Is Hello Fresh for Beginners?

I'm not a one who meal plans. I grocery shop and try to think ahead 2 or 3 nights and for the rest of the week kind of just wing it. I often find myself searching the internet for recipes that include the odd ball mix of ingredients that I happen to have on hand. I was hesitant to try Hello Fresh as I wasn't sure if it was for "non-cooks" like myself but I found myself pleasantly surprised.

What is Hello Fresh?

Hello Fresh is a weekly* subscription box service that delivers ingredients for meals right to your door.

You can select between 2 and 6 meals per week for 2 people or 4 people and the meals are 6 steps and estimate to take about 30 minutes (or less). Each week there is a range of options to select from, options I've encountered include chicken dishes, burgers, and salmon.


*You are free to skip weeks, free of charge, as long as you log into your account and select "skip week" in the allotted time frame.

My 1st Hello Fresh Box

I was nervous but excited when I received my first Hello Fresh box.

I wanted to select meals that were similar to ones I have made on my own but also different enough that I felt like the service was worth it. The two meals I chose for my first go around were the Honey Sesame Chicken & Beef Bulgogi Bowls.

Honey Sesame Chicken

This was my first meal and opening the brown paper bag of ingredients was very daunting. I admittedly didn't recognize some of the items right away. The bag includes almost all of the ingredients needed (less the salt, pepper, oil) and a menu card that includes an ingredient list and the 6 steps it takes to make the meal. 

The Honey Sesame Chicken required me to mince garlic and ginger, roast broccoli and cook chicken on the stove top as opposed to in the oven which I'm more comfortable with doing. If you're like me and like to bake chicken I suggest you take a look at these super easy ways I like to do it. I get nervous when cooking chicken on the stove top as I want to be doubly sure that it is cooked through and won't make me or my family sick. Baking always takes that worry away but I was up for trying! I'm pleased to say I completed the meal, we ate it and it's been a bit now and no one appears to have gotten sick from it. WIN!

Beef Bulgogi Bowls

The Beef Bulgogi Bowls was a very different meal for me to make. I've stayed away from meals with beef, not because I don't like them but because I'm nervous about making my husband and I sick! To my surprise the hardest task for making this meal was needing to peal a cucumber (yeah there was a full sized cucumber in the paper bag) and discovering I didn't have one. Spoiler alert: I did have one but I of course didn't know where it was or what it looked like (I'm a true beginner). ​To work around not knowing where the peeler was I simple cut the cucumber into as thin of slices as I could. Not exactly what the card called for but I did my best. The card also instructs you on how to make any sauce you may need and provides those ingredients as well. I do wish I had a side dish to go with this recipe as the serving sizes for two seemed a bit light. If I was a planner I would have picked up some wonton strips to go with it.

Is Hello Fresh for Beginners?

My first recipe required me to mince two items and I had to Google what minced meant. So is Hello Fresh for beginners?

Yes because they make it really easy to make a well balanced meal; they provided all of the major ingredients you need and give you step by step instructions. The instructions are broken down into 6 steps but they are very matter of fact.

The card told me to mince garlic like I was supposed to know what it meant. Maybe I am supposed to know what "mince" means but I didn't, I do now though. They can't provide definitions for every term because more advanced cooks (or just anyone with a morsel of cooking knowledge) would know what mince means and they too may be subscribing to Hello Fresh. I think the boxes are for all levels of cooks and I would highly recommend trying out the service for beginners like me.

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