HelloFresh for Seniors, Tested and Reviewed

What Is HelloFresh?

HelloFresh is a well-known meal-kit delivery service. When you sign up, you choose a plan with the number of meals and portions you want each week. You can customize it for your and your family’s dietary preferences. The meal kits include all the preportioned ingredients to cook a delicious chef-designed meal. Recipes are easy to follow, and you can choose levels of difficulty from easy to hard. Many older adults enjoy cooking but want to worry less about finding good recipes and spend less time shopping for all the ingredients. HelloFresh makes cooking less of a chore and helps subscribers discover new meals and maintain a varied, healthy diet.

HelloFresh Pricing

HelloFresh pricing varies according to the number of meals per week and the number of portions. One popular option is three meals per week for two people. The total for these six servings is $70.93, including shipping. If you choose to order three meals per week for four people, the price increases to $112.87. The more meals you order per week, the lower the price per meal is. You will receive a heavily discounted box for your first order, which is a great way to try the service if you are unsure.

HelloFresh prices are competitive compared with other meal-kit boxes. Blue Apron costs $59.94 plus $9.99 for shipping for three meals for two people, which is about the same as HelloFresh. Home Chef, another popular service, costs slightly less, at $53.94 plus $9.99 for shipping. Marley Spoon, on the other hand, is more costly, at $75.93.

Take a look at HelloFresh’s plans and pricing. Keep in mind that you’ll receive a large discount on your first box.

HelloFresh’s meal choices include Premium Picks, which cost extra. Plenty of options, however, fit within the original affordable pricing.

There is no contract with HelloFresh. Meals are delivered once a week, and you can skip weeks or cancel the service completely as long as it’s done five days before your scheduled delivery.

Signing Up and Selecting a Plan

Before you sign up, you can peruse the meal options for upcoming weeks under Our Menus on the HelloFresh website. There is a wide selection of appetizing meals of all difficulty levels to choose from each week.

Signing up for HelloFresh is easy to do via desktop computer, tablet, or phone using the company’s mobile app. You’ll start by choosing your diet preferences. I chose Meat & Veggies and Fit & Wholesome. I also prefer meals with faster cooking and prep times, so I selected Quick and Easy. I then selected the number of servings for each meal (two) and the number of meals per week (three). You can see below that the selection process is clear and user-friendly.

After you select the plan that’s best for your family, hit the green “Select this plan” button. You will move on to “Register,” where you will input your email, address, and payment information. Once you have signed up, you can select the meals you want included in upcoming orders. You can modify them or even skip weeks, as long as it is five days before the weekly scheduled delivery.

There are many meal options for all dietary preferences, and allergy information is readily available. There are also Premium Picks that cost slightly more, so pay attention to the price difference if you choose a meal in this category.

How to Cancel HelloFresh

Canceling HelloFresh is easy. You’ll need to do it at least five days before your next scheduled delivery, which means you can pause or cancel the service after one week if you’re unsatisfied. You can always reactivate your account later if you want. Here’s how to cancel:

1. Log in to your account.
2. Click on your name in the upper-right corner, and then click “Account Settings.”
3. In the Status section, click “Cancel Plan.”
4. Follow the prompts for your cancellation. You will be prompted with a message confirming your account has been canceled.

Our Experience With HelloFresh

Ordering and Unboxing

When I signed up, I was excited to see 21 meal choices for the week. Only three meals were Premium Picks that cost extra, and they were clearly marked. I appreciate that they didn’t try to hide these extra fees before checkout! When I unboxed my package, all the ingredients were clearly marked and separated by meal. The directions have detailed and helpful notes, such as “make first.”

I ordered three meals: ginger-lime salmon, pork chops with zesty green onion salsa, and Frank’s RedHot spiced crispy chicken cutlets. There is a wide variety of other dishes available that should be suitable for all palates.

