Is it just me, or has all of Australia gone food box mad?
Instagram, Facebook and even through your mailbox, they seem to be appearing everywhere at the moment.
For those of you living under a rock, food box delivery services like HelloFresh send you recipes with pre-portioned ingredients to make home-cooked meals, in a box right to your door. So instead of measuring out 2.7 tablespoons of curry powder, you just throw it all together and Bob's your uncle, you have yourself a delicious, home-cooked meal.
I can make 6 recipes really well so don't see why I would need a service like this. My girlfriend Olivia makes fun of me for always making us the same rotation of meals, but I always tell her she's lucky I'm cooking for her at all!
I decided to consult the group chat for some recipe ideas, when my mate who is a famously bad cook (burning both toast and baked beans when we lived together at university), sent a photo of this divine-looking Mediterranean Pork Couscous Bowl with Feta Salsa & Pickled Onion.
He swore it hadn't just come from the local takeaway but he actually did make it himself, with the help of HelloFresh. I realised that a food box wasn't for the lazy or the privileged bloke, but for anyone who liked food and needed inspiration to spice up their weekly dinner routine.
I ordered a box on the way home to surprise my girlfriend Olivia and a week later we gave it a go. They offer a Meat & Veggie plan, a Family Friendly plan, a Veggie plan and a Calorie Smart plan for 2 or 4 people, 3-5 nights a week. It was so straightforward to sign up, and the meals start at just $7.99 per serving.
I even got to choose which meals we were going to have in the box, which was quite difficult as they all looked so tasty. The recipe cards are simple to follow if you're a beginner. I figured worst-case scenario it would be something fun for us to do together.
I love food but hate spending time trying to decide what we're going to have for dinner. With HelloFresh, we can not only make these tasty new dinners with just 30 minutes in the kitchen, but we also get to try new flavours and cuisines that we never thought we'd cook up ourselves.
The first thing Olivia said to me when we sat down to eat the Mexican Beef Enchiladas
with Corn Salsa was "this is bloody good". I was stoked. I guess we associate convenience with something that is bad for you, boring, or not tasty but that is certainly not the case with HelloFresh. It has really re-inspired our dinner time, as we are no longer eating the same thing week in, week out. Our favourite recipe of the week was Garlic & Herb Chicken with Roast Veggie Toss & Creamy Pesto Dressing
We've continued with HelloFresh's 3 meals a week ever since, giving us the chance to still eat out when we want to. With the meals starting at $7.99 each, it's hard to see how we could get better variety in such a convenient way and at such a good price versus the supermarket.
If you're still a tad skeptical about the whole food box thing then fair enough, I was too. I can honestly say though it's changed our week, not having to go down the shop or think of what to have for dinner every night is great, the excitement and simplicity of HelloFresh makes dinner a breeze.