Blue Apron

When I first was looking at meal delivery, I was in a dinner rut.  I work late sometimes and I can get lazy about meal time.  There were too many times I skipped my weekend grocery run, ordered pizza or picked up takeout.  We needed real sustenance.

There seem to be a thousand meal delivery services out there right now and I am constantly bombarded with ads for them.  Last September I gave in to the 50% off of your first delivery offer from Blue Apron and I haven’t looked back.  I am Really Into Blue Apron.  They even summed up what I did in 2016.

For me, the best part of Blue Apron is not having to make yet another decision in my life.  So many of us are busy and constantly deciding what we need to do for work, at home, the kids, the pets, the car, WHAT’S FOR DINNER, and sometimes it is nice for it to already be done for me.  Every week I get three pre-planned meals sent to my door, and most of the time they are delicious.  This is my selection for this week:

Along with your produce and protein, you get little bags of “Knick Knacks” that contain a few smaller ingredients and also the nutrition information.  The only thing that Blue Apron does not include, besides the cookware, is olive oil, salt and pepper.

I am pretty adventurous when it comes to food, so there really hasn’t been anything too out of the ordinary for me, but I am definitely cooking things at home that I would never try in the past.  Mark tends to be a little more cautious when it comes to new things so Blue Apron has been great for getting him to try out new stuff.  Every once and a while I will end up with an ingredient that I haven’t seen before – my favorite was when they sent me black garlic!  It was amazing!  And there are times where you get very simple, elegant meals.  Last night we cooked a rib eye with sauteed kale and potatoes.

I don’t eat beef so Mark was the winner with this meal, but I get plenty of wins too!  What is nice is there are times where he doesn’t really want the meal, so I make it and take the leftovers to work for lunch.  We really can’t lose.

Most meals are more than enough, but there have been times that we weren’t quite full – but that is the exception, not the rule.  There are also just two of us in our house, so it makes it very easy and affordable for us.  I can’t speak to the four person plan or if you are sharing with children, though I imagine it can work for many people.  And if you have specific food allergies, this may not be the service for you as there are not options for gluten free, nut free, etc.  Also, I would be remiss if I did not mention their exceptional customer service.  I have had two packages that came where there was a problem and I emailed Blue Apron, and within minutes there was a response.  Both were weeknights!  I was really impressed with how they handled mistakes.

Blue Apron keeps all of their recipes online as well in case you would like to remake them.  I have remade the Warm Brussels Sprout Potato Salad from this recipe several times because I think it is fantastic.  A few of my other favorites were the Korean Pork Tacos, Spicy Cabbage Enchiladas, Thai Red Curry and Rice, and Smoked Mozzarella and Cabbage Pizza.  I also like that occasionally they send you a card with an explanation about a certain ingredient.

I have referred several people to Blue Apron.  My mom was the first and she continues to use it, and it is really a nice connection for us because even though I live in California and she is in Texas, we are cooking the same dinner and we always talk about how we liked the week’s delivery.

Are you Really Into Blue Apron too??