I was recently contacted by Blue Apron to review their meal delivery service. I immediately headed over to their website to check it out a little more. I have heard of them before, but didn’t really know what it was. After a little research I found out that Blue Apron plans the meals, and then ships you the raw ingredients; the exact amount that you need. Then you cook everything. Not like a lot of the services I have seen where you get frozen or pre-made meals and just reheat. I was curious, so I said yes! I set up an account, selected the family plan, and my first order was on its way. If you think you might want to give it a try, click on “Blue Apron” and you can get 2 free meals off your first order!
How it works:
Blue Apron plans the menus for you, a couple weeks in advance, and publishes it on their website. Once you are set up with an account, you can customize your menu. They have 2 plan options. One for 2 people and one for a family (4 servings), the menu is different for each plan. They have a vegetarian menu and a meat & fish menu available (you can select which proteins you want to receive). You can cancel or pause your membership at any time. You do need to cancel 7 days before your next delivery, or you will be charged and the food will show up. So plan accordingly. If you see something on the menu you don’t like, you can swap it out for one of the other choices. Don’t like a meal plan, on vacation, or something else come up – pause the service, and resume when you get back. Depending on where you live, you will have a couple of choices for a delivery day (free delivery). Then you just sit back and wait for your delivery day!
What you get:
On the deliver day, you will have a box show up on your door step. Inside the box is an insulated bag with ice packs to keep your food cold and fresh. You will find full color recipe cards, and all of the ingredients necessary to make those recipes. Need 1 Tbls of butter for something, there will be exactly 1 Tbls of butter included. Same with herbs and everything else, no waste which is really nice. Everything is sealed in bags or plastic containers and labeled, so you don’t have to guess what something is. The recipe cards will have step by step picture instructions on them, so even if you aren’t an expert chef, you can feel comfortable preparing dinner.
Meals:
I received 2 meals the first week. Beef tacos with roasted green beans and chicken meatloaf with mashed potatoes and snap peas. We are a family of 3, so I picked the family plan. The meals definitely served 4 people, with normal sized portions. I really liked that the side dishes were planned, and everything was well rounded. We had protein and veggies every night, which is more than I can say when I am planning the menu some nights. I have to say I was impressed with the quality and freshness of the vegetables. The avocado was perfect and ready to use the next day. The tacos were topped with an avocado, cucumber and radish salsa. I was so tempted to just dice the avocado and call it good. My husband doesn’t like cucumber, and radish can be hit or miss. But I didn’t, I followed the recipe exactly. And you know what? It was good! My husband happily ate it. So glad I listened to them!
The second week I received soy glazed pork meatballs with vegetable rice and salmon rolls with sliced potatoes. We were big fans of the meatballs, and my son went crazy for the salmon rolls. The seasoning on the potatoes was not our favorite. I blame myself for that though. They tell you the ingredients that make up the spice blend, I should have looked at that before I made the potatoes. I would have seen the ingredients, and not used it. Live and learn!
Thoughts:
Blue Apron is a great service if you are busy and don’t have a lot of time for meal planning, shopping, and cooking. All of the meals I received took 20-40 minutes to make. So it is a great option if you like cooking, want to give your family a homemade meal, but don’t have time for all of the rest of it. If you are new to cooking and want to get more experience, this is also a great service. The step by step instructions help with timing, learning how recipes work, and getting to try new things. The meals are well balanced and relatively healthy. The nutrition information is included for each meal, and they ranged from approximately 500-700 calories per serving for the meals that I received.
I have a neighbor who has asked me for advice on how to get dinner planned, shopping done, and the meal cooked for his family every night. Both he and his wife work full time, and they have 2 young kids. He said he wants to cook, but figuring out what to make, getting all of the ingredients, not forgetting something at the store, and then coming home to cook it is just too much some weeks. I think Blue Apron meal delivery service could be exactly what he needs. It takes all the guess work out of the week. All you need is salt, pepper, and olive oil in your house; a cutting board and knife, and maybe a couple pans. But even with a limited kitchen you can make a delicious meal!
Interested: If you order through this Blue Apron link, you will receive 2 free meals on your first order!
**I was compensated for my time to use Blue Apron. I paid for the meals that were delivered to my door. All thoughts an opinions are 100% my own.
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