Cooking the Meals

Each recipe included all the necessary ingredients, but you, as the chef, are required to prepare them. You’ll likely need to chop several ingredients. In my experience cooking all three meals, I used both the stovetop and oven. The recipes were easy to follow, and I had almost everything I needed. A couple recipes called for a zester, which I didn’t have, but I was able to make do without. I appreciated that ingredients, such as cheese or tomato paste, were portioned out precisely, so you don’t end up buying more than you need.

I even learned some tips from the recipes that were useful for cooking future meals. I learned, for example, to save a scoop of the water I boiled the potatoes in to add back in while mashing them. I tried some other new things while cooking my HelloFresh recipes, such as adding chili to roasted broccoli, which was very tasty!

The Results

I like that HelloFresh offers a menu specifically for seniors, although older adults who need or prefer to adhere to a bland diet may find HelloFresh meal kits a bit spicy. Subscribers can select the meals they want — skipping ones that seem spicy — and also alter the dishes (leaving out certain spices, for example) to their tastes if needed, which is a huge plus.

All the ingredients were fresh, and I found all three meals delicious. I never felt that the recipes were too much work, and each meal was worth the amount of time put in. All the meals took longer than the times listed, however, but that’s common for all the meal services I’ve tried. Plan to spend a bit longer in the kitchen than the recipe says.

You can watch the video below for my full experience with HelloFresh.

HelloFresh vs. the Competition

Below we’ll compare HelloFresh to other popular meal-kit services to help you decide which one is right for you.

HelloFresh vs. Purple Carrot

Like HelloFresh, Purple Carrot sends meal kits to subscribers, who cook the meals themselves (they also offer ready-made options). Purple Carrot, however, is solely vegetarian. If that dietary lifestyle is for you, you may want to check them out. Purple Carrot costs a little more than HelloFresh, and the meal quality is comparable.

HelloFresh vs. Sunbasket

Sunbasket is another meal subscription service that, like Purple Carrot, offers a choice between ready-made meals or recipe kits for meals you cook yourself. Sunbasket is the priciest option and caters to different diets more specifically than either Purple Carrot or HelloFresh. Sunbasket offers gluten-free, vegan, and diabetes-friendly options, if you’re looking for a meal service for a specific diet.

HelloFresh vs. Blue Apron

Blue Apron is a direct competitor to HelloFresh, offering well-balanced meals that aren’t overly fancy. Like most meal-kit subscription services, Blue Apron’s estimated prep times are unrealistically low. For example, Blue Apron claims that a breaded cod and pesto dish can be made in 35 minutes. Spending an hour preparing meals — even with portioned ingredients — may be too much, physically, for some older adults who are experiencing health challenges.

HelloFresh vs. Silver Cuisine

If prepared frozen meals that you simply heat up is more your speed, consider Silver Cuisine by bistroMD and its low-sodium, diabetic-friendly plans. AARP members receive 10 percent off each order. Meal prices vary, with some as low as $9.49 (blackened chicken with smoked paprika sauce) and others as much as $16.99 (Barramundi sea bass with coconut pineapple sauce). Prepared meals can be a convenient, healthy meal option for older adults who have difficulty preparing and cooking meals because of health problems, who are recovering from an illness or injury, or who simply don’t like to cook.

HelloFresh vs. Magic Kitchen

Like Silver Cuisine by bistroMD, Magic Kitchen offers frozen meals tailored for older adults. Magic Kitchen meals tend to be more traditional choices that may be longtime favorites of older adults, such as beef meatballs with brown gravy; noodles and spinach (currently $11); meatloaf with mushroom gravy, mashed potatoes, and carrots ($11); and cheese lasagna with mixed vegetables ($11). Magic Kitchen also offers more soups than other meal-delivery services, with options such as broccoli cheddar soup ($9) and butternut squash soup ($9), which may be helpful for people with light appetites. Magic Kitchen also makes it easy to select meals for a variety of dietary preferences, such as dairy-free, low sodium, diabetic-friendly, and diets for people with renal failure.