Recipe boxes

I've done Abel and Cole which is not recipe based but really lovely, fresh and excellent service so makes you make things up as you want to get the best out of it. Not cheap but my veggie son loved it and I felt very virtuous, he's moved on so don't do it now but I do buy better veg from supermarket.

Oops my calculation is a bit off - more like £8 a meal.

The one we're signed up for is Gousto and I think it works out to about £7 a meal (£34 for 4 meals for 2 people each week). At first I thought the portions might be a bit small, but there is plenty to eat (even leftovers), less meat than what I would normally use, no waste because you get exactly the right amount of ingredients and ... not buying a dessert just because I'm in Waitrose!

I think it would be good for people who say "What shall I cook tonight?"

Will probably ditch it when the novelty wears off, but quite enjoying it so far.

My daughter said that she felt she was a more competent cook after having the Hello Fresh meals for a while. She was able to make similar dishes from scratch.

I had Hello Fresh for quite a while but had problems with missing ingredients and a recipe that didn't go with the enclosed ingredients so gave it up. I've got loads of recipe cards from it though so am reworking them. I do like the freshness of the ingredients and learned a lot about preparation and stir frying; stir fried broccoli or roasted broccoli have become my favourite veg!

I have had salesmen trying to sell these to me at the door but it sounds expensive. The first one agreed it was expensive for a single pensioner and more suitable for people working full time. It seems to be about £10 to £20 per meal. The second one insisted I would save money subscribing for two person meals instead of buying takeaways and readymeals, despite me telling him I only cook my own meals. I didn't bother telling him he was wrong in assuming I had a husband.

dh got me a monthly spice box from spice pioneer www.spicepioneer.com so I can try out foods from all over the world each month as I don't get to visit as many places since my knee op . I had an amazing orange and date salad last month with a chicken tagine and fennel butter cous cous. This months spices are from Louisiana so really looking forward to making this one

My daughter used 'Hello Fresh' and she and her boys enjoyed eating things they'd never even heard of! She chose the 4 day a week subscription too.