As a working mom, I’m juggling so much—planning healthy meals often feels like another weight on the scale of mama’s responsibilities. 

This is where meal subscription boxes come in.

Rotating a meal box into my weekly dinner schedule has taken a significant burden off me while also making it easy to try new recipes and cooking techniques. 

Here I tried two popular and well-known meal subscription boxes: Hello Fresh and Green Chef to see which one was best.

Are Meal Delivery Kits Worth It?

Meal subscription boxes are worth it and are becoming increasingly popular with people all over the world. 

These boxes come with everything you need for several tasty dinners, including the ingredients for the meal, all spices, and all directions for cooking. (You’ll have to provide your own cooking oil, salt, and pepper in most cases).

The boxes feature recipe cards with photographs of the fully-cooked meal, plus step-by-step directions for cooking.  

Let’s be real: we are all busy, overwhelmed, and trying to be healthier. Having pre-portioned ingredients delivered and ready to cook takes a big weight off each week. 

For me, the time and energy saving are one way a meal delivery subscription makes sense. But the ways it can help others are truly varied.

They are great for people on special diets, or for new parents who are short on time, and many more.

Depending on what you need help with in your daily life, chances are a meal subscription box can help in some way.

Whether it’s sourcing organic food, finding time, struggling with creativity, being on a limited diet…there is a box that will fit your needs. 

Here I received one box from Hello Fresh and one from Green Chef. Below is a my rundown and experience with both services!

$90 off: Green Chef

Green Chef Review

Who Are Green Chef?

Green Chef is a popular meal subscription box that is focused specifically on organic foods.

It is a certified organic company, which means all ingredients in the recipes are USDA-certified organic. As a whole, the company puts a big emphasis on sustainability, from ingredients to packaging.

Are Green Chef Meals Healthy?

Green Chef meals are healthy as their recipes are all focused on nutrition. The dinners they produce are balanced and wholesome. This extends across their different meal preferences.

Green Chef Meal Options

Green Chef offers options for paleo, keto, and plant-based recipes. They also offer a great option for gluten-free eaters, meals that are certified gluten-free through the Gluten Intolerance Group’s (GIP) Gluten-Free Food Service program (these are generally found on the paleo meal plan).

How Does Green Chef Work?

Green Chef offers pre-portioned weekly boxes for easy, healthy dinners, including options for families (up to four servings). The boxes come with three meals at a time.

Are Hello Fresh and Green Chef the Same Company?

Green Chef is actually owned by Hello Fresh, another meal subscription box. Hello Fresh acquired Green Chef back in 2018.

As Green Chef was the first certified organic meal kit in the US, they complemented the service offered by Hello Fresh. 

They also offered meal options for specialized diets such as vegan meals and gluten-free recipe options. 

$90 off: Green Chef

My Experience with Green Chef

I received the Green Chef box of two meals for two people on a Thursday via FedEx.

It was a sturdy cardboard box with some ingenious packaging inside.

There were big silver inserts that keep the food fresh and cold—but they doubled as hefty padding. There were also gel packs to keep the meat cold.

I chose the Balanced Living plan, so my meals were basically omnivore meals; however, I did get one vegan meal as part of my selection.

Green Chef also offers meal plans exclusively for Paleo, Keto, and Plant-Powered diets.

Each meal and its ingredients was packaged in an individual paper bag with a label. I received:

1. Greek Feta Burgers with tomatoes, red pepper and lemon-pepper aioli.
2. Cajun Blackened Chicken with dirty rice.
3. Chickpea Salad Sandwiches with carrot fries.

$90 off: Green Chef

Green Chef Meal 1

Greek Feta Burgers

I first cooked the Greek feta burger recipe.

It was straightforward from beginning to end—basically make burgers and roast potatoes. Easy enough!

Ingredients:

The recipe came with ground beef, potatoes, a tomato, feta cheese, roasted red peppers, and two hamburger buns, plus seasoning.

The roasted red peppers were a little bit soupy in their plastic bag, which was off-putting. But they did not seem to be rotten or anything, just not in ideal shape. Still usable…and I used them with no issue!

Cooking:

The recipe was very easy to make. I roasted the potatoes, assembled the burgers, quickly marinated the tomato, and basically was done. It took a little assembly at the end to get everything looking like the recipe card, but not much. All in all, not much effort.

The Verdict:

Both my husband and I liked the recipe. It was hearty and filling, but the feta and balsamic-marinated tomato added another depth to the flavor.

