My cooking skills are pretty limited. I’m sure I could be a decent cook if I tried, but by the time I get home from work, cooking for one person, cooking some elaborate meal is not a priority. Eating immediately is.
Most of my meals are so, so simple: some sort of protein, some sort of healthy-ish starch and some sort of veggie. Whatever. It works.
I’d heard of Blue Apron, and it sounded super-fancy, expensive and way beyond my basic cooking skills. It’s a delivery service where all the ingredients are delivered straight to you for three meals that serve two people for $60. One of my coworkers is friends with one of the Blue Apron people, and she had some free meals to give out, so I thought it was totally worth a try.
I got a box before the holidays, and made the Mexican meal because it was the easiest, and my favorite, and froze the rest.
Another box came the other day, and once again, I went for the Mexican. If you are what you eat, I am a taco. This dish was a Mexican tortilla soup. I was sick; it was Mexican. Perfect.
Each meal comes with these handy-dandy recipe cards. (I threw out the recipe cards with my first box, and if you do that, you can still access the recipes on their website.)
@tblanchfield @jshakeshaft Good point. It was silly of us to think that the cheese would make it to the final dish. Prep cheese is a #must.
— Blue Apron (@BlueApronMeals) December 12, 2013
Also, their social media person is ON POINT.
It’s really hard to not just eat the cheese, you know?
They give you really easy-to-follow directions, illustrated at each major step.
I like that the service teaches you new techniques and ideas, as well as gives you plating and styling ideas. 99% of the time I’m cooking for myself, but these are still good things to know.
I’m happy with how the finished product turned out. I’ll never be a food blogger, but I made something tasty, and it really wasn’t that hard. Also, there is avocado in it. It is hard to go wrong with avocado. They said it was two portions, but I’ve already had two servings, and there is plenty left for a third…even after snacking on some of it on tortilla chips. And I don’t have a dainty appetite, so it’s impressive how filling it is.
I actually won’t be continuing with the service just because it’s pretty rare for me to have time in a week to make three pretty involved meals like this, but it’s a really cool idea. What I’m not crazy about is that you sign up and are automatically renewed every week, rather than opting into it when you want it. I get it from a business perspective, but I’m not ready to commit to it yet. #commitmentissues
They ship to all of the East and West Coasts, and some of the states in the middle, but not all of them. (Sorry, guys.)
Would you try a service like this? How comfortable are you in the kitchen? (How did you learn to cook?)
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I actually tried a local service similar to these - it is called Sweetroots NYC and based in Brooklyn. They source locally which I like and obviously the food travels a short distance. They also have a 3 meal per week plan but, although really tasty with complex flavors, each meal takes no more than 30 minutes to prepare and cook which is totally doable for me after a day at work. They do a consult with you to learn your likes and dislikes and any dietary restrictions ( I am GF) and then send you menus to pre-approve each week. I am loving it! It makes me feel competent in the kitchen which is an accomplishment!
@Colleen: oh, super cool! Blue Apron is NYC-based, which I love, but is available to a lot o the country. I love the idea of the consult for the Sweetroots, though!
I love the idea! I don't love auto-renew services. It would be better for me if I could buy a 6 week service, but be able to spread those 6 weeks out across 4 months.
I also got a free week of Blue Apron through a referral and it's coming on Wednesday! I'm really excited to try this out since I never really cook because I can't get it together to buy all the right ingredients. Not sure if I will continue after the free week, but if it goes well I might. Looking forward to it - thanks for your review! Also, I can guarantee right now that no cheese will EVER make it into the actual meal. That is asking way too much.
@Dori: Make sure to cancel right away after the first delivery if you don't want to continue right away, or you will get surprise deliveries!
This sounds like a fantastic service! Cooking for one is always such a hassle, what with all the leftover ingredients that end up going bad or gathering dust. And seeing as I'm in one of the middle states where they deliver, I might just have to try this out!
This is a great idea! There is something similar in Geneva but you can do it for dinner parties. It's expensive but having everything delivered on your doorstep for a diner party - already chopped, prepared and ready for a great party makes things pretty easy!
I've heard great things about Blue Apron. There's another service called Plated that's similar. Maybe I'll give one a try sometime.
The soup looks good. I like to cook and think I'm a pretty good cook...my mom went back to work full-time when I was in 3rd grade so she started me on meal prep at an early age! I was responsible for meals a few nights a week at a young age.
I've heard so many good things about Blue Apron! I might have to try it just to satisfy my curiosity..but I agree three meals a week is a lot!
This sounds like a pretty cool service. It would be great to get the recipe and all of the ingredients delivered right to your door. The recipe for the Mexican Tortilla soup looks delicious. Thank you for sharing your review!
I'm always stressed about meal prep during the week, since I work 10+ hour days AND I really love to cook (and fit in a workout). This seems like the perfect solution, but I'm super picky about my ingredients so I just can't bring myself to try it yet. Do they do any organic ingredients? I'm a fairly experienced (self-taught) cook, and the recipes do look good for both experienced and beginners--I have nothing against super simple meals when I'm in a time crunch.