Cooking is one of my things. You know, a highlight in the limited reel of talents I have that I’m mega proud of: it also includes knowledge of Pop Music circa 1992-2008 (valuable for pub quizzes), speed reading and the ability to sleep anywhere. It’s quite the arsenal.
Which is why I’ve never been that enamoured with recipe boxes. I used to worry that if I introduced a recipe box into our daily routine then I’d be rendered useless, that once the kids realised just how easy it could be for mummy to cook dinner – and not the slaving-over-a-hot-stove production I enact every evening – the most valuable part of my skillset would be forgotten.
How wrong I was!
The HelloFresh Family Box
Usually the evening mealtime in our house goes something like this: the kids have a snack when they get home from school and then read or have an hour of TV to decompress from the school day. I work and completely forget to rustle up anything substantial until a small person tugs on my elbow to tell me they’re hungry.
I then panic-cook something for the kids that could have been a lot better if I’d had more time to prepare, and cook myself a totally separate meal later on in the evening.
Net time spent in the kitchen: forever. Quality of meals: questionable.
Mealtimes with the HelloFresh Family box are an altogether different, more pleasurable experience. All the fuss is taken out of planning and shopping for the meals, so when that little person starts to tug on my elbow I know we’re all ready to go with something delicious and nutritious planned that ALL of us will want to eat for dinner.
Adjusted net time spent in the kitchen: 45 minutes. Adjusted quality of meals: much improved.
We’ve been eating from the HelloFresh Family box for a while and I’m totally sold on the concept. They arrive by courier on your designated day, fully insulated and cooled with packs that keep everything fridge-temperature for 24 hours (so you’re fine if you don’t manage to put your groceries away til the evening). You’re supplied with recipe cards that correspond with each bag of ingredients, all ready to cook up for your family.
The packaging is fully recyclable and everything you’ll need bar water, seasoning and cooking oils is included.
We made a little video to show you how we got on with one of our HelloFresh Family Box first recipes: sweet and sour pork:
I was lucky to take a little trip down to HelloFresh’s HQ in London recently to learn more about the concept behind the boxes from Co-Founder, Head Chef and Culinary Hunk Patrick.
Their idea, after finding such success in their couple’s recipe boxes, was to take the stress out of meal time for families. They want to provide fresh, healthy and easy meals that we can whip up in minutes, making dinner time an altogether more enjoyable time for everyone. Their recipes are altered slightly from the standard that are solely suited to grown-up palates and are customisable for little mouths: think less spice and strong flavours and, most importantly, more FUN.
This really is reflected in our experiences with the HelloFresh Family Box.
In the last few weeks we’ve not only chomped down on sweet and sour pork but cottage pie with sweet potato topping (our favourite!), prawn pasta with samphire, gnocchi bolognese, chicken meatballs and pizza burgers. It’s been great to know we’re always going to be sitting down to a lovely filling meal at the end of the day.
Each box contains four hungry person-sized portions which has obviously been too much for us at one dinner time. I’ve been eating the leftovers for lunch the next day and STILL had a portion left: there’s simply loads of food included. We’ve trialled the boxes that have four meals inside, and because of the amount of food have now dialled down our boxes to 3, which seems to work much better for us.
I love that this way of eating has meant the kids have been so open to eating different kinds of food. It’s so easy to get stuck in a rut with mealtimes as a parent; our HelloFresh Family Box has given us not only a meal for that evening but a catalogue of recipes that I now refer back to when I’m planning our week’s food.
Has it meant that mummy’s cooking skills are rendered useless? Not at all! I’m less stressed because I’m whipping up brilliant meals with all the legwork removed and the kids are happy because their tummies are full of delicious home-cooked food that they actually want to eat.
It’s a huge thumbs up from us.
Thank-you, HelloFresh, for introducing us to a way of eating that we never would have tried before. We’re sold!
Get £25 off your first HelloFresh Family box!
HelloFresh have handily sent me a link to give you £25 off your first HelloFresh Family box. Just click here to redeem and order… and enjoy
Huge thanks to HelloFresh for working with MTT.
there are a few boxes like this around that I get discount codes arriving in my inbox, but hello fresh seems to be one of the more popular ones I keep hearing about. whilst I like an easy way to mix things up a bit with tea time, how cost effective do you find them? bearing in mind a weekly shop in my household would also involve packed lunches, household usuals for cleaning etc as well as all the tea, coffee, etc.
I realise its not a money saving thing, just curious.
I have really enjoyed using this one, Paula! More so than a couple of others I have tried.
When I have a box I tend to spend around £20 extra a week on milk, breakfast things and salads – I eat quite a few leftovers from the box for lunch. I SO wish someone would invent a lunchbox service so I didn’t have to do those every day (bane of my life)
We’re big fans of Hello Fresh! I tend to dip in and out and use them for chasing-my-tail weeks so I have one less thing to think about.
Ahh they’re so good for those weeks!!
Ooh you had the same meals as us! We’re totally sold on HelloFresh too. I’m about to order our next month’s subscription. The last week without it has been DULL!
Quick question – do you get to choose the meals you have delivered each week? I love the idea of Hello Fresh and think it would save an awful lot of waste, if we can choose which meals we have week to week. Thanks!