I caved. It's my first time trying HelloFresh for a week! Will it live up to the hype or fall short of its claims? Let's find out. www.hellofresh... SUBSCRIBE!
As a college student living alone, I like Hello Fresh for three reasons (they would apply to any similar service btw). 1) They allow me to get meal ingredients in quantities reasonable for a single person to make and consume alone in before the leftovers go bad, without having to eat the same dinner 5 days in a row. Can you cut normal recipes in half? Yes, but it's very hard to buy meat in such small quantities. Even if your grocery store has a butcher's counter where you could buy however little you need (this is definitely a big if in a lot of places in the US), they won't be open at 10 PM when I've finally left campus and have time to do grocery shopping! And heck, even places that have them, don't always really have them manned, so they effectively don't have them. 2) As an anxious, picky eater with sensory issues, these are a lower-stakes way to try new ingredients or types of cuisine. Again, because of the small quantities, but also because they formulate the meal options to have broad appeal, so it's easier to just dip your toes in the water. 3) As an engineering student with a long commute, school takes up a lot of my time and energy, and if I didn't have something like Hello Fresh delivering groceries to my door, I would be doing a lot more eating out. I very often don't have it in me to find recipes, take stock of ingredients, put together a big list, go shopping, put everything away, etc, when it's in the middle of the semester and I'm spending the whole day studying, doing labs, or working on class projects. In terms of the quality of Hello Fresh's food, most of it is just fine, nothing to get really excited about. But I have gotten some things out of it that I'll take with me when I cook in the future. For example, the trick of breading a cutlet by thinly coating it with sour cream and then shaking it up in a bag with panko and whatever seasonings you want. The sour cream definitely adds some flavor to a plain meat like chicken breast or pork chop. Also, it introduced me to my favorite quick and simple rice side dish: lemony jasmine rice cooked with scallions.
I agree with everything you've said! In the end it all comes down to what's most important to us as individuals. Not eating garbage food all the time, paying a bit more to ensure you're eating better food, saving time and mental energy, and trying out new things! The meals might not be the most exciting or flavourful sometimes, but I have really been loving not having leftovers going bad in the fridge!
Yea like you I only tried it cause I got a steep discount but ultimately the dishes were... Just ok! A lot of packaging and the size of meals were small imo. Definitely not worth the price and definitely not cheaper than groceries. If you don't like mealprep, I would look into batch cooking. It's similar to mealprep, but you just prepare the ingredients for the meals and make different things during the. Week with those already chopped veggies or cookies meat and grains. I do this all the time and it saves so much chopping, frying, and cleanup lol
fantastic video great job! sour cream is a very common condiment for things like sandwiches in eastern european/ashkenazi cooking, so it didn't surprise me at all that they used it to make a sauce.
this sounds good like if you have to stay home or something like that sounds great. I do like to snack healthy and unhealth option so if you get this meal plan your just getting the main course and that's all from what i can tell so unless this is enough food for you i think you might still be running out the the store still. Unless they provide an additional snack option but hen will probably cost you more in the long run
I did Hello Fresh for a month and it wasn't worth it. Out of about 15 meals I liked about 4 of them. Everything else was below average. It did save me time, but not money, and I didn't enjoy what I was eating
We had a “Wrap Bar” in my high school cafeteria and one of the sauces available for them was “Buffalo cream” (yeah, not a great name). But it was Franks Red Hot mixed with sour cream and it was SO good. A combination I still use on my wraps. A very bizarre, yet delicious combo! So funny seeing Hello Fresh do it
I'm in the UK and tried HF but didn't like the quality of the meat - the chicken was really fatty, and I had missing ingredients. Over here we have Gousto which I like a lot more. 5 meals for 2 people on an introductory discount is only £15 so I do it occasionally to get new cooking ideas. I am sick of seeing all the sponsored HF content on UA-cam and Insta now though, it seems like every second video is sponsored by them so it's hard to know if they're actually any good, so thanks for the unbiased review!
Ya sometimes they were a bit tiny yet the calorie amount would be pretty high. I think the day of the burger I was still hungry after, but everything else was pretty satisfying!
I'm currently looking at trying hello fresh as a truck driver. While I do have the income to afford hello fresh my job also means that I'm eating junk food the majority of the time since that's all that's available to a trucker most of the time in this post lockdown world.. and when I am home the last thing I want to do is to drive some more to restock on groceries. I'm hoping that this would be a happy medium between cooking totally from scratch and eating junk food all the time
I'm definitely not rich. Unfortunately, im not sponsored. if I was sponsored by HF. I wouldn't have to pay for the meals 😂. But I just signed up today. Week 1, discount is quite nice! But I don't like $119+ for 2 ppl. The following week's
Honestly, this video just made me want to try some of their other options. I'd always do their healthy options and they were pretty boring and pretty much the same regurgitated stuff over and over again. HF is something I use when I'm in a recipe rut and just don't know what to cook anymore. Having said that, I will never use them again because they be shady. I had them for a week once (got a steep discount, just like you lol) and tried to cancel for my next box while I was at work. Phone browser didn't work. I even downloaded the app and couldn't get it to work. By the time I got home that day and tried to cancel on my computer, it was too late. I called and explained and they told me that I would have to pay for and accept the box. The only way I'd use them again is if they sponsored me on YT and I did the dumb ad read lmao. Random side note, but what camera do you use? 🧐
One thing I used to do in the past is just look at their recipe cards online for new recipes to try. That's always helpful when you're stuck in a recipe rut! It is really annoying when something on the technical side gets messed up and then we end up eating the cost. My box for this week would not let me change meals at all or choose my free item. So I just got whatever was randomly chosen and missed out on the freebie, and same as you they basically said it was my fault lol. I'm still giving it a few more chances because the reduced mental load of deciding what to make and shop for has been really nice. So I'll at least use it until my discounted boxes are done. I have one left I think. My camera is a Sony zv e-10 with the 11mm f1.8 wide lens on it at the moment. I really like it!
