We had some gooood meals over here recently!
I was recently given the opportunity to try out Blue Apron, a meal-delivery service that allows you to create delicious, chef-designed recipes at home.
The thing that really stuck out for me with Blue Apron, as opposed to other meal delivery services, is that they aren’t sending you pre-made meals. They deliver all the farm-fresh ingredients you need, right to your doorstep, in exactly the right proportions. The recipes are delivered in a refrigerated box so ingredients will stay fresh even if you’re not at home when your package arrives.
And let me tell you…having all of the ingredients you need in the exact proportions is totally amazing. If only I could have all of my meals set up for me this way!
And they really do send you basically everything you’ll need. I’m pretty sure the only extra ingredients I needed to use in any of my recipes were a little bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper. Everything else, right down to the toothpicks for our sandwiches(!) were included. No trips to the grocery store and no waste from unused ingredients.
The week before our meals were set to arrive (I scheduled ours to be delivered on a Friday – you can choose which day you prefer), I received an email with the menu, which really got me excited.
I was honestly a bit nervous when I signed up, since I wasn’t sure what meals would be heading my way and/or if we’d even like them. Luckily, you can choose from a few preferences, so that helped narrow things down a bit.
Blue Apron sends you three meals per week, and you can choose if you’d like servings for two, four, or six people. All meals are $9.99 per person, they always have free shipping, and there’s no commitment – you can skip or cancel the service at any time.
Jay and I chose to have 4 servings of each meal delivered so we could have leftovers and/or share the experience with friends to get their feedback as well. The first meal we made was the Seared Salmon and Tomato Chutney with Cranberry Bean and Spinach Stew, and we shared that with our friend/cousins Brian and Mal.
Mal and I worked together in the kitchen and we both agreed that this meal was actually much easier to make than I had anticipated.
I was honestly kind of nervous about cooking the fish (no good reason why, just am), but this recipe showed me that it’s not only easy (literally, just let is cook/sear in the pan!), but it’s now something I’m much more willing to try cooking again.
This dish was my absolute, #1 favorite out of all of them.
The second meal we tried out was the Classic BLT Sandwiches with Tomato, Avocado, and Cucumber Salad.
This recipe was also delicious, and definitely the easiest to prepare (since, you know, we eat BLT’s over here at least once a week). All of the ingredients were incredibly fresh and the bacon was amazing. Nice and thick…I need to start buying thicker cut bacon.
The salad that went along with the BLT’s really stood out for us as well. Again, simple to put together, but the mustard vinaigrette that it was made with really helped me think outside the box for “dressing up” my veggie sides. It was delicious!
Lucas thought so too, since he managed to sneak in and grab a bite while I was trying to snap a photo. 
The third recipe Jay and I tried was the Chicken and Snow Pea-Radish Sauté with Candied Pistachios.
Jay helped quite a bit with this particular dish and we both agreed that this one was probably the most time-consuming of them all.
Had we not had a hungry toddler at our ankles the whole time, that probably would have made a huge difference but, you know.
This dish was also probably the most outside our wheelhouse in terms of ingredients and cooking methods, but we were excited to finally have something new to help get us out of our dinner rut as of lately.
The candied pistachios? OMG…
Blue Apron offers a large selection of recipes and is always adding new dishes to their menu every week. Delivery is available to over 80% of the country, (for a full map of delivery zones check here).
Each menu is between 500-700 calories per person, and they say that all meals can be prepared in 40 minutes or less.
Breaking down our experience a bit more…
Pros:
- Ingredients were incredibly fresh, packaged nicely, and provided in the exact quantities needed (less waste!)
- Ingredients and sourced from quality local suppliers and artisans (always try to support local, when you can!)
- Allowed us to try new things and break out of our dinner rut a bit
- Less time spent meal planning/grocery shopping
- The recipes were easy to follow and absolutely delicious
Cons:
- Meals are $9.99/person, which is more like what we’d spend if we were going out to a restaurant. But even so, I’d still say that it’s a healthier alternative to going out at a restaurant, and you also save time on grocery shopping, driving to the store, etc.
- Meals are picked for you, you don’t choose. However, depending on how open you are to new things (we were!) this really isn’t too big of a deal, especially since you get to choose the kinds of meals you like/dislike (see above).
- Some prep took a bit longer than we usually prefer for weeknights. The chicken dish took us over 40 minutes to prep/cook, but again, we were also dealing with a hungry toddler and whatnot, so that could have been a non-issue. We’re also used to making dishes on the fly these days, so we haven’t been used to the added steps.
Overall, we absolutely loved our experience with Blue Apron, and I’m so glad we got the opportunity to give it a try. We actually have another week’s worth of meals heading our way a week after next (which we purchased ourselves), and I’m excited to see what’s on the menu. If it’s something that fits within your budget, I would absolutely, 100% recommend trying it out for yourself! So if you’re interested…
Blue Apron Discount Offer!
Blue Apron is offering the first 50 readers to get two free meals on their first Blue Apron order!*
*Two free meals are subtracted from the purchase of six, you do not get two free meals by themselves. Just an FYI!
Blue Apron Giveaway Offer!
One lucky STSL reader also gets the chance to win a week of meals for two! To enter:
Visit the Blue Apron site, check out their menu this week, and pick a recipe you would love to try the most. Leave a comment on this post with that recipe!
I’ll choose a random winner next Thursday, 9/25. Good Luck!
There’s also a Blue Apron Cookbook available on their site, featuring 50 of their favorite recipes.
Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by Blue Apron. The links contained within the post are not affiliate links.
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