It’s the little things that make a big difference. Last week, not having to plan, shop, or think about my meals made my week so easy – this, thanks, to a delivery from HelloFresh Canada.

I usually do the meal planning, shopping, and cooking for my family and I love doing it. Being a stay-at-home/work-from-home mom, I have more flexibility in shopping and cooking than most households but, every once in a while, I find myself in a rut and out of time and out of meal ideas. The kids complain that the meals aren’t up to their expectations and ‘why can’t we have something good’! I’m not upset when I hear those words – I just ask them to make a list of their top 5 favorite foods and I go from there.

Having said that, getting HelloFresh Canada delivered to my door last week was such a treat!

In case you’re not familiar with the concept, HelloFresh is a service that makes meal prep and family time fun. The chefs at HelloFresh come up with meal ideas based on in-season produce, and they source everything locally, which I love.

All you have to do is go online, choose your meals, and then get everything delivered to your door. You choose the type of plan you want (pronto meals, which are ready in 30 minutes or less; family meals; or veggie meals), the number of people you want to feed, and the delivery date. It’s a subscription service that you can stop by following the instructions online.

I was so excited to open up the HelloFresh Canada box and so were my kids! . The box is corrugated and insulated and comes with ice packs in the bottom. The meat sits on these packs and is separated from the rest of the goodies by a piece of thick cardboard to avoid contamination. There were three bags in my box, for 4 people, and we got the family plan.

Each meal comes in a labelled brown bag. After you decide which meal you’re making, you find the instructions on the meal card, and you start. Other than the  basics like salt, pepper, and cooking oil, everything else like the meats, cheeses, vegetables, fruits, spices, mayo, sour cream, herbs, sesame seeds, and garlic are all provided and pre-measured.

Our meals last week consisted of Cajun-Spiced Chicken Burgers, Roasted Pork and Peppercorn Sauce, and Sesame Beef Stir-Fry. All of the meals were delicious! It’s interesting to see the spices and flavors used because they’re so basic, yet have a big impact. For example, the cajun spices you dip the chicken burgers into made the whole meal taste yummy. And, the pork meal had these amazing sweet potatoes that you mash with smoked paprika. My teenaged daughter prepared the majority of two meals and found the illustrated instructions very helpful. She found it fun to open the brown bag of ingredients and begin figuring out what to do first. The family meals took on average 40 minutes to prepare.

I have to say that the best part of the HelloFresh experience was not worrying about dinner! I knew I had 3 brown bags of ingredients in the fridge, just waiting to be used. I felt like I had some extra time on my hands because I didn’t have to drive in traffic to the grocery store and I didn’t have to think too much about what I had on hand in the fridge. I really felt like I was on vacation!

What about the cost? On average, it’s about $10-12/person/meal. The amount of food is generous, and we always had leftovers for lunch the next day. Keep in mind that HelloFresh delivers to your doorstep, so you’re saving time, which you have to factor in when you consider convenience and cost.

Here are step-by-step photos of my daughter making the Sesame Beef Stir-Fry, plus photos of how the food is packaged:

Ingredients for the Sesame Beef Stir-Fry

Step-by-Step Instructions

Sesame Beef Stir-Fry by HelloFresh

We’d love to try other recipes like the Rosemary-Walnut Crusted Chicken, Golden Halloumi With Ratatouille, and Roasted Cauliflower Biryani. But, I’m sure these rotate as the seasons change, so who knows what creative meals you’ll find when your HelloFresh box is delivered!

Have you ever tried HelloFresh? What are your thoughts? I’d love to know what you think.

In Canada, you can use code SWEETLIFESTYLE40 to get 40% off your first box. This post is courtesy of Hello Fresh Canada, but all opinions are mine.