Are HelloFresh family meals convenient?
*This post is sponsored by HelloFresh
Last year the family and I reviewed a HelloFresh Recipes Vegetarian Family Box for free and we found the experience both enjoyable and delicious. This time I wanted to discuss whether subscribing to the HelloFresh family plan menu and enjoying HelloFresh recipes every week is convenient i.e. does it replace the need for lengthy meal prepping, food wastage and venturing to the grocery store to buy the ingredients with multiple kids in tow?
For a full walkthrough on what HelloFresh is and how to subscribe to their weekly boxes please click on this link. But, here is a quick rundown for you:
Get 60% off your 1st box, 25% off the next 2 months & 3 free gifts!*
What is HelloFresh?
HelloFresh offers a range of subscription-based meal boxes, which include three to five recipes depending on the number of people you are buying for in the family (two to four). You can choose from a Family Box, a Classic Box, a Rapid Box and a Veggie Box, depending on your taste and requirements.
Each week a box of fresh ingredients are delivered to your door, along with recipe cards which you follow step by step, so you can have freshly cooked meals every week without the need to meal prep or buy your ingredients from the store.
You can don your own blue apron and practice being a chef in the comfort of your own home while using HelloFresh recipes to conjure up some pretty easy to cook meals which look like they have come fresh out of Masterchef!
How do you sign up?
It’s very easy to sign up. You head to HelloFresh’s website here, you select your plan and your options, the number of recipes/family members, type in your name and email address and HelloFresh takes care of everything else for you.
So why sign up?
We signed up to another vegetarian family box again – three meals for four people – and the food was delicious and so easy to make! The HelloFresh menu offers kid-friendly meals which are not too spicy, so everyone got to enjoy the family recipes.
My middle one and I enjoyed watching season 13 of Masterchef and he has become my food critic. He was very gracious in his critiquing though and gave my HelloFresh cooking rave reviews – I felt like I was on Masterchef with Marcus Wareing!
So, why should you sign up?
Here are some reasons why:
Family-friendly dinners
When you opt for a family box you get a HelloFresh family-friendly meals menu, which means decent portion sizes and elaborate takes on kid-friendly staples. The great thing is that these meals are packed with all the different food groups, so they’re filling, tasty and fun to cook with the kids.
Kid-friendly dinners
You get to cook very easy kid-friendly recipes for dinner from the HelloFresh family box menu which all the kids really enjoyed, even my 15-month-old! Some of the flavours might be a bit too overpowering, however, when I washed down my baby’s dinner with some plain rice or milk, my youngest ate everything up – and she’s fussy!
My eldest has developed a love for spice and I believed this newfound love came from our previous HelloFresh box as I hardly ever add spice to my food. My middle one enjoyed the very mild version of the meals (so I left the spice out on some of them) and he is very keen on different types of veg, so overall it did work with for the kids.
But there’s no way we can go for anything that’s stronger than the mild versions – not yet!
Get 60% off your 1st box, 25% off the next 2 months & 3 free gifts!*
Eat more veg – try new veg!
The family meal recipes include lots of vegetables, even new ones that I don’t normally buy. The great thing about HelloFresh is that it has encouraged me and the kids to try new ingredients which can now become part of our staple grocery shop.
You can pause your subscription at anytime
If you’re away one week, or you can’t afford it a certain week, you can pause your HelloFresh boxes at any time, provided you’ve given enough notice and they haven’t packed and sent the box yet. This helps you to reduce your weekly/monthly spend or, should you choose to, do something different and take the kids out food shopping for a change.
There are tons of meal variety
The HelloFresh family menu is very varied, so you get the chance to enjoy cuisines from all around the world. From Indian to Thai to classic British, you can select your plan and your recipes and you’re good to go. I love that the kids get to enjoy different types of food from around the world – it increases their palette and it educates them on how ingredients can vary in the way they go together in different parts of the world.
Kids can get involved too!
You receive easy dinner ideas for kids to get involved in helping with the meal prep too. Nothing is too difficult and you don’t need fancy utensils either. Get the kids washing the rice and cooking them, or if they’re old enough or able enough, allow them to chop and prepare the veg. Show them how the different ingredients go from raw to plate because it’s so educational for them and it helps fussy eaters know where their food comes from, which builds trust for them.
