I Tried HelloFresh’s New Dinner 2 Lunch Meal Kit — Here’s How It Went
One of my biggest complaints about meal kits is that they never seem to result in enough food. (I have a hungry, hungry husband!). So when HelloFresh officially launched its Dinner 2 Lunch program — with the idea that you cook once and eat twice, turning the extra dinner ingredients into the lunch for the next day or two — I was dubious. I rarely have leftovers, let alone enough to make two (!) lunches for later.
I ordered this sausage pizza dinner (it starts with a flatbread and becomes a pasta lunch) and gave it a try. Keep reading to find out how it went and what I thought.
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1. Both meals were super easy to make.
In addition to my dubiousness, I was also worried that it’d be hard to cook dinner and lunch at the same time. I don’t have a dishwasher and I’m not the best at cooking multiple things at once (and getting them to finish at the same time). Was this going to be a hot mess?
It was not! The only extra piece of equipment that I needed for the lunch prep was a large pot to boil the pasta — and that’s not all that hard to wash. I boiled water and roasted zucchini at the same time. And I used the same pan to cook the sausage and make the sauce (and later, to mix all the lunch ingredients together). Then, while the flatbreads baked in the oven, I finished up the lunch. Easy-peasy! Nothing felt out of control, and everything finished around the same time. I felt like a kitchen hero.
2. It resulted in a lot of food.
Like, a LOT! I made this meal kit on a Sunday, with the hopes of packing the pasta for lunch on Monday and Wednesday. BUT IT WAS SO MUCH FOOD! I probably could have gotten lunch for the entire week if I played my cards right. Instead, I decided to save it all for dinner the next night, which was especially helpful because Mondays are often tough nights for me to get dinner on the table. Plus, I don’t love eating pasta for lunch, anyway. (Hello, food coma!)
When it was time for dinner, I just spooned some of the pasta into two bowls and popped them into the microwave. I went back for seconds and my husband went back for seconds and thirds! It was so much food! And the kit even came with two little bags of grated Parmesan cheese (to pack in your lunch box each day), which really made the meal feel like something special — versus something microwaved.
3. My one complaint ended up being a moot point.
Each week, HelloFresh offers one Dinner 2 Lunch meal. So, on the three-meal-a-week plan, you get two regular dinners and one Dinner 2 Lunch. My first reaction was that I wanted every single meal to be a Dinner 2 Lunch, but that would have been way too much! Turns out, one is plenty!
4. It was legitimately good.
I have made several kits from HelloFresh and have never been disappointed by the food. Both recipes were flavorful and yummy. I definitely want to try more (looking at you, pork cutlets with dill, which becomes a rice bowl for lunch).
Have you tried any of these Dinner 2 Lunch options? What about just HelloFresh in general? Tell us about it in the comments below!