Hello Fresh January 2016 Review and Coupon

 Hello Fresh now has more family-friendly options!  Hello Fresh is a meal kit subscription box where you’ll get the recipes and ingredients to make 3 meals for two (or 4) every week. If needed, you can pause your deliveries and choose alternate meals (at least for the Classic box). There’s also a vegetarian box available. This is a solid meal subscription box with easy and accessible recipes.   We typically get a dinner for two, plus a bit for lunches the next day — though many recipes would make a superb high-end snack kit to pair with wine, serving 6-8 snack portions. Take $40 off your first box with coupon code 7UT7K8. 

Our box arrived with a reflective bubble-walled cooler bag to insulate the food.  They had been using thin, corrugated cardboard and paper as insulation, which works well in the cool weather.  It is mid-winter now, though, and the cold is much more extreme.  I think the bubble bag is more effective than the cardboard, so I suspect that is the insulation of choice for when it is either very hot or very cold.

Hello Fresh has a new family box – 3 meals for 4 people that at 8.75, is the lowest price per meal on the market.  If you don’t crave too much variety you can always get this box and cook things twice for two. Or, try out the 4 or 5 meal box.

Note from Brandy – FYI – one thing we discovered this week, is that you can have 2 boxes of the same subscription (say, if you want to subscribe for a parent that can’t quite Internet… that’s Vicky – I manage her Vegetarian box subscription) and get the SAME box. I wasn’t sure if that was possible! Next week’s veggie box she’s out of town, and it involves one of my favorite Hello Fresh meals (the lentil/beet salad), so I had to have it!

Hello Fresh‘s menu cards have detailed instructions are super easy to follow.  It has nice illustrations, is clearly written, and even lets you know nutrition info, prep time, and which recipes are best to make first to optimize freshness of perishables.  I like the boldface on specific ingredients — it makes it easier to grab everything you need at each step. Hello Fresh sends all the sauces, bouillon and such in individual serving packets or in off-the-shelf brand name packaging; although it means a little more packaging, they survive shipping better than the plastic cups used by Plated.

Each recipe is boxed separately, nestled atop ice packs within the outer shipping box.  This has been an excellent way to go, and they seem to be sticking with it.  The box organizes the ingredients, but it also protects the more delicate veggies from freezing and bruising.

The meat is packed separate from the rest of the ingredients.  It is always buried under a pile of ice packs.  Even in the warmer months, the meat stays super cold.  Right now, the meat pretty much arrives frozen.

Lemony Chicken Paillard with Sweet Potato Wedges, Arugula Salad, and Chimichurri. level 2, 35 mins, 506 calories.

This was a superb bistro-style combo, with hearty fries and a complex tasting (but incredibly simple) salad.  The centerpiece, however, was a chicken paillard that combined the familiarity of lemon pepper with the transformative flavor of chimichurri.   The sweet potato cooked perfectly for me — neither too firm, nor falling apart, and the tomato was sweet enough to balance the arugula salad without any dressing beyond.  This version of chimichurri kept it very simple, relying on garlic, parsley, and lemon alone for flavor.  Nothing more was needed, as the chicken was more receptive to the flavor than steak.  Great amped-up flavor with only a handful of ingredients.  

Italian Meatloaf with Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Roasted Green Beans, and Garlic Basil Mashed Potatoes. level 1, 45 mins, 664 calories.

This meatloaf was a bit unusual, in that it combined sundried tomato, basil, and garlic with beef.  Usually, you see sundried tomato paired with chicken or turkey, as beef has plenty of intense flavor already.  The meatloaf had alot going on, with the tomato lending a bit of flavor overkill, since they were present in abundance  (I find that sundried tomato are best used sparingly, since their flavor tends to take over a dish).  I didn’t get the doneness on the green beans just right, rendering them so-so.  The potatoes were tasty with basil and sour cream, but the sundried tomatoes dominated.  We also thought the dish was asking for a sauce of some kind.  Were I to freestyle this, I think I’d soak and blend the tomato into a garlic and sundried sauce to coat the loaf and wet the potatoes, rather than mixing them in.

Sugar-Rubbed Pork Chops with Caramelized Root Vegetables and Thyme Pan-Sauce. level 1, 35 minutes, 484 calories. 

I loved this dish.  Roasted root veggies are always a treat — we received the world’s largest parsnip.  It was great to see pearl onions in action, a classic roast and stew accompaniment that is often left out in modern versions of the dishes.  They were great roasted.  The pork itself was superb — very tender and bursting with flavor.  The sugar coating didn’t crust or anything, but it mixed with the garlic to create a lip-smacking sauce.  Very enjoyable, and just the right level of richness.

Below are the selections for next week! Meal choices end Wednesdays at midnight. We’re super excited that Jamie Oliver is coming to Hello Fresh! One of his recipes did appear this week in the classic box (above) but we skipped it because Brandy doesn’t eat salmon.

You can click on each dish and get the recipe information, including calories, ingredients, and difficulty levels.  We like having this info available beforehand, as it allows us to avoid meals that we think are too involved or require to much time for our schedule that week.  We can generally tell from the names of the dishes whether we will love them or just like them, but we occasionally click through to peek at the details — it’s handy for avoiding fussier dishes during busy weeks, or limiting the number of, say, mushroom-heavy dishes if that’s not your thing.

Visit Hello Fresh to select your box for next week!  Take $40 off your first box with coupon code 7UT7K8.