How’s everyone holding up in quarantine? I’m not going to lie–it’s been super productive for me. I’ve been working on some side courses I’m taking, I launched a Healthy at Home 4-week meal plan (more about that below, but if you decide to get it, use code ‘STAYHOME’ for 50% off!) and I’ve really enjoyed having some quiet time to myself.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited to get back to reality (and to work), but I’ll enjoy this self-isolating while it happens. What other choice is there? Honestly it’s been really nice just cooking food for myself again. Just to eat. Not for work, not for any projects. Just because I want to nourish my body.
Are you cooking at home more?
I know for a lot of people it can be a challenge (especially if you’ve never really stepped foot in your kitchen before). That’s why meal delivery kits, like HelloFresh, can be so helpful: they give you everything you need, so you can just start. And with not wanting to leave your house to get groceries, it’s so lovely to have the food delivered right to your door.
Is HelloFresh worth it? An Honest HelloFresh Review.
Since more and more people are cooking at home, I thought it would be the perfect time to write a review on HelloFresh! After all, having the ingredients delivered to your door with recipes included, sounds like the dream, no?
I’ll be honest: I didn’t think I was going to like HelloFresh. As someone who cooks for a living, I thought it seemed like a waste of money. Can’t I just go out and get the ingredients myself? (Of course I could, but let’s be real: sometimes dinner would just be a spoonful of peanut butter and a glass of wine. Oops.)
So why did I get it? Truthfully, they have a promotion where you get to save $65 dollars: $35 off your first box, $20 off your second and $10 off your third, plus free shipping. (You can check it out here.)
So I was like okay, I’ll bite. Cause $35 off one box? That’s almost half price! And with 3 recipes, each serving two people, it was basically costing me $7.50 per meal. Not bad.
I tried it out, and I was actually pleasantly surprised. So let’s get into it.
What I liked about HelloFresh
1.The HelloFresh recipes were really tasty. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I mean of course they have to be good in order to be successful (also, I happen to be friends with two people who work there and oversee the recipe development here in Toronto, so like, I know it’s bound to be good).
I got three recipes in my kit:
- The Falafel Platter
- Warm Steak Salad
- A Chorizo Hash
I didn’t expect much from the salad because I thought, well it’s literally just a salad, but it was real good. And the falafel platter made me want to use roasted peppers in more of my meals. The ingredients in all the dishes were simple, but worked together really well. When it came to taste, they really nailed it.
2. There was surprisingly a lot of food. When I was making the salad, to feed me and a friend, I remember looking at the portions before i made it, and thinking that’s it? This won’t feed me and this boy who happens to be an insatiable pit. But, as I started to make the food and serve it up, it ended up being really good portions. I ate the salad, and I was full.
Same thing with the hash and the falafel platter–I got about 3 meals out of each (or maybe like 2.5). It was nice to have food to go back to every time I opened the fridge. If you are one person, this can be a great way to meal prep, because it’ll last you all week.
However, if you’ve got a big appetite, you might find yourself wanting to eat 1.5 portions, so you might feel like you didn’t get your money’s worth.
3. The discount. Again, I love that you can try it for almost half off! For me, that’s such a great way to dip your toes in the water before deciding to commit.
4. The flexibility. The other thing I liked is that it appears to be super easy to cancel. No weird jumping through hoops like some other subscription services (I’m sorry, but if you think your product is so great, why hide the “cancel membership” button??). I also love that you can skip weeks indefinitely. That makes it super easy to just kind of use as you need to.
5. The steps are easy to understand. The recipes are well written which is great, but honestly I found that for most of it, you could just look at it and figure out, which is perfect. I don’t want to have to overthink so much at dinner. I liked that everything was preportioned, and I could just dump + stir.
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What I Didn’t Like About HelloFresh
1.The lack of options for dietary allergens. Maybe I’m biased because I work for a company that caters to every dietary restriction there is (okay, except nuts), but I was kind of annoyed at how hard it was to find something gluten-free, let alone gluten and dairy-free.
To be honest, I’m not even sure the falafel platter was gluten-free, but there were very limited options that didn’t come packed with a wheat grain. So I ate it and hoped for the best. And I ended up just eating the cheese that came with the steak salad (..cause I paid for it!).
So if you have strict dietary restrictions, that may be annoying for you.
2. The lack of low-carb options. This is me being picky, but honestly, I like my dinners to be lighter (probably because I recipe test during the day, so I don’t want anything super heavy at night). It’s just a personal preference, but I would way rather have lots of vegetables and skip the rice.
I know meal delivery services like GoodFood offer low-carb options, and it looks like HelloFresh in the US does as well. So maybe it’s just Canada? Either way, a low-carb, gluten-free option would make it such a hit for me.
Bottom Line: Should You Try it?
I think if you’re looking to make healthy meals (and trying to avoid grocery stores) now might actually be the perfect time to join HelloFresh. Especially because you can save $65 through this link here . If you have been on the fence, I say go for it. It ends up being cheaper than UberEats, and more convenient than cooking for yourself.
If, however, you follow a really strict diet or maybe don’t have extra money to spend (uh, hello lay offs across the globe), you might be better off waiting on it. Instead, stock up on frozen vegetables, canned legumes and inexpensive pantry items!
So what do you think? Willing to try it? You can try your first box for $35 off, your second for $20 off and your third for $10 by heading to their site.
So about that 4 week-meal plan…
So about that 4 week-meal plan…Okay, onto the next then! I’ll write more about this in a detailed post, but basically I wanted to tell you that I came out with 45-page ebook! It’s called Healthy At Home 4-Week Meal Plan!
Guys, I can’t…I just can’t. So excited!
I’ve been getting a lot of questions about what to eat, and how to stay healthy while staying at home, and so I wanted to create something to make it easy! This book gives you a full 4-week meal plan (with recipes, grocery lists + prep lists!), but also, it gives you the basic recipe formulas for everything you can think of.
I’m talking: how to make the perfect smoothie every time. What ratio of ingredients to make any flavour of chia pudding, overnight oats, soups or energy balls you can think of. You get the recipe formulas, plus multiple flavours for each recipe so you can try it out.
Why? Because that way, you don’t always to google a new recipe for chia pudding or a stir fry. Instead, you can just swap out the ingredients for what you already have on hand. How cool is that?! Check it out:
So if you want to get it, you can grab your copy here. Oh, and one last thing. Because I know times are tough financially (believe me, do I) I’m also giving you a 50% discount–just use code “STAYHOME” to get this 4-week meal plan for only $14 dollars! $14 for 45 pages of information?! Oh baby.
Alright, that’s all for now!
Hope you’re staying sane + staying home,
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