Five reasons you’ll love HelloFresh
You guys know I hate grocery shopping AND cooking meals (I’m a delight), so when HelloFresh Canada asked if I wanted to try a week of their Family Plan, I was like YES, PLEASE!
For those of you who haven’t heard, HelloFresh is a healthy meal delivery service. Instead of shipping ready-made meals, they send you all of the fresh ingredients you need to make meals from scratch. They have two-person plans and four-person plans, and even a veggie plan. Each box contains meals for three nights’ worth of dinners.
We got to test out the Family Plan a couple of weeks ago and I’m so excited to share what we thought — as well as a coupon code to save $50 off your first box.
Ready?
Here are my five reasons why I think you’ll LOVE HelloFresh …
1. It includes everything you need.
The HelloFresh boxes promise to include every single ingredient you’ll need, with the exceptions of a couple of basics like olive oil, salt, pepper and sugar.
Have you ever seen two more excited children holding YOGURT and a red pepper?! (Two things we buy weekly, by the way.) D and C were thrilled when our big HelloFresh box arrived on a Tuesday and couldn’t wait to tear into it.
(It must be all those “unboxing” videos they watch on YouTube?)
When we opened the box, there were three smaller boxes neatly tucked inside …
One box for each meal, and you know the colour-coding spoke to my heart.
Once you took out the meal boxes, there was another section underneath: the freezer section!
The meat, chicken and fish were tucked in this colder area with plenty of ice packs.
Since the boxes are delivered with Purolator (pssst, they ship ANYWHERE in Canada that Purolator delivers, other than Quebec), they’re fine to sit on your porch for a bit while you’re at work. Everything stays super cold.
Two packages of beef, two packages of chicken, two packages of fish!
We lined up the boxes on the counter and were deciding which one to have for our first night, but then we noticed this …
The Gremolta-Crusted Cod shouted “Make me first!” so we obeyed. You always obey a box, especially if it’s nicely colour-coded.
We tucked the other two boxes into the fridge and I was surprised how smoothly they fit on the bottom shelf.
We’d actually just gotten a full load of groceries that morning since we weren’t sure when our trial box was arriving, and they still fit!
We stacked the corresponding meat on top of each box, and they were good to wait until the following nights.
2. There’s no wasted food.
It was fun to spread out all of the ingredients and see exactly what was going in each recipe. When the counter was empty, it meant everything was used up and I hadn’t forgotten to add anything!
It was also nice to know that everything was being used up — unlike buying a whole head of cabbage and only using 1/3 of it for a recipe, leaving the rest to rot in your crisper. HelloFresh includes exactly the right amount of everything.
3. Everyone tries something new.
We tried LOTS of new foods during our three days cooking with HelloFresh, but that’s possibly because we are a family of very boring eaters.
Our household had NEVER cooked fish that wasn’t a Captain Highliner fish stick (I know, we’re an embarassment to Maritimers) and we cooked COD our very first night. Actual cod!
Other foods we tried for the first time: baby bok choy. coconut basmati rice and cilantro.
(Side note: See that little clump in the bottom-right corner? I honestly thought it was a piece of potato that got accidentally thrown into our box. Turns out it was GINGER! Who knew?)
We also learned new SKILLS, which surprised me. We had to zest lemons and limes (using our cheese grater because we’re not fancy and do not own a zester) as well as the ginger, and it was fun! The kids even tried and didn’t grate their fingers, so it was a win all-around.
4. They meals are fast to put together.
Like, really fast. All three of our meals listed either 30 minutes or 35 minutes for “prep” and I thought that didn’t include cooking time, but it did.
The instructions were organized in a way that you started cooking one item and then were prepping the second while the first was cooking, and it was certainly well-planned.
Some of the ingredients were even pre-chopped — like the red onion — to make things even faster. Not having to chop onions and get all teary = excellent.
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| Potatoes and red peppers, ready to roast! |
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| Zucchini with cod fillets topped with gremolta (panko, garlic, lemon zest and parsley) |
Everything came together smoothly in almost exactly the 30 or 35 minutes — from taking the box out of the fridge to putting dinner on the table — and that’s with the “help” of two kids.