@@tarahartman Okay for some reason YT is not notifying me when people comment back! And yeah, I don't blame you. Having ADHD the mental load is sometimes just too much. (Although them being so strict on timelines and whatnot really doesn't help. The bastards lol). I tried the dad gum Sony ZV-1F a while back (About $500, so not too expensive, not too cheap) and I could not get it to work right. I'd look airbrushed or just not right or the footage would be blurry. It was really freaking annoying. I returned it and started using my phone, but I'm going to try again with a real camera...someday.
@maddiedoeswhatshewants I've heard a lot of people say the same thing about that camera. There was definitely a learning curve for me with the zv-e10 but I think I've almost got it down, except when I film in my kitchen with the light on and forget to switch things and get the vertical running lines lol. Sometimes a phone camera is just so much more convenient and quick!
If you're interested in trying it for yourself here's a referral code. It looks like it gives you a discount (free box? what's the catch? THIS IS HOW THEY GET US) and then I get "$45 off premium meals" I didn't even know there were premium meals lol www.hellofresh.com/freebox/VGFyYS0yNjc4NDAxNDEtMC00LTE2LVVT
Doing the lord's work. I'm dying because you said you don't like pork, but you got THREE pork recipes that week
😂 ground pork I don't mind as much!
As a college student living alone, I like Hello Fresh for three reasons (they would apply to any similar service btw).
1) They allow me to get meal ingredients in quantities reasonable for a single person to make and consume alone in before the leftovers go bad, without having to eat the same dinner 5 days in a row. Can you cut normal recipes in half? Yes, but it's very hard to buy meat in such small quantities. Even if your grocery store has a butcher's counter where you could buy however little you need (this is definitely a big if in a lot of places in the US), they won't be open at 10 PM when I've finally left campus and have time to do grocery shopping! And heck, even places that have them, don't always really have them manned, so they effectively don't have them.
2) As an anxious, picky eater with sensory issues, these are a lower-stakes way to try new ingredients or types of cuisine. Again, because of the small quantities, but also because they formulate the meal options to have broad appeal, so it's easier to just dip your toes in the water.
3) As an engineering student with a long commute, school takes up a lot of my time and energy, and if I didn't have something like Hello Fresh delivering groceries to my door, I would be doing a lot more eating out. I very often don't have it in me to find recipes, take stock of ingredients, put together a big list, go shopping, put everything away, etc, when it's in the middle of the semester and I'm spending the whole day studying, doing labs, or working on class projects.
In terms of the quality of Hello Fresh's food, most of it is just fine, nothing to get really excited about. But I have gotten some things out of it that I'll take with me when I cook in the future. For example, the trick of breading a cutlet by thinly coating it with sour cream and then shaking it up in a bag with panko and whatever seasonings you want. The sour cream definitely adds some flavor to a plain meat like chicken breast or pork chop. Also, it introduced me to my favorite quick and simple rice side dish: lemony jasmine rice cooked with scallions.
I agree with everything you've said! In the end it all comes down to what's most important to us as individuals. Not eating garbage food all the time, paying a bit more to ensure you're eating better food, saving time and mental energy, and trying out new things!
The meals might not be the most exciting or flavourful sometimes, but I have really been loving not having leftovers going bad in the fridge!
Love the hangry sweet potato rant :D I'm usually complaining that my supermarket sends me giant sweet potatoes and I don't know to do with it all.
Yea like you I only tried it cause I got a steep discount but ultimately the dishes were... Just ok! A lot of packaging and the size of meals were small imo. Definitely not worth the price and definitely not cheaper than groceries.
If you don't like mealprep, I would look into batch cooking. It's similar to mealprep, but you just prepare the ingredients for the meals and make different things during the. Week with those already chopped veggies or cookies meat and grains. I do this all the time and it saves so much chopping, frying, and cleanup lol
I feel like the meals are pretty good but I also add way more seasoning, it never has nearly enough salt
fantastic video great job! sour cream is a very common condiment for things like sandwiches in eastern european/ashkenazi cooking, so it didn't surprise me at all that they used it to make a sauce.
this sounds good like if you have to stay home or something like that sounds great. I do like to snack healthy and unhealth option so if you get this meal plan your just getting the main course and that's all from what i can tell so unless this is enough food for you i think you might still be running out the the store still. Unless they provide an additional snack option but hen will probably cost you more in the long run
girl loved this vid. Your vibe is just the thing i needed for a late afternoon lunch/dinner
I did Hello Fresh for a month and it wasn't worth it. Out of about 15 meals I liked about 4 of them. Everything else was below average. It did save me time, but not money, and I didn't enjoy what I was eating
😂😂😂let me find out I get a discount cause of my job so I pay 56$ fir 10 or 12 meals a wk🤷🏾👀
oh my god the ad before this video began was hello fresh IM DYING
That pork looks perfectly cooked. It looks white. Raw pork is dark pink, and slightly rosy pink pork is also safe to eat.
