Anonymous
Post 07/12/2015 12:36     Subject: Supplementing Hello Fresh?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:

Cool concept, thanks for all this info (not OP). What's the difference between the pro and regular membership? Also, are you basically defrosting a bag the night before and warming it up for dinner (what's the type of cooking to be done on the day of eating?). Thanks!


I think the difference on the Pro membership is that you can create the menu however you want it. With the regular membership, they have pre-set menus that you pick from, and they generally include a couple breakfasts, a couple lunches, and then like 16 - 20 dinners. The pro membership you pick exactly what you want on your menu from their entire recipe library.

It does take a little longer to defrost than 16 hours, so I usually put meals in the fridge about 2 days in advance. They really vary - some are completely cooked and need to be reheated (I think many/most of their lunch recipes call for microwave reheating); some are raw and need to be cooked in the oven just like something you made fresh (marinated chicken, for example - or cooked on the grill); some are reheated on the stove top (for example, had a Thai Peanut Beef this week that was cooked when I prepped it and then just needed to be reheated in a skillet); some go into the crockpot; some are in pans that go straight into the oven (pesto-stuffed chicken, lasagna, etc).

The more pre-cooked items you have, the more prep time they will take. I look for their "Easy Prep" meals or whatever they are called to keep my prep time low. I work from home so it's no big deal for me to need 30 minutes to put dinner in the oven. If you are tighter on time at night, you can do more of the meals that are easier on the day of eating them. They have all the recipes categorized by those types of things, easy on prep day, easy on meal day, etc so it is pretty simple to find what you need.


So you do a month's worth of cooking in just one day? Is the kitchen a disaster by then end of it? What type of containers so you use to freeze everything? I'm interested, but just wondering about the actual process on the day of.
Anonymous
Post 07/11/2015 04:14     Subject: Supplementing Hello Fresh?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:

Cool concept, thanks for all this info (not OP). What's the difference between the pro and regular membership? Also, are you basically defrosting a bag the night before and warming it up for dinner (what's the type of cooking to be done on the day of eating?). Thanks!


I think the difference on the Pro membership is that you can create the menu however you want it. With the regular membership, they have pre-set menus that you pick from, and they generally include a couple breakfasts, a couple lunches, and then like 16 - 20 dinners. The pro membership you pick exactly what you want on your menu from their entire recipe library.

It does take a little longer to defrost than 16 hours, so I usually put meals in the fridge about 2 days in advance. They really vary - some are completely cooked and need to be reheated (I think many/most of their lunch recipes call for microwave reheating); some are raw and need to be cooked in the oven just like something you made fresh (marinated chicken, for example - or cooked on the grill); some are reheated on the stove top (for example, had a Thai Peanut Beef this week that was cooked when I prepped it and then just needed to be reheated in a skillet); some go into the crockpot; some are in pans that go straight into the oven (pesto-stuffed chicken, lasagna, etc).

The more pre-cooked items you have, the more prep time they will take. I look for their "Easy Prep" meals or whatever they are called to keep my prep time low. I work from home so it's no big deal for me to need 30 minutes to put dinner in the oven. If you are tighter on time at night, you can do more of the meals that are easier on the day of eating them. They have all the recipes categorized by those types of things, easy on prep day, easy on meal day, etc so it is pretty simple to find what you need.


Thank you!
Anonymous
Post 07/10/2015 06:34     Subject: Supplementing Hello Fresh?
Anonymous wrote:

Cool concept, thanks for all this info (not OP). What's the difference between the pro and regular membership? Also, are you basically defrosting a bag the night before and warming it up for dinner (what's the type of cooking to be done on the day of eating?). Thanks!


I think the difference on the Pro membership is that you can create the menu however you want it. With the regular membership, they have pre-set menus that you pick from, and they generally include a couple breakfasts, a couple lunches, and then like 16 - 20 dinners. The pro membership you pick exactly what you want on your menu from their entire recipe library.

It does take a little longer to defrost than 16 hours, so I usually put meals in the fridge about 2 days in advance. They really vary - some are completely cooked and need to be reheated (I think many/most of their lunch recipes call for microwave reheating); some are raw and need to be cooked in the oven just like something you made fresh (marinated chicken, for example - or cooked on the grill); some are reheated on the stove top (for example, had a Thai Peanut Beef this week that was cooked when I prepped it and then just needed to be reheated in a skillet); some go into the crockpot; some are in pans that go straight into the oven (pesto-stuffed chicken, lasagna, etc).

The more pre-cooked items you have, the more prep time they will take. I look for their "Easy Prep" meals or whatever they are called to keep my prep time low. I work from home so it's no big deal for me to need 30 minutes to put dinner in the oven. If you are tighter on time at night, you can do more of the meals that are easier on the day of eating them. They have all the recipes categorized by those types of things, easy on prep day, easy on meal day, etc so it is pretty simple to find what you need.
Anonymous
Post 07/10/2015 01:21     Subject: Supplementing Hello Fresh?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I don't do one of the box meal things (I do once a month cooking), but have a similar deal of needing to supplement with side dishes. The steamer freezer vegetables are a lifesaver. I cook all of our main dishes from scratch, but the side dishes just got to be too much to figure out every night. Steam fresh veggies for the win.