5. The recipes turn out just like the pictures.
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| Night #1: Gremolata-Crusted Cod with Roasted Mediterranean Veggies |
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| Night #2: Smoky Sloppy Joes with Shredded Carrot Salad and Cilantro-Lime Vinaigrette |
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| Night #3: Glazed Teriyaki Chicken with Baby Bok Choy and Coconut Rice |
***
And now for the FAQ portion, I’ll run through the various questions people have asked (on social media and in person) when they heard we were giving this a whirl …
“But did your kids eat it?”
The kids were excited to try each meal because they’d helped prepare it. In terms of how much everyone loved the taste of the new foods … well, they’re still a picky four-year-old and six-year-old. I think they’re a little young (and not-adventurous) to fully appreciate these fancier-than-normal meals.
D actually liked the cod (which surprised me) but not the gremolata topping, and he adored the Sloppy Joes (no surprise there). The salad on Night #2 wasn’t a hit with either of them, but they did pick at the veggies on Night #1.
The kids were actually at my mom’s for Night #3, which was too bad because I know they would have loved the Glazed Teriyaki Chicken. It was my FAVOURITE meal of the week, hands down, and I’m totally making it again using the recipe card.
“Isn’t it wasteful to have all of those boxes/containers/ice packs?”
I’ve heard this a lot online from people who think services like this are bad for the environment, BUT I really didn’t find there was a lot of garbage at the end of each night. A couple of pieces of plastic from the meat/fish/chicken packaging and a few empty honey packets, etc. all easily could be wadded up into a single handful.
HelloFresh also runs an ice pack return program. They ask you to save up 3-4 weeks worth of ice packs in one of your boxes and then drop them an email (recycling@hellofresh.ca) and they’ll arrange to have them picked up and shipped back (for free).
“Were the portions large enough?”
Definitely. The salad on Night #2 was massive and I had to send a huge bowl to the neighbours so it wasn’t wasted (since I’d already put the homemade dressing on it.)
The Sloppy Joes were curious because there was a TON of ground beef and just four brioche buns — one per person. I ended up having a second helping of the beef by itself on my salad, and had plenty left for another couple of meals. My only suggestion would be including extra buns in the box or scaling back on the meat for this one.
The chicken and rice on Night #3 was actually enough for five adult-sized portions. Since the kids were away, I sent one plate next door to our neighbour and spent the next two days eating the leftovers for lunch. Mmmmm.
“Is it expensive?”
It depends on how much you spend on groceries and how much you value your time. The Family Plan is $129.99 for a week, which includes three dinners for four people.
Yes, you could probably buy the same ingredients yourself for less money. But you wouldn’t necessarily be able to buy exactly what you need for a specific recipe with zero waste, and you have to actually go out and source everything.
It was SO CONVENIENT to have this lovely big box just SHOW UP at our door with everything we needed for three dinners (and leftovers for lunch the next day). The luxury of not having to go out and do the shopping (or the planning) is worth a few extra bucks.
“What’s the quality like?”
Like BETTER than the stuff I’d normally buy in the grocery store!
The chicken and the beef were especially impressive with packaging that boasted “raised without hormones, antibiotics or animal by-products,” since we normally buy regular ol’ grocery store value-packs.
The produce was all excellent and very fresh. Even the canned and packaged items — like the tomatoes for Night #2 — were fancy-looking. Certainly no generic items in here!
***
We certainly plan on ordering from HelloFresh again. It was the kick in the pants we all needed to get out of our dinner slump and try some new foods, and it was so convenient to put together all three of the meals.
You can save $50 off your first order by using the code “HEACLA.” Let me know what you think if you try it!
Have questions I didn’t answer? Drop them in the comments on reach out on Facebook or Twitter and I’ll be sure to get back to you.
Thanks to HelloFresh Canada for providing us with a Family Plan for one week so we could try it out. As always, all opinions and leftover teriyaki chicken are my own.
Sweet treats and spoiling
I’m years away from having grandchildren of my own — at least 15 years, minimum, and even that would give me a heart attack.
But somehow, the other day, I was chatting with my four-year-old daughter about her someday-children. Specifically, how I must act when I’m in charge of these someday-children.
As I write this, our kids are having a sleepover with my mother. It’s the kiddie-equivalent of going to a rave, I think.