Easy to follow recipe cards
The recipe cards are so simple to follow. Every ingredient has a picture, so you can educate the kids on what they look like and the quantities are clearly set out so you don’t put too much or too little of the ingredient in the recipe. As a result, you get a Masterchef-style recipe to enjoy with the family every time!
Recyclable and packagable
HelloFresh are big on recycling and using as little packaging as possible, so you won’t see plastic or materials which are not biodegradable. I love helping those companies who think about how to make our environment a better place!
No wastage!
There is no food wastage because you’re given the right amount of ingredients for each meal, which is great because I tend to overbuy my ingredients and end up with food that’s no longer edible – it’s such a waste! At least this way I don’t have to spend time working out portion sizes, I can just use HelloFresh to do all the calculating for me.
Some questions from you guys:
What are the HelloFresh family-friendly meals?
You get a whole bank of different cuisines from around the world, which double up as kid-friendly easy dinners if you don’t opt for the overly spicy. The recipe cards will tell you how much spice is in each meal, so head to the website and just select the recipes which are suitable for your family’s palette.
There is a huge variety to choose from – if you’re a family that likes meat, then opt for the classic box. If you’re a large family then the Family Box is great. If you’re veggie/vegan then the vegetarian boxes are the best for you.
Why do people like meal prep delivery services like HelloFresh?
Meal prepping especially for a large family can take a long time – time which we parents don’t have, especially if we’re homeschooling (it took me five hours to homeschool the kids each day last week!).
So after a day of work and homeschooling (as well as managing the house and kids), I don’t want to have to sit down and work out what to buy so I ensure my kids eat fresh and healthy every day. It’s why so many parents turn to frozen food and ready meals because we’re tired and cooking an elaborate Masterchef meal after a long day can be overwhelming and frustrating.
HelloFresh is so convenient because it takes the guesswork out of what ingredients to get, while still ensuring we’re getting our fresh fruit and veg in every day and hitting all the food groups to help the kids – and adults – grow strong.
Get 60% off your 1st box, 25% off the next 2 months & 3 free gifts!*
What is the difference between food and a meal?
Food is a bunch of ingredients either in their raw form or put together to rustle up something to eat. A meal is a carefully prepared concoction of ingredients created via a recipe, with sometimes with different herbs and spices added and a side dish. A meal takes time to prepare for and get right.
Is meal prepping healthy?
Meal prepping is definitely healthy if you get it right. It’s important to get your fresh 5 to 7-a-day of fresh fruit and veg and I try to hit all the food groups in one dish, like calcium and iron etc. Meal prepping can take a long time but it’s worth it if you have the time and resources to do it. HelloFresh have done the meal prepping for you by packaging up the fresh ingredients for you to make that healthy meal. If you’re like me with a million tasks already, leave the meal prepping to the experts!
Is HelloFresh a scam?
When scouring online for HelloFresh reviews before I decided to give them a shot, I found the vast majority of the reviews to be very positive. We have also used HelloFresh twice and can categorically tell you that HelloFresh is indeed NOT a scam. If you can afford it, it takes so much of the pain away from meal planning and shopping for groceries and the food has been unanimously delicious. No bad meal as yet!
Are HelloFresh meal kits worth the money?
One can argue that it’s not as cheap as the groceries you buy at the store – and that’s true. However, the quality of ingredients and food is better than what you get at the grocery store and a restaurant (unless you go Michelin-starred), so there are added benefits, which means you can’t really expect to have your cake and eat it (no pun intended there).
So, are HelloFresh meals convenient?
HelloFresh family meals are delicious, they’re easy-to-cook and, most importantly the kids love it! What’s great is that HelloFresh has got my middle one interested in preparing and cooking in the kitchen too because it’s so easy to follow the recipes cards. So HelloFresh is educational as well.
For a mum of three who works at home and now homeschools for five hours a day, it’s a no-brainer for me. Online food deliveries are now scarce due to the pandemic and I haven’t got time to work out what to cook every day in the week. So HelloFresh is worth the money and the convenience because I can cross off the meal prepping and the grocery-buying and just concentrate on ensuring the dinner comes out properly – and with those easy-to-follow recipe cards, I haven’t made a bad meal yet!
Have you tried meal delivery services like HelloFresh and what did you think? How is your experience with cook-at-home meal kits in general? If so, does your family have a weekly meal that you enjoy together? How many unique meals does your family cook each month? Share your experience with us in the comments below!
Get 60% off your 1st box, 25% off the next 2 months & 3 free gifts!*
*This post is sponsored by HelloFresh
