I have been curious about meal delivery services for awhile now. They all promise the same thing – fresh, portioned out food that is delicious, easy, and convenient. Even though I regularly cook and meal plan, the idea of not having to think about what to make, and having all the ingredients in exact amounts with no waste sounded super appealing. Thus, I finally took the plunge and gave one a shot, starting with HelloFresh, based on the recommendation of friends.
Plans they offer: A classic plan, a vegetarian plan, and a family plan.
Price: The 2 or 4 person plan is $9.99 per meal (e.g. per PERSON), and a family plan is $8.74 per meal.
First impressions: The website was pretty easy to navigate. I chose how many meals I wanted (3) and selected the day I wanted my box to be delivered. However, they pre-selected 3 meals for me. I had to do some extra clicking to see what other meal options there were and decide whether I wanted to change anything. I ended up keeping the default meals because I liked those more than the others.
The box came in the early afternoon on the day I scheduled in for, with the proteins tightly packaged between two huge ice packs. Each of the week’s meals were portioned out into rectangular brown boxes and clearly labeled.
Boxes filled with portioned out produce for each meal. Meat was packaged separately.
The recipe cards were also vibrant and beautiful. One side listed out the ingredients and step-by-step instructions, while the other side showed an enlarged photo of what your completed meal should look like. A separate card held all the nutrition information for every meal offered that week. I love that the recipe cards are ours to keep, although you can easily find these recipes online too.
Timewise, each meal took me about 40-45 minutes to prepare from start to finish. You will need to wash all the herbs and produce before starting. The prepping of the vegetables and making of the sauces take up the most time. Lots of slicing and dicing.
As for how similar my meals came out compared to the pictures they marketed, you can see my before and afters below. Mine aren’t nearly as pretty or well-presented, but I thought they were pretty true to what was promised both portion-wise and looks-wise.
Meal #1 – Lean Green Steak Machine with Mint Chive Dressing & Veggie Succotash
We really liked this meal – you can’t go wrong with steak around here! I also really liked the vegetable succotash of asparagus, squash, onions, and peas. I never would’ve put all those veggies together in a stir fry. The mint chive dressing also added an extra element that really brightened up the dish.
Mine versus HelloFresh
Of course the nerd in me had to do a price comparison, and break down how much this meal would’ve cost if I had grocery shopped and did everything on my own.
- 12 oz sirloin steak – $5.84
- 1 red onion – $0.50
- 4 oz peas – $0.17
- 0.25 oz chives – $0.38
- 1 zucchini – $0.53
- 6 oz asparagus – $1.87
- 0.25 oz mint – $0.57
- 1 lemon – $0.50
Total = $10.36 for 2 people ($5.18 per person)
Meal #2 – Pineapple Pork Chops with Snap Peas & Jasmine Rice
This wasn’t my favorite, but I am not a huge pork fan in general. But to my surprise, Mr. Heels loved it and made sure I saved the recipe so that we can have it again in the future! He really liked the pineapple relish topping that was paired with the pork, and polished his plate. I love that he is eating all his vegetables and actually enjoying it! I didn’t think this recipe was very inspiring though – you just salt and pepper the pork and put it on the stove. Same with the sautéed snap peas – I just tossed them on the stove for a few minutes and seasoned with salt and pepper. Again, this recipe took about 40 minutes to make from beginning to end. Lots of chopping and mincing.
Mine versus HelloFresh
Price breakdown if we shopped on our own
- 1 small can pineapple – $0.89
- 6 oz sugar snap peas – $1.25
- 0.5 cup jasmine rice – $0.15
- 0.25 ounce cilantro – $0.30
- 12 oz boneless pork chops – $1.44
- 1 shallot – $1.79
- 1 lime – $0.25
- 2 tsp honey – $0.10
Total = $6.17 for 2 people ($3.09 per person)
Meal #3 – Presto Pesto Panko Chicken w/ Green Salad & Roasted Potatoes
This one was really tasty! When I saw panko chicken I thought it’d be a lot of working dredging chicken in egg and all, but the recipe was super easy. I thought this was the easiest and quickest recipe of them all. I never thought to press a panko/mozzarella mix into pesto, and will definitely be using that trick from now on for future chicken dishes.