They spend their time hopped up on miniature chocolate bars, Pop-Tarts, Lunchables and bagels with cinnamon sugar. The apple juice is always flowing. There are treats and little surprises around every corner. It’s Willy Wonka’s factory, basically.
That’s why it was so hilarious when my daughter started talking about how I was encouraged — no, expected — to care for the children she might have in 20-odd years.
(Their names change each time she talks about them, but they always rhyme. Millie and Tillie, Dahlia and Ball-ia, Lonnie and Talauni.)
“When I’m a grown-up and I go to a wedding,” she began conversationally, “you can ‘babysitter’ my kids.”
(Apparently weddings are the most common reason a parent would need to go out of town for the night? I think I’ve only been to one or two in her lifetime, but oh well.)
“Oh, thank you!” I said graciously. “I’ll always want to take care of my little grandbabies.”
She nodded triumphantly.
“And I’m going to give them so many treats,” I continued. “I’m going to give them lots of chocolate bars and juice and pop and Rockets! And they’re going to come home all sugared-up and be really hyper for you.”
I thought she’d laugh and play along, but — to my surprise — she was angry …
Continue reading in my weekly parenting column, The Mom Scene, to see exactly why C was angry!
(Even more) board game wall art
One of my most popular DIYs to date has been the board game wall in our basement family room. It’s kind of wild how many people have pinned it and viewed it, you guys.
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| Hooray for popular pins! |
It’s undergone some changes since I first shared it with you back in 2014, and I’ve gotten reader questions about how some of the games are hanging up there, so let’s dive in!
The arrangement itself is pretty much the same — just larger — and it’s been such a fun addition to a window-less room that has many purposes: playing, watching TV and hosting guests on our hand-made daybed.
We received a couple of new games for Christmas which prompted me to switch things up a little. There were still quite a few games not on the wall and I decided to get them off the shelves into a place of honour. Of course, this is easier said than done for some of the oddly-shaped games.
Here’s a rundown on how I updated our cheerful gallery wall of board games that we can actually take down and play:
Standard board games:
The typical board-with-pieces games like Monopoly (er, Dogopoly), Careers and Cranium are the easiest to hang. I just build a simple wooden rectangle or square for the back and then screw through the board into the wood to secure it.
This way the game board stays flat against the wall (without folding up) and there’s room to hide a baggie of playing pieces in the empty space.
Certain games, like Scrabble and Othello, already have hard plastic boards so they don’t need wooden bases.
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3D board games:
For Christmas my sister bought me my old favourite game, Mall Madness. It talks and you get to swipe credit cards as you buy things, so the kids think it’s fantastic too.
The trouble was that the box was enormous and there were a ton of loose cardboard and plastic pieces that needed to be set up every time we played.
So I set up the ‘mall’ and then hot glued both levels of ‘stores’ to the board. The talking console can still slip out when it needs new batteries, but the glued cardboard surrounding it keeps it in place the rest of the time.
Board-less games:
Our pieces-only games, like Dominos, Animal Upon Animal and Jenga were still sitting on shelves in their original boxes.
So I added a small wooden shelf to the board game collage and stored their pieces in clear jars and bins instead.
At some point I’d like to upgrade to a set of large matching jars, but right now they’re in everything from rinsed-out pasta sauce jars to old cookie jars.
Trivia games:
I wasn’t willing to part with my Friends trivia game, but I decided I didn’t need to hang onto the huge board and the ‘Move back three spaces’ cards. So I put the trivia cards in a small wooden display — just large enough for the two stacks — and hot-glued the metal playing pieces on the front. They were too cute to toss!
Awkward/ugly games:
Twister had to remain in its original box because I couldn’t figure out how to store the huge vinyl mat in a way that didn’t look like a white tarp hanging from the wall. (Plus, I bought the vintage version and I really like the box.)
Yahtzee is also in its box for now, but I’ll probably find a way to display it differently at some point. The boxes are easy to hang — I just punch a hole in the back with a screwdriver and hang it off a screw.
Freestanding games:
Our Connect Four game was a plastic stand that needed to be assembled whenever it came out of the box. So I used a scrap of 2×4 and added L-brackets (I didn’t have any hooks) and two Mason jars to hold the pieces.
