Hello Fresh dinners are a busy mom’s best-kept secret. Weekly meal planning has become shamelessly streamlined, literally as easy as selecting your recipes from a carefully curated online menu. Then, precisely portioned, high-quality ingredients are delivered directly to your doorstep in guilt-free recyclable packaging.
No grocery store required.
Not a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu? No worries. The beauty of Hello Fresh and other home delivery meal subscription services is that they’re especially suited for novice and regular home cooks looking to expand their cooking repertoire as painlessly as possible.
Step-by-step cooking instructions are included in every box, on beautiful recipe cards meant to be kept and reused, time and time again.
My family started using meal delivery kits back in 2015. That’s when we moved to a rural area and discovered that getting quality ingredients year-round was as challenging as it was expensive.
Hello Fresh not only simplified the nightly dinner process but opened up a whole new world for us. All of a sudden, pulling together an impressive, not to mention, culturally diverse meal became more convenient than it ever was. These 5 Hello Fresh dinners took about 30 minutes to get on the table:
- Curried Chicken Salad Wraps with Golden Raisins & Shredded Carrots
- Gouda Vibes Burgers with Tomato Onion Jam & Potato Wedges
- Pulled Pork Banh Mi Sandwiches with Cucumber, Pickled Carrots & Radishes
- Shrimp & Sundried Tomato Spaghetti with Fresh Herbs, Almonds & Parmesan
- Salsa Verde Chicken Enchiladas with Mexican Cheese & Hot Sauce Crema
Look no further if you’ve ever wondered how Hello Fresh dinners measure up over the long haul. I’ve got a sampling of 5 ridiculously simple dinners that showcase why Hello Fresh meals are a must for your weekly meal planning.
This post is all about the Hello Fresh dinners you need in your meal rotation.
How Does Hello Fresh Work?
Using Hello Fresh couldn’t be easier. First, you choose your dietary preferences and meal delivery plan when you create an account online (I used the cell phone app). These initial choices will automatically populate a weekly meal selection so you do not have to log into your account or customize your menu to ensure a weekly delivery.
(Click Here to See Hello Fresh’s Meal Plan)
I work full-time and still have a teenage boy at home, so “What’s for dinner tonight?” needs to have a consistently hassle-free solution. As such, our default meal plan is for the “Quick and Easy” – we get three 4-person meals delivered every week.
Because my family can be picky, I choose to “Edit delivery” from the weekly menu and pick from Hello Fresh’s list of over 30 meals.
To make informed decisions, all menu items include the recipe’s level of cooking difficulty (easy, medium, or difficult), the time required before dinner is ready, and the prices for any upgrades, exchanges, or add-ons.
(Screenshot Image of Hello Fresh’s Weekly Menu – See It Here)
How Much Is Hello Fresh a Week?
Meal cost is calculated per serving. If you don’t customize your meals every week, the cost per serving stays pretty consistent:
(Screenshot Image of Personal Account Plan Settings)
Even though I signed up for 3 recipes each week, I’m not locked into that.
Despite the initial plan selected, anyone can quickly modify their delivery based on their individual needs that week, choosing anywhere from 2 to 6 different meals.
You don’t need to go out of your way to make changes, either. Merely add or delete recipes you want (or don’t) for that week and the next delivery defaults back to your initial selections. You can even skip weeks, which I do regularly because I am subscribed to more than one meal delivery subscription service.
How’s that for flexible?
Of course, customizing your menu, swapping out protein choices or sides (when available), or adding any “Extras” such as dessert, lunch, or Market items, will obviously fluctuate your weekly costs:
(Screenshot Image of Cost Variations)
Hello Fresh Dinners
1. Curried Chicken Salad Wraps
This recipe turned out to be a 10-minute lunch selection but because it was served up cold, and it’s currently summer where I’m at, seemed perfect for a summertime dinner.
(Screenshot Image of Recipe Instructions)
The chicken breasts were pre-cooked and only needed to be diced. I whisked everything together for the salad dressing before folding in the chicken: mayonnaise, sour cream, and curry powder. Make sure to measure out the spices according to how many servings you’re making, and don’t just dump the whole package in your dressing. 😳
You’re given enough spice to add extra to bolden up the curry flavor, however, I love the taste of Sambal Oelek and add this spicy chili paste to recipes wherever I can.
