Brutally honest HelloFresh recipes review: Unboxing HelloFresh Recipes

HelloFresh recipes have so far blown me away and I would love to be able to explain why. Some people consider using HelloFresh to lose weight. That might indeed be a viable option. For me, HelloFresh has been a dream experience for time-saving and guaranteed delicious meals.

Is it worth it to use HelloFresh?

For me, HelloFresh has absolutely been worth it for the two consecutive weeks that I have used it. I saved so much time as I made the meals faster than I’ve made almost any family meal in my life. They tasted amazing too! 

What do you receive with HelloFresh?

This is what makes using HelloFresh recipes so convenient. You do not have to put much thought into it at all. They provide all the essential ingredients that you need to whip up a delicious recipe.

From my experience with HelloFresh recipes thus far, you get everything that you need for the recipes except for salt, oil and water. There may indeed be some recipes that call for even more than you receive in your package but if so, I have not had one yet.

Can I see HelloFresh meals before signing up?

You can see meal options available each week on the website before signing up.

You can also see the recipes on the app which you can download on your mobile phone.

You will be able to see the ingredients, calorie levels and cook time for each recipe. 

Can you lose weight with HelloFresh?

If you know your maximum daily calorie intake, I can see why using HelloFresh may help you to lose weight. 

HelloFresh shows you the number of calories in each recipe. Having this information means that you can plan your daily intake accordingly and make sure you do not exceed what is required to help you lose weight. 

Combined with exercise and an appropriate level of fruit intake, you should be able to utilize HelloFresh recipes while trying to lose weight. 

Are you supposed to freeze HelloFresh meals?

There is nothing stopping you from freezing the meat you receive for as long as is viable. However, the other fresh produce should be used within a week.

Is meat included in HelloFresh?

Absolutely. All the ingredients you need for your recipes are included apart from the basics like oil, salt and water which you will almost certainly already have available at home.

How long is HelloFresh meat good for in the fridge?

It is difficult to answer this as it would depend on a few different things including how long you left it out before refrigerating it. I would say that the safest thing to do is to freeze your meat right away if you are sure you will not be using it for a few days. Refrigerate it at once if you won’t use it immediately and inspect it properly before use.

Can I cancel HelloFresh anytime?

Yes. You can cancel your subscription whenever you want. You can also choose to keep your subscription but skip some weeks if you’d rather not receive your box one week or the other.

Having said all that, is HelloFresh worth it for you? Let’s weigh the pros and cons.

HelloFresh Pros & Cons

As with anything, there may be some costs and benefits to using HelloFresh recipes. Here are all the benefits and disadvantages that I can think of.

Pros of using HelloFresh recipes

1. You can vary up your diet. Using HelloFresh recipes means that you are consuming a variety of meals weekly. You are therefore ensuring that yourself and your family are not restricting yourselves to one meal type per week, for example.
2. You can be adventurous. You are selecting the meals that you want to try out. Therefore, you can be adventurous and choose recipes that you know you would not be able to prepare yourself or ones that you have never heard of or tried before. 
3. Time-saving. If you stick to selecting those HelloFresh recipes that have a low cooking time, you could save yourself a ton of time standing on your feet in the kitchen.
4. Fun. It can be such a fun time choosing recipes for the week with your family. It gives everyone something delicious to look forward to.  
5. Healthy-sized portions. The portions are always large enough that you will not be left hungry. However, they are also not too large that you get tired of the meals. 

READ: Easy family traditions you can establish today

Cons

The disadvantages that I have personally found are:

1. Packaging. Considering that the cold food stuff specifically has to be well-preserved, it is understandable that quite a lot of material goes into packaging the food. If disposing of rubbish can become an issue in your household, adding on all the packaging that comes with your weekly boxes could add to your worries.
2. Time spent. If you do not carefully select your recipes weekly, you might be preparing meals for longer than you like. Some of the recipes are not ‘rapid’ and so you have to be careful in your selections otherwise, time saving will not be a feature of HelloFresh recipes for you.
3. Storage for leftovers. As mentioned above, the HelloFresh recipe portions are a good size. If you do not have sufficient fridge space but are left with plenty of leftovers, you may struggle with storage. Also, if you are unable to prepare your meals as soon as you receive them, finding space for them could become a hassle.
4. Money spent. It seems that a lot of people’s first experience with HelloFresh is via the use of discount codes. When those codes run out though, affording the boxes over a long period of time is not within everyone’s budget.
5. Steep learning curve for amateurs. If you do not usually  cook or if you consider yourself to be a terrible cook, again, you have to be careful to only select easy recipes. Although all the recipes are straightforward, you might feel out of your depth with certain aspects of the recipes if cooking is simply not your thing. 

I must say though that even as someone who does not currently enjoy cooking, the process of following the recipes and ending up with beautiful meals has been greatly therapeutic and rewarding.

So, what do you think? Would you consider trying out HelloFresh Recipes? If so, CLICK THROUGH HERE and use code ‘HELLOAFF60’ to get 60% off your first box and 25% off for the next two months from now till the end of the year. 

Let me know how it goes in the comments!