2020 has arrived, and this year I'm determined to end my reliance on take-aways and ready-meals and take up cooking and eating healthier meals, with a better balance of fresh ingredients. I'm tired of nodding off into a food coma every night and waking up feeling groggy. I'm not exactly a pro in the kitchen, so I knew if I was going to stick to my healthy eating goals I would need some help.

A few friends from work have been using HelloFresh, a weekly meal kit service that delivers all the fresh, pre-portioned ingredients you need to make delicious dinners from scratch. They're always posting pictures on social media of what they have cooked each night, but - even though they did look delicious - it still wasn't enough to pry me away from the temptation of a takeaway. Old habits die hard...

But when I heard that HelloFresh had introduced a collection of nutritionist-approved, "Balanced" recipes for people like me who want to eat fresh, wholesome dinners, I thought I might have finally found a way to stick to my New Year's resolution. When I saw that the balanced recipes are all lower calorie options and lower in salt, sugar and fat, I knew that this was going to help kick-start better eating habits in a way that was easy, quick and - best of all - would save me having to face the supermarket scrum after work. Here's what happened.

When my first box arrived, my wife didn't actually believe that I was proposing to make dinner, which makes sense since I think I've only cooked twice the entire time we've been married! Determined to prove her wrong, I sent her out of the kitchen and told her to relax and watch the telly while I worked up some dinner magic - but to be honest, I had a ready-meal in the fridge in case I messed up. Luckily, HelloFresh made the whole cooking process completely fool-proof.

I decided to cook the first of our Balanced recipes - a Dairy-Free Risotto with butternut squash, sage, and caramelised onions. I've never even come close to caramelising anything before, but the detailed step-by-step recipe cards even had photos so I was able to see exactly what I was meant to be doing. As the ingredients were all pre-portioned, there was no waste or mess left once I'd finished cooking. Safe to say - the ready-meal remained untouched!

In about 35 minutes, I had dinner on the table before my wife even finished watching EastEnders. I was genuinely surprised at how delicious, fresh and filling the risotto was. As I had assumed that the healthy, wholesome recipes would be tasteless or I would still be hungry afterwards. I never thought that the wholesome meals would fill me up, but they've all been satisfying and kept me full all night without weighing me down. All of the recipes we've tried so far from the Balanced collection have been really delicious and I'm enjoying the variety, too. My favorite meal from this week was the Protein-Packed Turkey Stir Fry - better than any takeaway I've ordered!

I've been getting HelloFresh'sBalanced recipes for a couple of weeks now, and I can already notice that I have more energy and am sleeping better than I have in months. By limiting my calories to a nutritious portion and cutting out takeaways, I've lost a couple of pounds without really trying. But most importantly, for the first time ever, I've actually done a pretty good job at sticking to a New Years resolution. My wife and I are so pleased to have found an easy solution to shake up our dinner routines, cooking and eating healthy, wholesome food at home (although my wife is probably more excited by the fact that she now has her very own sous chef!)

Update: The folks at HelloFresh are extending a special offer to our readers! Follow this link to get a discount off your first 4 deliveries!