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Have you got a meal delivery service Box from Hello Fresh?  If not I have an honest review of the Hello Fresh Vegetarian box and how and if it saves you time in the kitchen.  Our family’s life is so busy on weekdays, that making meals can be the biggest stress when we get home from work. Are Hello Fresh meal recipes flavorful? Are they a time saver? Does it make your life easier? These are the questions I wanted to answer. And here are the 3 things I think you need to know before you order.

Hello Fresh delivered meals are one of the delivery food services that has been most popular. This is a review of their vegetarian Butternut Squash & Sage Risotto Hello Fresh Recipe.

This is not a sponsored post but only my honest impressions of how the Hello Fresh food delivery service would be helpful for busy moms.

Unboxing Hello Fresh Meal Box – Will The Food Be Cold?

I ordered the vegetarian package for two people for three meals.

The box was delivered right on time. After you sign up for Hello Fresh you get to pick what day of the week you want the deliveries. It was delivered when we were not home and to my surprise, it was but by the back door out of sight.  The box is printed with big bright green letters, an easy sight for front door thieves.  So I was happy to see it was out of sight by our back door.

The box was heavy but manageable. I opened it as soon as I got it in the door to make sure I got everything in the refrigerator as soon as possible. It was easy to open but I was surprised at how big a box was for the amount that was in the box. The box looked much larger than it needed to be. The food in the box was cold and the cooling packs were still cold.  I estimate the box was outside in 40-degree weather for about 2 hours.

I was very happy with the food inside the box.  It was cold, nicely packed.  The instructions are clear with lots of pictures.  I did not review the instructions for the recipes as I want to see how much time it would take to make the Butternut Squash & Sage Risotto from start to finish without a lot of studying the recipe card.

Hello Fresh How To Dispose of the Packing Material

The food comes in a cardboard box and most of the packing material is recyclable cardboard. The food was packed in bags, one for each recipe. The bags were sturdy I did not have any worry that they would tear.

I did not like the freezer packing. It was very heavy and had a pebble-type material inside.  They recommend that you open the bags and dispose of the inside and recycle the plastic bag it is in.  I wish I had not opened the bag. Some of the inside stuff got on my hand and I did start feeling slightly uncomfortable.  Because of the tingling sensation, I washed my hands in cold water and in about 30 minutes I did not have any adverse feelings in my hand.

Next time I would not open the packaging but just toss the entire thing in the trash. I would rather have the food packed in ice or dry ice something that would just melt and be able to be disposed of.

Making Butternut Squash & Sage Risotto

When I opened the box everything for each meal in the Hello Fresh box is bagged together in a brown bag. The bags were easy to store and find in the refrigerator.  Checking out each ingredient I could clearly see that they were labeled and matched the instruction on the back of the recipe card.

Before I reviewed the recipe card I started the timer on my phone. It took me 46 minutes 30 seconds from the start to when I was serving dinner.

The instructions and the pictures on the recipe card were clear and very easy to follow.  You will have to check the left side of the recipe card for the items that are not included in your package. For this recipe, you will need to have Olive Oil and Butter.  The kitchen items needed are ones you would have in your kitchen, a baking sheet, a small pot, and a large pan.

I did need several small bowls to hold food that I chopped, onion, sage, and garlic. The recipe was easy to follow, it did make a lot more of a mess preparing the than I realized by reading the recipe card. It was very frustrating that it took 46 minutes standing over the stove. The Risotto required me to stand at the stove stirring for about 30 of the 46 minutes.

This was my main objection to preparing this Hello Fresh recipe.  It took much longer than I thought and I was standing and stirring for over 30 minutes.

Most Important –
How Did Butternut Squash & Sage Risotto Taste?

The recipe was delicious.  My husband and I loved it. It was a wonderful balance of savory sage risotto rice and sweet butternut squash. We are not vegetarians but trying to obtain a healthy weight. I wanted to see if a pre-portioned, vegetarian dish would keep a meat & potatoes man full for the evening. The answer is yes. He loved the recipe and both of us were full from dividing the recipe in half.

The Butternut Squash & Sage Risotto was very satisfactory and filling.  Both Jim & I enjoyed this vegetarian Hello Fresh Meal Recipe a lot. We liked it so much that I started thinking of ways to make this recipe faster and more hands-free. Keep an eye out for a post on my Butternut Squash Risotto in the Instant Pot. I think I can cut the time to half and still have the full rich flavor.

 

 

Check out some of my Vegetarian Recipes