HelloFresh has launched special Mother’s Day meal kits — I tried the boozy brunch box and was impressed by the quality of the food

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HelloFresh

HelloFresh can help make celebrating your mom a bit easier this Mother’s Day.
For the first time, the meal kit service is offering two Mother’s Day boxes that you can make for your mom or send to her if she lives far away.
The boozy brunch or three-course dinner starts at $64, and they’re available in ready-to-cook kits for two to eight servings.

While I’m firmly of the opinion that every day should be Mother’s Day, the Hallmarks of the world have dictated that the official celebration comes around once a year. As such, it seems only necessary to make this day particularly special. As in, your mom deserves more than a card for her unwavering love and support.

So to help make your mom feel special — and get her out of your kitchen before she tries to wipe down your counters again — HelloFresh is offering special Mother’s Day meal kits so you can finally cook for her instead of the other way around, or send it her way if she doesn’t live near you. Available for pre-order starting today with delivery starting on May 1, there are two options for you to choose from (though it wouldn’t be the worst idea to check out both).

The Brunch Box kit includes everything you need to make a spring asparagus strata with bacon, tomato, and Gruyère cheese, a tropical citrus salad, and a mom-mosa cocktail (though you’ll have to provide your own Champagne); it also includes pre-made cinnamon rolls that you can just heat up. The Dinner Box is a three-course feast with rosemary crostini with brie and jam, beef tenderloin over truffle mashed potatoes, and chocolate chip cookies for dessert. Depending on the box size you choose, the meals can serve anywhere from two to eight people, so you can cook just for your mom or for your whole family.

Each box also includes a recipe book with a game plan for how best to prepare for your feast like prepping a day earlier, and a DIY card just in case you forget while cooking up a storm.

HelloFresh

I had the chance to try out the Brunch Box and found it to be worthy even of my own mother’s discerning taste buds. Like all HelloFresh boxes, this brunch offering comes well-packaged with a couple of large ice packs at the bottom to keep the fruits, eggs, bacon, cinnamon rolls, and vegetables fresh. The star of the show is certainly the strata — a baked egg casserole that offers plenty of bang for your buck and is packed with flavor and protein.

Making the strata isn’t terribly different from making a savory bread pudding; the ingredients are largely the same and the final result of layers of egg and bread is every bit as unctuous. I loved the addition of the asparagus to the dish as it provided a bit of much-needed crunch to the otherwise velvety texture of the strata. And of course, nothing can ever go wrong when you’re adding plenty of bacon (almost two packs’ worth, in fact) and Gruyère to the mix.

You can easily prepare elements of the strata ahead of time, which HelloFresh suggests you do because it means you can have a much less frantic morning if you’re looking to do brunch sometime before, say, 2 p.m. But I didn’t find the dish too difficult to prepare since all the ingredients are provided and pre-measured.

The tropical citrus salad is packed with grapefruits, oranges, kiwis, and mint for a refreshing kick. Though I’m not always a huge fan of tons of citrus on its own, the addition of mint certainly helps to liven everything up a bit and the salad was a great counterpart to the otherwise heavy mid-day meal.

HelloFresh

If you’re not keen on getting your sugar high through fruit, the brunch box also comes with Annie’s cinnamon rolls. I’ll admit that they’re not as delightful as the homemade variety, but after cooking the strata and salad, it’s almost a relief to not have to mix, knead, and rise your own cinnamon rolls. Plus, the Annie’s variety is undoubtedly still delicious.

And because it wouldn’t be brunch without a bit of booze, HelloFresh also includes non-alcoholic ingredients to mix up a Mom-mosa cocktail — pineapple, fresh-squeezed orange, and grapefruit juice. It’s a bit more elevated than your traditional OJ and Champagne spritzer, and while you could add your favorite sparkling wine (which HelloFresh suggests), my feeling is that a bit of gin would also do the trick quite nicely.

If you’re looking for a nice way to celebrate your mom this year, try making one of the HelloFresh Mother’s Day meals for or with her, or send a box her way if she doesn’t live near you. The boxes are available for purchase for a limited time only starting at $64 and don’t require a preexisting HelloFresh subscription.

Buy the HelloFresh Mother’s Day Brunch Box for $72 and the Dinner Box for $64