Posts in category: Food & Drink

Happy National Hamburger Day! As American as baseball and apple pie, very few foods hold as special a space in American culture as this simple ground meat sandwich. And as is the case with many of our favorite foods, we have immigrants to thank for bringing this iconic sandwich to our shores. 

As we trace the hamburger’s journey. It begins not in Hamburg, Germany like you may think, but in the hearts, minds and recipe books of its migrant citizens and sailors who had visited its ports. Whether touching down for the first time, or returning to New York, fans of the original dish brought with them the term “Hamburg Steak” to describe beef, simply spiced and minced with onions, then quickly griddled. The hamburger we know and love today was born thanks to the ingenuity of one traveling vendor. The steaks weren’t particularly portable, and he had the genius idea of putting them between two slices of bread so that the steaks could be enjoyed on the go. Viola! Enter the hamburger. 

Ever since then, hamburgers have boomed in popularity. Here at Grubhub, our hamburger lovers ordered 17,703,623 in the past year alone, and nationwide, Americans enjoy hamburgers to the tune of 2.4 burgers per day on average. That’s about 50 billion burgers per year! If those stats made your mouth water for a burger, or any of the hundreds of burger varieties out there, you’re in luck! Check out these burger varieties that’ll help satisfy your cravings on National Hamburger Day.

Bacon cheeseburger

Calling all bacon lovers? Thick-cut bacon is a smokey, sizzling, decadent add-on that most restaurants offer because, well, bacon. Turns out burgers are a great vehicle for when you’re  craving bacon, but it would be inappropriate to consume it by the fistful in public.

The most obvious iteration, it’s hard to deny that the addition of cheese improved the hamburger exponentially! American cheese is the most common, but a good cheddar, smoked gouda, provolone or even dairy-free cheese will take a burger from good to great.

Turkey burger

Keeping it light-er? Turkey burgers are a great twist on America’s favorite sandwich when you’re craving a burger, but trying to avoid red meat. Go crazy with the toppings! We love turkey burgers with fresh lettuce, juicy tomatoes, crisp red onion, pickles and a good aioli plus some added pepper jack cheese for a kick.

Bet you’re craving a juicy burger right about now.

Why yes, yes we DID jump on the Hello Fresh train. We never thought we’d do it, because we knew that it was expensive. It takes a lot of effort to sit down and plan out our meals throughout the week. Then figuring out what ingredients we needed to get at the store. And finally making our way out the door to shop. We know it sounds silly, but we just couldn’t muster up the energy needed to deal with all of that, which is how Hello Fresh (and Amazon Fresh!) ended up on our doorstep. 

We had a coupon for $30 off and thought, “Hey, why not”. We’ve heard lots of great things about it. 

And turns out everybody we had talked to about Hello Fresh was right. It truly is amazing! 

WHY WE LOVE HELLO FRESH

First off, It’s super convenient. All you have to do is get on the website, pick your recipes for the week (We like the 3 meal plan for 2 because it’s just enough food for us) and schedule your delivery. We scheduled it for Sunday since that’s our normal grocery shopping day. 

Secondly, the recipes are amazing. We are so bad about getting caught in a recipe “rut” where we just make the same things over and over again. But with Hello Fresh We’ve tried some of the tastiest meals We’ve had in a long time. Also, since we forgot to skip a few weeks (We’ll talk about that later) and didn’t have a chance to pick our meals, We have tried some foods we never would have picked on our own! Like the Meatloaf Balsamico and the Carolina Barbecue Chicken. Turns out they’ve been two of our favorite meals from Hello Fresh! 

Also, there isn’t much ingredient waste, which we really like. Since the recipes come with the ingredients pre measured (for the most part), we have just enough for two meals, without having way too much left over. For the meals that HAVE come with a little more of this or that ingredient, we usually just use all of it in the name of leftovers for lunch the next day. ; ) 

Finally, it’s given us the chance to enjoy some “gourmet” meals from the comfort of our homes without having to go to the grocery store. We don’t know about you, but that is worth just about every penny! 

WHAT I WOULD CHANGE ABOUT HELLO FRESH

Honestly, we would change the cost. It’s expensive, especially if you end up doing it week after week. With the Classic Plan (3 meals for 2 people) it ends up being $10/serving which is super pricy for just receiving ingredients. BUT for those weeks when we know a trip to the grocery store just ain’t gonna happen, or when we are bored with the food we’ve been eating, we know it’s definitely worth it. 

How they communicate (or don’t). Two weeks in a row we’ve received a Hello Fresh box without meaning to. They do not remind you to pick your meals or that it’s the last day to skip (like Fabletics or Just Fab do). Instead you get an email telling you a box has been shipped and you’re left saying “Oh wow. I hope I like the meals!” Thankfully we’ve loved every recipe we’ve received, but it’s definitely a pricy mistake to make sometimes. 

*Disclaimer, you can get on and skip as many weeks as you want, but we forgot to! You can also unskip weeks if you change your mind. We like that option rather than canceling my account all together!*

So… Will we ever try Hello Fresh again? Yes yes yes! It’s definitely not an every week kind of thing for us, but definitely something great to have on hand in case our schedule is insanely busy (which is like all the time nowadays haha!) or if we’re wanting something different to mix things up. There are just too many pros to not do Hello Fresh, ya know??