Mine versus HelloFresh
Price breakdown if we shopped on our own
- 12 oz yukon potatoes – $0.97
- 12 oz chicken breast – $3.74
- 2 oz arugula – $0.62
- 1 lemon – $0.50
- 0.5 cup panko – $0.15
- 2 tbsp pesto – $0.30
- 0.5 cup mozzarella cheese – $0.87
Total = $7.15 for 2 people ($3.58 per person)
Overall impression – The meals were tasty, although not very creative or innovative. Green salad, roasted potatoes, and sautéed snap peas are all sides we can readily make on our own without much thought. I would recommend HelloFresh to those who are just starting out with meal planning and cooking because the meals are simple to prep and make. Also, for those like my husband who like familiar, simple flavors. At $9.99 per person, it is still cheaper than eating out, but I do wonder if all this effort to prep and cook is worth it when you can get take out for a couple dollars more without the hassle of cleaning up.
I got a bit granular with the price breakdowns, but I was really curious how much I could make these meals for on my own with these exact portions. It is no surprise that it is cheaper, but I do realize that if I were to buy all these ingredients on my own, I would have to buy them in larger portions by default, which often leads to food waste, not to mention a higher price tag. I really like the idea of not having any food waste and using the exact quantities we know we’ll eat.
I don’t like that the portions are not big enough for us to ever have any leftovers, and the recipes pretty much require same day cooking. When I meal plan, I always make sure we have enough for leftovers, which also eliminates the need for me to cook every day, so this is a big negative for me.
Overall, I would be open to ordering from HelloFresh every once in awhile for times when I want the convenience of not having to grocery shop or think about meal planning. I’d like to see what else is out there and how they compare though.
I can definitely see why these meal subscription services have become so popular, though I’m not completely sold on it yet.
Have you tried any meal subscription services? Which one would you recommend?
pear / 1998 posts
The one thing that I can’t get over for all these meal services is the incredible amount of waste in the packaging.
We use the Fresh 20 for meal planning. We aren’t put together enough to do it every week, but it works the best for us. There are no worries about meal planning for the week. We use online ordering at our local grocery store for convenience. We do all the prep work one day to reduce the amount of cooking time each day. The plan uses up all of the produce so there is very little food waste.
blogger / wonderful cherry / 21616 posts
I have done three weeks of hellofresh while on maternity leave to simplify things. Like you said, we like that we got the exact quantity we needed (as making these dishes would cost more because you have to get larger bottles, bags, etc of those foods). But I agree that I like to have leftovers, and we have a five year old I wanted to feed but I didn’t want the upcharge for the family meal. Most of the time there was enough to divide between three people, but not each time.
I think my biggest grievance was similar to you. The meals were pretty uninspired. I wanted delicious, but easy meals at $10/plate. I’d say that each week we had four meals, we only loved one. We usually liked half, and there was always one meal we did not like at all. DH and I are not picky eaters at all, but there were a few meals that we did not care for.
Long- term, I wouldn’t pay the price. I wish there were a few more meal options to choose from each week!
We also tried blue apron and it was a similar experience and exact same pricepoint.
guest
We are big HelloFresh lovers. I agree that the three dishes you tried were relatively simple, but many of ours have been much more interesting. Some examples: turkey chiles rellenos, toasted rice and shrimp bowl, mu shu pork tacos, shrimp and asparagus risotto.
One of the biggest benefits for me (besides the perfect portions, and no grocery shopping) is that I don’t have to figure out what to cook for dinner. I hate trying to think of something everyone will like.
cantaloupe / 6730 posts
I’ve been ordering Hello Fresh for the last couple of months. It is too expensive – I originally thought it was $10/meal, rather than person. But I like the convenience enough that I order once a month. I consider it a treat that I don’t have to think of what to make for supper.
pear / 1718 posts
One thing missing from your cost analysis is time. Not just time at the grocery store, but also time selecting recipes and creating shopping lists, which is not insignificant.
We like and use Hello Fresh. I have found their portions to be generous (too generous most of the time–I stopped ordering the family portions because there was just too much food!) and I like that the recipes expose my family to a much wider variety of foods (especially my preschooler). I haven’t loved every recipe, but that’s always a possibility when you are experimenting in the kitchen.
guest
Nicole and pwnstar hit the nail on the head for why we do it. It’s expensive, it pays off for us. I enjoy cooking, but I HATE meal planning/deciding what to cook. If you’re good at and/or enjoy those parts of cooking, it’s probably not for you. It’s not our primary meal source, but supplements the lame dinners I will otherwise make
We also moved to a town with few delivery options, and decided to do meal kits to replace the previous habit of ordering in when we couldn’t decide what to eat. It gives us the motivation to eat better, cook more often, and we often make it a date night thing. Put the kids to bed and cook the meal together. And since no one had to plan, shop, or get blamed if there was a forgotten ingredient, it’s much more stress-free for us.
