I cooked two of the four meals already, and below are my reasons why it doesn't work for me.
1. It's expensive.
4 meals for 2 costs $89.99 + shipping. A hundred dollars for 8 meals, which means each meal costs $12.50. It's cheaper than takeout but definitely more expensive than my weekly grocery budget, which is more than sufficient to feed us for all our meals (7 days x 3 meals per day).
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| HelloFresh receipt |
2. It's too much effort.
I cook at home, and most of what I prepare is family-style, which we can reheat for x number of meals. Using HelloFresh so far is too much effort. I cook, and we eat it for one meal. I'm exhausted, and hubby is exhausted from cleaning all the tools I used.
3. It's not that delicious.
Either I'm bad at following the instructions, but the food is alright. It's nothing to "wow" about, but if I'll justify the $100 per week as a replacement for my takeout food budget, then no. I'd instead order takeout—no effort and definitely delicious.
4. The recipes are complicated.
I tried to order recipes that don't require an oven because we don't have one. I made a mistake and ordered Caprese Pasta with Fresh Mozzarella and Roasted Mediterranean Veggies, which apparently require the veggies to be roasted. I also have Pork Parmesan Patties with Sweet Potato Mash and Green Beans, which I'll cook tonight.
I have tried two recipes, and below is my feedback for each.
Black Bean Tacos and Tomato Pepper Salsa with Beyond Meat and Crema
It's my first time creating a salsa, and it's the best part of the recipe. The lime and cilantro are great flavours with the taco. It came with 6 tortillas, which isn't enough. We actually have extra salsa and filling. The filling is dry. I realize I really don't like Beyond Meat, which is unfortunate. The first taco was great, but by the third taco, I find everything too much.
Pulled Buffalo Chicken Bowl with Quinoa, Corn, Avocado and Feta
This is easier to prepare, except that I have no idea how to peel and cut the avocado. Other than that, it's filling, but not something I would want to eat again.
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| Pulled Buffalo Chicken Bowl with Quinoa, Corn, Avocado and Feta |
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| Pork Parmesan Patties with Sweet Potato Mash and Green Beans The pork parmesan patties are the best part of the dish. It's so good, I'm planning to make it again in a bigger batch. |
5. Too much packaging waste.
Everything came in a big HelloFresh box. Each meal is individually packaged in its own paper bag, some ingredients are in plastic, and there's ice gel packaging at the bottom of the box to keep the meat fresh, but it clogged our sink. A big facepalm because the ice packaging says it should be drained, so we just put it in our kitchen sink.
For now, we'll continue doing grocery run once a week and I'll continue cooking family-style food we already love.
Have you tried HelloFresh? How's your experience?
