My girlfriend and I love to cook. More accurately, I love to cook, and she likes to eat what I cook on our date nights at home. But lately, we’ve been working late hours, and it’s hard to have a home-cooked meal for dinner. By the time I’m done shopping for groceries, I’m too tired to cook when I get home. Resorting to takeout wasn’t really a great alternative either we found ourselves ordering basically the same meal over and over again, and it was getting boring fast. After complaining at work, a coworker recommended I try HelloFresh – he said the meals rarely take over 30 minutes, and they always feel healthy and taste delicious.

Skeptical, but curious, my girlfriend and I decided to give HelloFresh a try. We set up an account online and we were ready to go. After picking some dietary restrictions (she doesn’t eat beef), we found three meals to our liking: mushroom gravy chicken, tropical fish tacos, and a premium dish that immediately caught our eye: pan-roasted duck breast with vegetables. We had never cooked duck before at home, but we always wanted to try, so this was about as good a time as any.

Within a week, a HelloFresh box arrived at our building. When we opened the box, each meal’s ingredients were neatly divided into three different brown paper bags, with the proteins packed on top. We decided to dive in first with HelloFresh’s Hall of Fame meal, the Mushroom Gravy Chicken with Couscous. Surprisingly, I was able to make the mushroom gravy and couscous while Sarah pat the chicken dry, seasoned it, and baked it in the oven. It was great, it looked really appetizing, and tasted as good as it looked.

Next, the tropical fish tacos with a mango cabbage slaw. This was a bit more challenging for me, because I’m not an expert in cutting mangos. Luckily, the red cabbage already came pre-shredded, and the rest of the recipe went much faster than the mango chopping— and the tacos were absolutely delicious. Three tacos for both of us, and just the right amount of fish in each, with a little bit of slaw leftover. We gave the fish tacos two thumbs up.

Of course, we saved the best for last: it was the end of the week and we were eager to try the duck. The recipe only called for eight ingredients and we got to work prepping the potatoes, sauteing the asparagus with tomatoes, and then searing the duck. We had to save the duck fat to drizzle over the vegetables and I was impressed at my skills. Meal-time came and the skin was crispy, the meat was juicy with flavor, and the roasted potatoes and asparagus made for a great complement to the dish. For never having cooked duck before, I thought I did a great job. The thing I appreciated most was how clear and detailed the instructions were. I’m an engineer at heart and a stickler for details and precision, so as much detail as necessary to cook the perfect duck breast was appreciated.

One of the happy side benefits of HelloFresh was being inspired as a home chef again, as well as getting new ideas and learning different recipes that I might not have found on my own . All in all, we had three delicious (and Instagram-worthy) meals that were to die for—people were even asking us what restaurant we were eating at when we showed them pictures! To get three meals to make at home for the cost of a night out was more than worth it for us. HelloFresh gave us exactly what we were looking for, quick and healthy homemade meals without breaking a sweat.

Update: The folks at HelloFresh are extending a special offer to our readers! Follow this link to get your first 3 meals free!