In the Kitchen with HelloFresh: Things I loved + Helpful Tips

Thank you HelloFresh for sponsoring this post. Keep reading for a special discount code!

I have a new favorite thing in life! As a busy mom of two boys as well as a business owner, life is crazy busy. We all know what that hour before dinner is really like…trying to figure out what to make while trying not to trip over “hangry” kids only to realize you forgot the main ingredient at the grocery store (most likely due to a meltdown). And there are only so many local take out places!

Enter HelloFresh (and all the mom’s rejoice!) Yes, HelloFresh reached out to me to collaborate with them for a post. And sure, I thought oh this will be fun…I’ve heard of meal delivery services and have read about the hype surrounding them. But I had no idea I would love HelloFresh as much as I do! And I have never had a happier husband as I did the week I got 3 home cooked meals on the table by 6:00 (I think their boxes even come with a bit of magic).

HelloFresh was kind enough to offer my readers $30 off their first box (new customers only)! Just enter code FROMTHEFAM30 at checkout. After reading what I loved so much about our box I’m sure you’ll be ordering a box of your own.

Things I loved:

The ingredients came perfectly packaged and fit neatly on my refrigerator shelf. We got the 3 meals for 4 people box and it took up an entire shelf in my fridge. Definitely plenty of food!
The recipes were familiar but with a twist. We love flatbread pizza…but putting roasted zucchini on them…who would have thought! We all loved it (including the boys) and yay to getting another serving a veggies!
There is absolutely zero waste with the ingredients. Everything is indeed perfectly portioned and while the recipes do call for some of your own pantry items I guarantee it is things you already have (olive oil, salt, pepper).
The meats we received all stated “No Antibiotics Ever” on the labels. I was very impressed! The meats were also packaged safely between huge freezer packs for the overnight shipping. I was not worried one bit about spoilage when I received the HelloFresh box.
Everything looked like the pictures! How many times do you make a recipe and think that you messed something up royally because absolutely no part of your finished meal looks like the photo. Not the case with the meal recipes I received from HelloFresh! I was so excited when our dinners looked just as appetizing as the meal cards!

Helpful tips:

Make sure you read all the directions before beginning. While this is true for any recipe you are trying in life, I kind of bypassed this step as I already had the ingredients in front of me and started to get ahead of myself. While the Very Teriyaki Pork Tenderloin recipe only had 6 steps on the recipe card, some of the steps have multiple parts and I missed some things and had to go back when I realized I had ginger left over after almost finishing the last step. It wasn’t the end of the world but it definitely makes meal prep easier to take a minute to read all instructions before you begin.
Don’t be afraid to omit ingredients! My husband loves chicken sausage…but my boys, not so much. So for the Chicken Sausage Pizzas I made one flatbread following the directions exactly. And for the second flatbread I held the chicken sausage and in the end had two happy boys who devoured it!
The meal boxes for 4 are definitely for 4 adults or 2 adults and 3 children. Since we are at the stage of extreme pickiness with the boys, I count them as a half serving combined when it comes to dinner. So I ended up only using 1/2 of the family of 4 box. I could have easily gotten away with the 2 serving boxes. But the 4 serving boxes were great as the ingredients stay fresh for a good week so we had “fresh leftovers” later in the week.
There is still prep. But this is what makes it so fresh! I think my biggest hesitation to subscription meal boxes was the worry of receiving a bunch of overly processed ingredients in a box. Not the case with HelloFresh! While it takes a few extra minutes to slice a zucchini or grate some fresh ginger the results are so worth it!