Ok I'll hijack my own thread...please share more about your once a month cooking (or is there a website guide?)!


Oh man, if you search past threads you'll find some epic length posts I've written. I use OnceAMonthMeals.com to prepare the menus, shopping list (I copy and paste to Excel so I can easily add stuff and delete what I don't need), cooking directions, etc. I have the Pro membership at $16 a month, which allows you to swap recipes in and out, make them all dinners, etc. Worth EVERY penny. There's no way I could/would do it without their system.

It is a ton of work, don't make any mistake. And also, it gets easier every month you do it. Pick lots of "Easy prep" meals especially your first month (there are ways to sort recipes down to that). Their Facebook page has good information and they also send out a "getting started" guide the first week you join, and it has useful information, so I'd join at least a week before you want to do your first cook. I'd start with maybe 10 recipes the first month.

I have just a regular side-by-side fridge/freezer and can fit anywhere from 25 - 35 meals (4 servings each) in the freezer depending on how many are in pans and how many are in ziploc bags. The recipes are very good, this isn't just casseroles and processed stuff. They have paleo menus, Whole 30 menus, etc as well as more "traditional" meals.

You don't *have* to have a food processor but I really really recommend it. It will cut your prep time massively.

The first month I did it, I thought I was smarter than the system and I didn't want to make doubles of the recipes, so I made 15 different recipes, single. STUPID. The benefit is all in doubling the recipes. Now I make between 10 - 15 recipes each month, doubled, and it is so much easier. Sometimes I get 3 meals out of a recipe instead of 2, just depending on what it is. They keep well in the freezer at least 3 months so you don't have to eat them all right in a row, and even if you did it's the same meal twice in a month, not too bad. My DH takes the leftovers for lunch though so I try to avoid too many repeats.

I think the first month took me 9 - 10 hours (spread over 2 days) and I got 15 meals. This month I got 29 meals in 6.5 hours and with much less mess and stress. You really figure it out by month 3.

Let me know if you have any specific questions. It's not just for people with tons of kids and a deep freezer who like to eat tater tots. We're a two-adult household, plenty of free time - but I just got sick of the grind of cooking dinner every night. For me, doing it in one big bang per month is so much better. I feel like I have way more free time during the week, clean up is much easier, and strangely - we are saving a bunch of money on groceries. We still have to make small trips to the store each week for fresh stuff, but our total spend for groceries & household goods is probably around $425 - 450 now and it was easily $550 before OAMC. DH says he thinks we're eating less meat (a good thing), but we still eat a TON of meat. I don't really get how it is saving us money because we're still eating the same amount and haven't changed the way we shop (not like we buy in bulk now or anything), but it is.


Cool concept, thanks for all this info (not OP). What's the difference between the pro and regular membership? Also, are you basically defrosting a bag the night before and warming it up for dinner (what's the type of cooking to be done on the day of eating?). Thanks!
Anonymous
Post 07/09/2015 13:51     Subject: Supplementing Hello Fresh?
OP here. We've completed our first week. We are big eaters and we found that the portions were plenty for us. Sure, we'd have eaten more if it was there, but we were satisfied and did not feel like we were eating a too-small portion. We also liked each of the meals. And to address PP's comment, I timed myself making each meal and never went more than 5 minutes over their time estimate. So maybe its a matter of how experienced you are in the kitchen (for example, knife skills for chopping and dicing) or how well you handle the multi-tasking aspect in the directions.
Anonymous
Post 07/08/2015 16:23     Subject: Supplementing Hello Fresh?
I supplemented with extra vegetables. Added more grains.
I ordered the 3x /2 people and we have 2 adults and 1 kid. We eat a lot but the supplements work.
Sometimes I end up adding 2 into one by the end of the week because we found ourselves eating out too much, especially in the summer.
Anonymous
Post 07/04/2015 19:31     Subject: Supplementing Hello Fresh?
Hello fresh didn't impress me. I thought the meals required a ton of work, made every item in your kitchen dirty and we're just ok. We do blue apron now. It is a lot of prep work and they take double the prep time it states so when they say 30 minutes they take me an hour and I'm an experienced cook. But let me tell you, the meals have been absolutely delicious. Totally worth the work. I supplement with easy meals for the rest of the week. I would say 2/3 meals every week are spectacular and then one is very good but not as great as the others, where with hello fresh I felt like none were great and at least one was edible but nothing more.
Anonymous
Post 07/03/2015 14:23     Subject: Supplementing Hello Fresh?
Hello Fresh was plenty of food for us, OP. I guess it just depends on how much you're accustomed to eating.
Anonymous
Post 07/03/2015 14:20     Subject: Supplementing Hello Fresh?
Oh, and those 25 - 35 meals in the freezer are in addition to a shelf of frozen vegetables (our go to), a small shelf of other stuff (frozen bread and convenience items) and a drawer of booze-related items. I'd say about 60% of our freezer is devoted to the meals, still room for other stuff. So I could fit a lot more if I didn't have those other items in there.
Anonymous
Post 07/03/2015 14:18     Subject: Supplementing Hello Fresh?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I don't do one of the box meal things (I do once a month cooking), but have a similar deal of needing to supplement with side dishes. The steamer freezer vegetables are a lifesaver. I cook all of our main dishes from scratch, but the side dishes just got to be too much to figure out every night. Steam fresh veggies for the win.


