Chesslers try HelloFresh

Our first HelloFresh box arrives. 

At the Chessler household, we have been regularly receiving coupons to try "meal kit delivery services" like Hello Fresh and Blue Apron.  You probably have too.  After some Internet research, and a little recent bad publicity for Blue Apron, we decided we'd give Hello Fresh a chance (plus the $50 off two weeks' worth of meals was a good nudge).  Consumer Reports ranks Hello Fresh as "excellent" and Blue Apron as just "very good."  The price for Hello Fresh is a little higher, but they say you get what you pay for.  

One box per meal. 

So our refrigerated box arrived Monday evening and it felt a bit like opening a present.  We ordered three meals so we got three boxes containing ingredients for those three meals.  Beneath the boxes, and underneath two big bricks of ice, was our meat.  (If you're concerned your produce and meat will warm up while it's sitting on your porch, I wouldn't worry.  I unpacked our box and left the empty box (with icepacks) sitting in the living room overnight and it was still cold the next day.)

Ingredients and recipe for coffee-rubbed tacos.  (Steak is in the fridge).

Except for oil and salt and pepper, all your ingredients are provided, along with a very nice recipe booklet.  There is a certain zen quality to having everything you need assembled in its own box. And the produce was exceptionally fresh. Having said that, you still have to chop up that produce. It's not like zapping some frozen food from Trader Joe's in the microwave.  On the other hand, there is no improvisation of ingredients (I have, I confess, improvised a little too freely with my recipes in the past, as family members will tell you).  And if you follow the well written directions, you will be rewarded with a good meal that passes muster with the teenage son. 

Produce chopped; ready to cook the steak. 

 Our experiment with a meal kit delivery service continues.  Our first two meals were quite delicious, in my opinion.  Does such a service save money?  Maybe, if you cut down on grocery trips.  Definitely, if  you cut back on eating out.  I think it's not completely about the money. Hello Fresh touts their service as "more than food." They're selling food adventure.