Been watching sponsors of HelloFresh, Blue Apron, Factor and such in YouTubers videos, and I'm confused if the food that those services deliver are worth it or it's just like those ingredients for fast food that comes cheap for whoever buys it. If any anon could share his experience with one of those, it'll be appreciated.

>>21407767 (OP)
Nah, terrible value. Restaurant prices for microwave quality, and you have to do the work. They’ve mostly been staying afloat through venture capital money, and will likely collapse soon.

>>21407767 (OP)
What's to say? You could get recipes from the internet and purchase the ingredients yourself for under half the price. What makes these worthwhile if you don't mind spending the extra is the blends: the sauces, spice mixes and whatever else - those little touches make it more delicious than if you've done it yourself. I'm no cooklet and can blend herbs and spices or whatever else, but they obviously employed decent chefs to create these mixes and it's better than what I could come up with myself.

>>21407777
>I'm not cooklet but food from an MRE is better than anything I can make

sure bro

>>21407781
OK sweetheart. If you don't know then you don't. I'm certainly not going to argue with hormonal ladyboys.

>>21407767 (OP)
Buy an ad, faggot

>>21407767 (OP)
i actually think the quality of the ingredients is pretty good. like i wouldn't ever actually pay full price for 1 of these services, but when you get the trial deals it's decent to do every now and then. i have a binder of the recipes and make the stuff again later with my own ingredients that i get at the local grocery store (i'm in nowhere in the midwest so that means Walmart, which i know is a low bar) and the original meal is always much better.

>>21407767 (OP)
I think the hook is starting a subscription with a coupon code that offers a value on the first couple of servings.
There is zero waste, because you'll use it all up making each recipe. Throwing away bags of lettuce routinely bothers a lot of people. But you can avoid that by shopping very wisely, or buying small portions for a small household, or even individual onions/peppers/tomatoes at a farmer's market or small store like aldi.

Alot of my skills have come from using up that extra basil, or extra cilantro, or morphing my leftovers over the years. Cooking seasonally has also occured from doing it yourself. I also shop smarter by recognizing when the extra sale priced turkey breasts can be tucked into the freezer, or when to get a deal on ribs, prime ribs, hams, etc.

If you are a total newb, never cooked before, know some newlyweds, live far from groceries, or know someone who can use a gift, try it.

>>21407803
>>21407807
good points and i'd also add that it can get me out of a rut of cooking the same things. it gives me ideas to mix things up a little

>>21407824
I cannot say I've ever been in a rut, quite the opposite, where I feel bored and want to not have the same thing two days in a row, or that I'm willing to dine out versus frugal choices already available at home. I have zero qualms throwing preplanned dinner ideas right into the freezer for another day when I actually feel like cooking again.

When I need inspiration, I'll try to recreate a meal from a restaurant that I once enjoyed. I've spent years making all versions of VIPS tortilla soup, and lebanese taboulleh, and Houston's filet mignon thai steak salad. I have perfected it all! whahah.

Or I browse some cookbooks for moods. It's grilling season now, so I'm absolutely looking through some older Steven Raichlen BBQ books, and even looking to see what Bobby Flay (hate him) pairs with his mexicanized mains (love). I got my pacing of meals from the old cook-a-long shows like Sara Molton.

I recently had a friend staying over this past weekend, who had gone to no-carb, so have been upping my salads game without grains and crunchy carbs. It's a challenge to relive some South Beach diet style recipes for 3 meals a day. We gave up one meal to Cheesecake Factory's thai lettuce wraps w/hold the egg noodles.

>>21407854
again, i'm in the midwest. a mexican restaurant is about as ethnic as we get. Hamburger Helper is considered cooking around here. not a lot of inspiration coming from around here.
i'm exaggerating a little but you get the point.
i'll also add that i'm pretty against these subscription meals over all. huge amounts of packaging waste and seems inefficient af to ship food this way. all i'm saying is that i expected them to be disappointing and i've actually always been pleasantly surprised by the food.

at one point in time hellofresh let you cancel after getting the first shipments on the reduced rates, and it used to be like a full 75% off for the first shipment. what I'd do is get the largest servings possible for my first shipment, all at the discounted rate, and then cancel. This was surprisingly worth it because
a) it introduced a bunch of cooking styles and recipes to me
b) i learned some tricks and techniques i wasn't using before
c) it simplified meal planning for the next few weeks

I've also done that but sent the shipments to other people as a gift, when they were in a funk/depressed, and it helped motivate them and inspired them to cook more meals themselves.

your mileage may vary, idunno how good they all are these days and how much value you still get, but there was a time when I used and recommended them for stints