So here is my first post – thanks for visiting to read it!  I would be interested in any comments about what you think of it 🙂

I have become slightly obsessed with recurring box deliveries recently – it’s so exciting to come from work to a parcel full of goodies!  Many are also aimed at time saving ways to enjoy nice things which I like.  There are lots of different types out there, e.g. make-up, snacks, meals and I have come across some that I love and some that I wouldn’t continue with.  Of course, there is usually a premium charged for the convenience so I normally look for reviews online before I part with my money.  I hope that my posts over the coming weeks will be of help.

Hello Fresh

I had been intrigued with Hello Fresh for a while – I liked their concept of delivering a box of fresh food to the house with the recipes to make with the ingredients.  Even better, the ingredients are all measured out ready for you!  My other half and I love trying new foods and cooking nice meals – we both cook but sometimes it’s difficult finding inspiration after a long day at work!  After much hesitation (initially due to the price), I saw an offer of a trial price online so I decided to look at it in more detail.  Once I had read up on their website about their suppliers and the head chef, I knew I had to give it a go.

There are three types of box available – classic box, veggie box and family box.  I decided to go for the classic box as there are three of us so I thought the family box might be a bit too big.  A couple of recipes were a bit spicy so I decided to make something alternative but similar for my nine year old daughter to eat alongside.

So last Tuesday I came home to a lovely big box out the back of my house!  As you can see from the photo the box was packed full of fresh meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, herbs, grains and spices!  It was immediately apparent the quality of the produce was very high and it had been kept fresh in the box which contained an ice pack and insulating material.  There was a free teapigs chai tea sample alongside a welcome pack and newsletter which was a nice touch.  The newsletter had a feature on Deliciously Ella, whose blog I read frequently and I love her recipes too!

Over the course of the week my partner and I took it in turns to cook the different recipes.  One thing we learned very quickly was to make sure any whole ingredients were chopped before we began as I got into a flap at one stage trying to keep up with one recipe – preparation is key!  Another lesson quickly learned was to check the quantity as on the final day I couldn’t find the brown rice as my partner had used it alongside the basmati rice in the biryani dish – I wondered why there was so much of it!  Every dish we cooked tasted good, although my favourite dish by far was the herby pork stuffed chicken breast with an easy pan sauce.  As you can see by the photo my food presentation skills are average!

One thing that I wasn’t expecting and was a nice surprise was how much I learned – the easy pan sauce was so simple to make and making a flour-based sauce from scratch was something I had always feared before!  Another thing was the couscous made using stock and herbs – we have cooked couscous many times before and always found it lacked flavour no matter what vegetables we put with it.  We have since made a similar version to the original recipe using what we had in the cupboard and it was lovely!

I will also be keeping the recipe cards to use again in the future – I will increase the quantities if I have people round for dinner, etc.

So would I use them again?  Absolutely!  I like to learn new techniques and try new foods and the quality was excellent.  Although they do a weekly delivery service I will probably order it every few weeks.  This is mainly due to that I have day to day meals of my own that I enjoy cooking and I also enjoy using spice kits I get with another monthly delivery.  I also changed my 5 meal delivery to a 3 meal delivery to give myself some more flexibility as my partner sometimes works late into the evening and I wouldn’t want to try them without him!

Another reason why weekly wouldn’t be for me is that the 5 meal delivery is £49.00 and the 3 meal delivery is £39.00.  The 3 meal plan works out at £13 per meal which I am happy to pay for every few weeks for the convenience, good quality ingredients and what I am learning.  They also do a comparison on their website against the supermarket costs.

If you fancy giving it a try but like me was unsure at paying the full cost for something that you haven’t tried before, I’ve got a referral code which you can use for £20 off your first box!  When you checkout at the website www.hellofresh.co.uk use the code ATXYDW in the discount code box.  The website also has a clear link in your ‘my account’ section on how to deactivate so if you try the box and didn’t want to continue it’s really easy to stop.