So, I’ve never cooked Christmas dinner before. To be honest, my experience of cooking roast meat of any kind is limited. A chicken or two, maybe a ham at some point, and that’s the limit. I’ve really tried to up my cooking game this year, though, as we start to focus on our health a bit more than we have previously.

With that in mind, when HelloFresh started advertising their Christmas box, I was keen to get involved. Family logistics meant it would have to be devoured before Christmas Day rather than on the big day itself, but I was still up for the challenge. The benefits of getting the box are everything you normally get with HelloFresh but amped up for Christmas:

• All the ingredients you need for the full dinner
• Exceptionally good step by step instructions
• Most importantly, the timing all laid out for you

The box contained ingredients to make roast turkey, red cabbage, brussels sprouts, pigs in blankets, stuffing, root vegetables and delicious roast potatoes. It also came with ingredients to make your own gravy, but I will admit I didn’t do this part. I had hoped to take lots of photos during the process but in all honesty, my kitchen isn’t that photogenic. The best I could come up with is this arty shot of the gloriously purple cabbage.

I was anticipating this meal to be really stressful - that’s all you ever hear about Christmas dinner, really, how tiring and stressful it can be to make. I found the cooking a lot of fun, having done enough prep work and reading through the instructions enough times that there were no surprises. Except for the sticky moment where I thought I’d run out of foil but found a random box tucked away in a cupboard somewhere. Bonus!

It was delicious. The turkey was perfectly cooked, the red cabbage was incredibly good, and mmm, those roast potatoes. I love a crispy roast potato and have always credited my dad with making the best roast potatoes in the world. I may have come along and stolen that crown from him now. There was plenty of food to go round and enough for a few leftovers as well - turkey sandwiches the next day, of course.

The box was a great success, and I have to thank HelloFresh not only for doing what they do and taking the hard work out of making a huge Christmas meal, but also for giving me the confidence across the weeks to even try. I’m already looking forward to next year!