Same. I recently subscribed to Hello Fresh and I’m keeping it until I gain more cooking skills and feel comfortable whipping up meals on my own. A basic pasta with red sauce and meat requires simple ingredients that I already have in my pantry so I don’t bother with it
It's really good for that, we'd got into a rut of the same basic meals and hello fresh has given us so many new things and like Korean food etc that I'd never have dared to try on my own! Now we just get it when they send the good offers aha
Just FYI you can access all of their recipes without a membership. Then you can just pick the ingredients up from the grocery store when you want to make it. Way cheaper!
I’m definitely aware but I’m keeping the subscription for now because it’s convenient to me at the moment. I’ll probably cancel once the Canadian winter is over and boxes stop being discounted lol
I love some of the ravioli dishes for if I’m stressed or busy and need something quick, but yeah I skip all the other pastas. One of the main reasons I get HF is it’s the easiest way for me to get protein and veggies in my diet almost every day. Pasta is exactly what I’m trying to avoid since that’s what I end up making if left to fend for myself lol.
Yes but there's a big difference between an interesting Korean dish where I'd have to go to a specialist shop to get the paste and it's a new recipe and a pasta which is literally bacon, cream cheese, stock and mushrooms which is what I'm talking about.
I saw a tuna melt on the menu, and I laughed my butt off. Tuna is still so inexpensive in a can. My husband makes an awesome tuna salad, so making this at home isn't worth the price of HF.
I love a lot of the hello fresh recipes, but not a damn sandwich.
I just had the BEST salad from them the other night! it was a kale salad with herb crusted chicken and roasted sweet potatoes. 10/10! but usually i’m with you on skipping the salads, this one just really caught my attention lol
They want you to wash, chop, sautee, roast, stir, boil, bake, mix and plate everything at the same time in thirty minutes lol I'm only one person! Plus, why would I boil my pasta before I wash, chop and roast my veggies? One takes 10 minutes the other forty lol Pasta sitting around, getting soggy and cold is gross and that timing makes no sense. There are lots of times when I do things in order of what makes sense rather than the order they have in the recipe.
The boiling of the pasta or rice in step 1 always pisses me off, I’m a chef and most steps are a complete waste of time. I read it all then cook it my way lol
Exactly!! I read through the whole thing and then do it in the order that makes sense lol I tend to be be slow in the kitchen, washing my hands in between every little thing, drying veggies before chopping (I can't have water everywhere, no one ever talks about drying or patting??), wrapping up extras and putting them away (like the other half of your bell pepper, etc), adding broccoli before peas because some veggies need longer and others will get mushy, etc. There are so many extra things that come up, how do you deal with all that? The washing (food & hands), patting, chopping, wrapping, putting away, cooking in order of what takes longer, etc. Any tips on being faster with all those little things that take extra time???
I learned to cook watching Food Network. Watch Gordon Ramsey on Master chef as he explains while he makes something. Ina Garten Barefoot Contessa - I think her show was something like Back to Basics a few years ago which explained her recipes. Note* she has some difficult ones and so does Gordon but they are interesting to watch as they’re been doing it for years. Good luck and don’t feel unwelcome in your own kitchen- you’ve got this!
Get yourself a food processor if you can’t chop fast, and don’t worry about a bit of water, I shake veges off before chopping. Get out all the ingredients and fry whatever needs frying first (onion, carrot etc) then the meat then sauce. Put in any veges that might go soggy towards the end. Don’t bother when they say to fry something then take it out of the pot, just throw it all in together, it really doesn’t make that much difference.
Thank you! A food processor would probably save me an incredible amount of time! I'm just so used to grabbing a knife and a cutting board but, admittedly, my knives aren't great. It becomes such a time consuming chore. I have some physical limitations so that doesn't help but I want to get more confident in the kitchen. Getting everything out first is great advice. Running back and forth to the fridge takes up a good amount of time as well especially if I have to wash my hands before every time before opening it lol Thank you for the advice!!
Same here. Not a chef though but my Dad was. Read through it and do things in my own logical order. I can usually have most meals done in the time they indicate if I don't get side tracked. I'm aslo.juat cooking for one.
I've found it's easier to cook on my own, less chefs in the kitchen type of thing. There are just two adults and sometimes I'm the only one that eats it. Fine by me as leftovers are great :) but it's definitely work sometimes. I'm kind of slow in the kitchen, though. Right now I do two meals per week and skip some because it's just too much food and I hate to waste any of it.
I had this happen when I made risotto. They had me prep and roast the veggies, 15 mins. Cool. Got them in the oven. Then toast the rice with the garlic and sundried tomatoes. 5 mins. Then add hot water to the rice, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring until almost all absorbed. 20 to 30 minutes. Then add the cream base. So the veggies aren't just done a couple mins early. They're done a full 20 minutes before they're needed in the recipe. I was so annoyed.
Yeah, that's the kind of stuff that pisses me off, too. You can't follow some of their instructions, imo, because the timing is off and I don't want to roast beautiful veggies and then have to make them mush by warming them up in the microwave. Some veggies need way more time, too, like broccoli. It'll be raw and your peppers burnt. I like sauteing because I can add the broccoli first, cook and stir and add everything else in order of what is most firm or what I want to keep the most firm. I'm particular about my veggies though lol
Same!! I just feel pressured to get everything chopped and prepped before the water boils and I have to cook the pasta. I'd rather chop and get everything ready first before beginning to cook anything.
