Does anyone use Gousto / Hello Fresh / similar?

[Wenchelda]

Ok I admit it - I just do not enjoy cooking. I try to meal plan but I just find the whole process so boring and tedious - from planning, to shopping, to cooking. I would also like us to eat better. Our diet is ok, but there's definitely room for improvement. Add to this the fact that my husband and I both do shift work, as well as fitting meals around various activities / clubs that the children do after school.

So I was wondering if one of these "family meals delivered" things would be a good idea? Does anyone use them? Are they ridiculously expensive?

Thanks

My daughter tried the Hello Fresh box, but wasn't impressed. And she was horrified at the amount of plastic packaging that was involved.

We've both tried the Simply Cook herbs and spices boxes which we both like. I don't like cooking either but the Simply Cook kits have given me choice and new ideas, and have proved successful with the whole family. They are a bit pricey for what they are (herbs, spices, pastes and recipes) but they've livened up our diet no end!

Can your husband not take on meal planning?

I love the Gousto boxes and wasn't impressed by hello fresh.
I order one when we fancy rather than be stuck in a subscription and get a great range of meals from it.
I keep all the recipe cards int he folder you get a couple boxes in and I have remade all the recipes again without ordering the box.

We have used hello fresh and Gousto on and off. We dipped back into hello fresh recently and have been frustrated. The recipes have been lovely - easy to follow, healthy and very tasty. But an absolute mess with what has actually arrived. Wrong menus, bags of ingredients and protein items. This is hugely annoying when you are paying through the nose for convenience and then have to go shopping anyway.

We are giving them another two weeks then enough

We sometimes get the Gousto boxes, particularly if we’re not travelling on business. They have some Wagamama recipes in the Gousto box too which are lovely.

We used hello fresh after DS was born to try to give us one less job to do! The menus are quite good, varied and lots of choice. Easy to follow recipes and not too many ingredients . Agree w PP, far too much packaging. Have made several of the recipes again with just an online supermarket shop. It’s expensive for what it is food wise, ie cheaper cuts of meat/types of fish, dishes bulked out with veg (too much butternut squash for my liking!) You are definitely paying for the convenience. In 5weeks, one item was missing. We did an introductory deal, I wouldn’t pay full price to do it long term, but great for a few weeks to make things easier and give you some inspiration.

I did hello.fresh for a bit when our baby was small - did get nice ideas and tasty stuff but a crazy amount of washing up I found! Maybe I'm just lazy 😂

Love Gousto - delicious and very good customer service etc. Don’t have it regularly but we’ve learnt so many new recipes too.

Thanks all. I didn't realise / think about the option to just order a box as a one off to try it out. That sounds like a good idea

I sometimes buy a box when I have a discount during school holidays to skip meal planning. They're great for encouraging me to cook something different, but portion sizes are crap (slim but active family) and I feel so guilty with all the packaging. I'd say do the trials, it's cheap food when the boxes are half price so worth trying, but I couldn't justify the full price cost.

We used had Hello Fresh for years but now vastly prefer Gousto. I just think you get a lot more meat and veg and fewer cheap carbs in Gousto. ( I personally liked Mindful Chef but DH prefers more 'family' food, so Gousto is a good compromise.)

Portions are huge for us and we usually have leftovers. Never have missing items or anything.

I tried gusto, I don't recall they us much plastic, lots of paper. I really liked the simplicity of gusto. I used it as a training for new recipe ideas, not add a long term option. It's good because missy of the meals are quickly made.