Subscription: HelloFresh
Coupon Code: VHCY7D for $40 off your first week and $20 off for my next week!
Cost: Options come with meals for 2-4 people 3-5x per week.
- Classic [$9.90-$11.50 per person]
- Veggie Box [$9.08-$9.80 per person]
- Family [$8.75-$9.99 per person]
What to Expect: Delicious recipes, fresh ingredients, flexible subscription.
Surprise!
I forgot to cancel Hello Fresh and got another box. It’s canceled now though because I want to try out some other food boxes! [so I’m not sure if my $40 off box code works–let me know please!]
**I wasn’t sure why my total was $69 for 3 meals for two people. At $9.90 each, it should have been $59.40. But then I took a closer look and found you have to buy 10 meals a week, or 5 meals for two people to get $9.90/each. So mine was really $11.50/person. I updated the header area to show the range of price to expect.
Recipe 1: Chicken Milanese with Crispy Potatoes, Mixed Greens, and Creamy Lemon-Chive Dressing
Cooking time: 35 mins, Level: 1
I asked McBoyfriend to start this dish while I was on my way home from work one night. I got home and he was distressed and upset [he’s not into cooking alone]. The potatoes were in the oven [though he didn’t put down parchment or a silpat so they were stuck to the pan]. After breading the chicken and putting in the pan, he left the kitchen.
Drink: Guava juice, 1 shot pear vodka, splash of Grand Marnier, top with sparkling water.
Salt + Pepper Shakers: At the top of the picture you can see I found a tray for my White Peach Pottery shakers! We’re still a little unsure if they’ll last–you have to shake the salt REALLY hard and they’re a pain to fill.
Rating: 3/4 stars
The chicken was very tasty! I only gave McBoyfriend a little arugula because he hates lemony things. The potatoes were okay. This meal was a meh for me, but the boy liked it.
Recipe 2: Pan-Seared Steak with Roasted Butternut Squash and Green Beans Almondine
Cooking time: 35 mins, Level: 1
My cook time: 50ish mins
I thought it was strange that the veggies were the same thing we had the last time I got this box, but with a fancy name and almonds thrown on top.
Uhh I don’t know why they insist of “stripping the thyme leaves” off the twigs, so I got mad and just threw the sprigs on top of the squash.
McBoyfriend doesn’t like steak, so I texted my roomie and told him he could eat dinner with me if he cooked the steak. He’s good at cooking steak, and said that they had him cook it a weird way. He said he usually sears it and sticks it in the oven, so it didn’t really turn out as rare as he wanted, but I was totes okay with that!
Drink: Red wine with a splash of margarita mix and some Sprite.
You’re either intrigued or disgusted, because writing it down I’m like eww, but it was tasty! It was like a weird sangria.
Rating: 3/4 stars
Okay, steak was a 4/4, but the veg was kinda gross. The almonds were weird and trying too hard. Fortunately, I also had my amaaaazing leftover potato salad, so we supplemented our dindin with that! Mmmm… it’s seriously the best!
Recipe 3: Tuscan Sausage Linguine with Zucchini, Chilies, and Parmesan
Cooking time: 30 mins, Level: 1
My cook time: 47 mins
Drink: Vermouth Cocktail from Serious Eats.
I stepped it up this night and looked up an actual recipe! This was SOO GOOD! We have full bottles of dry and sweet vermouth, so I Pinned several recipes and tried this because we had the ingredients on hand. Bonus was that this box came with a lemon, so I threw a wedge of that in as well!
The zucchini was pretty beat up. Looks like they need to protect them a little better! At least it wasn’t as bad as the gross potato from my first box.
I had to squeeze sausage out of the skin again. I giggled and was simultaneously grossed out.
THIS WAS SOOOOO GOOD! I knew it wouldn’t be saucey enough for McBoyfriend, so I threw in an extra can of diced tomatoes. He still complained, said it was good, but complained about lack of sauciness nonetheless. Anyway, there were leftovers for two more lunches, so I was quite pleased with that!
