Hello Fresh: Is it worth it?

I'll be honest, I have been having trouble coming up with dinner ideas lately. I don't know if it is just a lack of motivation or just not really knowing exactly what to eat anymore. Frankly, I was a little sick of eating the same foods over and over.

I thought to myself, it's time to try something new.

In comes Hello Fresh.

Now I have heard of Hello Fresh for years, and it always had kind of an appeal, but being a picky eater I didn't think I would end up liking any of the meals. Wayyy too many veggies for my liking.

Regardless, I decided to go for it and order a box last week.

The process is pretty straightforward; you create an account, and you'll probably end up with a coupon to get money off your first box. *Always go for the coupon if you are a first time member, trust me it will save you a lot of money off your first couple boxes if you end up liking it.* Now the only unfortunate aspects of signing up, is you have to buy the subscription before you are able to look at the meal options and you can't get meal options for just one person. You can choose the plan with 2 or 4 servings, and anywhere from 2-5 meals. You are however, able to choose your preference of the kind of meal options you will have available (Meat &Veggies, Veggies, Family Friendly, Calorie Smart, Quick & Easy, or Pescatarian) and will have about 20 different options to choose for your meals that week. So while you can't see your options prior to buying, you will have a varied selection to choose from.

I bit the bullet and bought my first box for $35.89, a 2 serving box with 4 meals. (I did end up getting 2 dessert options after the fact for about $8; Chocolate Lava Cake and Lucky Charms cookies. Totally worth the money.) The coupon, definitely made it more than worth it, just based on the amount of ingredients and recipes I would be able to make.

So I am kind of getting excited at this point, 4 meals under $40.

I take a look at the options, some were more enticing than others, but either way I ended up choosing 4 meals that either looked fantastic on their own, or ones I knew I could finagle to suit my preference better. I ended up with Beef and Cheese Tostadas, Pork Sausage Rigatoni in Creamy Sauce, Steak with Mushroom Cream Sauce, and an Open-Faced Pork Sausage Sandwich. Some of the meals were a little bit more out of my comfort zone than others, but I was excited to try them either way. In fact I got so excited after placing my first order I started to look at future weeks meals and got those all set up. Now I was getting a bit ahead of myself, I still had yet to actually try the meals.

Fast forward, until the following Friday, my chosen deliver date. The delivery driver pulls up with my box.

Here it is!

Now time to open it. This is what the inside looks like.

I was very impressed with the packaging. The meat was at the bottom, closest to the cooling pack, and each meals other ingredients were all together in individual packages. Each one came with recipe cards with the ingredient list, and instructions on how to prepare the meal. The only things that Hello Fresh don't include are things, like olive oil, butter, and salt and pepper. Pretty much everything else you need to cook those meals though is included.

So for my first meal, I went for the gusto and made the Steak with Mushroom Cream Sauce. I was a little skeptical about the mushroom cream sauce, but I shouldn't have been. The prep was pretty quick and simple, it was more about the timing. Heres the prep:

I got the potatoes covered in the spice blend they proved and seasoned the carrots, and then put them in the oven. Pretty simple prep overall, even for the mushroom cream sauce. Now it was all going well until I got to cooking the steak. I didn't realize that there was two strips of steak, with the way it was packaged. I only realized when I went to flip it in the pan and the top piece came off. Oops, which lead to me over seasoning a bit. Other than that mess up it was smooth sailing. It took me a little longer than the predicted time, but it was still close. Here's the finished product:

First bite, I was in love! The mushroom cream sauce added just the creamy texture to the steak I never knew I needed. In fact I was pretty obsessed with the mushroom cream sauce. (I ate every bite of it) The potatoes had such a good flavor from the fry seasoning, I was very impressed. For the sake of experimenting I tried the carrots, I am still not a fan. However that has more to do with my preference than Hello Fresh. Overall, I was stunned. It was an incredibly well put together meal that had so much flavor. Damn, Hello Fresh, I am impressed.

To really complete the meal, I made heated up the Lava Cake.

It was everything a Lava Cake should be, ooey-gooey and oh so chocolatey. The inside was actually molten chocolate, and it was wonderfully sweet.

Now I waited a day in between this and my next Hello Fresh meal. For the next one I chose the Rigatoni dish, because I was feeling some pasta.

Now I will admit I overall messed up this one. I tried to modify the tomato in a way that I really should not have. However even after messing up the steps and my bad modification, the dish ended up looking pretty similar to how it was supposed to.

I was fully prepared for this one to be suboptimal. Once again, I was wrong. Even with the mess up I made, the flavors were incredible. It had a nice subtle heat, and the lemon cream sauce really added something extra. The sausage was a great choice for the sauce and I thought it added a lot of flavor to the dish. I was really impressed at this stage.

Next dish up Beef and Cheese Tostadas:

I was pumped for this one, especially once I smelled the spice blend go in.

Now I was feeling very particular and didn't want to bother with the onions and peppers, so I went just for the meat cheese and hot sauce crema. The prep was super simple, and this one followed pretty much along with their timeline. I decided to try to jazz up the hot sauce crema, with some lime juice since I wasn't making the salsa. On its own, it was a mistake, but once I put it on the actual dish it worked really well. The beef was the flavorful star of the show, with the crunchy tostada as the under rated supporting act. There was so much flavor just from the beef, that I imagine it would be even more incredible with the salsa. My one negative comment is, I don't understand how they think that amount of cheese is going to be enough, especially since they give you 6 tortillas. This was one of the dishes that I could tell was definitely meant for 2 people.

Now last but not least, open face pork sausage sandwiches. I will admit this was the meal I was least looking forward to. After 3 winners, that were in my comfort zone, I was a little nervous to step out of it.

I followed most of the recipe pretty closely, but made my garlic bread with actual garlic and butter. The prep was super easy on this one, as it is mostly a sheet pan meal. I even made the peppers and onions to get the full experience.

I made it into just a normal sandwich but I don't know why I was dreading this one, it was delicious and creamy. Even the peppers and onions added something special to this.

My final thoughts:

Damn Hello Fresh, Damn. Honestly I can't say I disliked any of the meals, they were all flavorful and unique. I was impressed with all of the dishes and loved the packaging of each product. The prep was pretty easy, and even when I messed up the dish, it still tasted impressive. The price point even at full price is worth it to get 2 servings for 4 different and unique meals. If that wasn't enough, I was looking forward to cooking on those nights, because I would be able to try something that I don't normally have. The overall experience was very pleasant and I am looking forward to next weeks meals. They made a great first impression, and I can genuinely say that I would recommend Hello Fresh if you are looking for a meal kit. I almost forgot the best part. I didn't have to go shopping for any of the ingredients. No trips to the store for those meals.

(I did not receive any compensation for my review. This is my honest review.)