has anyone tried Hello Fresh, Blue Apron, or any of those services?

[Kamen_Kaiju]

Basically it's like having a Dietician and Grocery Shopper do most of the work for you?

I like cooking, but I pretty much never seem to have the time to go to the grocery store or plan decent meals. So I've started cooking the same stuff all the time because it's easy and fast, (meat and potatoes, and pastas.)

But I started wanting to eat more vegetables, and I didn't seem to find the time to research any good vegetable dishes or anything, and again ran into the problem that when I'd go to the grocery store I'd just grab the old reliable meat and potatoes.

Plus I'd order pizza or Chinese food once a week and that ends up being like $30-$40.

So I heard about these services called Blue Apron and Hello Fresh, there's actually quite a few of them but those were the two I saw mentioned the most. And after watching a bunch of reviews I thought the quality of meals and produce looked better with Hello Fresh, so I signed up with them.

Basically every week on their website they post like 9 different meals, and you pick 3, and they deliver to you all the ingredients to make those meals. So instead of spending time shopping for ingredients and planning meals, you just click on the meals you want to make and they deliver all the stuff to you.

It's not too expensive surprisingly. It's not "cheap", but factoring in time saved from grocery shopping and meal planning, and not buying Chinese/Pizza, I think I'll actually save a bit of money, or at least break even but eat healthier.

Anyway I thought it was sort of interesting so figured I'd see if anyone else has tried it. I just signed up so I haven't gotten my 3 meals yet, they come this weekend so I guess I'll make them next week.

These are the 3 meals I picked to try that are available this week:

Peppercorn Gravy Steak

Chickpea-Powered Mediterranean Couscous

Scallops Over Truffled Mushroom Risotto

and these are the 9 meals that are available to choose from this week:

https://www.hellofresh.com/menus/


It seems like a pretty neat service, and it will be fun to try cooking some new things. And I like that there seems to be weekly variety to the meals so you don't end up eating the same stuff over and over like I've been doing. And it's cool they offer plans for two people up to 'Family Plans' which is more meals for more people.

They seem to make it easy to manage your account too from what I see looking at mine, I seem to be able to change my plan, suspend my weekly delivery, or cancel my subscription whenever I want.

Anyway for a single guy it seems like it'll be a fun experience to try cooking and eating all these different kinds of foods and it'll probably be healthier than what I've been eating the past couple couple/few months.

If anyone wants to try it they gave me a discount code I could give out to friends and family that knocks $40. off your first order, so you could get 3 meals for two people for like $20. Just PM me if you're interested in that.

….I wont be going Foodie and posting pics of my Meals next week. I just thought it was a neat service for people who like to cook and don't really have time to plan decent meals and go to the grocery store all the time.

..a service for lazy people who like to cook? Maybe that's the appeal for me. After work I can just start cooking and don't have to deal with the other stuff.

 

[Shred Astaire]

I use one called Goodfood here in Canada. Similar idea and so far I’ve been happy.

It’s a little tougher with a 6 year old around as she is not as adventurous as we are. I’ve now made some stuff I never would have and been quite happy with it.

We get 3 meals a week...2 portions. The portions are quite big so it’s no big deal to share some with the kid and we still have leftovers usually.

Some of it I didn’t like Too much but that’s experimentation right??

Been using the service for about 2 month now and still going. Can pause or quit anytime I want...no commitment required. Pretty cool stuff.

 

[Kamen_Kaiju]

Yeah that sounds like pretty much the same thing. I'm looking forward to trying some new foods.

Plus there's times I'd see a cool recipe for an Asian meal, but after you buy a bottle of fish sauce, and oyster sauce, and a bunch of bok choy and stuff,..it would be cheaper to just go to a restaurant and buy the meal. So I like that these meals come with everything you need because there's a lot of odd spices and seasonings and oils that most people just don't have in their cabinets.

And it just seems like healthier food than what I've been making. Not that I'm making garbage food, but it's easy to fall into a rut of pasta, meat, potatoes, and a can of veggie. It'll be nice to get some fresh veggies and stuff.

Meal prep for lazy people that don't have time for meal prep. I like that idea a lot.

 

[DotStudio]

I have and still do. My wife and I work pretty weird hours, so it takes some of the guessing game out of cooking.

We started with Blue Apron and now use Hello Fresh.

Blue Apron: Everything is made from scratch and the meals are truly gourmet. The variety of meals/flavors is great if you're into trying new things. That being said... due to the complexity of some of the meals, they can take forever to make.

