Up First - Hello Fresh

Hello Fresh is probably the most popular of the kits - or at least the one I see advertised the most.   Promoted by celebrity Chef Jamie Oliver, it promised to be "chef curated" and healthy.  From the front page of their website, you'll find plenty of info about how the program works.  You can watch Jamie Oliver videos where he highlights the benefits of getting a box of ingredients on your doorstep and how much fun your family will have cooking away in your kitchen.  The front page also shows their pricing and gives a few examples of meals included in each type of box.  You can't find out what meals are available for the current week, until you sign up and give them your credit card info.  It's not too much of a commitment, though.  You can easily cancel from the FAQs page or just set your account to skip a week, if the current week's meals don't appeal to you.

I signed up right away. I had a coupon code for $40 off my first box (to save $40, use code TJ3XJF at checkout!)  I chose the following Friday as my delivery date and picked the Classic 4 meal box.  4 meals seemed like a good number.  We usually have a couple of nights each week that we aren't home for dinner and we'll still be able to enjoy a fancy restaurant meal each week. 

The Classic Box offers 6 recipes each week.  Four were pre-selected for me, but I could swap them out for any of the six recipes.   There seemed to be a good mix of classic dishes, international flair and protein options.  I didn't want to get bored with the meal kits and on Hello Fresh, that shouldn't be a problem.  Each week also features a recipe from Chef Jamie Oliver, which I hoped would bring me a challenge. 

I went with Seared Sesame Tuna over Rice, Jamie's Tomato, Spinach & Olive Fusilli with Fresh Oregano & Cheese, Seared Steak and Creamy Chipotle Pan Sauce and Jerk Chicken and Peach Skewers.

I missed the deadline to pause my next delivery, so after a couple of days, I ordered food for the following week.  In that order, I chose Pistachio-Crusted Chicken, Sweet-and-Sour Pork, Greek Gyro Skewers and Jaime's Spiced Crispy Beef Salad with Noodles & Crunch Veggies. Then I put all future deliveries on pause.  I have a lot of other box deliveries to try!

I also signed up for FedEx shipping notifications.  That way, I know when deliveries are on the way and can plan to be home or at least not stay at work too late. 

The first box was delivered around 10:30am on the scheduled Friday.  Jesse ran home from work at lunch and put the ingredients away.  What I really love about Hello Fresh is that all the ingredients for each meal are neatly packed in boxes that stack up nicely in the fridge.  The meats are in heavy plastic and packed beneath the boxes.  Since we had a lot of weekend plans and wouldn't be getting to our Hello Fresh meals until Monday, Jesse threw the meats in the freezer and stacked the boxes in the fridge.


By the time the second box arrived, we hadn't finished the first set of 4 meals.  While the first box was perfect.  The second one was missing a recipe.  So I had to print that one myself off the website.  One of the meals was also missing a label.  Since I already couldn't remember what I ordered and we were missing one recipe, figuring out what was in that last box was a bit of a challenge.  In the end we figured it all out, printed the recipe, wrote a note on the box and were ready to go for our week of meals.