Rating: 4/4 stars
We’ve shared some good times, HelloFresh. Over the past nine meals I’ve received three packets of red flakes. I saved them because we have copious amounts of chili flakes in my house already, and these were in little packets so boyfriend can just grab them for his weekly pizza intake. Anyway, after saving all three I noticed that they were all labeled differently: Crushed Red Chili Flakes, Chili Flakes, and Crushed Red Chilies. Confused, I opened them and put them in a bowl. Why are they different? Why does HF have so many varieties of chili flakes?
Whatever, I dumped them all into a jar. Mystery solved! Nonderria Drew solves another case, let’s celebrate with a vermouth cocktail!!
Verdict: I wasn’t blown away by my three boxes of HelloFresh. I got box envy seeing the variety of foods in other cooking subs. This one is just so… American. It’s meat and veg, meat and veg, and I get bored of that. I want spice! I want flavor, and variety, and some flipping pad Thai!
Do you have any cooking box suggestions? Brandy and Tom at Hello Subscription got me looking into Home Chef–my mouth was watering when I read their last review!
Click here to see more reviews from HelloFresh!
Disclosure: This box was paid for by me. There is a referral link so you get $40 off your first box, and I get $20 off.
Love the review! Funny that MsBoyfriend was stressed and left the kitchen for you to take over when you came home lol. Was McBoyfriend wondering why you opened the red chili packets that he wanted to use for his pizza even though there were there for awhile? Thyme should not be ruffled and stripped down all the time it can be modest at times. You are quite the bartender!
Hah, no I told him I was investigating.
It was weird. One time the thyme was packaged and dry, and two times it came in a fresh pack. I am curious why. I definitely prefer dry… it’s SO not worth it to sit and try to strip all those itty bitty leaves off!!!
I think your beat up cucumber is a beat up zucchini. 🙂
Bahaha thanks misslindsayleigh! It was very late when I proofread and totally didn’t catch that.
Great review! All the pics and documenting of cook time is awesome. Cant wait to see more cooking and cocktails that you and McBoyfriend whip up.
Thanks! I am actually relieved to be done with this because writing a blog post takes time, but writing a cooking post TAKES SO MUCH TIME!! First, cook items whilst taking photos. Then eat. Then edit photos. Then write blog post, edit, put in photos, and edit more. Siiiighh. Minus the food part, the writing and editing took perhaps 5hrs last night with the tv on.
Boyfriend doesn’t make cocktails… he dumps rum into coke, vodka into sprite, or redbull into red wine [BARF… I called that his hillbilly sangria]. He REFUSES to try anything I make [but I also employ sugar, lemon, and spirits he’s not a fan of].
It’s Friday. I hope you have lovely, relaxing plans =)
You forgot to add “Then drink” in your response 😉
Clearly I need a tiny martini glass emoji inserted after every period in that paragraph ;D
I know to the cooking reviews!! Same with the craft boxes!!
I was actually thinking about that while I read your post last night. I was finishing this up around 2 am, and saw yours and was like holy crumbs, also lots of work. But I really like how you edited the video! I think I’m too verbose to just do a video and not write an accompanying essay! Haha.
I’ve done ~100 recipes on Blue Apron. My cooking and prep time was always twice what they estimated. I was able to improve quite a bit with 2 additions: a good forged chef’s knife and cut resistant gloves (I was always worried about cutting myself while chopping (it’s happened a few times), but putting a glove on my left hand and cutting with my right, I am much more comfortable.)
Ooh, a cutting glove. I’ll have to check that out! We also have mediocre knives, so that doesn’t help.
My brother gave me some really nice knives for Christmas but I am too afraid to use them because I nearly sliced my thumb off with the picnic knife from the summer Hamptons Lane box. I need all my digits for typing…
Sdbear mentioned cutting gloves! I was looking at some on the Amazons.
We just received our first box and everything was soaked!! The box it was delivered in and all the interior boxes. The interior boxes were so soaked that they were literally falling apart. I was so excited, cancelled my subscription. Bummer!!! The only good thing was that I got a refund.
Wow! I am glad you were able to get your money back. I bet things happen during shipping that I will never ever understand.