Hello Fresh: Ingredients aren't quite as high quality, but everything still tastes great. Not as much prep work (for instance you will shred your own cheese/ remove corn from the cob using blue apron, where as with HF that would be pre-shredded/canned). The meals are a little bit more pedestrian, which fits my wife's tastes more than the gourmet food. And the meals are much quicker to make.

They're both good and a great way to eat well a few days a week without stressing.

 

[Kamen_Kaiju]

I saw some reviews on YouTube and online where it seems like people are signed up to like 2-3 different companies, and they just rotate each week depending on what's on the menu. So it might be Blue Apron one week and Hello Fresh the next.

I can see the appeal in that, the variety and options, but it seems like more to juggle too.

Did see like you said reviews saying the Blue Apron stuff was more time consuming.

Pretty excited to try it. I wish my first delivery was sooner than Sunday.

 

[DotStudio]

I saw some reviews on YouTube and online where it seems like people are signed up to like 2-3 different companies, and they just rotate each week depending on what's on the menu. So it might be Blue Apron one week and Hello Fresh the next.

I can see the appeal in that, the variety and options, but it seems like more to juggle too.

Did see like you said reviews saying the Blue Apron stuff was more time consuming.

Pretty excited to try it. I wish my first delivery was sooner than Sunday.

Ha, we have a hard enough time remembering to cancel on weeks when we're traveling. That sounds like a trainwreck waiting to happen

 

[Kamen_Kaiju]

I have to admit my biggest hesitation was the idea of being 'subscribed' to it every week.

But,...I eat every week so,..have to get food from somewhere.

Feels like "Commitment" though. *shudder*

 

[PeteK]

I did Hello Fresh for a few months. I enjoyed it. The food was good. It was portioned well for me and my wife, but don't expect any leftovers. There were only a few dishes we didn't enjoy, but overall we were happy with it. Ended up stopping just because it's kind of spendy but Hello Fresh let's you skip weeks with no obligations indefinitely

 

[Frogfur]

No. If you're too lazy to plan meals and go shopping, that's pretty bad.

 

[chazza]

No.

I do a rough weekly plan at the weekend and send the wife out to the shops to get what we need.
If I forget anything or need anything extra, I just drop in and grab it on my way home from work.

However, at this time of year 80% of what we eat comes from the garden, and that kind of dictates the menu.

 

[Olds442]

i thought about this but opted to stick to shopping as almost everything comes pre-cut these days.

stew meat is pre-cut, baby carrots are small, etc. sure you have to chop taters but not those tiny red ones.

dunno, i guess i like cooking and i have a good selection of stores nearby.

i can see the appeal though, we just like digging up recipes online and trying stuff. we're not 9-5er's, we're both working from home so yeah, not the typical household.

 

[rxbandit]

I got a box accidentally sent to me once, food was pretty good. I really enjoy cooking though and meal plan fairly decently, so many great and simple recipes available on the internet

 

[Kamen_Kaiju]

No. If you're too lazy to plan meals and go shopping, that's pretty bad.

some people work 60 hours a week and don't have time to plan meals and go shopping too.

 

[Bytor1958]

There is a grocery store up the street I go to.

 

[DavGrape]

Note to self:
Watch Dad Band, re-read Hello Fresh thread, step in front of truck.

Two below this, efstop just made my day.

 

[Shred Astaire]

some people work 60 hours a week and don't have time to plan meals and go shopping too.

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And some people don’t and would just rather do something else with their time besides spending it meal planning.

Lotsa reasons people would take advantage of something like this. It’s not that expensive either....we haven’t gone over our food budget since we started using it.

 

[efstop]

[Arms raised and spread apart, making two peace signs] "I am not a cook."

 

[Uncle Remus]

As a 60+ hour a week guy with a smoking hot cant boil water wife I cook a lot. First invest in lots of spices. 2nd buy frozen chicken breast and large portions of your other meats. I separate everything into different baggies into meal sized portions. I use fresh veggies, but for speed sake you can buy frozen. I cook thawed meats and veggies and lean heavily on creole seasoning, but also use fresh garlic and other seasonings. When you pull some out to cook grab tomorrow's out of the freezer and put in fridge to thaw. I grill mostly, but outside of charcoal getting ready I can cook most meals in under 20 minutes. Healthy, real, and delicious.

 

[Frogfur]

some people work 60 hours a week and don't have time to plan meals and go shopping too.

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Those people usually die. And i do have a soft spot for those that bust ass to make it from month to month. And our military works round the clock on a daily basis.

 

[Kamen_Kaiju]

ok not sure what the Military has to do with a Meal Delivery Thread.

Don't those guys get their meals cooked for them too?

You remind me of John Goodman in The Big Lebowski. We're talking Meal Delivery and you're bringing up The 'Nam.