Have you ever tried those food-in-a-box programs? There are several out there, with varying degrees of quality, cost, and environmental responsibility like Blue Apron and Dinnerly.
This is my Market Friday post of the week - my experience with one such program - Hello Fresh!
Why Did We Decide to Order Food Boxes?
We had tried another program before. I can't remember the name. Plate It or something like that. We thought: Meh! It was okay.
I'm a pretty good cook, and I can throw a meal together from whatever is on hand. I'm also very budget conscious! I don't want to spend more for food than I have to. I shop sales, go to discount places, and do everything I can to shop wisely!
As a pure budget-conscious choice, a food box doesn't really make sense.
However, right now we're living in a pandemic! I only go to the store once a week on average. Also, I have a very stressful and time-consuming job, often working 9 or 10 hour days, plus some weekend hours. I often step away from my computer at the end of the day completely mentally fried.
The other factor is that we are virtually empty nesters now. The girls are living on their own, and as of a few weeks ago when our son left for basic training in the National Guard, it's just the two of us. Sigh.
We got a really nice coupon from a friend for Hello Fresh, and decided to try it. The rest is history. It's perfect for us. We absolutely love it. Three nights a week, I don't have to think up what to do for dinner!
And the food is truly amazing. Great portions, delicious flavors. Economically, it's cheaper than getting take-out or Door Dash, or anything like that.
Environmental Responsibility
I don't know about you, but I can't stand a lot of packaging. I feel very much like it is my personal responsibility to avoid waste.
We compost and recycle as much as much as possible, and reduce overall usage of products that are heavily packaged.
Hello Fresh claims net zero carbon emissions. I love that!
The food comes in a box with recyclable materials. In the next section I'll show an example of what comes out of each meal pack.
Here's one of the reasons it cuts down on waste: You don't need to buy large containers of ingredients when you only need a small amount. For things like sauces, spices, vegetables where you only need a little, you never go and over-buy things that go to waste.
Cooking Hello Fresh Meals
Each meal comes in a brown bag labeled with the meal name. If there is meat or fish, that is in a separate package. We order the pescaterian meals, which means we get two vegetarian meals and one fish each week. We started out with the omnivore version, but we actually don't crave red meat. And in terms of environmental responsibility, being a vegan, vegetarian or pescatarian is far and above a better choice, so we like it for a variety of reasons.
The vegetarian and fish meals from Hello Fresh are divine! I mean that sincerely. This is some of the best food we have ever eaten.
Anyway, here’s how it works. You take out all your ingredients and your recipe card, and you just follow the instructions, step by step! Most meals take about 30 minutes to make, so it's a little faster than I would probably normally get a meal together, on average.
Meal Example: Salsa Verde Enchiladas
The steps are really straight-forward and easy. And they follow a similar pattern, so you get some familiarity with the way it all works. That helps to expedite things! If you want to see the recipe, go to the Hello Fresh Salsa Verde Enchiladas recipe page.
You always start by washing and chopping your vegetables. Here we have a roma tomato, some green onions - whites and greens separated - and a hot pepper.
I had already cut the California pepper and it was sizzling in the pan.
Next we add the chopped tomatoes and spices.
In a separate pan, we cook the drained black beans and season them. Then we spread them on the tortillas, top with the vegetable mixture and roll them up.
Then we top with green salsa!
Sprinkle with cheese and bake!
While it's baking, you make a crema sauce with sour cream and spices. Super simple.
After baking the enchiladas for about 5 minutes, you take it out of the oven, add crema sauce and serve!
Closing Thoughts on Food Boxes
This system works really well for us. It's economical for just two people. We actually discovered, when we had kids at home for some of the meals, that it was super easy to expand them, add a side dish or more of something to make the meal a little bigger.
I love to cook, but I'm not great at meal planning and making sure I have all the ingredients on hand, especially right now with my limited number of store runs.
We find the meals to be easy and fun to make, and much healthier and better tasting even than restaurant food! We have no desire to get take-out or fast food anymore. The benefits for us have been many. We really enjoy dinner together and it doesn't feel like such a chore to pull it all together!
Thanks very much for reading my #MarketFriday post. Check out the tag, and posts by the Market Friday queen, 
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