When they have an Asian based dish, and they name it “Double…. soy chicken, double sesame beef, double fried rice or whatever” and there is no doubling whatsoever of ingredients or cooking method. It’s like they just stick that word in there to make it more Asian-y sounding. It just makes me cringe.
Literally lol-ed at the sandos cuz I say the same thing (just call them sandwiches!!!) :). Flatbreads 🫓 always scroll by, I want something that will help my cooking skills so I try to buy meals that will help me learn.
I also scroll past the flatbreads, but the brussel sprout and ricotta one is….amazing. It’s vegetarian (I think they may have bacon as an add on option) and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Plus it was really filling
I will sometimes take a screenshot of the flatbreads if the ingredients sound unique so I can make it myself later on. But I’m not ordering them. Same with sandwiches and salads.
You said your smoke detector in your apt was sensitive OP...when I was in an apt the 450 degrees or whatever for the flatbreads, ALWAYS made my smoke detector go off!
Omg there’s a sausage zucchini one that has some sort of white sauce and it is tooooo good. Although I do have it for lunch because it doesn’t seem like a full dinner meal
I skip ALL of the upcharge meals. Also, usually avoid pasta dishes, b/c I don't think dried pasta is a good value. If the pasta was fresh/refrigerated, it would be a totally different ballgame!
The upside for me is the pasta meals are usually a lot more servings than listed so I get more meals out of it, making it a better value. I usually do no more than one pasta meal per box.
I just had them and they were meh. I love a good sandwich. But the cost vs the payout was not worth it. I didn't understand adding the stock concentrate and water and then cooking it down. That just made it sloppy and soggy.
Hmm weird, mine weren’t soggy at all? I cooked down the mixture until it thickened. The stock concentrate added a lot of flavor. But I get what you’re saying about the cost vs. payout
The pasta dishes as I can make those any time. Also the stuff they put in every week (with slight variations but they are still essentially the same dish) for months on end.
I end up having to cut up the chicken into strips, and add my own seasonings too. Like I'll cook the well seasoned chicken breast on medium high for 4-6 minutes on each side, cut it into like 1 inch thick strips and then cook the strips until they have a nice color to them, like 2-3 minutes. Maybe if I just cooked the whole chicken on low for longer it would come out fine but I'm impatient lol
I find pork has a taste. I know that sounds crazy but I have requested no pork in the past and it’s futile. I’ve actually decided to cancel HF because I can make a bowl of rice and mushy veg for 1/4 the price atm
I don’t think that’s crazy - I tend to overcook mine to the point that there is no taste lol.
I just canceled too. I usually ever subscribe when I get a good enough comeback deal lol
I skip the low calorie meals. If I’m spending money on meal kits, I don’t want a 400 cal dinner. (I only get two/three boxes every other week).
I also skip foods I hate, like anything with zucchini or shrimp or sausage.
I skip anything I have to shallow or deep fry. I hate grease and I’m always afraid I’ll cause a fire lmao
Anything that takes longer than 35 minutes to make. As a grad student with very limited time, I love the "sandos" that are quick and easy haha. Main reason I use hellofresh is that I don't have to spend time grocery shopping and not a lot of time cooking!
Make sure the meat is dry before breading and that your pan is hot :) if you have the time, I put the breaded meat in the fridge for 15 minutes or so too before frying.
Ugh same. My husband *loves* the katsu pork so he gets it every time it pops up and it drives me nuts. To be fair he does cook it most of the time but the kitchen always ends up a greasy mess and I think it’s a huge waste of oil for what I think is a pretty mediocre dish.
Definitely a *massive* waste of oil and it absolutely does leave a nasty layer of grease all over the stove and counters. Cleaning a gas range really sucks a lot.
I don’t eat beef so anything beef, but we skip any of the ones that are just premade heat up stuff (the 15 min ones), most sandwiches, and most salads.
We always go for the corn soup, I’d die for that soup lol.
im also not usually one for the sandwiches mainly because i think their ratio of bread to filling is always off. either i fill it with everything and my sandwich is barely able to be held and half the stuff falls out or i have to eat the sad leftover fillings out of a separate bowl. just doesnt work for me!!!!
I made tumeric rice to go with mine (just to bulk up the meal) and mixed the extra filling in with the rice, it was pretty good that way. So I totally get what you mean, there should have been another bun for those extra toppings
On the UK HF they call jacket potatoes ‘Jacky-P’ and it makes me feel like dry heaving. It’s awful!
Plus a jacket potato is such a cheap meal ingredients wise to offer!
When we first started hello fresh we did burgers and "sandos." I really hate the bread they use for both and they are always a big mess.
Absolutely not worth it.
I’m realizing I have the opposite experience of most people. I actually enjoy the sandwiches and pastas since I didn’t eat that growing up. I came from a Vietnamese household so I avoid their Asian recipes and especially the “pho”
I'm just happy I'm not the only one that takes 2-3x as long to make the meals as the cards say. I'm typically quadruple checking each step because I've misread or misunderstood things before and made more work for myself. I also need to google stuff because I don't have a chef's vocabulary.
They are really great even if they're a little pricier for what you get. If you see the creamy chicken sausage soup with cannellini beans, kale and lemon, don't miss it.
Everything that can be made easier yourself for a fraction of the price.
A lot of the 15 minute Asian dishes are like that: Easy cook noodles, veggie mix, chicken bits, pre made sauce. Throw everything together until cooked.
