12 Days of Christmas – Surviving the Festive Season with Hello Fresh

Christmas is such a busy time for everyone! Children have so much on at school, parents have all the prep, it’s not surprising that everyone’s healthy eating goes right out the window. Now I’m not talking diets here, I’m talking about actually having a hearty meal as a family and not just ordering take out or eating from the freezer for easiness every night. My mother and I usually meal plan before going grocery shopping, but I have to admit we haven’t since the start of December because we’ve been so busy, so when Hello Fresh sent me a three meal box, it felt like a complete blessing. I cannot deny the fact that Hello Fresh definitely helped us survive an incredibly busy week by taking the stress out of meal times with delicious meals that take less than an hour to go from box to plate.

So, if you haven’t heard about Hello Fresh, here is a quick summary of what exactly it is. Hello Fresh are a meal subscription company where you place your meal plan order online (classic, family or veggie) and they deliver the ingredients to your door along with a recipe card telling you how  to put your meal together. The majority of the recipes take less than hour to make and serve but even the ones that take slightly longer the steps are incredibly simple and easy to follow. All the ingredients are of high quality straight from the suppliers and they’re pre measured for the amount of people you’re cooking for. You get generous amounts and although I had the box for 3 adults, it fed 3 adults plus 2 children!

Classic Box for 3 People, 3 Meals from Hello Fresh RRP £48.99*

The ingredients all arrived in a huge box. They were divided into brown bags for each recipe, and then there was one chilled bag which had all the refrigerator items together. There was also some information on Christmas dates and of course the three recipe cards. I loved Hello Fresh’s branding from the moment I saw it. The cards are cute, a good size and perfect to keep for future use as although everything is pre-measured out they do include the weights and measurements for each ingredient making it possible to recreate the meal again. I loved the paper bags, it reminded me of when I used to live in the city and could go to the market (the town I live in doesn’t have a daily market sadly) and I felt the chiller bag kept everything nice and cold.

Good food looks good and tastes good. When all this arrived it made me feel excited to cook at dinner time again and this hasn’t happened in a long time due to being so busy and feeling so exhausted. I used to really love cooking and would cook a full meal every night, even if it was only for me. But being a single parent and self employed has really taken it’s toll, especially since LM started school full time and my break up. All this good, and independently sourced food made me want to cook again, and perhaps some of that was to do with the fact I didn’t have the brave Tescos in the cold weather to buy it!

The recipes I got to try were Beef Kofta Curry with Saag Aloo, Creamy Linguine with King Prawns and Serrano Ham & Sausage Chilli with Homemade Tortillas. I loved that there was no chicken in sight which is my go to meat so many times a week. Since receiving the box I have made the creamy linguine and the sausage chilli which had both been huge hits with the family. The kids skipped out on the pasta dish as they don’t like seafood and I added some rice to the chilli at my mum’s request. They were both so easy to make, and I’m fairly sure I’d have been able to make them even when I was just learning to cook back at university.

The recipes are different every week so it’ll really shake up dinner times if you’re stuck in a rut.

Not only that, but if you’re panicking about pulling a Christmas dinner out of the bag, Hello Fresh have you covered for this too with their Christmas box! It has everything inside to help you create a fantastic Christmas feast. They’ve also put together a fool proof cheatsheet to help you make your Christmas dinner perfect. You can view it online or have a copy emailed to you so you can print it out and stick it around the kitchen to keep you on track. Either way, you have no excuse this year not to nail that turkey and trimmings.

As with everything, the cheatsheet is well thought through and all the details are clearly and creatively presented. I’ll be keeping it for the next time I have to make the dinner on the big day, but this year I’ll just be helping my mum peel the potatoes.

Have you tried Hello Fresh yet?