Has anyone tried a self service cooking subscription?

Sonic Angel Knight

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Just curious if anyone had tried them. I mean like Blue Apron thing I hear about a lot. Or anything else like it. Is basically a paid subscription that they send you food with instructions on how to make the dish the food comes with and is should be healthy, easy and simple to make for anyone who can follow directions. I think it could be useful for someone who lives alone, don't have time to make a huge meal or don't know how, but also expensive.:unsure:
 

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Yes I used HelloFresh for a while. There was something wrong with the veggies though. If I forgot to use the carrots right away, they went bad way too quickly. After a week in the fridge they would shrivel up and two weeks they'd start going black. Whereas, carrots from the supermarket last like a month before they even start getting soft. And a few times the inside of the onions were rotten. I complained once, but they only offered to refund the cost of the carrots (like $1) not the cost of that recipe that I couldn't use or the week's box. So I quit it. I liked getting all the recipes, most of them were delicious. I kept the recipe cards so I could keep making the ones I liked.
 
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Sonic Angel Knight

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Yes I used HelloFresh for a while. There was something wrong with the veggies though. If I forgot to use the carrots right away, they went bad way too quickly. After a week in the fridge they would shrivel up and two weeks they'd start going black. Whereas, carrots from the supermarket last like a month before they even start getting soft. And a few times the inside of the onions were rotten. I complained once, but they only offered to refund the cost of the carrots (like $1) not the cost of that recipe that I couldn't use or the week's box. So I quit it. I liked getting all the recipes, most of them were delicious. I kept the recipe cards so I could keep making the ones I liked.
Do you remember the kind of dishes that you made with the recipes and ingredients? :)
 

yusuo

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No, cause I can actually cook, I don't need a service to tell me how to make a meal. Part of the fun is experimenting, finding new ways to make amazing food.

Stop being so lazy
 
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Do you remember the kind of dishes that you made with the recipes and ingredients? :)
The Asian dishes are the ones I liked the best. I'll get some photos.

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Actually when I say I liked the Asian ones, I realise on looking back at the recipes, most are nothing to write home about, it was just that one meal that really stood out.
 
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The Asian dishes are the ones I liked the best. I'll get some photos.

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The second one looks delicious! Thanks for sharing! I really do like how those recipes look, actually, compared to how cut-and-dry most generic recipe sites are.

I myself tried blueapron once, since I had a free voucher for one delivery. It actually was pretty unimpressive. It's a very cool concept...but I'd rather save the money and just get what feels like fresher foods right from the store. (for cheaper, too)
 

Sonic Angel Knight

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The second one looks delicious! Thanks for sharing! I really do like how those recipes look, actually, compared to how cut-and-dry most generic recipe sites are.

I myself tried blueapron once, since I had a free voucher for one delivery. It actually was pretty unimpressive. It's a very cool concept...but I'd rather save the money and just get what feels like fresher foods right from the store. (for cheaper, too)
You remember the meal you made with the recipe?
 

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Oh, that be nice to share. :)

One thing I always wondered about the food and recipes they offer is if they are actually good.
I'd say most weeks there would be one meal that was really nice and the others would be a bit so-so (sometimes all of them so-so). It's worth it if you aren't too tight on money but you are tight on time. Just make sure you can cancel any time in case you decide you don't like it.

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I'd rather save the money and just get what feels like fresher foods right from the store. (for cheaper, too)
Yeah I agree, there was something weird about their veggies. Like they had been treated with something that would keep them fresh just long enough for you to make the recipe out of them. The extra I didn't mind quite so much as it saved time and I got to eat a variety of meals instead of the same dinner over and over every night.
 
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Chary

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You remember the meal you made with the recipe?
I don't, sadly. It involved chicken and celery, I think...? Wasn't worth trying, really.

I'd say most weeks there would be one meal that was really nice and the others would be a bit so-so (sometimes all of them so-so). It's worth it if you aren't too tight on money but you are tight on time. Just make sure you can cancel any time in case you decide you don't like it.

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Yeah I agree, there was something weird about their veggies. Like they had been treated with something that would keep them fresh just long enough for you to make the recipe out of them. The extra I didn't mind quite so much as it saved time and I got to eat a variety of meals instead of the same dinner over and over every night.
Yeah, it's nice to be able to save time, for sure. Used to even use Prime Now for groceries a lot until I went to a farmers' market and the super fresh food wowed me. Even still, I'm eating a prepackaged salad as I type this. Whoops.

I wonder if anyone's tried those places that send snacks weekly. Graze, I think it was? Majority of their products were milk chocolate things, so I wouldn't waste money on something I couldn't eat, but that seemed like a fun service too.
 
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Tom Bombadildo

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I've tried a few services like this, but for the most part they're pretty awful compared to just buying things at a grocery store and cooking them yourself. Schwan's was the latest one we tried, cuz my fiancee's dad bought us some food from there a few times. We got a lot of different things, but most of them were absolutely subpar compared to actual cooking.

Schwan's, for example, has awful veggies, I think of all the ones we tried their broccoli was the only thing remotely edible compared to stuff we normally got. Anything with cheese in it was a no-go, because the little cheese "curds" they provide tastes like it should be illegal in the US and ruined everything that used them. Some of their main dishes were ok, their salmon was decent, and this one chicken bake thing that was essentially a big chicken pot pie was pretty good. Their gelato, though, is the one thing I would consistently order whenever we'd get it cuz god damn they make that shit well.

But yeah, that's one of the biggest problem with services like Hello Fresh and such, there's 0 choice concerning what "brand" and quality of food you're getting, you're just stuck with whatever they give you whereas you could just...pick up all good stuff at a grocery store yourself, usually for cheaper.

And learning to cook is a great skill to have, everyone should learn how to at least make the basics like chicken, steak, various other beef dishes, fish, potatoes, pasta etc etc. You never know when you might need to cook a meal for someone without having to rely on crappy "delivery foods", and it's not like cooking is especially difficult for the most part.
 
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