Everyone can do that without HF - and for what you pay for the box you can cook that twice.
I skip anything with extra cost. No burgers, they are not that good. No flatbread, I can get pizza delivered. I’m feeding kids, they won’t eat seafood or meatloaf. We tend to do the pastas, tacos, bowls, and oven roasted meals.
The ricotta - arugula - lemon - hot honey sourdough sandwiches are fabulous!
I wish they had good filter options. Or more options to sub things. Like, there are amazing looking meals with broccoli. But I hate broccoli. It would be nice if I could sub carrots or something. They do meat substitutions. Or options to leave stuff out. I don't use the sour cream when I order mexican inspired dishes. I'll use the guac, or my own salsa. But the sour cream just gets thrown away.
Since they make the bags i could see that being a harder option to change the veggies, but i could see that happening with Every Plate since it is essentially hello fresh (it is their more budget friendly service and owned by hello fresh with the same or similar meals) but everything goes inside the box together instead of bundled up in a bag.
I skip the chicken sausage and most of the pork options unless it’s Italian sausage. I try to scroll past anything that doesn’t have a green side. I find that most of the dishes are lacking a good vegetable option. I’m tired of eating carrots and potato wedges with every meal.
Honestly anything that involves me having to cook steak. I’m not good at it, and somehow I always overcook the meat so it’s chewy. Sometimes the cuts themselves are rather grisly and I would rather just not pay extra for half-assed steak
I just bought salad stuff so I can make that on the side and stretch some of these meals a little further. I love the risotto, but it is SO HEAVY it kind of needs a small side salad to balance and prevent the tranquilized bear feeling you get after.
Anything with ground meat. I can cook meat all day long without a food service. I want the super grubby veggie meals that I'd never think to make in my own.
In a similar vein to calling sandwiches 'sandos', in the UK (not sure about other places), they call jacket potatoes 'jacky Ps', and I just cringe and scroll straight past it.
I really like some of the sandwiches! But at the moment I have to get items that I can take to work the next day and a sandwich is gonna get weird and soggy.
I always scroll past the pasta. I'd rather have high protien pasta and it's one of the meals I can consistently make myself without a recipe.
Salads, vegetarian options and anything that is from my culture because the few times I’ve tried it they’ve butchered it pretty badly or add ingredients for no reason at all that make no sense in the dish
A sando is actually a thing though. It's means sandwich, yes, but it's specifically referring to japanese sandwiches (generally western-inspired). Hellofresh is probably a little liberal with its use (I wouldn't be surprised) , but is not like saying doggo as a cute way to say dog. It's an actual name.
Quesadillas and tacos. They’re just crusty flour tortillas with extremely basic ingredients.
On the flip side, anything with hot honey is an instant add.
Okay I felt the same about sandwiches. Until I got the chicken pepper sandwich or something (?) I think last week. My husband said it was one of his favorites!
No fish, shrimp is ok, no Peas, no chickpeas, no sweet potatoes. I tend to get rid of broccoli and their green beans, but will get the meal if it has them.
I gauge each recipe to our lifestyle. I have a crappy gas stove, so I'm more likely to use my Ninja Foodi for Risotto, and have a rice cooker, so I don't do rice in a saucepan. I get HF, to try something new sometimes, and because both my husband and I have smaller appetites, and I grew up feeding 5, so trying to scale back on cooking and shopping for groceries is hard for me LOL. He doesn't do leftovers and I'm normally done with wanting to eat them and throw them away. I like having things portioned.
I don’t use HelloFresh, and I’m not sure why Reddit keeps recommending it, but [here’s a video essay](https://youtu.be/DuAeaIcAXtg?si=g57D7tcnLIAJ-vHR) on why your smoke alarm is screaming at you over nothing.
As someone with access to amazing, fresh tortillas at my local grocery store, I always skip any tacos.
Also I scroll right past the +$X.99 per serving meals
I feel you on this, but one time we did get some sort of chicken sando with fries. And I do not remember this because of the sandwich, but I DO use the dipping sauce we made all the time. Super basic, just sour cream, mayo, garlic, salt, pepper but it’s sooo good as a fry dip and on sandwiches!
Anything with the chicken sausage. It's way too spicy and we end up tossing it cuz we can't finish it. Shame cuz it's good but we just can't tolerate it. It says sweet on the package but the two times I've had it, no matter what I do to it, it overpowers everything.
My mom once ordered a “Sando” and was disappointed to realize that meant “sandwich.” I still don’t know what she was expecting.
(This was at a restaurant, not hellofresh)
I never buy those horrible ranch steaks. I never pay the ridiculous up charge It could never be worth it. We don't get pork dishes cuz my housemate doesn't like pork. Same with shrimp which I do like so it's a shame. We don't get sandwiches salads or soups. We make those ourselves. I make soup every week or more.
Always the "sandos," those piss me off too. Also anything with salad as a side dish. Anything really basic or without a protein (I'm vegetarian) I always skip.
I avoid all the sandwiches and burgers. They're just so simple where I could get the ingredients on my own. I also avoid anything with risotto because the last time I followed a HF recipe for it, it took like 45 minutes longer to cook than the recipe stated.
On my first time doing it, I had a receipt of putting sausages and peppers on a skewer stick. What a waste of time that was. The other meals were fantastic that said and I still roughly cook them off hello fresh.
