Where HelloFresh tends to work best for me is at the three or four meals a week mark. This leaves it as a fun treat on dreary days when doing my own meal planning seems impossible. Spending $80 a week on three meals for two will stop me from blowing $60 on a single (mediocre) desperation DoorDash. And as opposed to DoorDash, when I'm done cooking a Thai-spiced green curry on my stovetop, I actually feel a sense of accomplishment.

The problem, in the past, was that meal kits too often repeated menus, or felt a little samey. In 2020, when I used the service to stop myself from being bored to tears during the pandemic, HelloFresh was also a little boring. But these days, HelloFresh is not boring unless you want it to be.…