HelloFresh, HelloTimeConsumingSmallDinner

What are you guys up to today? Sitting at home in social isolation? #SAME. I wanted to entertain you for a bit with a blog post. I solemnly swear that I will try to post as least one blog a week while we are in these crazy solitary times! I actually wrote this blog more than a month ago, but it seems like the perfect time to share it, since we are all cooking from home, scrambling for groceries, and ordering in. I got a pleading email from Seamless to support your local restaurants from ordering in. If you DO order in, please remember to pay ahead, and let the delivery person leave the food outside!

If anyone wants to video-chat me, please feel free! Also, if you have specific requests for blogs, leave them in the comments! Want to know what I’m doing to stay active while the gym is closed? How I’m staying sane? How I’m doing on my 2020 goals so far and what I’m able to accomplish of them from home? Let me know! Be safe out there. ❤️

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If someone gave you a Christmas gift that involved staying at home for an 8 hour delivery window and then cooking elaborate meals by yourself, would you jump for joy? Probably not. Well, neither did I, but that’s what happened in 2018 when my bf and I were gifted a one-week subscription to HelloFresh.

In theory it was an adorable idea. No grocery shopping, new recipes, fun activity to do together as a couple while not having to leave the house in the middle of winter. Unfortunately, I knew that is not how it would pan out in our household, since I’m the only one who knows her way around the kitchen and I’m the only one home from work before 8 pm. I wasn’t looking forward to it, so I never used the gift certificate. When Christmas 2019 rolled around and we still hadn’t used it, we got some heavy-handed reminders from the gift-giver (my bf’s sister), and she told us the gift was going to expire. I put it in my bullet journal to order for the next week. Easy, right? NO.

The gift card had been sent to my bf’s email address he no longer used. I spent 20 minutes chatting online with their customer service representative to place the order, until they said they couldn’t help me and told me to call instead. 40 minutes on the phone later (one hour total), I finally placed an order for three meals, two servings each, and I had an 8-hour delivery window on the following Saturday.

Oh, also, they required a credit card for the “free” order, so that they could charge me for the recurring service. There was no way to order only one week. They said I needed to cancel the next week’s order one week before I received the next box, but after I received the current box, which was one week prior. Catch 22, no? I had a feeling I would be calling their customer service people again a week later to request a refund.

As I am sure you are realizing, by the time the box actually arrived, I wanted to throw it directly in the trash. But I am a good not-yet-sister-in-law, so I didn’t throw it in the garbage – I reworked my regular meal-prepping and grocery shopping so I had three days to make the meals I received: Gouda Pork Burgers with Caramelized Siracha Onions and Potato Wedges; Cheesy Beef Tostadas with Long Green Pepper, Tomato Salsa and Hot Sauce Crema; and Parmesan-Crusted Chicken with Creamy Lemon Tomato Spaghetti. In theory, you can go on the website and make substitutions for meals or pick different ones. But after the hour I had already spent on the phone with them, I just told them to send me any three.

The meals arrived in a box with ice packs, with the meat separate, and then a big brown bag with the rest of the ingredients for each meal. I was scared to open or separate anything, so I rearranged everything in our fridge to fit these huge brown bags. Living in NYC, we have a VERY small fridge. We barely had room for the 3 bags and a Brita pitcher and a dozen eggs. In hindsight, I probably should have taken everything out and repacked it in gallon-size Ziplocs or something else so we would have more room. Anyway, the time came for me to make the first meal, and I was ready. I took the meat & the brown bag #1 out of the fridge and started following the directions step by step.

Step 1, Meal 1 (pork burgers), I looked at the recipe card, which told me what to “bust out.” These are items you’re meant to have in your house. Unfortunately, living in an NYC apartment with a minuscule kitchen, the first two items they called for (a zester and grater), I didn’t have. They also called for olive oil and butter, which I had, and sugar, which I didn’t have. In addition to the ingredients, they tell you which pots and pans to “bust out.” Spoiler alert, it’s like, your entire kitchen. or at least an entire NYC kitchen. For each meal. Usually when I make burgers it’s a one pan meal. For these HelloFresh burgers I “busted out” a baking sheet, a medium pan, a large bowl, a large pan, and a small bowl. WTF?

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Meal 2, tostadas, required a medium bowl, small bowl, large pan, and baking sheet. Meal three, the parmesan chicken and pasta required a large pot, baking sheet, zester (still didn’t have one), strainer, and medium bowl. I ran the dishwasher after every meal I made! Also, there was barely enough of each meal to make my fiance and me satisfied. It was 2, small-sized servings, and if I was eating after the gym, which is pretty much every dinner I have, it was not enough food. Plus, it didn’t leave any food for leftovers to bring for lunch. I like to mealprep for lunch, but I was cooking so much for these dinners, I didn’t have the energy (or dishes left) to cook for lunches. I ended up spending far more on food for the week than I usually would have.

I know what you’re thinking… were there any pros of this meal plan at all?? YES. The food was DELICIOUS. Honestly very, very good, restaurant-quality food. Also, I was pushed to try cooking things I had never made before, and I kept the recipe cards, so I could make them again on my own. Who knows if I ever will, though, because it would mean buying all of the ingredients. Which brings me to the next good part – it came with all of the ingredients. As I said in the “con” section above, it was just enough of each ingredient, so we had no leftovers. But the good part was, it was just enough of each ingredient, so I didn’t need to run out to the store to buy anything, except sugar. When the recipe called for sugar that I didn’t have, I just left it out of the recipe and the caramelized onions were not so caramelly, but still delicious. I liked that I could eat different recipes I had never thought to make, or never knew how to make.

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Another pro was the timing. Each meal only took 35-40 minutes. If I was making more servings and I would have had leftovers for lunch, this would have been a good amount of time. Since it only fed each of us one meal (and left us a little hungry), it felt like too much time. I think I would get a bit quicker if I did it more often. For example, I learned the hard way that I should read the entire recipe card and instructions before beginning the meal. In Meal #1, step 2 called for paprika, and step 4 called for “the rest of the paprika.” But I hadn’t known that, and I had used it all in step 2. Oops. I learned to read the whole thing first, which made the recipes go much faster. If I had more practice with it, I think I would learn even more tricks to make the meals quicker.

I learned some things I will definitely use in the future, like that crema is just hot sauce, water, and sour cream with a touch of salt. Or that you can put tortillas in the oven with a sprinkle of olive oil and fork piercings to make them into tostadas. Or that anything looks more instagrammable with a lime wedge on the side.

As soon as I had my box in hand, I went online and canceled my subscription so I wouldn’t be charged. Overall, I doubt I would order it again, especially in such a small serving size. If I did it again, I would double the serving size so I could have leftovers or lunch, with the same amount of cooking time. I liked learning new things, and I would like to eventually have a whole binder of Hello-Fresh recipes I could whip up at a moment’s notice. Maybe someday if I win the lottery and I have a lot more time on my hands. And sometime between now and then, I’ll get a much larger, full-size fridge to fit the big brown bags of ingredients, and I’ll buy all of the things a person needs in their kitchen so they can “bust them out” when necessary, like sugar and a zester.

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