I’ll tell you who does like yummy, cheap meals. College students. Everywhere. That’s why Hello Fresh, a new food delivery service that sends you unique ingredients and recipes right to your door weekly, is getting so much attention around campuses. They have a variety of different meals and plans to choose from and certainly make cooking food fun and easy. Considering I’ve never been a chef and have been buying meals on a budget, (#broke… am I right ladies?) this was a super fun experiment to learn about how food can be made at such an inexpensive cost. Hello Fresh always runs several promotions and you can pretty much find coupons anywhere to start the service, but that’s not the only reason why I gave Hello Fresh a try.
1. It’s Simple!
From choosing your individualized meal plan online to cooking up a storm in your kitchen, Hello Fresh makes the process super easy. The website and mobile app are extremely user-friendly and allow for a hassle-free ordering process. After placing your order, you don’t even need to step foot outside. Stay in those sweats, girl. Your handpicked recipes, along with all necessary ingredients, are included in the package, which arrives in no time in a tightly air-sealed box with cooling insulation. Once you receive your box of goodies, let’s start cooking! Hello Fresh gives a full step-by-step guide to an awesome meal that only takes about 20-30 minutes to make. The simplicity of the recipes truly allows for a quick and tasty meal.
2. Forget About Overbuying
Hello Fresh was a great way to try new recipes in an efficient way. It can be extremely hard to cook up those Pinterest-worthy dishes when you have to buy expensive ingredients in bulk. I personally hate buying a whole basil plant only to need a couple of leaves for some pasta…I mean, c’mon. Hello Fresh, instead, gives you exact measurements for ingredients even down to the size of the vegetables. This allows for the least amount of wasted food at the end of the night. Ultimately, I found myself saving money on these meals by not being forced to overbuy. All of the ingredients come in one paper bag and are not individually wrapped in plastic, which is convenient and environmentally friendly. Translation: No wasting. No stressing.
3. Variety
Being simultaneously health and money conscious in college is hard. Organic products and healthy alternatives can be very expensive; eventually you may find yourself eating that bowl of pasta for dinner 5-7 nights a week. Mixing your diet up is a good idea and Hello Fresh surely caters to a lot of dietary needs. From a unique vegan cuisine to a gourmet steak dinner, Hello Fresh has many diverse options to try. I’ve tried vegetarian and meat-based options and was satisfied with both. I was tired of making the same recipes over and over again and Hello Fresh broke me out of this habit. Savior.
4. Flexibility
Say you already selected your meals, but you change your mind the next day. No worries! Hello Fresh’s customer service is great. I had no problems changing the type of meal I wanted or the day when I wanted my package to come. On the busy nights I spent studying for midterms and could not possibly think about cooking a meal, I was able to simply move my order back a week. You can instantly change the type of plan and number of meals you want with a click of a button. Hello Fresh’s flexibility is key for an active lifestyle and allows you to cancel at any time – free of charge! It also makes it just as easy to reactivate your account.
So… as Hello Fresh says: “Let’s Get Cooking!”