Hello Fresh Review and $40 OFF Coupon

Get $40 off your first week of Hello Fresh with Coupon Code: E9SK5C

I've tried every meal subscription that I know of (Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, Plated, Munchery) and I have decided that I have been sufficiently jazzed about this one to share it with all of you.

I am very selective in my meal choices, there are a lot of ingredients I'm not fond of (mushrooms, miso, curry, fennel - really anything that is very pungent).

So if you're like me and you like to consume comfort foods that are a little healthier for you on a regular basis, this review is for you!

First of all, the nitty gritty details: for $69/week you can get 3 meals for 2 people - BUT there is a BONUS OFFER CODE that gives you the full week for just $29, so you get $40 OFF!! That's a steal. The coupon code to enter at checkout is: E9SK5C

Try this subscription out for a week, there's no obligation, minimum order or monthly fee so you can cancel any time.

You can choose any 3 recipes you want from the Classic Box or Veggie Box. Unlike Blue Apron you are not limited to choosing 2 protein meals per week.

You get this giant box full of all of the healthy fresh ingredients which are separated by little baggies labeled with each recipe - very straight forward and thorough!

Now the best part, the meals for the week of 4/6/2015 (each photo is of one portion but you receive ingredients for two portions):

Steak Sandwiches with Horseradish Cream & Tomato-Watercress Salad from Hello Fresh

What's great about this service is that allergens and nutritional facts are listed in the meal choices each week.

My husband and I are *not chefs* and we are not even good home cooks, and as you can tell by the photos in this post, all of our meals looked and tasted as if they were made by Food Network Celebrity Chefs (Bobby Flay eat your heart out)!!!

This meal was probably the heartiest of the three and the meat was tender and tasted very natural and organic. It didn't take us longer than 30 min. to prepare and we had as much fun making it as we did consuming it!

Spring Asparagus & Shrimp Risotto with Meyer Lemon from Hello Fresh

This plate looks more delicious than most meals I've had at high end Italian restaurants in NYC. I still cannot believe that we made and plated this with our own hands! I will say that my husband is an artist, maybe that has something to do with how well it turned out. Regardless, this meal was our favorite!

The seasoning is entirely up to you - you can use more or less salt & pepper, lemon, Parsley and cheese as you want to. Although recipes have recommendations you can always tailor them to your wants/needs. You can even choose to omit certain ingredients if you're trying to be more health conscious or you just don't like the flavor (I will say that in other subscriptions I have avoided fennel seeds and pungent mushrooms).

Rosemary-Walnut Crusted Chicken with Roasted Potatoes & Mixed Green Salad from Hello Fresh

By the third meal, I am convinced that we are Michelin-Star Chefs. This meal is baked, yes, the potatoes and chicken are baked, not fried. This was absolutely delicious and phenomenally crunchy for a baked meal. The chicken was moist and tender because there is a barrier of mustard between the rosemary-walnut mixture and the chicken breast.

If you were to pay full price for these meals, they would come to $11.50 per person - now I don't know any restaurant where you can get this amount of fresh food with pretty healthy meal breakdowns for such a cheap price, so I will still be ordering this service even at full price. If you use the trial, each person's portion comes to just $4.83!!! Remember you have to use the coupon code at checkout for that price: E9SK5C

The service lets you skip weeks so you can look at the recipes and if there aren't three that strike your fancy out of the five options you opt out of that week's delivery.

Do you get Hello Fresh? What do you think about it? Share your thoughts and experiences with me below and also feel free to ask any questions!

Getting Rid of Redness - How to Lighten Your Skin Naturally

Do you have an uneven skin-tone? Perhaps your capillaries are overactive and there are reddish spots on your skin where your circulation can be seen too close to the surface of the skin. Or maybe you're unhappy with your freckles and dark spots that you're gaining with age. Skin tone is constantly varying with time and environmental conditions, it never remains as light as it used to be. The worst skin damager is the sun, although you may love your darker complexion, you ought to think about the consequences of weather-beaten effects on your skin cells. However, there are ways to lighten your skin naturally, seeing as those expensive beauty regenerating creams tend to be filled with unhealthy chemicals and do not show the results they promise. You should always be using sunscreen in your daily routine (even in the winter) because it's the easiest way to keep your skin's youth, most moisturizers can be found with at least SPF 15-30.

Natural exfoliation - do this once a week

1. 2 tbsp brown sugar (+ 2 tbsp oatmeal if you choose) and mix with 1/4 cup milk
2. stir until pasty consistency
3. scrub your face gently
4. rinse with water
5. apply moisturizer so your skin doesn't dry out from treatment

Lighten your skin - do this as often as you'd like

1. take 2 egg whites and an equal amount of freshly squeezed lemon juice and mix together
2. heat mixture in a pan and put it inside jar
3. let mixture cool until room temperature and apply to skin
4. rinse after 15 minutes with water

Another method of lightening - you can do this 3x a day if you want

1. take 1/2 cup tomato juice and 1/2 cup oatmeal and mix together
2. place mixture on your skin
3. rinse off with water after 20 minutes

Drinking lots of water regularly helps maintain your hydration level and make sure you eat many fruits and vegetables in your pursuit of lighter skin. If you wish you can rub your face with lemon juice, milk, or papaya as all of these have natural whitening properties. Be extremely wary of skin lightening treatments you can purchase as many of these are not FDA approved for such usage and increase cell turnover (how fast your skin's cells are killed and replaced) which can lead to detrimental effects such as the pigment going underneath the outermost layer of your skin and possible skin cancer-promoting mechanisms. The chemical whitening solutions that can be found in stores also have a high possibility of causing an allergic reaction on your skin.