$90 off: Green Chef

Green Chef Meal 2

Cajun Blackened Chicken

Next up for us was the Cajun-blackened chicken. I live in New Orleans, so there’s no dearth of Cajun food available to me at any time. Still, I was excited to try this recipe!

Ingredients:

This meal came with two chicken breast cutlets (one per person), jasmine rice, corn, a tomato, a lime, celery, a green onion, chopped white onions in a bag, chopped pecans, a cajun spice mix, and a horseradish remoulade.

Cooking:

Again, the chopped veggies in the bag were a little soupy but still usable. The lime that came with the meal was not in great condition, which was a shame—one of the steps involved grating it to add flavor to the rice, but there were almost no parts of the skin that were in good shape to grate. So I had to forgo the lime flavor for my dirty rice.

The Verdict:

This recipe was also pretty tasty. I love chicken, so I liked that as the base. The spicy seasoning worked well to finish it all off. The rice was just ok—nothing special, but certainly filling enough as a carb. My husband loved the spicy remoulade (which I skipped because I’m not a fan of horseradish).

$90 off: Green Chef

Green Chef Vegan Meal

Chickpea Salad Sandwiches

Finally, we tried the chickpea salad sandwiches. I was skeptical about this recipe as I’m not a big fan of dishes like tuna or chicken salad. But it was a pleasant surprise for me!

Ingredients:

The recipe came with chickpeas, four pieces of pita bread, carrots, green onion, celery, feta cheese, swiss chard, and a lemon aioli, as well as a spice mix meant for the carrots.

Cooking:

The idea was to make the chickpea salad with smashed cooked chickpeas, feta, and aioli, then stuff that and the chard into toasted pita bread.

The Verdict:

I seriously loved the oil-rubbed chard and the chickpea salad! It was a light yet filling dinner, with totally unexpected flavors.

I feel like this meal got me out of my comfort zone, which I appreciated. I’m going to keep it in mind to make again in the future, maybe for lunch or even for my toddler.

$90 off: Green Chef

Is Green Chef a Good Meal Subscription Box?

Green Chef is an excellent service. I would recommend it to people who want to focus on healthy eating from sustainable sources but don’t have the time or energy to do involved meal planning each week. 

For me, the sourcing of ingredients is the biggest benefit of this meal subscription box. Knowing that all of the food is organic is wonderful!

I tried three different recipes with Green Chef, including one vegan meal. All of the recipes were fairly simple to cook, although some with multiple steps involved. The flavors were not very complex or elevated but were tasty, and the meals were enjoyable.

The organic food definitely makes the box more expensive, but if you’re someone who eats organic, then the additional cost is worth it. 

Green Chef remains one of the few meal subscription box services to offer entirely organic ingredients. 

$90 off: Green Chef

How to Sign Up to Green Chef

Green Chef allows you to sign up in a few simple steps on their website.

You go to Green Chef and select “get started.”

Choose Your Meal Plan

From there, you’ll choose from three plans:

1. Balanced Life: meat, poultry, seafood, and vegetarian recipes.
2. Plant-powered: vegetarian and vegan recipes.
3. Carb Easy: Gluten and grain-free meals, as well as paleo and keto recipes.

Customize Your Order

You can then add some further details, including:

• How many people each meal should serve: 2 or 4 people.
• How many recipes you would like each week: 3 or 4 recipes.
• Your preferred delivery date.
• Your delivery address.

After checkout, you can see the upcoming recipes and choose your meals for the week. If you want to check the meals before signing up, you can do so on the “Menu” page: Green Chef Menu.

You can also filter recipes according to your preferences.

For example, if you’re choosing the “Balanced Life” plan, you can choose or opt-out of proteins, like beef, poultry, pork, lamb, shellfish, fish, or game.

$90 off: Green Chef

Green Chef Reviews

On average Green Chef scored 4.5 out of 5 stars from 1,509 reviews across two independent platforms.

Customers really liked the organic produce and the quality of the recipes. Others praised the eco-friendly packaging.

People who follow paleo or keto diets particularly enjoyed Green Chef because using the service makes it easy for them to follow their eating plan.

By far, the most common negative aspect for consumers was the price of Green Chef.

Many customers called it expensive or not worth the price. However, as it offers purely organic ingredients, the price would always be more than non-organic services.

There were occasional reports of spoiled ingredients, but this was not the norm.

Most reviewers enjoyed Green Chef as a service and would recommend it to friends and family.

Is Green Chef Worth It?

Green Chef is certainly worth it for people who value organic food and home cooking but are short on time and energy.

