MrsDangermouse
Forum GOD!
When renewing our car insurance a couple of months ago I unexpectedly received an email from the price comparison site with a "reward" voucher for a discounted run of Hello Fresh boxes (1 free, then half price for the next 3). At £30 for 3 x 2-person meals its not something I've ever been interested in before (seems an expensive way of cooking!)....I guess like many of you here I just look for recipes and then go and cook them from scratch. Plus one of the main benefits: that you don't need to buy a lot of expensive ingredients when you only need a teaspoons worth; doesn't apply because I actually do have a cupboard full of those ingredients. Buy anyway, as it was significantly discounted I decided to give it a go.
Firstly...the practicalities. The app and the website are easy to use and it clear to see what you'll be charged. If you have a discount voucher applied then this is very visible, so its also easy to see when your voucher runs out and you return to full price boxes. You also get a few "free" boxes to send to friends and unlimited £20 off vouchers. There isn't any minimum contract period and you can easily pause deliveries for a week or even stop them completely. Deliveries around here are via DPD and have all been on time, in good condition and with no missing ingredients.
The recipes are varied and very easy to follow. The nicest ones are usually "premium" for which you have to pay between £1.99 and £2.50 extra per portion, but there's always enough choice from the non-premium ones. You can either follow the recipe on the website, via their app or from the A4 recipe card that comes in the box. I've learned a few little tips that I'd not come across/thought of before: for example adding the soy sauce to your breadcrumbs before adding them to your meat when making Asian-style meatballs, crushing half your beans when you're making a chilli style dish to thicken it. Simple things, but effective.
The quality of the ingredients is generally fairly good - I would say more Morrisons standard than Waitrose though. I did cost out a few of the recipes in Ocado....at the discounted rate I'm getting at the moment they're reasonable value...about the same as I'd pay if I was making them from scratch. Which also confirms that its an expensive way of cooking if you're paying full price (though of course there's no waste). We think the portion sizes are generous - certainly we've never finished a meal still hungry. But there haven't been any leftovers either. All the recipes have their calorie count on them.
Though they use paper bags where possible and leave whole veg loose, there's still a lot of plastic packaging - I'm not sure how they could cut down further on this because everything is in just the right amount for each recipe. Speaking of these individual sachets....I find them quite fiddly...it'd be much easier to just measure with a spoon from a bottle. For example these are the the ingredients for last night's Fruity Lebanese Lamb:
So, after 4 weeks what do I think? The best thing about it is trying new things - I've really enjoyed that aspect of it. I think we were in a bit of a rut in terms of food selection and this has been a good way of mixing things up a bit. This week have Hoisin Chicken and Plum Stir-Fry with Zesty Rice, Chipotle Pork Tacos with Charred Sweetcorn Salsa and Cheese, and Fruity Lebanese Lamb with Cumin Roasted Carrots. The recipes are well thought out and have all worked really well so I'll be keeping the recipe cards and replicating a few of the dishes myself in the coming weeks.
I won't be subscribing full time once my discounted boxes run out....I find 3 meals a week is just too intense. Because you're following a new recipe every time you need to concentrate, whereas when I'm cooking something familiar I can relax and just potter along because I know what I'm doing. I will use them occasionally though: the meals have all been very nice, at full price I think they're expensive but convenient. I'm thinking they could be useful for example when we've been away and haven't had the opportunity to do any shopping. If get any more discounted vouchers then I'll probably do another few weeks now and again just for varieties sake.
Firstly...the practicalities. The app and the website are easy to use and it clear to see what you'll be charged. If you have a discount voucher applied then this is very visible, so its also easy to see when your voucher runs out and you return to full price boxes. You also get a few "free" boxes to send to friends and unlimited £20 off vouchers. There isn't any minimum contract period and you can easily pause deliveries for a week or even stop them completely. Deliveries around here are via DPD and have all been on time, in good condition and with no missing ingredients.
The recipes are varied and very easy to follow. The nicest ones are usually "premium" for which you have to pay between £1.99 and £2.50 extra per portion, but there's always enough choice from the non-premium ones. You can either follow the recipe on the website, via their app or from the A4 recipe card that comes in the box. I've learned a few little tips that I'd not come across/thought of before: for example adding the soy sauce to your breadcrumbs before adding them to your meat when making Asian-style meatballs, crushing half your beans when you're making a chilli style dish to thicken it. Simple things, but effective.
The quality of the ingredients is generally fairly good - I would say more Morrisons standard than Waitrose though. I did cost out a few of the recipes in Ocado....at the discounted rate I'm getting at the moment they're reasonable value...about the same as I'd pay if I was making them from scratch. Which also confirms that its an expensive way of cooking if you're paying full price (though of course there's no waste). We think the portion sizes are generous - certainly we've never finished a meal still hungry. But there haven't been any leftovers either. All the recipes have their calorie count on them.
Though they use paper bags where possible and leave whole veg loose, there's still a lot of plastic packaging - I'm not sure how they could cut down further on this because everything is in just the right amount for each recipe. Speaking of these individual sachets....I find them quite fiddly...it'd be much easier to just measure with a spoon from a bottle. For example these are the the ingredients for last night's Fruity Lebanese Lamb:
So, after 4 weeks what do I think? The best thing about it is trying new things - I've really enjoyed that aspect of it. I think we were in a bit of a rut in terms of food selection and this has been a good way of mixing things up a bit. This week have Hoisin Chicken and Plum Stir-Fry with Zesty Rice, Chipotle Pork Tacos with Charred Sweetcorn Salsa and Cheese, and Fruity Lebanese Lamb with Cumin Roasted Carrots. The recipes are well thought out and have all worked really well so I'll be keeping the recipe cards and replicating a few of the dishes myself in the coming weeks.
I won't be subscribing full time once my discounted boxes run out....I find 3 meals a week is just too intense. Because you're following a new recipe every time you need to concentrate, whereas when I'm cooking something familiar I can relax and just potter along because I know what I'm doing. I will use them occasionally though: the meals have all been very nice, at full price I think they're expensive but convenient. I'm thinking they could be useful for example when we've been away and haven't had the opportunity to do any shopping. If get any more discounted vouchers then I'll probably do another few weeks now and again just for varieties sake.
I will be using a couple of the Hello Fresh recipes as inspiration to make up something of my own though....so its definitely achieved its aim of getting us out of a rut.
