Welp, it’s Monday. I try to be grateful for every single morning, but Mondays make it tough. Ya know?
A few weeks ago I won a free week of HelloFresh (which included the ‘Classic Box’ -three meals for two people). No one asked me to write a post. No one is giving me money. I make nofin’ off this. I just thought you might like to see how HelloFresh worked for two rural married folk who typically whip together a homemade meal two or three times a week, tops.
(All that said, I believe this code does credit my account & it gives you $40 off your first box. Regardless, I don’t care if you use it or not 🙂 I’m just gonna’ leave it here. The actual numerical code is: 222525E4CHCG )
I’ll talk about each meal, then the pros and cons of this service! As far as difficulty goes, 1 is simple and 5 is near impossible.
Meal 1: Jamie’s Oozy Shrimp Risotto w/ Tomatoes and Chile
Why I Picked It: We love shrimp! (K isn’t a huge fan of risotto, but I figured he’d be alright…)
Difficulty: 3 out of 5
Results: Out of all three this was the most challenging one. (The website says it’s rated very difficult.) Still, it was pretty easy. I cooked it first because A) it told me to and B) I was nervous about the shrimp going bad. It was really, really good! The salad was kind of a miss (leafy greens, lemon juice, oil = meh) but the meal was great! I’m slow in the kitchen & it definitely took me longer than the estimated time, but everything turned out just right! (I intentionally left the chili pepper out, fyi.)
(From here out I started getting lazy with pictures/K was running out of patience with me.)
Meal 2: Chipotle Rubbed Chicken Salad
Why I Picked It: It sounded good & I’m a sucker anything avocado!
Difficulty: 2 out of 5
Results: I am an old lady & spicy foods do not agree with me. I dug alllll the seeds out of the jalapeno & limited the adobo sauce. Didn’t matter- it still had a kick. Haha! Both K and I don’t care for beans, but overall this salad was yummy. It took me longer to prep than indicated, but I think that’s a theme with me. For having a lot of foods we don’t normally eat in it, this was a successful meal, too!
Meal 3: Crispy Chicken w/ Brown-Butter Corn & Cucumber Tomato Salad
Why I Picked It: Why wouldn’t you pick it?! Crispy chicken & buttery corn- oh my!
Difficulty: 1 out of 5
Results: WINNER, WINNER- CHICKEN DINNER. (Er, um, no pun intended…?) By far our favorite meal! I’ve never coated chicken in sour cream but you can bet your behind that I’ll do it in the future! Also, they said to cook the corn in a separate pan, but I threw it in the pan that I used to brown the chicken because #LessDirtyDishes. And it was SO GOOD with bits of crispy breading from the chicken mixed throughout. K really, really loved the corn (which is good because he really, really hates cucumbers- haha)! My mouth is watering thinking about this meal!
. . .
Ok, so a quick list of pros & cons & opinions…
Pros: Everything you need is included (except oil olive for most recipes), the directions are simple & there are pictures (praise Jesus), & the food quality is pretty great! Also, while you can freeze some of the meals to make later on, it forces you to stay home & cook.
Cons: Well, it forces you to stay home and cook. (Ha, I kid.) It’s a little costly and I was nervous about the meat while in transit. We received ours in the middle of summer and, while the box was a little soggy & the cold pack thingys were starting to melt, everything was still cold and fresh.
Another pro is that you can skip your box for weeks at a time (like right now we’re currently suspended because I don’t grow money), and they have a handy app that lets you control your deliveries AND the food each week. (You pick three out of the six meals.) It also lets you rate your meals and look up other HelloFresh recipes.
I haven’t checked it out, but they have a vegetarian box option & family boxes! You can also change the number of meals you get and the number of people eating them.
So in conclusion, we liked our free week. We decided that we’ll probably get HelloFresh one week per month or one week every other month- depends on what they’re serving up! I’m pretty excited to try out some of the other recipes!
Have you ever tried a meal service like this? Would you ever?
Life as Louise 
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