A bit of white and gold paint prettied it up and now it’s a perfect way to display and store the game. When we’re ready to play, we just lift the stand off the L-bracket hooks and the jars of game pieces twist off.
And when we’re finished playing, it’s easy for the kids to put back in its spot!
Just by tweaking the wall and adding a few more games I was able to trash two more garbage bags full of boxes and instructions. That’s a lot of junk out of the house — and more free space on the playroom shelves!
The girl at the art show
So now my painting is part of a real art show — up for sale with REAL DOLLARS — and it’s awesome.
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| It’s real. |
My grandmother was an incredible oil-painter. She taught me when I was little, but I hadn’t done any oils without her help until last year.
Seeing my painting next to the fabulous other entries is really intimidating. THEY ARE ALL SO GOOD! I’m not at “good” yet, but maybe I will be someday.
But it’s there, hanging on the wall of a super-cool spot downtown. I drank hot chocolate sitting below it, and stole bites of D’s cinnamon bun.
I tried not to take too many pictures of it and look like a weirdo. But, hey, I was proud.
And so is this guy.
Remember my art desk from this office tour back in 2013? It’s been sitting in a closet, collapsed, for a couple of years now.
But this weekend I’m going to set it up again.
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| Hey, old friend. |
I have some painting to do.
Why I hooked my kids on Little House on the Prairie
There’s been a lot of sickness in our house lately, and that means the TV has been on more than usual. One of our house rules is that the sickest person gets to choose the show, and sometimes that’s me.
The kids know better than to complain about my choices and, admittedly, I think they’d watch anything just for the sake of watching something. It’s through this system that I’ve gotten to expose them to some obscure favourites, and sometimes they end up really liking something new.
They were both skeptical when I first turned on an episode of Little House on the Prairie. The colours were dull and the picture was kind of grainy, compared to the crispness of the new HD shows they watch. But all it took was the river-fording scene — with the wagon being thrashed around on the choppy waters — to pique their interest.
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| Pioneer dramz. |
From there, I kept pointing out the differences in the way the Ingalls family lived. There was no running water! They cooked their food in that fireplace! There were no bathrooms!
(The kids once got confused and called an outhouse an “in-house,” but I refuse to correct them because it’s too cute. So if they ask, the Ingalls family uses an in-house.)
We slowly worked our way through the first season here and there when I was sick (or just tired). It had been years since I’d watched the show, and even then I’d only see a smattering of episodes. (It’s the books I know by heart.)
It made me smile to see how much the kids loved the famous “town party/country party” scenes I remembered from On the Banks of Plum Creek, when mean Nellie Olsen wouldn’t let Laura play with her doll and Laura got even by tricking Nellie into the muddy creek full of leeches.
Our daughter immediately decided the sweet eldest sister, Mary, was her favourite character, and our son laughed jubilantly every time Laura decked somebody (which was … often).
Some of the episodes were a little dark, but there were opportunities to talk about important lessons. The Ingalls family struggled financially and every member of the family worked hard. Christmases were modest and the children were happy to get a single, handmade gift. The winters were difficult and everyone felt lucky to find warm shelter during a bad storm. Nellie Olsen and her equally mean mother provide lots of chances to talk about kindness, too.
I loved when when our daughter had a friend over recently and insisted that instead of their usual “play home” game, they were going to pretend to be in Little House on the Prairie.
She was Mary (of course) and her friend decided to be Baby Carrie, once she heard her options. Our puppy, Annabelle, played Jack the loyal bulldog. I was Ma, and kept saying things like “Please put on the fire, Mary,” and “Be careful Carrie doesn’t wander near the creek.” It was fun, and now I have plans to make a toy slate and maybe a little cookstove.
Because our daughter is named after not one, but two Little House characters — Charlotte for Laura’s treasured ragdoll, and Rose for Laura’s daughter — it makes me ridiculously happy that she’s loving the Ingalls family as much as I do. It’s something special we can watch together, we’re going to start reading the chapter books aloud at night, and now it’s even our go-to pretend game.
Next family vacation spot? The Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home & Museum in Mansfield, Missouri! Well, unless the kids discover a museum about the TV character they love the most: SpongeBob Fricking SquarePants.
xo
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