Our box had pork, chicken and hamburg and because we were in the midst of a severe storm warning, I cooked up the chicken first since it required the oven. I knew that if we lost power, we could use the hot plate to cook up the other meals thanks to our generator. On the cards they also list the ingredients, so if you loved it, you could make it again with store-bought ingredients, which I know I will do the glaze on the chicken again, so tasty!!
We also got to try beef tacos which you can’t go wrong with tacos, right?!? I love that with tacos everyone can add their own toppings so they’re all happy at the table. I added sour cream and cheese to the toppings they had given us because I know my family 😉 Our other meal was a tasty pork stir fry with loads of carrots and peas on rice and it was delicious! We all had come in from the cold and it was the perfect way to warm us up!
Lena was pretty excited about the Hello Fresh meals, too. She is very interested in cooking and loves to watch cooking shows on TV, too. So, with the steps laid out so simply, I knew she could take care of most of the prep, all she’ll need is a little guidance. Do you know how great it is to walk into your home at the end of the day and your not-so-little little has cooked you a delicious supper? Take it from me, it’s the best!
If you have been wanting to try Hello Fresh, here’s your chance to get it 40% off!! Use the code FARMFRESH40 at the check out to save yourself some cash, some time shopping and some time meal planning while providing your family with fresh, delicious meals!
Now…where’s my chef’s hat…..
To be continued,
Lori
Disclaimer: I was provided with the Hello Fresh meals at no charge but my take on it is just that 😉