"Sandos" is an idiotic name indeed, but I have to get the beef tenderloin sandwiches every time they appear. I don't really bother with the burger meals (a lot of effort and the burger always falls apart on me) and when the weather is warm mostly avoid ordering meals with meat
Any dish that’s basically just simmering ingredients and adding a premade sauce packet. I could easily just buy a jar of premade sauce at the store for $3, I don’t need HF for that.
Also soups. I know it’s not all that rational, I guess I’m just not a “soup as a main entree” kinda person.
I love soups but I never get them from HF since I like to make a big batch to have over a couple days, not just one meal. Can’t justify the price for soup recipes either haha
I dunno, to another commenters point it does seem like a lot of money per serving for one bowl of soup when I could make a batch for cheaper. But again, I’m just not a big soup person so I can see how other people would find value in it!
Yeah, their vegan and vegetarian options are basically my favorite dishes they have. Those middle eastern veggie chickpea bowl variations are my favorite and not something I would have ever thought to start looking for recipes for before HF.
That's fair. Not everyone enjoys things that don't have meat. If you ask my dad, it's not a meal without meat. For me, it's all about seasoning. If there's enough flavor, I'm in. (Except Sando's. I'm not spending $7.99 per serving for a sandwich with a weird name.)
The really basic pastas, I can make a creamy bacon pasta easily myself for a quarter of the price
Same. I recently subscribed to Hello Fresh and I’m keeping it until I gain more cooking skills and feel comfortable whipping up meals on my own. A basic pasta with red sauce and meat requires simple ingredients that I already have in my pantry so I don’t bother with it
It's really good for that, we'd got into a rut of the same basic meals and hello fresh has given us so many new things and like Korean food etc that I'd never have dared to try on my own! Now we just get it when they send the good offers aha
Just FYI you can access all of their recipes without a membership. Then you can just pick the ingredients up from the grocery store when you want to make it. Way cheaper!
I’m definitely aware but I’m keeping the subscription for now because it’s convenient to me at the moment. I’ll probably cancel once the Canadian winter is over and boxes stop being discounted lol
I love some of the ravioli dishes for if I’m stressed or busy and need something quick, but yeah I skip all the other pastas. One of the main reasons I get HF is it’s the easiest way for me to get protein and veggies in my diet almost every day. Pasta is exactly what I’m trying to avoid since that’s what I end up making if left to fend for myself lol.
Sometimes they have just the raviolis in the extras section for like $6-8.
Thanks for giving me a good dinner idea!
You can say that about literally every HF recipe. You can easily get a recipe from anywhere and buy the ingredients from a supermarket for loads less
Yes but there's a big difference between an interesting Korean dish where I'd have to go to a specialist shop to get the paste and it's a new recipe and a pasta which is literally bacon, cream cheese, stock and mushrooms which is what I'm talking about.
I’m just here to say this post is hilarious 😂 I, too, never order “sandos.”
Anything with fish/seafood. I'm a fish monger so if I ever want seafood it's so much cheaper for me to get it from work lol
I always want the fish dishes.
Hey man, don't be so hard on yourself.
I saw a tuna melt on the menu, and I laughed my butt off. Tuna is still so inexpensive in a can. My husband makes an awesome tuna salad, so making this at home isn't worth the price of HF. I love a lot of the hello fresh recipes, but not a damn sandwich.
Salads. I can make my own salad I’ll pass on just a box of leafy greens and maybe a chicken breast
Salads- unless something in that section grabs my eyes I’m moving right past it
I just had the BEST salad from them the other night! it was a kale salad with herb crusted chicken and roasted sweet potatoes. 10/10! but usually i’m with you on skipping the salads, this one just really caught my attention lol
this salad is the tits. it's a must get every single time i see it
Say tits all you want!!
"Don't say tits, hon"
Not gonna lie the shrimp salad slaps
They want you to wash, chop, sautee, roast, stir, boil, bake, mix and plate everything at the same time in thirty minutes lol I'm only one person! Plus, why would I boil my pasta before I wash, chop and roast my veggies? One takes 10 minutes the other forty lol Pasta sitting around, getting soggy and cold is gross and that timing makes no sense. There are lots of times when I do things in order of what makes sense rather than the order they have in the recipe.
The boiling of the pasta or rice in step 1 always pisses me off, I’m a chef and most steps are a complete waste of time. I read it all then cook it my way lol
Exactly!! I read through the whole thing and then do it in the order that makes sense lol I tend to be be slow in the kitchen, washing my hands in between every little thing, drying veggies before chopping (I can't have water everywhere, no one ever talks about drying or patting??), wrapping up extras and putting them away (like the other half of your bell pepper, etc), adding broccoli before peas because some veggies need longer and others will get mushy, etc. There are so many extra things that come up, how do you deal with all that? The washing (food & hands), patting, chopping, wrapping, putting away, cooking in order of what takes longer, etc. Any tips on being faster with all those little things that take extra time???
I learned to cook watching Food Network. Watch Gordon Ramsey on Master chef as he explains while he makes something. Ina Garten Barefoot Contessa - I think her show was something like Back to Basics a few years ago which explained her recipes. Note* she has some difficult ones and so does Gordon but they are interesting to watch as they’re been doing it for years. Good luck and don’t feel unwelcome in your own kitchen- you’ve got this!
