Say Hello to HelloFresh

A few years ago, if you had asked me to tell you how to eat healthy on a budget, I would have laughed in your face. Hi, this is Cindy again, and oddly enough, that’s exactly what I’m here to do! This week we’ve been talking about several different ways to eat healthy on a budget, and I’m here with more info about one I mentioned in the podcast on Wednesday.

For me, one of the biggest obstacles to eating healthy is often the time it takes to prepare a healthy meal. How many times have you come home from work and thought to yourself, “What am I going to make for dinner?” only to decide that you’re too tired to cook, or you’ve still got work to finish, and you just don’t want to spend the time figuring it out and then cooking it. Admit it, it’s a lot faster and often cheaper to order that pizza, or slide through the drive-thru at Taco Bell or McDonalds. I mean, “Dollar Menu”...right?

The answer to that dilemma is always “plan ahead”, but even that takes time. I used to spend at least an hour every Sunday planning out my grocery list for the week; I had to look through the pantry and freezer to decide what’s there that needed to get used before it went bad, and compare it to my recipes to see what I could make out of it. And then once I had my list, I had to go to the store to get the supplies. That could take an hour or more, and more often than not, involved multiple stores! I won’t even mention what happens when I can’t find an ingredient (COVID shortages are real!). Wow! That’s making me tired just thinking about it. It sure makes that pizza sound pretty good right now.

Luckily, budget-friendly can also be time-friendly. My favorite time and budget-friendly option right now is HelloFresh. This is a paid meal service with some excellent healthy options and hearty portions. All of the food comes right to your door, complete with the recipe to prepare a delicious meal. You pick the food, you pick the days and the portions, and they deliver sanity. Seriously. 

Stuffed Bell Peppers with Couscous is one of our favorites

What makes this service healthy is the choices. HelloFresh offers your choice of at least 25 different meal options every week, many of which are low calorie, carb-smart, and even vegetarian. The portions are appropriately sized and quite filling. And best of all it is mostly fresh ingredients—not canned veggies or processed meats — just good food. 

I signed up for HelloFresh (no, this is not a paid endorsement) at a Pinners Conference in 2019. I was curious and thought I’d give it a try. The food looked delicious, the prep work looked easy, and the price was right -- the average plan costs about $10/person per meal. I didn’t think hubby would like it much, but, hey, he wasn’t the one spending all his time sweating over the hot stove.

I was blown away by my first box. The ingredients were fresh and portioned to the exact amount I needed (no measuring), the instructions were simple and straight-forward (no figuring out whether to cook the veggies first or last), and the food was delicious. The meals were also scalable; I could add a third plate by slightly increasing a few ingredients or adding another side. This proved helpful when my niece was home for dinner once per week, since I had only ordered meals for two people for most nights.

I started with three meals a week for two people, and it took a huge burden off my shoulders when it came to cooking meals. Hubby stepped in to help me one night early on, and we discovered that we actually enjoyed cooking these meals together. The instructions are so precise and well written that we can work together effortlessly without stepping on each other’s toes, and the time together in the kitchen has been a great way for us to unwind after work and share the stories of our day without unloading on each other. Now it’s a ritual to cook our HelloFresh together, and then we cook on other nights by turns (and we still do take out), so neither of us feels like the burden of meals is on one person’s shoulders. And because we plan our meals in advance (up to 6 weeks!), we've eliminated a lot of the planning and shopping time that used to bog me down.

HelloFresh is also eco-friendly.  According to their website, the carbon footprint of HelloFresh meals is 25% lower than meals cooked at home with store-bought groceries. Most of the packaging is recyclable, and everything is shipped “carbon-offset”. Oh, and there’s less food waste -- none of that buying a whole package of celery to make one meal only to have it go to waste in my fridge because I didn’t need it for anything else. If the recipe calls for two scallions, they send me two scallions, not a whole bunch.

Another great thing about this service is it is really easy to customize to my needs. I can increase or decrease my meals whenever I want. I can put them on hold, or even cancel them completely -- there are no commitments. These days we’re down to two meals a week for four people, having switched our plan to accommodate the revolving door of a niece, my mother, and a friend that have stayed with us the last two years. These meals for four run me about $80 plus tax, and it is totally worth the time and sanity it brought back to my life. My son, Steven, took me up on the offer of a free box early on, and he loved it so much, he’s been a subscriber for almost two years, too. He’s single, so he orders 3 meals for two people every week, which allows him to cook one night then have leftovers the next, all week long, so he only does one carry-out night a week. For a single person, that’s awesome! And even better, the simple instructions and great recipes have actually helped him learn to cook. Heck, even my husband and I, both highly experienced cooks, have learned a cool thing or two.

But really, my biggest take away from this experience has been this — time is money, and for someone who is self-employed like me, every minute I spend in the kitchen is time I’m not working on my business or doing something I truly love. My time is really valuable to me. If I can still eat healthy without spending more than I would spend on traditional meals, then I’m all for it. 

If you think you might be interested in trying HelloFresh (or one of the other meal delivery services), I encourage you to give it a try. HelloFresh offers a wide variety of meal options, including vegetarian, low-carb, and low-calorie foods, all for the same price, and you get to choose every single meal they send you.  You can also choose to up-level a meal or two for a set fee, but I’ve found the regular choices to be quite sufficient.

Have you tried HelloFresh or another meal service? Share your experience in the comments!
And if you’d like a recommendation or two, head on over to the Facebook group to continue the conversation!