Just tried first Hello Fresh...I don’t get it....

[GiraffeNecked]

So a potato some mince, a carrot, a glove of garlic and some mince arrives. All stuff I have in the house already ..... you still have to chop, cut, cook and it was nice, but no nicer than something I’d have come up with by myself.

So the cheapest deal from hello fresh would cost £30 a week from what I worked out from the website. . And you need to order every week. Seems a bit of a tie in. What if you only want the occasional box.

@Cocorico22

I'm sure Alan Sugar described it as 'cooking for mugs' on the apprentice last series...

He sure did , but it wasn't 2019 it was 2017. It was the series with Michaela and Elizabeth the batty but great florist. Michaela and Harrison from that series now have a baby together.

I binged old Apprentice at the start of the original lockdown.

If you go onto the Asda groceries site they have loads of recipes, you just click and it adds all of the ingredients you need to your basket and you can have it delivered for a fraction of the price of Hello Fresh.

It's definitely not cheap

Gousto is better but more expensive

We have enjoyed it from time to time. It's good if you don't have much time to shop and cook or if you don't know how to cook or if you want to try some recipes you wouldnt usually eat.

When we have ordered it is never bolognese or chilli or something we make ourselves it's usually things that look a bit different and I like it for that.

But haven't ordered for ages.

It’s good for those who don’t know how to cook and those who have very little time and money to throw away. Personally I prefer to cook my own thing as I get to improvise and do away with things I don’t like. As they saw to each his/ her own.

@Viviennemary

So the cheapest deal from hello fresh would cost £30 a week from what I worked out from the website. . And you need to order every week. Seems a bit of a tie in. What if you only want the occasional box.

Then you only order when you want it.

I’ve not had a box in months and had one delivered last week. I think the recipes are not as good as they used to be.

I first got them when DS was very young and exDH would just have cooked pasta every day. Now DS chooses the recipes he likes and will sometimes cook. I’m more than capable of cooking but sometimes it’s nice to not have all of the brain work of making the meal plan every week with everything else.

@GiraffeNecked I’d much rather a meal cooked mostly from scratch over a ready meal. I don’t really see how you can compare HF with a ready meal.

@Babamukeke1

It’s good for those who don’t know how to cook and those who have very little time and money to throw away. Personally I prefer to cook my own thing as I get to improvise and do away with things I don’t like. As they saw to each his/ her own.

You can improvise HF recipes. We often do it, with two meat eaters and a veggie it’s necessary when you get a meat dish.

@SoVeryLost. I liked that idea of dh choosing and cooking and hoping to expand his repertoire of steak, roast dinner, bbq and default ‘your turn to cook ‘ meal which is frozen fish and chips.

But if it’s because I can’t be arsed to cook or think I’d pop and buy a ready meal from cook or Charlie bigHham Or have one from the freezer and add some veg.

We had Hello Fresh for a while and enjoyed the recipes.
We now use the cards to choose the ingredients we want and cook our own versions of the recipes that we like.
The only real advantage of getting the boxes (apart from the recipe cards inside them) is that all of the ingredients are already weighed out for you and put into suitable containers.

I got the impression you had to have an order each week and unless you cancelled ehich is easy to forgrt. Like the old style book clubs.

You can change the delivery dates - we have Hello Fresh one week and Gousto the next. Easy way of getting a good variety. We have some Cook meals in the freezer for when we’re having friends and family for dinner and need larger quantities.

Thanks. I think I'll get round to trying either Gousto or simply fresh. But I don't like being locked in to having to cancel. I'd rather just order occasionally.

I have a pasta evangelists code if anyone is interested in a night off from proper cooking. Out of my price range so I've only used them when I can get money off, but nice with a discount! pastaevangelists.mention-me.com/m/ol/nc3ht-f369524d70

[quote kowari]I have a pasta evangelists code if anyone is interested in a night off from proper cooking. Out of my price range so I've only used them when I can get money off, but nice with a discount! pastaevangelists.mention-me.com/m/ol/nc3ht-f369524d70[/quote]
Thank you. I've looked at them but never tried them due to the eye watering cost.

You're welcome "@ventanaperrito".

You don't have to order a box every week, you can stop and start at any point.

I don’t order every week, but you do have to remember to cancel or stop deliveries a couple of weeks in advance.
I originally tried Hello fresh to try and get my then teen son ( with LD) interested n preparing food and help with life skills. The early recipes back then were well illustrated with step by step instructions ( ds could not read) and at first he was nterested- but that soon wore off! Now he is more interested in eating than cooking ( which for a picky eater was a good result) and it’s a struggle to get him to help cook. What has happened is DH and Ds will know what to cook for tea and between them get started on the tea when I am later getting home. During lockdown we had boxes every week and was brilliant! It meant we had food coming in even when I could not get to open shops.
I choose a mix of recipes- usually something I know Ds will want to eat, a vegetarian dish ( as I am not very confident with vegetarian ingredients) and whatever else we fancy. I generally avoid the quick meals ( sometimes have chopped ingredients that don’t keep well) and anything I could easily knock up myself.
The most useful thing is the ideas- I got so bored with cooking the same things- this has increased the variety of meals we get to eat. The recipes are not now aimed at those who are new to cooking - I think more at those who are short (shopping) time.

Here's another Gousto discount code if anyone would like - 50% off of a first box and then 30% for subsequent month iirc - GOUSTO

My son and his GF use Hello Fresh as they have very little storage space in their tiny kitchen. We used it when we went on holiday, and it was brilliant - a delicious meal every evening, and nothing to waste or cart home at the end.

We improvise quite often - DH has some food sensitivities ( so we can’t get take away or eat out easily) and I am low carbing- and before covid we sometimes also had extra mouths to feed, so used the recipes as a basis. Sometimes I get an ingredient we cannot use ( if I missed it in the ingredients list!) but it’s not usually a problem. Eating out with food sensitivities is much more problematic - whereas with the boxes I just leave out the offending ingredients, and we can still have interesting meals.