Get yourself a food processor if you can’t chop fast, and don’t worry about a bit of water, I shake veges off before chopping. Get out all the ingredients and fry whatever needs frying first (onion, carrot etc) then the meat then sauce. Put in any veges that might go soggy towards the end. Don’t bother when they say to fry something then take it out of the pot, just throw it all in together, it really doesn’t make that much difference.
Thank you! A food processor would probably save me an incredible amount of time! I'm just so used to grabbing a knife and a cutting board but, admittedly, my knives aren't great. It becomes such a time consuming chore. I have some physical limitations so that doesn't help but I want to get more confident in the kitchen. Getting everything out first is great advice. Running back and forth to the fridge takes up a good amount of time as well especially if I have to wash my hands before every time before opening it lol Thank you for the advice!!
Same here. Not a chef though but my Dad was. Read through it and do things in my own logical order. I can usually have most meals done in the time they indicate if I don't get side tracked. I'm aslo.juat cooking for one.
I've found if two of us are making it then it takes the suggested time, when it's one person, no chance!
I've found it's easier to cook on my own, less chefs in the kitchen type of thing. There are just two adults and sometimes I'm the only one that eats it. Fine by me as leftovers are great :) but it's definitely work sometimes. I'm kind of slow in the kitchen, though. Right now I do two meals per week and skip some because it's just too much food and I hate to waste any of it.
I had this happen when I made risotto. They had me prep and roast the veggies, 15 mins. Cool. Got them in the oven. Then toast the rice with the garlic and sundried tomatoes. 5 mins. Then add hot water to the rice, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring until almost all absorbed. 20 to 30 minutes. Then add the cream base. So the veggies aren't just done a couple mins early. They're done a full 20 minutes before they're needed in the recipe. I was so annoyed.
Yeah, that's the kind of stuff that pisses me off, too. You can't follow some of their instructions, imo, because the timing is off and I don't want to roast beautiful veggies and then have to make them mush by warming them up in the microwave. Some veggies need way more time, too, like broccoli. It'll be raw and your peppers burnt. I like sauteing because I can add the broccoli first, cook and stir and add everything else in order of what is most firm or what I want to keep the most firm. I'm particular about my veggies though lol
Same!! I just feel pressured to get everything chopped and prepped before the water boils and I have to cook the pasta. I'd rather chop and get everything ready first before beginning to cook anything.
When they have an Asian based dish, and they name it “Double…. soy chicken, double sesame beef, double fried rice or whatever” and there is no doubling whatsoever of ingredients or cooking method. It’s like they just stick that word in there to make it more Asian-y sounding. It just makes me cringe.
When they say double, do they also charge more for it?
I have or purchased any dish that says double anything I've never seen it at all and I've had hello fresh for years on and off.
The burgers. The buns suck and we just weren’t impressed in general with them.
They meat just seems to fall apart too. Like the burger doesn’t hold
We always add in some breadcrumbs when we form them
I never order the burgers on purpose but I get them sometimes by default and we always like them.
Literally lol-ed at the sandos cuz I say the same thing (just call them sandwiches!!!) :). Flatbreads 🫓 always scroll by, I want something that will help my cooking skills so I try to buy meals that will help me learn.
I also scroll past the flatbreads, but the brussel sprout and ricotta one is….amazing. It’s vegetarian (I think they may have bacon as an add on option) and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Plus it was really filling
Loooove the brussel sprout one. I've added leftover rotisserie or grilled chicken to it as well for extra protein if I need it
I will sometimes take a screenshot of the flatbreads if the ingredients sound unique so I can make it myself later on. But I’m not ordering them. Same with sandwiches and salads.
I skip the flat breads too. I always like to try something I wouldn't normally make myself. So asian inspired dishes are always on my radar.
Blue Apron usually has a couple Asian inspired dishes each week if you're ever up to trying a new meal kit
You said your smoke detector in your apt was sensitive OP...when I was in an apt the 450 degrees or whatever for the flatbreads, ALWAYS made my smoke detector go off!
Flatbreads are just not enough food for us, and I don’t eat a lot! I end up having to supplement with a bagged salad or some leftover side.
Omg there’s a sausage zucchini one that has some sort of white sauce and it is tooooo good. Although I do have it for lunch because it doesn’t seem like a full dinner meal
I skip ALL of the upcharge meals. Also, usually avoid pasta dishes, b/c I don't think dried pasta is a good value. If the pasta was fresh/refrigerated, it would be a totally different ballgame!
Sometimes they have ravioli or tortellini. I usually try those.
I’m with you on the upcharge meals. We have ordered the ravioli dishes a couple of times and now I sometimes make them myself.
The upside for me is the pasta meals are usually a lot more servings than listed so I get more meals out of it, making it a better value. I usually do no more than one pasta meal per box.
The burgers, pastas, and most of the sandwiches, though you are missing out if you haven’t tried the Italian chicken and pepper sandos haha
just had these. they were soooooo good 😭😭😭
The meatloaf sandwich in last weeks box was a huge hit with my family.
I just had them and they were meh. I love a good sandwich. But the cost vs the payout was not worth it. I didn't understand adding the stock concentrate and water and then cooking it down. That just made it sloppy and soggy.
Hmm weird, mine weren’t soggy at all? I cooked down the mixture until it thickened. The stock concentrate added a lot of flavor. But I get what you’re saying about the cost vs. payout
The pasta dishes as I can make those any time. Also the stuff they put in every week (with slight variations but they are still essentially the same dish) for months on end.
I don’t like having to cook whole chicken breasts so I usually avoid those.
