A Meal Prep Christmas Story.

‘Twas the night before Christmas, and while the presents were not wrapped and the house was definitely a mess, a Christmas miracle arrived at the front door.

Swapping sleigh bells for the doorbell, we listened with all our might, and when it rang through the house, we ran through the house. Bearing the gift that saved Christmas, or at least the gift that saved our Christmas, the HelloFresh delivery driver has never received a happier greeting.

Off came the packaging as quick as can be, unveiling a true feast in the making. The HelloFresh Christmas Box had arrived and Christmas prep could commence!

The HelloFresh Christmas Box is as the name suggests – everything you need for a Christmas Day feast for four, six, or even fourteen people. Choose from small, medium or large boxes and they’ll do the rest. And we’re not just talking a few Christmas dishes.

As we unpacked our box, we quickly realised this was no fast feed. For our small box, we had two types of crostini (for nibbles of course), salads, a baked chicken (with stuffing so good we fought over the last mouthful), a hearty-sized ham, garlic rosemary potatoes, roasted heirloom carrots and a fruit trifle for dessert. The medium and large boxes size up on ingredients and also come with everything you need to whip up a serve of brownies.

Aside from the big-ticket items like meat and cold products, there are packets of orange marmalade for ham glaze, baggies of crushed nuts for the salad, a baby bottle of balsamic vinegar for dressing, a carton of custard, sachets of seasoning. HelloFresh saved us from endless surfing of the supermarket aisles and the serious amount of cash we’ve spent in previous years on a whole packet of pecans when all we ever need is a tablespoon or two.

So, we’ve skipped the shopping, and instead got a jackpot of ingredients in front of us. If you’re busy racing to the finish line for the year, a kitchen counter full of ingredients can be the tipping point. But then, we opened our handy Christmas Feast Cookbook and flipped it open to the Christmas Feast timeline. Stepping us through from Christmas Eve to Christmas lunch, this double page timeline was the real hero of our Christmas prep. It told us when we needed to prep the potatoes Christmas Eve (Oh how naive we’ve been spending our Christmas mornings peeling the spuds), when to stuff the bird (Christmas morning) and even when to bring it all together. Timing is everything at Christmas and our meal came together like a well-oiled machine. The book also contains detailed step-by-step instructions for each dish, just like a normal HelloFresh box, along with other tips like drinks and snacks!

The best part? Sitting down to eat without a single burnt carrot, no singed eyebrows and steam wafting from the table. That’s a win, but the real win is everything tastes good – like, really good! The crostini are scrumptious, the garlic potatoes fly off our plates and I’m just proud as punch of my baby glazed ham! Just call us Christmas chefs from here on out!

Let’s talk cost. The boxes started at just under $200. We filled our entire kitchen counter with ingredients. It’s about the same as a solid grocery shop, with the added bonus of no stress, no shopping, and a timeline we’re keeping for next year!

HelloFresh
https://www.hellofresh.com.au/

About the author

Lisa used to use Sydney as a base to drop off souvenirs before heading off on the next adventure but these days she’s got her feet almost on the ground, with a desire to try every high tea in Sydney, and a cute cavoodle puppy at home. Travel writer, photographer and Kitchen Aid freak, she loves to eat, bake and write.

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