Do you guys remember back in September when I had the chance to work with Blue Apron? We loved it so much that we decided to order it ourselves again in October, and I’m super excited to have the opportunity to work with them again! For those who may have missed my first post or don’t know much about Blue Apron, let me lay it out there for you.
As I mentioned before, the thing that really sticks 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 for their chef-designed recipes, 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.
This here is a huge reason I love their service. No trips to the grocery store (can I tell you just how difficult it can be these days to get to the grocery store over the weekend?!) AND no waste from unused ingredients. Jay and I wind up with leftovers all. the. time. when we cook at home, and often times, at least half of them get thrown out. Fail.
We were recently sent two weeks worth of meals for two people (6 meals all together). My first shipment came a couple of Fridays ago, but due to the Thanksgiving holiday, our second shipment came the day before Thanksgiving (I’ll get to more on that one in a minute!), which was about 5 days after the first shipment. So, needless to say, we were well stocked on some delicious food!
The first meal we decided to try out was the Croque Monsieur-Style Sandwich with Bacon, Radish, & Little Gem Lettuce Salad.
One thing that both Jay and I have noticed in using their service a couple of times now is the quality of the meats that are sent. Not once have we had an instance where something looked or smelled bad. Everything is extremely fresh, sent in vacuum-sealed packaging, and incredibly delicious.
Jay and I tag-teamed this meal since Lucas was a bit “needy” at dinner time (isn’t that always how it works?) but it came together quite quickly and was definitely a bit different from something we’d typically make.
All of the flavors in the sandwich complimented each other so well, and while the salad looks simple, it was actually perfectly balanced with flavor. Plus, the little added crunch of the bacon was pretty amazing.
When you sign up with Blue Apron, they will send you three meals per week, for two to four people depending on what you need. Meals are $9.99 per person and always with free shipping, and they currently ship to over 80% of the country (check out their full map of delivery zones to see if your area is included!).
The second meal we tried out was so outside of our comfort zone, I think we were both a little nervous and curious at the same time: Yuzu Kosho-Glazed Chicken Drumsticks with Shiitake Mushrooms, Turnip & Rice Salad.
Umm, never have I ever cooked anything that sounds remotely close to that. But that’s another reason we love Blue Apron…it gets us a little outside of our comfort zone and lets us try new things.
On this particular night, I really lucked out. If you follow me on Instagram, then you already know how that went down, but Jay handled the cooking while I sat with me feet up, sipping wine, and giving him the directions while feeding Lucas his dinner.
It was a pretty sweet trade off, if you ask me.
You guys…this meal smelled sooooooo good while it cooked!
And the end result? Delicious.
The flavor of the drumsticks was incredible, and while I’m not usually a drumstick kinda gal, these were still really good. Jay, on the other hand, was ALL about the drumsticks!
The highlight on this dish for me though, was the rice. WOW. Definitely one that needs to (and will) be recreated.
You may have been able to tell just based off of the meals I’ve blogged about before, but Blue Apron really does offer quite a large selection of recipes, and they’re adding new dishes to their menu every week.
Each menu is between 500-700 calories per person, and all meals are created to be prepared in about 45 minutes or less. I mentioned this the first time, and I think it’s worth mentioning again, but we tend to have a hard time getting each of the meals done in the amount of time that the recipe says. BUT, we’re also dealing with a toddler who tends to be hungry at the same time and is in need of attention basically every single second of the day. SO, take that for what it’s worth. But I will still say that with each meal, the extra prep has been totally worth it.
So the second week of meals that we received was pretty cool because it was actually set up to, if you desired, be served as a full Thanksgiving dinner.
They even provided an extra card with how you could plan out the cooking and prepping of each meal so they would all be ready at the same time. Super neat.
We, however, decided to just serve each of ours separately, since we’d already had our Thanksgiving dinner, so we started out with the Pan-Seared Salmon with Candied Orange Peel & Cranberry-Walnut Stuffing.
Another cool thing that stood out to me in this shipment in particular was the abundance of fresh herbs. I’m going to be honest here…I hardly ever cook with fresh herbs. Most of the time if and when I DO buy them, half of them get wasted, and it’s just something where I’m always sort of like, “Eh, I have it dried already, that’ll work.”
I’m no dummy though…I know fresh herbs make a HUGE difference, as evidenced in these meals!
Homemade stuffing using fresh bread instead of bread cubes PLUS fresh herbs? Out of this world.
And now that I’ve gotten over my fear of cooking salmon…bring. it. ON.
This meal had some rather unique touches, including the candied orange peels (which I’m not quite convince we did right, but ah well!) but we both agreed we were big fans of this one.
The second meal out of this shipment happened on Saturday and we even decided to make it extra special by dining with candlelight and wine. Awwww.
I expected this meal to be one of the more labor-intensive out of the three, but it actually came together quite easily, especially considering I was cooking alone and had Lucas running around my feet the whole time.
The only part I struggled with was the gravy, but I think that had more to do with the fact that we didn’t have very many drippings from our turkey since it was on the smaller side.
But, thankfully, it all turned out pretty well and minus a few lumps (my mom always does such a good job at making non-lumpy gravy, haha!) the flavor was incredible thanks to the added maple syrup.
So fancy schmancy, right?!
Oh, and that meal that I mentioned yesterday? That was their Sweet Potato & Kale casserole. SO good! I’ve also still got their Cauliflower and Kale casserole to cook up probably tonight or tomorrow.
Overall, we were both very pleased with this most recent experience with Blue Apron, and we loved not only how diverse the selections were, but also how delicious. I’ll continue to shout from the rooftops just how much I love Blue Apron!
For those of you looking for potential gift ideas with the holidays quickly approaching, Blue Apron gifts are great to inspire the joy of cooking and give a great experience to a friend or loved one. You can also find great gift ideas in the Blue Apron market as well, with their high quality kitchenware and products.
Blue Apron Discount Offer!
And great news for you guys! The first 50 readers to sign up will get two free meals on their first Blue Apron order! You can sign up by clicking HERE. Plus, there’s no commitment – you can skip or cancel the service at any time, so you’ve got nothing to lose.
Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by Blue Apron. I LOVE their service, so all opinions are, of course, my own!
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