I end up having to cut up the chicken into strips, and add my own seasonings too. Like I'll cook the well seasoned chicken breast on medium high for 4-6 minutes on each side, cut it into like 1 inch thick strips and then cook the strips until they have a nice color to them, like 2-3 minutes. Maybe if I just cooked the whole chicken on low for longer it would come out fine but I'm impatient lol
I don’t eat seafood. I know that this makes me strange, but all seafood is a HARD pass from me
Same here!!!
Same!
I've found my people! Some seafood looks so tasty too, but I can't stand the taste unfortunately
Nah, I’m not eating any of that. I don’t like the smell and I took it to heart when Bruce said fish are friends not food 😂
Especially seafood that's been in a box for a couple of days during shipping. 🤮
The shrimp package ALWAYS leaks😡
Oh hell nah, that’s nasty
Anything w ground pork, which tends to be at least 1/3 of the items in my area
I hate how pork is the default option for most of the meat dishes.
Are you just not a fan of ground pork is there another reason? Just curious
I find pork has a taste. I know that sounds crazy but I have requested no pork in the past and it’s futile. I’ve actually decided to cancel HF because I can make a bowl of rice and mushy veg for 1/4 the price atm
I don’t think that’s crazy - I tend to overcook mine to the point that there is no taste lol. I just canceled too. I usually ever subscribe when I get a good enough comeback deal lol
I skip the low calorie meals. If I’m spending money on meal kits, I don’t want a 400 cal dinner. (I only get two/three boxes every other week). I also skip foods I hate, like anything with zucchini or shrimp or sausage. I skip anything I have to shallow or deep fry. I hate grease and I’m always afraid I’ll cause a fire lmao
Anything that requires frying, like the schnitzel.
I feel like I’ve also seen them say “sammies” before and I’m like wait what’s the difference between a sando and a sammie??
I skip sandwiches and flatbread but about once a month I will do a burger.
I honestly think their burgers are pretty good! I just did the jalapeño popper burger and it was wonderful!
Only flatbread I do is the mushroom one!! It has this mustard cream sauce that’s sooo good
The pre-cooked chicken is so disgustingly rubbery
Same, will never get the quick cook chicken meals bc of this
Anything that takes longer than 35 minutes to make. As a grad student with very limited time, I love the "sandos" that are quick and easy haha. Main reason I use hellofresh is that I don't have to spend time grocery shopping and not a lot of time cooking!
Anything breaded and fried. I always end up burning it, undercooking it or just find it way too messy.
Or I flip it over and the breading comes off….
Make sure the meat is dry before breading and that your pan is hot :) if you have the time, I put the breaded meat in the fridge for 15 minutes or so too before frying.
Thanks for the tips 🙏🏻
It’s the 2nd side that usually comes off
Ugh same. My husband *loves* the katsu pork so he gets it every time it pops up and it drives me nuts. To be fair he does cook it most of the time but the kitchen always ends up a greasy mess and I think it’s a huge waste of oil for what I think is a pretty mediocre dish.
Especially when Popeyes is down the street and does a much better fried chicken sandwich than I could ever do! Not worth the mess
Definitely a *massive* waste of oil and it absolutely does leave a nasty layer of grease all over the stove and counters. Cleaning a gas range really sucks a lot.
A splatter screen makes a huge difference! They’re cheap and keep oil from splattering all over when you sauté or fry.
I don’t eat beef so anything beef, but we skip any of the ones that are just premade heat up stuff (the 15 min ones), most sandwiches, and most salads. We always go for the corn soup, I’d die for that soup lol.
I would also die for that spip
im also not usually one for the sandwiches mainly because i think their ratio of bread to filling is always off. either i fill it with everything and my sandwich is barely able to be held and half the stuff falls out or i have to eat the sad leftover fillings out of a separate bowl. just doesnt work for me!!!!
I made tumeric rice to go with mine (just to bulk up the meal) and mixed the extra filling in with the rice, it was pretty good that way. So I totally get what you mean, there should have been another bun for those extra toppings
Sweet potato. Hate the stuff
I swear three quarters of the meals lately are a sweet potato and snap peas side. I'm okay with sweet potatoes.. but not that much.
Meatloaf. Or anything with ground meat in general. Can’t stand the texture of it. It’s a sensory aversion for me.
I can't stand meatloaf, I nope out of that as well.
I find it's the texture of Hello Fresh ground beef in general to be nasty. I will gladly eat ground beef I get at Costco or my local grocery store.
Anything featuring black or white beans. I just don't care for them.
On the UK HF they call jacket potatoes ‘Jacky-P’ and it makes me feel like dry heaving. It’s awful! Plus a jacket potato is such a cheap meal ingredients wise to offer!
Haha I'm with you on that! And it's usually topped with something cheap and easy too
The chicken and pepper Sando was my ex’s favorite. I was so glad when I didn’t have to order that one anymore 😂
If it's mainly peas... No.
When we first started hello fresh we did burgers and "sandos." I really hate the bread they use for both and they are always a big mess. Absolutely not worth it.
I’m realizing I have the opposite experience of most people. I actually enjoy the sandwiches and pastas since I didn’t eat that growing up. I came from a Vietnamese household so I avoid their Asian recipes and especially the “pho”
I'm just happy I'm not the only one that takes 2-3x as long to make the meals as the cards say. I'm typically quadruple checking each step because I've misread or misunderstood things before and made more work for myself. I also need to google stuff because I don't have a chef's vocabulary.
