Hello Fresh – is this meal planning made easy for the busy family or dinner impossible…

Ok we are back…. it’s been over a month since we have written anything. I sincerely apologize for that! Now that school is back in session, I am back to working mom mode. My school is located about 35 minutes away from my house and it takes even longer for me to get home. By that time, the whole family is hungry. For the first couple of weeks of school, I didn’t have much planned for meals;I was too busy lesson planning and making sure Zara and E were okay now that I was back to work. So I fixed some old faithful recipes; you know the kind your mama or daddy use to make. However, hubby is a bit of a foodie and likes new and different foods that I usually don’t have time to fix when your toddler is screaming “I want PBJ” and the baby is crawling everywhere or up your leg for some one on one time but all you want to do is sit down and not talk to anyone. (Yes, I am aware that is a run-on sentence). So I decided to try something new that I had seen advertised. Have you heard of Hello Fresh? I hadn’t until I kept seeing coupons in the back of Parent magazine. I subscribed to the magazine but seriously rarely read it.

So about this Hello Fresh, it’s one of those company’s that prep your meals for you and deliver it to your door. Once you subscribe, you get to pick your meals out of a selection that they have and then they send it you. You pick your meal deal: 3 meals a week for 2 people or 3 meals a week for 4 people. You can choose omnivore style or herbivore. We chose omnivore because the mister is part T-Rex. Now before I tell you about our experience, I must tell you that we were not paid for this AT ALL. I tried it because I had a coupon and had very little time to meal plan let alone even fix a decent meal.

I ordered the meal about a week and 1/2 out. I did not get to choose my meals. I don’t know if I got the option to do that or perhaps I just missed it. Our meals were delivered on our doorstep. I had received an email from UPS letting me know when the package would arrive. My parents just so happened to be in town and they called and told me when it arrived which was pretty much when UPS said it would. Cool. I opened the package and saw that everything was still cold and packed really well. There were boxes that had the ingredients with the veggies, sides, condiments and herbs and then all the meats were underneath several ice packages. There was also a little booklet-if you can call it that- with the recipes. 

We actually didn’t start the cooking until my parents left. I didn’t think I should cook a meal for 2 with a family of 5.5. So I froze the meat and did the first meal on Sunday. I think the first one I made was the Honey and Corn Flake Crusted Chicken. I had misplaced the recipe book that came in the box. I went to the Hello Fresh website and downloaded the recipe from there.

The chicken was tasty and everything was really flavorful especially the broccoli that I accidentally made a little dark and crispy–whoops! The burnt ones actually did taste a little better. The meal was good but there weren’t much leftovers as far as protein was concerned but plenty of broccoli (hubby opted out of eating that). I made three meals in three days. It took me a little time to chop and mince certain things and of course I still had the kids to contend while I prepared these meals all while racing to get it done before hubby came home.

By the time I got to meal three, Hello Fresh was already in the process of charging me for my next box. You really gotta check you emails with these guys. Which is something I can forget to do when I am exhausted from working all day. So Box #2 was on it’s way and again, I did not get to pick my meals. This was my fault for not checking my emails on the night of meal picking. I think your delivery date depends on your location. Our delivery day was Thursdays. Therefore meals had to be picked before 11:59 Wednesday night. I failed at that. Zara awoke me at 2:00 am for a feeding. I had decided to check my emails then and then whispered “oh fudge”. I wasn’t upset that I did not get to pick the meals. I was upset that I did not cancel it in time. Having a coupon was everything. Hubby and I decided that for $69 we could probably buy more meat and have some leftovers. We totally appreciated how everything was done by the company. The price actually is not too bad if you consider that you do not have to do any grocery shopping for your dinner. However, since I am the family grocery shopper; I know that I have to grocery shop for two kids providing breakfast, lunch and snacks. Annnd since there are no leftovers, I had to buy groceries for the remainder of the weeks’ meals. In a nutshell, I think this a great service for singles, couples (the 3 meal for 2 plan) with no kids. The family of 4 plan for $129 may have been our better option. But it was $129 and I knew I still had lunch and the weekends to consider plus a picky toddler and toothless 11 month old (at the time). So for The Wilson People, this just wasn’t for us. I truly appreciate the skill and thought behind it though. 

Have you tried Hello Fresh or another company like it? Tell us if you feel it was worth it?