Food boxes

My daughter uses Hello Fresh and she's impressed with them, thinks they are much better than Gusto. She has an extremely busy life, lives alone but likes to eat properly. She particularly likes their vegetarian options.

We tried Hello Fresh and Gousto and thought Gousto was the better of the two. The quality of the ingredients seemed better and they seemed fresher too.

Houston looks good, but we haven’t tried it. We tried Hello Fresh, but although I still use some of the recipe cards, there were too few meals we enjoyed, sometimes the Fresh was a misnomer, they substituted meals we hadn’t asked for and too much salty seasoning.
From time to time I use Simply Cook.
Buy my ingredients from Lidl or Aldi and use Simply Cook seasoning.

Goustonot Houston!

I wouldn't use them on a regular basis - we only tried them when they were at least half price (maybe even less). I cook most things from scratch anyway, but I think it was good to try some new recipes without having to buy lots of different ingredients which I might not use again very often.

I use Hellofresh quite often, and do like them.
However, the downside is they won't do meals for 1 person, despite repeated requests.
I get fed up have the same meals 2 days in a row. It's also not often possible to freeze them.

mumski my daughter likes that as she takes the second portion to work with her the next day so she doesn't have to eat hospital food, which is generally very poor.

Hello fresh recipes contain a ridiculous amount of salt, often the daily recommendation or close to per meal. Just something to be aware of if you have high blood pressure for example

You don't have to add the salt if you don't want to. Most recipes contain more salt than I want to use so I just leave it out.

One of the meals I remember included salt and Teriyaki sauce, which also contains salt, so even leaving the salt out meant it tasted very salty.

Teriyaki sauce contains soy sauce and soy sauce is salty so either avoid or use less. I rarely follow a recipe slavishly. I've never used Hello Fresh I was passing on my daughter's comments. She's a pretty good cook so she'll adapt recipes, she buys these meals because she works long shifts and lives alone also has a long drive home so coming home and being able to cook a meal quickly without having to shop is what she wants.

foxie48
I’m glad your daughter finds them useful. Many people must, as they are still in business.
One old couple on our road would recommend Wiltshire Farm foods-they have a weekly delivery.
The OP asked for opinions and experience, so my experience is like yours and your daughter’s.
We may have to adapt any recipes to make them palatable.

Several working ladies in my healthy eating group use a Hello Fresh for 2/3 nights per week and think its suits them well.

I think they work for busy people and are probably worth the money. My daughter uses them.

Perhaps one of the advantages of these food boxes apart from convenience is that they contain the spices and herbs that are needed for a recipe. I keep a pretty good supply of spices but they lose their flavour once opened or I find a recipe but find I'm missing a key ingredient! I think it also makes for trying completely new dishes. I think I'm talking myself into trying them!

Field Doctor

We started getting Mindful Chef boxes in 2020 - DH once nearly had the family doing welfare checks when he told his brother we were having food parcels delivered every week. We changed to Gousto later as they were quite a lot cheaper, though I’m not sure that’s the case now they charge for delivery. We liked them both, and still get a Gousto 3 recipe box for two every fortnight. There’s always plenty of choice and the quality’s very good. It’s also easy to skip a box or change the date of it if you’re going away or have a lot on in a particular week. DH does all our cooking and likes to make something a bit different without having to get all the ingredients, some of which we’d probably not use again. My only concern is the waste of packing materials. DD1 changed from Gousto to Hello Fresh, but cancelled as she said the ingredients they sent were often past their best.

Not quite the same, as they’re fully cooked and just need microwaving, but if anyone likes curries these are fantastic:

www.chefakila.com/

We've used Hello Fresh and Gousto, and I prefer Gousto. My husband is vegetarian, and I found the HF options very limited, and usually pasta-based which represented poor value for the price. Gousto has a lot more to choose from, but they do use meat substitutes which are not for everyone.

I found them useful when the kitchen was being done and was out of commission for a while, or at busy times when we weren't sure when we'd be in to cook.

If people are using them for the first time, I recommend getting some fridge boxes and separating the meals into them when they arrive, so all you need to do is take out a box and all the ingredients are ready to go. The meals really do save time, and are much better than ready meals, as you can customise them (eg by adding more or fewer spices) and you know exactly what is going into them.

We use Hello Fresh. Very convenient and you can skip weeks whenever you want. We never add any extra seasoning and select the lower calorie meals.
The biggest bonus for me is that because everything is ready to use in the right amounts, D H is happy (?) to cook once or twice a week.

I like the idea of these but haven’t found one which I could use.
I don’t like to eat processed meat - sausages or burgers.
And I don’t like anything spicy.

I guess I shouldn’t be so fussy!!!

my friend has Hello Fresh; her children clubbed together and bought a subscription as i know due to depression they felt she was not eating properly. i do know she loves it and is carrying on with it this year too. one good thing too is its given her a new interest she raves about the recipes and she tells me that there is ample ingredients for each dish, often she has some left for other meals, hence she does a fortnight on fortnight off to save money

Indigo8

Field Doctor

I was going to ask about these, there seems to be a wide range for different dietary requirements and I'm planning to lose weight. My husband doesn't like most vegetables so the simple expedient of eating more veg can't work easily for me.

I know someone who uses the Hello Fresh meals and always says how good they are but they don't produce meals for one unfortunately.