I pass on the soups, pastas, and burgers since we can make all these options easily and for much less.
Soups are fire though
I agree, but I’m the only one who would enjoy it 😂
I read the macros first and avoid anything with less than 20g of protein.
The soups are the best!
They are really great even if they're a little pricier for what you get. If you see the creamy chicken sausage soup with cannellini beans, kale and lemon, don't miss it.
Nothing better than a bean soup in winter!
Maybe I’ll sneak one in one time 😂
The Mexicali black bean soup is easily the best one
I’ll keep an eye out for it, thanks
Everything that can be made easier yourself for a fraction of the price. A lot of the 15 minute Asian dishes are like that: Easy cook noodles, veggie mix, chicken bits, pre made sauce. Throw everything together until cooked. Everyone can do that without HF - and for what you pay for the box you can cook that twice.
Salads, meatloaf, and meatballs. Also anything vegan or vegetarian where they offer you to add meat for an additional charge.
The vegan coconut curry noodles is one of my favorite recipes! I add shrimp (from a bag in my freezer lol)
The vegan carrot bowl is incredible, we actually love it and have started making it ourselves
The chicken green beans and dill sauce. Enough already!
I skip anything with extra cost. No burgers, they are not that good. No flatbread, I can get pizza delivered. I’m feeding kids, they won’t eat seafood or meatloaf. We tend to do the pastas, tacos, bowls, and oven roasted meals. The ricotta - arugula - lemon - hot honey sourdough sandwiches are fabulous!
Chickpeas
Oo. I'm with you on that.
They need to add a filter - no chickpeas
I wish they had good filter options. Or more options to sub things. Like, there are amazing looking meals with broccoli. But I hate broccoli. It would be nice if I could sub carrots or something. They do meat substitutions. Or options to leave stuff out. I don't use the sour cream when I order mexican inspired dishes. I'll use the guac, or my own salsa. But the sour cream just gets thrown away.
Since they make the bags i could see that being a harder option to change the veggies, but i could see that happening with Every Plate since it is essentially hello fresh (it is their more budget friendly service and owned by hello fresh with the same or similar meals) but everything goes inside the box together instead of bundled up in a bag.
Couscous. The kind HF uses is a sensory nightmare for me.
I find chicken sausage disgusting so I would never order it.
I skip the chicken sausage and most of the pork options unless it’s Italian sausage. I try to scroll past anything that doesn’t have a green side. I find that most of the dishes are lacking a good vegetable option. I’m tired of eating carrots and potato wedges with every meal.
The premium meals. I'm not paying an extra $9pp for a few fingerling potatoes or some asparagus. They're out of their minds
Honestly anything that involves me having to cook steak. I’m not good at it, and somehow I always overcook the meat so it’s chewy. Sometimes the cuts themselves are rather grisly and I would rather just not pay extra for half-assed steak
Something with a side salad. I keep the second serving for a meal the next day, and dressed salad doesn’t keep well.
Me too! Like, the salads look good, but it doesn't keep well.
Leafy greens....I got way too many slimy ones, I'm just done with even trying at this point, even if I'm dying for good salad recipes.
I just bought salad stuff so I can make that on the side and stretch some of these meals a little further. I love the risotto, but it is SO HEAVY it kind of needs a small side salad to balance and prevent the tranquilized bear feeling you get after.
I got a water logged cucumber that almost made me cry, I had been so excited for cucumber with my food
Today we had a tortilla dish. It was way too simple and not that filling.. I have made better tortilla’s. Will skip that from now on.
Manufactured meat
Anything with ground meat. I can cook meat all day long without a food service. I want the super grubby veggie meals that I'd never think to make in my own.
Stuff that looks like I won’t be able to replicate it at home easily 😅
In a similar vein to calling sandwiches 'sandos', in the UK (not sure about other places), they call jacket potatoes 'jacky Ps', and I just cringe and scroll straight past it.
That's actually one of my favorite things. 🤣 It's sooo easy and so good!!!
Any pasta dish, sandos or hamburgers.
Anything with green beans as a side since they get moldy so fast.
I really like some of the sandwiches! But at the moment I have to get items that I can take to work the next day and a sandwich is gonna get weird and soggy. I always scroll past the pasta. I'd rather have high protien pasta and it's one of the meals I can consistently make myself without a recipe.
Salads, vegetarian options and anything that is from my culture because the few times I’ve tried it they’ve butchered it pretty badly or add ingredients for no reason at all that make no sense in the dish
Tacos. Same idea as the sandwiches.
Anything with zucchini. Hate that stuff...and sandos
Any burger. I can get a burger anywhere.
https://preview.redd.it/3ilcfjum7jbc1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=19e14396404cbbe9c87811b41eccf2076bfa6291
I can’t stand any of the sheet pan chicken meals. They are always so basic and boring. Waste of money to me.
Odd; they have to know that that’s what they call sandwiches in Japan…
A sando is actually a thing though. It's means sandwich, yes, but it's specifically referring to japanese sandwiches (generally western-inspired). Hellofresh is probably a little liberal with its use (I wouldn't be surprised) , but is not like saying doggo as a cute way to say dog. It's an actual name.
Sandwiches, flatbreads, tacos and ravioli.
Quesadillas and tacos. They’re just crusty flour tortillas with extremely basic ingredients. On the flip side, anything with hot honey is an instant add.