Ok I'll hijack my own thread...please share more about your once a month cooking (or is there a website guide?)!


Oh man, if you search past threads you'll find some epic length posts I've written. I use OnceAMonthMeals.com to prepare the menus, shopping list (I copy and paste to Excel so I can easily add stuff and delete what I don't need), cooking directions, etc. I have the Pro membership at $16 a month, which allows you to swap recipes in and out, make them all dinners, etc. Worth EVERY penny. There's no way I could/would do it without their system.

It is a ton of work, don't make any mistake. And also, it gets easier every month you do it. Pick lots of "Easy prep" meals especially your first month (there are ways to sort recipes down to that). Their Facebook page has good information and they also send out a "getting started" guide the first week you join, and it has useful information, so I'd join at least a week before you want to do your first cook. I'd start with maybe 10 recipes the first month.

I have just a regular side-by-side fridge/freezer and can fit anywhere from 25 - 35 meals (4 servings each) in the freezer depending on how many are in pans and how many are in ziploc bags. The recipes are very good, this isn't just casseroles and processed stuff. They have paleo menus, Whole 30 menus, etc as well as more "traditional" meals.

You don't *have* to have a food processor but I really really recommend it. It will cut your prep time massively.

The first month I did it, I thought I was smarter than the system and I didn't want to make doubles of the recipes, so I made 15 different recipes, single. STUPID. The benefit is all in doubling the recipes. Now I make between 10 - 15 recipes each month, doubled, and it is so much easier. Sometimes I get 3 meals out of a recipe instead of 2, just depending on what it is. They keep well in the freezer at least 3 months so you don't have to eat them all right in a row, and even if you did it's the same meal twice in a month, not too bad. My DH takes the leftovers for lunch though so I try to avoid too many repeats.

I think the first month took me 9 - 10 hours (spread over 2 days) and I got 15 meals. This month I got 29 meals in 6.5 hours and with much less mess and stress. You really figure it out by month 3.

Let me know if you have any specific questions. It's not just for people with tons of kids and a deep freezer who like to eat tater tots. We're a two-adult household, plenty of free time - but I just got sick of the grind of cooking dinner every night. For me, doing it in one big bang per month is so much better. I feel like I have way more free time during the week, clean up is much easier, and strangely - we are saving a bunch of money on groceries. We still have to make small trips to the store each week for fresh stuff, but our total spend for groceries & household goods is probably around $425 - 450 now and it was easily $550 before OAMC. DH says he thinks we're eating less meat (a good thing), but we still eat a TON of meat. I don't really get how it is saving us money because we're still eating the same amount and haven't changed the way we shop (not like we buy in bulk now or anything), but it is.
Anonymous
Post 07/03/2015 13:54     Subject: Supplementing Hello Fresh?
Anonymous wrote:I don't do one of the box meal things (I do once a month cooking), but have a similar deal of needing to supplement with side dishes. The steamer freezer vegetables are a lifesaver. I cook all of our main dishes from scratch, but the side dishes just got to be too much to figure out every night. Steam fresh veggies for the win.


Ok I'll hijack my own thread...please share more about your once a month cooking (or is there a website guide?)!
Anonymous
Post 07/03/2015 10:42     Subject: Supplementing Hello Fresh?
I don't do one of the box meal things (I do once a month cooking), but have a similar deal of needing to supplement with side dishes. The steamer freezer vegetables are a lifesaver. I cook all of our main dishes from scratch, but the side dishes just got to be too much to figure out every night. Steam fresh veggies for the win.
Anonymous
Post 07/03/2015 10:38     Subject: Re:Supplementing Hello Fresh?
Anonymous wrote:Hello Fresh was way too little food for me. I would add a salad or bread or soup.


Ugh that's disappointing to hear. Did you end up switching to a different one like Blue Apron?
Anonymous
Post 07/03/2015 10:23     Subject: Re:Supplementing Hello Fresh?
Hello Fresh was way too little food for me. I would add a salad or bread or soup.
Anonymous
Post 07/03/2015 08:44     Subject: Supplementing Hello Fresh?
I just ordered hello fresh for the first time: three meals per week. Will I need to supplement with some side dishes? It's just for two people. Also interested to hear how people fill in their other meals for the week...I'm thinking I'll plan on one nicer meal for the weekend and the rest simple and possibly vegetarian for the other days.