Meal Subscription Boxes

Pan-seared pork chops with pineapple-serrano relish and spicy cheddar grits:

Charred garlic-lime chicken with avocado salsa verde and spiced honey-butter corn:

Juicy Lucy burgers with tomato-red onion jam and charred romaine:

The Contents:

Preparation:

Char the romaine, wishing you hadn't cut off the ends:


Make the tomato-onion jam by sauteing the onion, sugar, balsamic, and chopped tomato.



Assemble the burgers by shaping the meat into extra-flat patties. Place half of the cheddar in the center, then fold up the beef to create a new patty. Gently flatten. I'm not sure if this was Mistake #2, but since my patties later went on to explode on the stove, I'm guessing I didn't seal my burgers well enough.




 Exploding patties, still rare inside :(


Make the garlic-balsamic dressing by whisking together mayo, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper:



Toast the buns. This almost became a horrible Mistake #3. The oven beeped the same time the microwave beeped to signal that the burgers were done. I was removing the burgers from the stove and turned off the oven timer. Two minutes later I remembered that I hadn't taken out the buns. I'm lucky they weren't completely burnt!

Final Product:

The Verdict:

See my next post for a Hello Fresh wrap up. If you are thinking about purchasing Hello Fresh, use coupon code 3GYARN at checkout. You will receive $40 off of your first box. Basically, for the price of one meal, you will receive three. Be sure to pause your account for a week or two to give yourself time to decide if you want to continue deliveries. If you like HF, unpause your account to keep receiving three meals every week. If you do not, cancel your account with no extra fees.

The next Hello Fresh recipe is charred garlic-lime chicken with avocado salsa verde and spiced honey-butter corn. The spiced honey butter was INCREDIBLE and will probably become a staple in our household.

The Contents:

Preparation:

Final Product:

The Verdict:

The first recipe I chose to make was pan-seared pork chops with pineapple-serrano relish and spicy cheddar grits.

The book reads, "The unexpected sweet-and-salt combination of cheesy grits and tangy pineapple salsa is what makes this dish special. If you have a grill, these juicy pork chops would be the perfect reason to fire it up!"

The Contents:

Preparation:

Final Product:

The Verdict:

Price Tag: $10.75 per plate for omnivores, $9.08 per plate for herbivores. The minimum recipe size is two plates (lunch for singles?). You can pause your subscription or cancel at any time. There are no minimum subscription lengths.



Meal Choices: 5 options for their classic/omnivore box. No choices for the vegetarian box, but supposedly this is coming soon.

Defining Features: Their recipes come in a neat little book full of tips. The book I received had tips on how to spice up ketchup and mayo. Each recipe has a basic nutrition breakdown including, calories, carbs, fat, protein, and fiber.



I also received some advertising for Teabox (chai tea subscription box) and Tasting Room (wine subscription box).

My favorite feature, as silly as it may be, was that their recipe booklet includes a 1" ruler on each page. My first recipe called for chopping pineapple into 1/4" cubes. Do you really know how big 1/4" is? I didn't. I was making 1/2" cubes. This was a thoughtful touch.



Coupon Code: Yay! This company lets you hit the ground running and start referring friends right away. You can also give away three completely FREE boxes to three friends. How cool is that? To save $40 off of your first box, use coupon code 3GYARN at checkout.

Cons: The weird thing about HelloFresh that may actually drive people away is a design issue. When you visit HelloFresh.com, the first thing most people would click is a huge button that says View Our Boxes! That link leads you to a checkout where you are purchasing a box before you can even see your recipe options. I went so far as to email customer service about this design flaw before I realized there's another link to view the choices before purchase. If you are considering purchasing HelloFresh, click on Our Recipes at the very top and choose Upcoming or Next Week to view your meal choices. You can click on the picture below for a larger view:


For me, this isn't a huge deal because I knew that I wanted to review it. But for someone brand new to this meal box thing? I would be concerned about being locked into a $60+ purchase without even knowing what I am getting.

This is the response I received from HelloFresh customer service regarding canceling orders:
"Once an order is placed you will be charged immediately, a refund can be issued as long as the box and/or subscription is canceled before our Wednesday 11:59 pm cut off."

Recycling: It appears that almost everything in their boxes is recyclable. Check out this link for more information on their recycling efforts. Their boxes are insulated with an inner styrofoam box. I was incredibly happy to not have to deal with a stinky jute bag like Plated uses. However, it turns out that my recycling program does NOT take styrofoam. Oh no! :(


I was happy to see on the ice packs a very clear explanation of how to dispose of them. "Reuse this non-toxic ice pack for a picnic or discard with your household trash worry free":