It’s one of the few subscriptions to be entirely organic.

We’ve also featured Green Chef as one of our top 7 meal subscription boxes.

Hello Fresh Meal Box Review

Who Are Hello Fresh?

Hello Fresh was founded in Germany in 2011. It was one of the first—and continues to be one of the most successful—meal subscription boxes.

It is the most popular meal kit on the globe, with over 280 million meals delivered in 2019.

Here we look at Hello Fresh US but you can also find our review of Hello Fresh UK here.

What Does Hello Fresh Offer?

Hello Fresh consists of pre-portioned weekly boxes for easy, healthy dinners.

The box comes with everything you need for the meal (including spices and sauces), and then you cook it yourself.

Hello Fresh ships once a week. You can cancel or pause at any time from their website: Hello Fresh. 

Who Creates Hello Fresh Meals?

Every Hello Fresh recipe is dreamed up by professional chefs.

Then, the recipe is tested 200 times (yes, really!) before being offered to customers on a weekly meal plan.

Do Hello Fresh Offer Veggie Meals?

There are a range of options for meals, including vegetarian, calorie-smart, and more.

You select your meal plan before subscribing.

$80 off: Hello Fresh

My Experience with Hello Fresh

My Hello Fresh box consisted of two meals for two people and came via FedEx. 

The packaging contained:

• Two recipe cards.
• Food (in small brown paper bags).
• Plastic gel packs for keeping food cold. 

Almost everything was recyclable, which was a nice touch. The gel packs are big (there are two!) and also recyclable, although in a somewhat unwieldy way (you have to squeeze out all of the liquid into the trash and then recycle the empty plastic shell).

I decided not to select my own meals online and just see what the algorithm would deal me in terms of recipes.

I mean, why not? It’s a global pandemic! Why not have fun with your dinner? 😉

I received two recipes: 

1. Mushroom and Chive Risotto.
2. Spicy Maple Chicken.

$80 off: Hello Fresh

Hello Fresh Vegetarian Meal

Mushroom and Chive Risotto 

First up was the mushroom and chive risotto. I’ll admit I wasn’t super happy with the prospect of standing over a stove to continuously stir risotto on a busy weeknight. But, I read the recipe and resolved to give it a try.

Ingredients:

The recipe came with arborio rice, an onion, chives, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, roasted garlic herb butter in a packet, chili flakes, veggie broth mix, and parmesan cheese. All ingredients were in good condition.

Cooking:

There were a few steps involved, including making broth, dicing veggies, and more. 

I ended up being pleasantly surprised by the work involved in making the risotto—yes, there was more hands-on time than I generally prefer, but I didn’t feel like I was chained to the stove or anything. The directions for the recipe were really clear. 

The Verdict:

The verdict? I loved it! The risotto was honestly such a hearty, tasty meal for a winter’s night. 

The veggies and chives added some freshness, and the creamy rice and parmesan combined to make a nice rich flavor. 

It was filling and delicious! 10/10, I would cook again! 

$80 off: Hello Fresh

Hello Fresh Meal 1

Spicy Maple Chicken

My next recipe, which I cooked a few days later, was the spicy maple chicken with mashed sweet potatoes and roasted green beans.

Ingredients:

This came with two sweet potatoes, a bag of green beans, two boneless skinless chicken breasts, maple syrup, chili flakes, panko crumbs, sour cream, and seasoning.

The green beans were definitely on the slimy side, which was a little disappointing.

That said, produce doesn’t last forever, and I know that’s a risk you take with any veggies you buy, meal subscription or no! 

Cooking:

As with the risotto recipe, the directions were well-written and easy to follow.

It had me mashing potatoes, roasting green beans, and breading chicken. Kind of a lot of steps, but ultimately still pretty doable in about 40 minutes. 

The Verdict:

I loved the panko-breaded chicken with the maple syrup!

The roasted green beans and mashed sweet potatoes were appropriately complimentary for the meal, adding some nice fiber and starch. 

$80 off: Hello Fresh

Do Hello Fresh Meals Taste Good?

My family liked both recipes and found them to be full of flavor.

My husband enjoyed the risotto, too, despite the fact that he usually prefers meals that contain meat.

My toddler really dug the roasted green beans and the panko-breaded chicken, although he was not as much of a fan of the starchy potatoes and rice.

Personally, I appreciated the diversity of meals and the obvious attention to flavors in both recipes. 

I would definitely recommend Hello Fresh to anyone wanting to try a meal subscription box.

