Shaking up family meal time with Hello Fresh

shaking-up-family-meal-times-with-hello-fresh

When you’ve lots of mouths to feed multiple times a day, it’s easy to run out of inspiration. Trying to come up with healthy, tasty, not-too-expensive meals that will please all five of us is no mean feat. I meal plan each week, usually on a Sunday night during our family meeting, trying to get input from all the kiddos so everyone is happy about the week’s foods. Still, it’s easy to fall into a rut, to end up making the same old meals over and over, because a} you know everyone will eat it, and b} it’s quick and easy to make.

With a vegetarian, a vegan, a meat eater, a toddler who changes his mind on what he likes daily and one incredibly fussy little girl, feeding the five of us can sometimes become a huge pain. What one likes, another hates, and you can never please everyone. I try to get around this by letting them each pick one meal a week, and making sure there is always something they will eat – for example, cooking rice potatoes to go with the Chilli, or three or four different vegetable sides, so they can pick which ones they like.

We’ve been shaking meals up the past couple of weeks, with these great food boxes from Hello Fresh.  What I love most about weekly recipe boxes, it that it gives me three new recipes to try out every week – they might be things that we wouldn’t normally try or things I’d pass over because I don’t think we’ll like them. The kids get really excited about the boxes arriving and seeing what is inside each one. The love delving into each paper bag, that holds all the ingredients you need for each meal. Each bag comes with every little thing you’ll need – right down to the herbs and spices, so it’s a perfect way to test out new recipes, without ending up with shelves full of jars of ingredients you’ll never use again!

hello-fresh-ingredients

We’ve been trying out the family box {which contains meat as the veggie/vegan conversion happened after the boxes were ordered!} but have found that the recipes are just as good without the meat added, or in some cases, we’ve switched it for a meat substitute. The step-by-step recipe cards make it great for the kids to get involved, I’ve been having a nightly helper to make our meals and they love following the steps and making a delicious meal for us all. The family boxes are designed to feed 2 adults and 2 children, and the portions are generous – we’ve found it feeds 1 adult and 4 kids, often with leftovers for lunch the next day!

I asked the kids what their favourite meal from the boxes had been so far, and they all agreed hands down it was these calzones {I have to say, it was possibly the best pizza dough I’ve tried!} We left out the bacon on mine and Lola’s {and gave Kiki extra as she’s all about the bacon!}, and I switched the mozzarella for a vegan one in mine.  The recipes are so easy to follow, and the food is always delicious.

calzones-hello-fresh-recipe

These boxes are a great way to shake up meal times – to force you out of making the same thing over and over, to encourage the kids to get involved in the kitchen AND try foods they might be reluctant too. For busy Mama’s they are a great way to take a little of the stress out of feeding a family. Their blog is also a great place to find some recipes and tips – love their recent post with four easy homemade pesto recipes!

This is a collaborative post – all thoughts and words our my own 

1 Comment

  1. Fritha

    January 30, 2017 at 21:41

    Yes! We are big Hello Fresh fans here too, we did get them weekly but we’re now doing fortnightly just to mix things up! :) x

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