A Hello Fresh trial and review might seem a misplaced article on a fashion website. But we here at myfashionwants.com believe that Food and fashion are very much connected. After all, what you put in your body has a great impact on what you put on your body.
When you’re buying clothes one of the first things you have to consider is the size of the clothes you’re buying. And that’s only the most trivial aspect of the connection between food and fashion. Our state of mind also affects our fashion choices. And the foods we eat impact our state of mind. It might sound farfetched to suggest, but how we feel about ourselves plays into the way we dress. Our dress style is in part controlled by how we feel about our bodies, how we feel in our own skin, whether we feel good or bad about our self and our life. Beyond that, the activity of cooking can be argued to play a role in improving our state of mind for the better. And when we’re in a positive state of mind we tend to take greater care in making choices for how we present ourselves to the world. That includes taking a greater interest in our appearance and how we dress. So, from this perspective, we think that a hello fresh trial and review article does have a place on a fashion website.
Our Hello Fresh Trial review
A couple of weeks ago our editor in chief signed up for Hello Fresh after receiving a discount coupon in the mail. She’d been wanting to try out a service like Hello Fresh for a while to see if these types of services can make cooking for her family more convenient and fun.
Editor’s Review
My Hello Fresh Trial got off to a bad start due to the fact that the box contained shrimp and I’m allergic to shrimp and never bring it into my home in any capacity.
Even though I wasn’t planning to consume any of the meals myself, having shrimp in one of the recipes was a no-no. Since I was going to be the one cooking the meals, this meant I would have to handle shrimp. And as anyone with a shrimp allergy that manifests itself in the form of anaphylactic shock knows, you also cannot handle shrimp. For that matter you’re advised not to be in an area where shrimp is present.
How did I get sent shrimp in the first place?
It actually didn’t occur to me when I first signed up for Hello Fresh that I might get sent a recipe containing shrimp. It was only when I went to check to see what the first dishes were going to be, that I saw that one of the dishes included shrimp. I got on the phone right away to call Hello Fresh to request that they send something else instead, and that they put a note on my account to block shellfish and all other seafood. The person that I spoke to assured me that the first box wouldn’t contain any shellfish or other seafood. And she said that she would make a note on my account so that all my future boxes would be shellfish ad seafood free. So when the box arrived I started taking the things out without any concern about shrimp.
You can imagine that it was a little worrisome when I took the container out of the box, looked at it and saw that is was shrimp. I had to immediately take medication in order to safeguard against a possible reaction just from touching the product container. So that wasn’t a good way to get my Hello Fresh Trial off to a start.
Word to the wise: if you’re reading this and thinking about trying Hello Fresh, if you happen to be allergic to certain foods, make sure you get your account adjusted to reflect your food allergies before you place your first order. But even then, you might want to keep in mind that human error is possible. After all, our editor in chief was told she would not receive any shrimp, yet she received shrimp in her first box from Hello Fresh. People make mistakes so keep that in mind.
What was in the box other than the shrimp?
1. Butter Basted Chicken
2. Thai Beef Skewers
3. Spanish Style Spaghetti
I made the Butter Basted chicken on Wednesday and the Thai Beef Skewers on Thursday. As of the writing of this post I had not attempted the Spanish Style Spaghetti. Maybe I’ll try it with Italian Sausage tonight or tomorrow night.
The Hello Fresh cooking experience
Meal 1: The Butter Basted chicken
7.5 ease of Preparation on a scale of 1 – 10
Taste on a scale of 1 – 10
(I did not try the meals. I made them to serve to my son and husband so the ratings are from them)
Husband’s rating: 9.0 | Son’s rating: 6.0
Meal 2: The Thai Beef Skewers
6.5 ease of Preparation on a scale of 1 – 10
Taste on a scale of 1 – 10
Husband’s rating: 8.0 | Son’s rating: 8.0
The question of convenience and fun
The purpose of trying Hello Fresh was to see whether it would add any value to my life in the form of making it more convenient and more fun to cook for my family.
The verdict: I would have to say that I enjoyed the process of preparing the two meals for my husband and my son. Hello Fresh is definitely convenient from the standpoint that you have everything you need handy. But if I had looked up a recipe and gone to the supermarket myself (or sent my husband which I usually do) I would still have everything I needed handy and I probably would have been able to make these dishes for less money. But then, I probably wouldn’t have bothered to look up a recipe on an ordinary Wednesday and Thursday. So I think a service like Hello Fresh does help to add value to people’s lives. These services sort of force you to go that extra mile for yourself and your family a few times every week instead of just a handful of times per year on the big holidays. Of course, the expense is something else completely. It might be even more convenient and more fun to just take that $70 and go out to dinner once a week.
Cooking for your family, or even cooking for yourself is always a good thing…
But the three recipes I was sent cost less to make when you do your own shopping. And when you do your own shopping you don’t have to worry about any surprises that might turn up in your box. (I also had to throw away the potato from Hello Fresh and use one of my own. Theirs was going bad. The carrots were turning black on the skin too, but I didn’t have any of my own so I had to use them)
From Hello Fresh Trial to Hello Fresh Living?
Will I use Hello Fresh again? Why not? But will I use Hello Fresh every week? No. Maybe I’ll try them once per month for now. I don’t have an extra $300 to spare monthly for just 3 dinners per week. $300 is a whole grocery bill for a month’s worth of food for some people. With Hello Fresh you’re spending about $300 for 9 dinners per month. Maybe that’s nothing for people who regularly go out to eat; but it’s not the smartest use of $300 for me right now.