Hello Fresh With The Inspo

This post is not sponsored by Hello Fresh. This was written by me, and all opinions are my own. This post may contain links that may earn me a small commission at no extra cost to you. 

Sometimes we just need a little meal inspiration

We happened upon Hello Fresh through a local race and I originally opted into a meal subscription service when we were in a food rut. We can be notorious for making the same things over, and over, and over again and that drives me crazy.

So, when we find ourselves at a loss with what to make for lunches, or for dinners, we take a look at our Hello Fresh Canada app and see what’s on the menu for the following week. We pick three or four meals, and that is it!

Meal prep inspiration doesn’t always come easily. Sometimes we sit and stare at recipes we have on hand and wonder what on earth we’re going to do. I did that a little while back before I was inspired to make our Asian Inspired Chicken Noodle Soup. Don’t want to sit and stare at recipes waiting for inspiration to come to you? Insert Hello Fresh meal subscription. But don’t fret, because the subscription is flexible.

Returning From Vacation? Order up Hello Fresh the week before.

This is also a very good option for us when we are returning from a vacation. Since we tend to come back and immediately hop back into work and routines, there is no time to hit the store with a plan.

We skip any weeks we don’t need help or aren’t returning from a vacation.

Rewind to a few weeks ago when we were spending an entire weekend hiding away in a cabin up in Squamish. We didn’t know when we’d be getting home on Sunday, plus it is football day, so we chose earlier that week to set up a Hello Fresh delivery for Monday. Jason still swung by the store early in the week to grab basics like yogurt, oat milk, cereal etc., but we had our first few meals of the week planned for us.

Exact Measurements Are Helpful, But …

Everything comes packaged individually which is not my favourite thing on the planet.

To be fair – this is something that has become drastically better over the time we’ve been subscribed, but there is always room for improvement. This is to make it easy to have pre-portioned ingredients for your meal, but it is a waste of materials.

I think that there is room to find more sustainable packaging, for anything that needs to be bagged. The meals themselves come in paper bags which can be recycled, or used in your compost bin, and the boxes are recyclable. We keep some of the freezer packs to be reused in the summer.

Subscription Meal Box – November 2020 Edition

Butternut Squash Stuffed Pasta

With toasted pine nuts and baby heirloom tomatoes. Perfect #meatlessmonday recipe, super easy to throw together and was very comforting on a gloomy day.

This is super easy to throw together, and was a nice and light meal, especially after a weekend of indulgence. We were hibernating, therefore we needed lots of snacks! Best part? Only took about half an hour to put together.

BBQ Beef Meatballs Wish Smashed Potatoes

 

 

 

 

And broccoli. Gotta have a vegetable in there somewhere! Meatballs are so easy to put together, and yet we always forget about them! Beef, veal, turkey, chicken – so many options! Alas, these meatballs definitely hit the spot. Simple ingredients, a nice tang, and again was put together in about half an hour. Simplicity always wins.

Lemon Turkey Scallopine

With mushroom-caper linguine. This is me stepping outside the box, mmm k? Pun was a happy coincidence 😉 Mushrooms are one of my least favourite foods, which I am trying to increasingly add to my diet. I had been out walking the dog who was in a sassy mood that day, and I didn’t get out for my 10k run until the sun was about to set

. This meal, mushrooms and all was the perfect dinner post-run. Full of protein, but with a nice light flavour, and comforting all at the same time. This meal was put together in about 40 minutes.

All meals that we received and made were delicious and we’ve put the recipe cards aside to put with our other recipes we would make again. Love what you received and made? The exact measurements are listed, so you can recrea

te your Hello Fresh creation if you ever get a craving for one of the recipes.

And you don’t have to go to the grocery store. In my opinion, that’s always a winner in my book!

Basics about Hello Fresh Meal Subscription

When you set up your account, you enter in your personal information and choose your defaults for meals. So for us, our default is the 3 meals for 2 people and our menu preference is meat & veggies. I love seeing the veggie recipes, some of which I’d never even thought to make.

While this is a subscription box, it is a flexible subscription box. What this means, is that if you don’t want a box, or you know you’re going to be away, you can skip your box(es), by Wednesday at 11:59 PM PST(or PDT). You’ll always get an email notification about your upcoming delivery, so if you’ve forgotten, that will trigger you to pick your meals or skip the week.

There are no specific dietary meals that are offered, but there are options every week that excludes beef, seafood, fish, shellfish and pork, so you’re bound to find something that suits your preferences. Hello Fresh is constantly improving and evolving their offerings, so perhaps specific dietary boxes are in their future. These meal subscription boxes are something we’re keeping in our back pocket for both inspiration, and help when we’re at a loss for kitchen creativity.

Or when you’re tired of going to the grocery store. I’m not here to judge.

Oh, and if you’re a Rakuten member, there is a $15 cash back on a Hello Fresh meal subscription. And if you’re not a Rakuten member, get it!

Have you ever ordered meal subscription boxes? What was your experience like?