Blue Apron

I'm so excited my friend gave me a free trial of Blue Apron! I've been wanting to try the service for a LONG time, but just never got around to it. I scheduled a delivery for just a couple of days after I signed up.

So what is Blue Apron?
Blue Apron encourages people to cook at home by mailing recipes and ingredients to subscribers each week. Recipes are seasonal, are never repeated in the same year, are 500-700 calories/serving and take 35-60 minutes to prepare.

Most ingredients are pre-measured so there's no (or very little) waste. You choose the delivery date you want, and the items are delivered (free delivery) in a refrigerated box so the food stays fresh even if you're not home.

Right now there are two pricing options:

- $59.94: Three meals/week for two people ($9.99/person)

- $69.92 or $139.84 for two or four meals/week for a family (4-5 people; $8/74/person)

I had my meals delivered on Monday and was so giddy when I got home from work to my box waiting for me! Everything was packaged nicely and still cool in the box.

I took everything out and checked out the recipes (you can see them online beforehand).

I got started right away on the first meal: sirloin steak with mashed purple potatoes and summer vegetables.

This is definitely one of the best home cooked meals I've ever had. It was so delicious and I completely cleared my plate. And how beautiful are those purple potatoes?? Since I'm cooking for one, I got to eat all of the meals twice. This was just as good the next day!

The next meal I made was salmon ceasar salad with homemade sourdough croutons.

I ended up bringing the salads to work for lunch. They were very good, but I think I overdid it on the lemon in the dressing. I really liked the homemade croutons!

The last meal I cooked was chicken and basil fettuccine with mascarpone and plum tomatoes. 

This was a perfect example of a recipe I would have loved to cook, but would have definitely skipped out on some of the ingredients. The sauce in this dish was so incredible and made my kitchen smell amazing for hours. These meals are meant to be for two people, but this was a huge amount and I ended up eating it for three meals. Stretching that dollar!

I plan on keeping my membership for Blue Apron and trying to do one shipment a month. I skipped the last few weeks but have another shipment coming soon. 

Pros:

- Pushed me to cook outside my comfort zone again

- Super clear, easy to follow recipes (with beautiful photos)

- Very fresh, seasonal ingredients (and you can check the website to see where they come form)

- Delivery was easy and included

- Not THAT expensive comparably

- Meat and fish are air sealed so it stays fresh even if you don't cook it immediately 

- You can cancel at any time or skip meals at any time, there is no minimum or fee to sign up

- Website is very easy to navigate

Cons:

- I worry about my box getting stolen because I don't have a foyer

- Still have to supplement your week of food, and I ended up spending more money because of that...I think

- All of the recipes took me ~20 minutes longer to cook than it said on the card

- Not really a con, but you still have to do work like chopping vegetables. It's not all done for you!

Obviously the pros outweigh the cons here. I can't wait to keep trying new recipes!