I didn’t have the sugar the recipe called for, but I did have some spicy pepper jelly in the fridge and thought that would go great with the curry flavor and the surprise of the raisins.
I was right! The creamy dressing was a perfect combination of sweet and spicy, especially with the pop of sweetness from the raisins.
No sugar or pepper jelly on hand? I’ve substituted honey for these recipes in the past.
The shredded carrots gave an incredible and much-needed crunch to the wrap. I used the juice from the other half of the lemon from the chicken dressing, which added a good amount of brightness to the veggies.
I assembled all four chicken wraps at once and had them individually wrapped in the refrigerator until we got around to eating them. They didn’t get soggy and held up well. The flavors actually got better after a few days.
I would definitely make this again:
2. Gouda Vibes Burgers
Hello Fresh’s recipe called for cooking the burgers in a skillet on a stovetop, but we modified this recipe for summer and got these burgers ready for the grill!
If getting hamburgers ready for dinner doesn’t automatically make you long for the grill, check out this article, “Barbeque Spatchcock Chicken: A Weber Q Recipe to Up Your Camping Game,” on why you definitely want to grill whenever the weather is nice!
(Mise En Place…Everything’s In Place)
While the hamburger sat on the counter and came up to room temperature, I made the tomato and onion jam:
Once the grill was preheated, the burgers only took a few minutes per side.
(Hamburgers + Summer = Grill)
These burgers got a thumbs-up all around. Gouda cheese is so distinct and delicious and really held up to the big flavors in the tomato onion jam.
The ratio of the bun to the burger was perfect, don’t you think?
3. Pulled Pork Banh Mi Sandwiches
A perk of having all the recipe ingredients in neatly labeled individual bags and step-by-step cooking instructions lying around is that dinner becomes a no-brainer.
My teenage son ended up making these Bahn Mi sandwiches with his dad, so the recipe wasn’t all that daunting. It helped that the cooked pork already came shredded and only needed to be warmed and seasoned in the skillet.
(Men at Work)
The finished result was fantastic. I love anything pickled so ended up hijacking the leftovers for lunch the next day too.
4. Shrimp & Sundried Tomato Spaghetti
This meal took the longest, but only because I forgot about the shrimp and ended up cooking it after the rest of the meal was made. The shrimp came deveined and ready to cook. I ended up cooking this dish 4 days after I received my box.
There is a timeframe recommended that the shrimp be cooked by that comes printed on the ingredient’s package. I forgot to note what that time was for the article, however, the shrimp was odorless and the packaging was still intact by the time it was cooked.
(Ingredients Prepped & Ready to be Cooked)
What I love about having a variety of Hello Fresh meals on hand is that I always have something available to bring to a sick friend. These meal kits are also perfect for potlucks, friends having babies, housewarming gifts, or work parties.
(Dinner For a Friend)
While half of this spaghetti meal was packaged to go, the half that stayed home tasted surprisingly sophisticated. Who would have thought to add cream cheese to a dish with sundried tomatoes and shrimp? A chef, I guess!
The creaminess of the cheese added a familiar tang but also balanced out the intense flavor of the sundried tomatoes and garlic. The addition of the fresh tomatoes added an amazing freshness to the entire dish. OMG, yum!
5. Salsa Verde Chicken Enchiladas
I order some sort of enchilada or taco dish several times a month and they never disappoint.
The recipe boasts one pan to prep, cook, and serve, but that just wasn’t the case here.
Everyone in the family loves these, so I decided to stretch the recipe by adding a can of corn to the chicken and poblano mixture!
(Getting the Meat Filling Ready)
Not only did adding corn carry on a Tex-Mex flavor profile throughout, but we ended up with more meat filling and enchiladas in the end. It was definitely worth using the extra dish.
(Pan of Enchiladas Ready to be Served)
I added hot sauce and pickled jalapeno peppers to mine. How do you like to serve yours?
Haven’t tried Hello Fresh yet? Click here to see what all the fuss is about.
This post was all about the Hello Fresh dinners you need in your weekly meal rotation.
This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I receive a commission if you purchase through my link, at no cost to you. See full Disclosure here.