IF you’re coming from a situation like ours where the alternative to using meal kits is NOT that you will realistically meal plan and go to the grocery store, but that you will eat out/order in more and not eat as well, then you could actually come out ahead financially (and waist-line!).
wonderful olive / 19353 posts
I’ve been debating about trying these meal prep services for awhile and can’t decide if I want to or not. A bonus like previous posters have mentioned is not having to decide what to make. That’s the biggest struggle in our household – “what’s for dinner???” So just picking a “box” and cooking it would simplify our lives (and stress level) quite a bit. However, I’m wondering if the cost to eliminate said stress is worth it.
Another concern of mine is portion size. The meals look relatively “small” and we’re sorta kinda big eaters. lol. I don’t wanna have to rummage for supplemental food if the portions are similar to that of say a 5 star restaurant. There’s 2 adults and 2 kiddos in my household.
I love everyone’s response and personal experiences with it. Guess I just need to bite the bullet and try em out to see how it works for us!
coconut / 8861 posts
We’ve been doing HelloFresh since January and love it. Though it seems expensive, we save money and time shopping for ingredients. I find the portions to be generous enough for two small picky eaters to eat along with us. It was one of the selling points for us. I also like that the proteins are mixed up. Before HelloFresh, I would rarely eat steak. Now, it’s about every two weeks, we get a steak recipe. I like the recipes thus far. I’ve learned a new way to make grilled cheese, have a new love of roasting vegetables, and have made a few of the recipes long after we had them from a weekly meal.
The best thing about it is that it took the guess work out of meal planning for us. Coming home tired from work and commute, planning a meal was last on my list. Now, I pick from our weekly selections and have a good meal. No complaints here. I’m willing to pay more for time and energy saved.
blogger / eggplant / 11551 posts
@TemperanceBrennan: Agree about the packaging waste! We saved the giant ice packs, and recently used it for an outing at the beach (but it’s not like we can keep storing them as we get more boxes)… and my husband is reusing the box by using it to ship stuff. The box is sturdy enough that we can probably use it for a variety of things.
@Mrs. Pen: I totally would’ve done it for maternity leave! What a lifesaver just to not have to meal plan or run to the market for food. I’m trying Blue Apron soon, but their choices per week seem even more limited. Did you like HelloFresh or Blue Apron better?
@Grace: Yea, at first I wasn’t sure if “per meal” meant an entire meal that could feed at least two, or “per person”. I think the verbiage is a little deceiving if you’re not paying close attention.
@pwnstar: I guess I’ve been meal planning for so long, that it doesn’t take me that much time to meal plan (~30 minutes). Running to the grocery store can be a pain, but if planned correctly I only need to do it about once per week. I have to go anyway with or without these meal kits for supplemental stuff like milk, eggs and fresh fruit anyway. I did like the convenience of HelloFresh a lot though!
@Alivoo01: Like you, I was hesitant for the longest time. We finally decided to try it because there are so many promos and coupons out there for these services. The portions were surprisingly filling for one meal, but definitely not enough for leftovers (for us at least). We both polished our plates, but were left feeling full and satisfied.
@cascademom: Agree that the best thing is taking the guesswork out of meal planning! It’s nice to try new recipes too that I wouldn’t have thought to try on my own. The biggest thing setting me back is that if it’s convenience I want… the price difference isn’t that much greater than take-out. And take-out doesn’t require any cooking or cleaning. The $10/pp for HelloFresh or Blue Apron isn’t bad at all, but some of these meal kit services are going for about $12/pp.
guest
I have been doing Marley spoon for several months now and love it. The sizes are generally big enough to fed 2 adults and our toddler easily. Some of the times we have quite a few leftovers too. For me it’s the convienence that is a huge deal. It’s hard shopping with a toddler! Lol.
In the months I’ve been doing it I think there was only one meal I didn’t like? And several times my super picky husband has tried new things and said he really liked it. Plus I don’t seem to have a much food spoiling.