People who use recipe boxes…

[Menonut]

I’ve tried both Hello Fresh and Gousto.
As someone who was never taught to cook, I’m finding they are really helpful in getting me out of the rut of cooking the same 5 meals all the time without spending £££ on different ingredients while I find my way. We really like the food and once I’ve learnt a recipe I’m adding it to my repotoire and buying the ingredients separately.

My question is this - do you find the portion sizes in the boxes small or are we overeating? I find I have to either bulk out the recipes with extra meat or pasta or I have to get a box for one person more than I’m actually cooking for? Just wondered if we were out of the ordinary?

For reference I’m cooking for me, plus husband and 21 year old son. Husband and son would never survive on the portions they provide.

Not at all
500g mince makes me 5 portions of cottage pie or lasagne or whatever I’m making

Yes 500g would be for 4 person recipes for me. I’d use a 250g pack for 2 people or I’d freeze half. I think that’s the kind of amount that recipes on places like BBC Good Food have for things like chilli and bolognese sauce.

We prefer ‘Simply Cook’. They send you the recipes, herbs, spices and flavour potsand you buy your fresh food. It’s much cheaper and you’re not tied into eating all the food in a week.

Good grief! It’s like the Mumsnet chicken 🤣. If I’m making a cottage pie, lasagne, chilli, or meatballs, I use a 400 or 500g pack for two of us, and don’t usually have any left over. When my daughter was still at home, I bought two packs and there was enough left over for her to take to school/work for lunch

I’m with you for cottage pie, lasagne and chilli, as the meat is a large part of the meal. But I think of meatballs as a bit different, I don’t have as much meat there as I would with lasagne or chilli. Lasagne I live in horror of running out of meat for the layers so I do more than I need and freeze the rest. 750g for 4 probably is about right.

We did Gusto & found they were more than enough for the four of us. But that might be because I wouldn't have a large portion & the rest went to my dh. When my ds is home I would do enough for 6 which gives enough for everyone. I've not bought one from them for a few years now, but still use several of them recipe cards quite often

We had of these a while ago. Few were ok, bit on small side. Most we found small, some really small. I wondered if they were small because we always got them on offer...

I tried hello fresh but the portions were simply not big enough for my family. Yes I could have brought extra but then it worked out very expensive so didn't bother again

I mean i guess it depends what you’re having with it as well
if it’s just lasagne then probably a bigger portion than if you have garlic bread and salad
Cottage pie I like veg, pickled red cabbage, extra gravy… I put leeks and cabbage in the mash and cheese
chilli might have rice, tortilla chips, sour cream, guac etc

Hello Fresh are obsessed with green beans with almost every meal.

That's not fair, sometimes it's rocket.

We sometimes use Gousto and it’s enough although occasionally we do end up with the meal for 4 between 3 of us but DS has a condition which means he needs about 3800 calories a day just to maintain his weight.

The weirdest thing is that there is very rarely onion in anything with hello fresh, whereas when I cook normally, everything starts with an onion. Gousto uses more onions!

It obviously also depends on what you eat outside of dinner time - we don’t eat snacks in the afternoon, we don’t do pudding, and we don’t have soft drinks or milk alongside dinner. The boys are usually gnawing their hands off by dinner time, so one small chicken breast and two small potatoes isn’t going to be enough. Everyone’s different! A lot of my friends say that their husbands and kids graze a lot in the day so aren’t quite so hungry at dinner time.

We do Hello Fresh and we find the portions are fine, although we never need to use our biggest dinner plates.

The only time we add anything is to the cassoulet type dishes when I'll add a tin of mixed beans and a handful or orzo to make eniugh for a third portion for my lunch the next day.

I figure they know what a correct portion size is.

You forgot the spinach.

Yeah I don’t graze, snack in the afternoon, drink soft drinks or have pudding and the portions are still fine!

And theres always dishes with Kecap Manis.

It was Gousto. Looking at it now I can see it says 150g for 2 people. I will pay more attention to this in future.

We stopped them as it really highlighted how much DH and I ate. The portions were too small for us

🫡

I am genuinely shocked at people having enough for left overs if buying the right amount for the people eating.

I have to get 4x for me and a teen and preteen and no leftovers at all. And we don't eat massive meals at all.

I feel there's definitely a weird obsession with crème fraiche

We have used hello fresh (I think) previously and found portions were fine but ingredients quality wasn’t great and had to be used quite quickly. Also used simply cook which were better as they provide the sauce and spices etc and you provide your own ingredients from the recipe again portions were generous.

If it’s just me and my daughter I get box for 2, if my 21 year old son is back from uni I get a box for 4 and then I had left overs for lunch the next day.