Whoever you are or wherever you live, I can bet you that you’ve heard of meal kits. You may not know much about them, but I’m pretty sure you’ve heard of them. Instagram, Facebook or Pinterest, you’ve heard of them somewhere. For those of you living under a rock, meal kit companies like HelloFresh send you recipes and the exact ingredients to make 3 meals for two people (frequency and servings are flexible), in a box right to your door. So instead of measuring out 2.7 tablespoons of curry powder, you just throw it all together and voilà, you have yourself a delicious, home cooked meal.
While I, like you, had been aware of their existence for quite a while, I had never considered it for myself. I can make 6 recipes really well and I couldn’t see why I would need a service like this. Then I was over at my friend’s place, who is a famously bad cook (he always used to burn something when we lived together in college), and he presented this divine looking steak with a chimichurri dressing and a potato and spinach salad. He swore it hadn’t just come from the delivery but I wasn’t convinced, that was until he showed me the HelloFresh recipe card. I realized that a meal kit wasn’t for the lazy or the privileged folks, but for anyone who liked food and needed inspiration to spice up their weekly dinner routine.
I ordered a box to surprise my girlfriend and a week later we gave it a go. It was so straightforward to order and I even got to choose which meals we were going to have in the box, even though that was quite difficult as they all looked so tasty. It was new, it was fresh and it was even a bit of a laugh too. I value convenience very highly because when I get home from work, all Sam and I want to do is quickly whip up something to eat and argue over what to watch on Netflix, not have to stop at the store then spend 2 hours cooking. With HelloFresh, we can not only make these delicious new dinners in only 30 minutes in the kitchen, but we also get to try new flavors and cuisines that we never thought we’d cook up ourselves. We’ve even started becoming more adventurous with the food we eat.
The first thing Sam said to me when we sat down to our first meal was “this is ridiculously good”. I was super proud of myself. I guess we associate convenience with something that is bad for you, boring or not tasty but that is certainly not the case with HelloFresh. It has really inspired our dinner time, as we are no longer eating the same thing week in, week out. We’ve continued it ever since for 3 meals a week, giving us the chance to still eat out when we want to. With the meals starting at $10 each, it’s hard to see how we could get better variety in such a convenient way and at such a good price compared to the grocery store.
Writing this I can already tell you’re a bit skeptical about the whole thing and fair enough, I was too. I can honestly say though it’s changed our weekly routine completely, coming home exhausted and not having to go to the store or figure out eat to eat, the excitement and simplicity of HelloFresh makes dinner a breeze.