Remember how I recently bought a Groupon for three veggie meals from HelloFresh? Well, I cashed that Groupon in and we got our first HelloFresh box this past Monday.

IMG_4631How does HelloFresh work? You sign up for a subscription and select either the Classic Box or the Veggie Box. Each box contains ingredients and recipe cards for three meals that serve two people apiece. The price for each box varies based on the meals, which change from week to week. The Veggie box starts at $9.08 per meal per person, while the Classic box starts at $10.75 per meal per person. Had we not had a Groupon, our first Veggie box would have cost $60 including delivery, so $10 per meal per person. This is the same price that Blue Apron charges for three two-person meals; Plated costs a bit more, usually $12 per meal per person. You pick a delivery date, and voila—a box appears on your doorstep!

Because HelloFresh is a subscription service, you do need to manage your account. If you’re fine with getting a box the same day every week, you can set it and forget it. But if you’d prefer a box every now and then, you need to pause or unpause upcoming weeks. If you get the Classic box you can pick from several meal options, but the Veggie box offers three meals to all subscribers. You must save your choices for the following week by 11:59pm on the Wednesday prior to your next delivery.

The ingredients come insulated with a layer of frozen water bottles underneath to keep everything nice and cool. What’s nice is that you can drink the water when it thaws out. Both Blue Apron and Plated use ice packs which I always threw away because we don’t have room in the freezer to collect them for re-use. I’d be a little concerned about the ingredients going bad if it was 100°F out and I wasn’t home to unpack the box immediately, but I’ll deal with that if and when we get to that degree of heat outside (fingers crossed we don’t!).

Here’s what I found when I opened up the box:

IMG_4632The meal ingredients are packaged in three separate bags for a streamlined unpacking process, and the recipe cards are nicely designed and easy to follow.

Our meals this week?

Spring Veggie Flatbread with Basil Pesto & Lemon

IMG_4633Poblano and Portobello Fajitas with Fresh Guacamole

IMG_4634Mediterranean Quinoa Bowl with Crispy Kale Chips & Feta

IMG_4636I can honestly say that both my husband and I really enjoyed all three meals! Each was VERY easy to make and had so much flavor. The first meal I made was the quinoa bowl and it took significantly less than the stated 40 minutes to make. Please excuse my terrible food photography:

HF_QuinoaI will absolutely make this dish again! It has so much flavor and packs plenty of protein with the quinoa and almonds. YUM.

The second meal I made was the fajitas, and while it was more involved than the quinoa bowl it was still quite easy. And so, so delicious! I ended up eating mine open-faced because they were going to get really messy if I rolled them up fajita style, but wow, the flavor in these!!

HF_FajitasAs I was finishing up making the fajitas I lamented to my husband, “These don’t have any CHEESE!” (I am a Cheese Monster.) But you know what? I loved them despite the lack of my favorite dairy ingredient, though I’m sure the sour cream helped.

Last up was the flatbread. I was a little worried about working with dough, even though it was pre-made, because I’m very dough-inexperienced. But the crust turned out pretty well! What made this meal extra easy is that HelloFresh gave us a jar of pre-made pesto. If you wanted to get fancy you could certainly whip up your own batch of pesto and use that instead. This flatbread was very, very tasty!

HF_FlatbreadThere wasn’t enough cheese provided for this Cheese Monster’s liking so I sprinkled a good amount of grated Parmesan atop the mozzarella. I’m also not ashamed to admit that I dipped the crust in some Bolthouse Farms yogurt ranch dressing that we had in the fridge, which is something I always do when I eat pizza at home. Pizza + Ranch = Heaven. It’s science.

Will I continue to use HelloFresh? 100% HelloYes! Our bellies have been made very happy this week. The only reservation I have with HF so far is that the boxes aren’t flexible. In our house we have one meat eater and one non meat/fish eater. My husband doesn’t mind occasional all-veggie meals, but he does want meat for dinner sometimes. At least with Blue Apron and Plated you can mix and match meat, fish, and veggie meals to some extent (but I stopped using Blue Apron because their delivery service was just awful).

I would encourage you to try HelloFresh out if it’s available in your area. You can even get an Earth Day special: 40% off purchases on Veggie or Classic Boxes for 2 people! Use code EARTH40. (Valid on 1st delivery.)

Have you tried HelloFresh or similar services like Blue Apron or Plated? What have your experiences with these services been like?

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