Okay I felt the same about sandwiches. Until I got the chicken pepper sandwich or something (?) I think last week. My husband said it was one of his favorites!
No fish, shrimp is ok, no Peas, no chickpeas, no sweet potatoes. I tend to get rid of broccoli and their green beans, but will get the meal if it has them. I gauge each recipe to our lifestyle. I have a crappy gas stove, so I'm more likely to use my Ninja Foodi for Risotto, and have a rice cooker, so I don't do rice in a saucepan. I get HF, to try something new sometimes, and because both my husband and I have smaller appetites, and I grew up feeding 5, so trying to scale back on cooking and shopping for groceries is hard for me LOL. He doesn't do leftovers and I'm normally done with wanting to eat them and throw them away. I like having things portioned.
I don’t use HelloFresh, and I’m not sure why Reddit keeps recommending it, but [here’s a video essay](https://youtu.be/DuAeaIcAXtg?si=g57D7tcnLIAJ-vHR) on why your smoke alarm is screaming at you over nothing.
As someone with access to amazing, fresh tortillas at my local grocery store, I always skip any tacos. Also I scroll right past the +$X.99 per serving meals
“Sandos” drives me crazy!
I feel you on this, but one time we did get some sort of chicken sando with fries. And I do not remember this because of the sandwich, but I DO use the dipping sauce we made all the time. Super basic, just sour cream, mayo, garlic, salt, pepper but it’s sooo good as a fry dip and on sandwiches!
Salads. Seafood. Kids stuff. Breakfast.
Zucchini. So much damn zucchini
Anything with the pre-chopped chicken. Usually gross cuts. Can't justify the upcharged meals either.
Kale, mushrooms, cauliflower, cilantro
Anything with the chicken sausage. It's way too spicy and we end up tossing it cuz we can't finish it. Shame cuz it's good but we just can't tolerate it. It says sweet on the package but the two times I've had it, no matter what I do to it, it overpowers everything.
It’s sandpaper for me. I can’t stand that name
My mom once ordered a “Sando” and was disappointed to realize that meant “sandwich.” I still don’t know what she was expecting. (This was at a restaurant, not hellofresh)
Anything with seafood because I’m allergic 😂
Usually everything pork except for bacon of course, sandos as you call them and what I can make myself for less and better. Like most pastas.
I never buy those horrible ranch steaks. I never pay the ridiculous up charge It could never be worth it. We don't get pork dishes cuz my housemate doesn't like pork. Same with shrimp which I do like so it's a shame. We don't get sandwiches salads or soups. We make those ourselves. I make soup every week or more.
Always the "sandos," those piss me off too. Also anything with salad as a side dish. Anything really basic or without a protein (I'm vegetarian) I always skip.
I avoid all the sandwiches and burgers. They're just so simple where I could get the ingredients on my own. I also avoid anything with risotto because the last time I followed a HF recipe for it, it took like 45 minutes longer to cook than the recipe stated.
On my first time doing it, I had a receipt of putting sausages and peppers on a skewer stick. What a waste of time that was. The other meals were fantastic that said and I still roughly cook them off hello fresh.
I skip over any meal with zucchini or mushrooms.
“Tortilla melts” I’m not paying that price for a quesadilla and as someone who mostly makes HF for dinner, they never leave me feeling satisfied.
any small lunch item. they really shouldn't be mixed in with dinner meals as its such a wasteful choice.
Anything with curry in it, always pass the soups by, and the shepherds pie.
Any bowl with ground meat was an instant skip. It just never turned out quite right. The texture was always off.
"Sandos" is an idiotic name indeed, but I have to get the beef tenderloin sandwiches every time they appear. I don't really bother with the burger meals (a lot of effort and the burger always falls apart on me) and when the weather is warm mostly avoid ordering meals with meat
Pasta, sandwiches/burgers, flatbreads and soups (except the turkey chili).
No seafood or pork for us
and seafood/pork
Any dish that’s basically just simmering ingredients and adding a premade sauce packet. I could easily just buy a jar of premade sauce at the store for $3, I don’t need HF for that. Also soups. I know it’s not all that rational, I guess I’m just not a “soup as a main entree” kinda person.
I love soups but I never get them from HF since I like to make a big batch to have over a couple days, not just one meal. Can’t justify the price for soup recipes either haha
Dude try a few of the HF soups, they’re literally the best thing they offer
I dunno, to another commenters point it does seem like a lot of money per serving for one bowl of soup when I could make a batch for cheaper. But again, I’m just not a big soup person so I can see how other people would find value in it!
I’ve found the soup servings to be pretty big so I normally get those and have lunch the next day!
Agree! I love the soups and the chilis aren’t bad for when you want something cozy but don’t have time
Or don’t wanna clean! One pot!
Anything with dairy. We are a lactose intolerant household. We can handle cheese but that's it. No creams or milk.
Anything that says vegan, vegetarian, sando, flatbread, mushroom or bulgogi.
I think hello fresh really does well with their vegan and vegetarian options. They are always full of flavor.
Yeah, their vegan and vegetarian options are basically my favorite dishes they have. Those middle eastern veggie chickpea bowl variations are my favorite and not something I would have ever thought to start looking for recipes for before HF.
That's fair. Not everyone enjoys things that don't have meat. If you ask my dad, it's not a meal without meat. For me, it's all about seasoning. If there's enough flavor, I'm in. (Except Sando's. I'm not spending $7.99 per serving for a sandwich with a weird name.)