We had a “Wrap Bar” in my high school cafeteria and one of the sauces available for them was “Buffalo cream” (yeah, not a great name). But it was Franks Red Hot mixed with sour cream and it was SO good. A combination I still use on my wraps. A very bizarre, yet delicious combo! So funny seeing Hello Fresh do it
2:12 You are not crazy. Those packages are like impossible to open. Every once in a while it has a tab but most of the time I gotta use scissors
I'm in the UK and tried HF but didn't like the quality of the meat - the chicken was really fatty, and I had missing ingredients. Over here we have Gousto which I like a lot more. 5 meals for 2 people on an introductory discount is only £15 so I do it occasionally to get new cooking ideas. I am sick of seeing all the sponsored HF content on UA-cam and Insta now though, it seems like every second video is sponsored by them so it's hard to know if they're actually any good, so thanks for the unbiased review!
Loving your video as always!❤ I Like the idea to not really need to think about what meals to cook, nur to me the portions seemed rather small…
Ya sometimes they were a bit tiny yet the calorie amount would be pretty high. I think the day of the burger I was still hungry after, but everything else was pretty satisfying!
Very good review. Thank you!!
I'm currently looking at trying hello fresh as a truck driver. While I do have the income to afford hello fresh my job also means that I'm eating junk food the majority of the time since that's all that's available to a trucker most of the time in this post lockdown world.. and when I am home the last thing I want to do is to drive some more to restock on groceries. I'm hoping that this would be a happy medium between cooking totally from scratch and eating junk food all the time
Yes
Marketing is getting next level clever.
I'm definitely not rich. Unfortunately, im not sponsored. if I was sponsored by HF. I wouldn't have to pay for the meals 😂. But I just signed up today. Week 1, discount is quite nice! But I don't like $119+ for 2 ppl. The following week's
Im hungry now 😂
Honestly, this video just made me want to try some of their other options. I'd always do their healthy options and they were pretty boring and pretty much the same regurgitated stuff over and over again.
HF is something I use when I'm in a recipe rut and just don't know what to cook anymore. Having said that, I will never use them again because they be shady. I had them for a week once (got a steep discount, just like you lol) and tried to cancel for my next box while I was at work. Phone browser didn't work. I even downloaded the app and couldn't get it to work. By the time I got home that day and tried to cancel on my computer, it was too late. I called and explained and they told me that I would have to pay for and accept the box.
The only way I'd use them again is if they sponsored me on YT and I did the dumb ad read lmao.
Random side note, but what camera do you use? 🧐
One thing I used to do in the past is just look at their recipe cards online for new recipes to try. That's always helpful when you're stuck in a recipe rut!
It is really annoying when something on the technical side gets messed up and then we end up eating the cost. My box for this week would not let me change meals at all or choose my free item. So I just got whatever was randomly chosen and missed out on the freebie, and same as you they basically said it was my fault lol. I'm still giving it a few more chances because the reduced mental load of deciding what to make and shop for has been really nice. So I'll at least use it until my discounted boxes are done. I have one left I think.
My camera is a Sony zv e-10 with the 11mm f1.8 wide lens on it at the moment. I really like it!
@@tarahartman Okay for some reason YT is not notifying me when people comment back! And yeah, I don't blame you. Having ADHD the mental load is sometimes just too much. (Although them being so strict on timelines and whatnot really doesn't help. The bastards lol).
I tried the dad gum Sony ZV-1F a while back (About $500, so not too expensive, not too cheap) and I could not get it to work right. I'd look airbrushed or just not right or the footage would be blurry. It was really freaking annoying. I returned it and started using my phone, but I'm going to try again with a real camera...someday.
@maddiedoeswhatshewants I've heard a lot of people say the same thing about that camera. There was definitely a learning curve for me with the zv-e10 but I think I've almost got it down, except when I film in my kitchen with the light on and forget to switch things and get the vertical running lines lol. Sometimes a phone camera is just so much more convenient and quick!
If you're interested in trying it for yourself here's a referral code. It looks like it gives you a discount (free box? what's the catch? THIS IS HOW THEY GET US) and then I get "$45 off premium meals" I didn't even know there were premium meals lol
www.hellofresh.com/freebox/VGFyYS0yNjc4NDAxNDEtMC00LTE2LVVT
$10 discount for something that came three days late? Should have been a full refund!
Right?! If not a full refund since it did eventually show up, three meals worth for the three days it was missing would make sense.
❤❤❤❤❤ Greatest....