• 55% of people are eating more at-home meals than ever before
• Meal kits like HelloFresh send you pre-portioned ingredients and recipe cards to your door, making it easy for inexperienced cooks to make home-cooked meals
• One of our editors who wanted to sharpen their cooking skills tried HelloFresh. Read their full review below
• 12 free meals ($90 value) discount for new customers--Follow this link to find out more.

I've always wanted to learn how to cook, so I took advantage of the stay-at-home orders and thought it was a good time to start. I wasn't prepared for how hard cooking really is.

I found some recipes online that sounded delicious, bought all the ingredients, and got to it. I decided to do what I thought would be an easy one first: stir fry. I used chili powder instead of an actual chili as I thought it would be milder, but I overdid it and my mouth was on fire with the first bite! I couldn't even finish the meal.

Not to mention the night I decided to make a pizza from scratch. Prepping the dough was supposed to be the hardest part, but that went well and I managed to put all the ingredients on it correctly. All that was left was to cook it in the oven. I set a timer to make sure not to overcook it, and when I went to check it the pizza had collapsed, all the ingredients melting to the bottom of the oven (I guess I was supposed to put it on a tray, not a grid-shelf).

After these epic fails I knew I needed help but had no clue where to go. I was speaking to a friend who recently started cooking too, and she recommended I try HelloFresh, a meal kit that delivers ingredients for your chosen recipes to your doorstep every week. She said HelloFresh has really improved her cooking skills and knowledge of ingredients.

I had heard about it before but didn't bother looking into it. I thought meal kits would be too much effort and a huge commitment. But my friend told me that HelloFresh is super flexible and you can pause or cancel the subscription at any time, plus they take all the stress out of cooking with their pre-portioned ingredients.

So I decided to try it out for a week to see how it would go. I signed up for the Meat & Veggie 2 person plan, 4 evenings a week, which meant I would have my dinner and lunch sorted 4 days of the week.

My first HelloFresh box was delivered in just a few days. I was impressed to see everything was neatly packaged in recyclable packaging. All the ingredients were pre-portioned (giving me just the right amount I needed) and separated into individual kit bags. The meat for the dishes I chose was packed separately, kept cool underneath ice packs at the bottom of the box.

I put all the ingredients away in the fridge and had a look at some of the recipe cards that came in the box and was surprised that most recipes only took 30 minutes or less to make.

That evening, I went with Bulgogi Pork Tenderloin for dinner. I'd never thought to try a Korean twist on pork tenderloin, this was definitely a recipe I wouldn't have thought of. But thanks to the pre-portioned ingredients and easy-to-follow recipe cards, it was on the table in 30 minutes. And it was sooo tasty!

The next evening I made the Black Bean & Poblano Quesadillas which only took 25 minutes and tasted amazing. I'd never made Mexican food before and I was surprised at how easy HelloFresh made it.

I've been using HelloFresh for 4 weeks now and the more I use it, the better I'm getting at cooking. I've even started experimenting with new recipes on the weekend, using some of the tips I've learned from HelloFresh!

I love how HelloFresh has cuisines from around the world. My favorite so far is probably the Middle Eastern Chickpea Bowl, which I never would have tried without HelloFresh. HelloFresh has introduced me to ingredients that I hardly knew about, that I can carry into my own recipes.

Thanks to HelloFresh, I'm much more comfortable in the kitchen. By following their step-by-step recipes for weeks I have learned so much and can finally call myself an amateur cook. There are always new exciting recipes to try, so I'll definitely be sticking with HelloFresh.

Not to mention it's super affordable, all meals costing less than $9 a serving. If you'd like to learn how to cook some new recipes in the most convenient way possible, check out HelloFresh.

SPECIAL OFFER: Our friends at HelloFresh are extending a SPECIAL OFFER to our readers. Follow this link to get 12 FREE meals ($90 value) across 4 boxes including free shipping on the first box!