I think this meal subscription box would be best for couples or smaller families who want meals that taste great but aren’t necessarily looking for anything fancy or gourmet.

It’s best for people that have some cooking skills, too, since there are usually multiple preparation techniques with each recipe. 

$80 off: Hello Fresh

Hello Fresh Sign Up Process

Sign up on the Hello Fresh website involves a few simple steps. Like Green Chef, it starts with a plan selection from:

1. Meat and Veggies
2. Veggie
3. Family-Friendly
4. Calorie Smart
5. Quick and Easy
6. Pescatarian

You can then customize your plan size: two people or four people, and recipes per week: three, four, or five.

You enter your email and then choose your meals for the coming week.

Is Hello Fresh Worth It?

Hello Fresh is worth it for people who want simple, delicious meals they can cook with relative ease.

The value for the price including the wide variety of recipe choices, makes Hello Fresh stand out.  

Customer Reviews of Hello Fresh US

On average, Hello Fresh (US) scored 4.4 out of 5 stars from over 46,404 reviews on independent platforms like Trustpilot.  

As a whole, this is a great rating to have for so many reviews.

Customers loved the ease of the recipes and how they pushed them out of their comfort zone to try new dishes.

They also loved the flavors, portion sizes, and the convenience of having everything delivered and ready to go.

Many of them enjoyed learning new skills in the kitchen too.

Common complaints from users were missing ingredients, occasional comments on the quality of ingredients, and the inability to select for allergens. 

Overall, Hello Fresh continues to have tens of thousands of positive reviews from customers who love the service and credited it with making dinnertime easier.

Which is Better Green Chef or Hello Fresh?

Both services offer weekly deliveries of quality, pre-portioned ingredients for a variety of meals, but each one excels in different areas.

Hello Fresh is better for those who want mainstream, everyday meals. In contrast, Green Chef is better for those who want purely organic ingredients or who are following specialized diets such as keto, paleo, or gluten-free.

Since Green Chef uses certified organic ingredients, the subscription cost is slightly higher than that of Hello Fresh. So it’s ideal for those committed to organic foods and sustainability.

It also provides more meals for dietary preferences, such as grain-free meals, keto and paleo meals, and vegan recipes.

Hello Fresh, on the other hand, is a great option for the average person who wants to take some of the stress out of dinner time but isn’t finicky and doesn’t have special dietary needs.

Hello Fresh doesn’t use organic ingredients, and this is reflected in their lower price. That’s not to say their meals are of lesser quality, but there is no emphasis on sustainability or organic options.

Overall, I think both Hello Fresh and Green Chef have their places in the meal subscription box world. I enjoyed all of my meals from both companies. I can tell there is a real effort and thought from the teams for both companies to create easy, healthy meals for busy people.

If you want to cook at home but are overwhelmed, stressed, busy, or don’t know where to start, either Hello Fresh or Green Chef could both be terrific options to make your dinnertimes better. 

Green Chef FAQs

Why are Green Chef so Expensive?

Green Chef is expensive because all of its ingredients are certified organic. It is one of the only meal kit delivery services to offer purely organic ingredients. This makes it a great choice for those who believe in the benefits of eating organic and are committed to an organic diet.

How to Cancel Green Chef

If you want to cancel Green Chef you have to provide 7 days’ notice of any changes to your meals. You can do this through your online account. You can also pause your subscription for up to 5 consecutive weeks if there are times that you need a break from the deliveries.

Does Green Chef Have an App?

No Green Chef currently doesn’t have an app for download. All management of your deliveries is done through your online account.

Does Green Chef Have Gift Cards?

Green Chef do not have gift cards at present. If you are an existing customer, you can gift a free box or discount to a friend as a referral. You could then earn $25 off your next order with them.

Hello Fresh FAQs

Does Hello Fresh cater to the Keto diet?

Hello Fresh don’t have a Keto diet preference at the moment, although they say this is coming in 2021. You can currently select recipes suitable for your diet from their ‘Low Carb’ meal plans.

Does Hello Fresh have Vegan meal options?

Hello Fresh don’t specifically have Vegan meal plans, but they do have a ‘Veggie’ plan. This has Vegetarian and Vegan meals together. You can then select the recipes suitable for a vegan diet from the recipe options each week.

Is Hello Fresh organic?

The majority of Hello Fresh ingredients are not organic, although they are selected for freshness and seasonality through vetted suppliers. If you follow an exclusively organic diet, then Green Chef would be the better option for you.

You can also find a comparison of Hello Fresh vs Home Chef here.