A friend of mine who lives on the West Coast was raving about Blue Apron. She lives on a island and works long hours, so shopping and food prep is hard for her, and she ended up eating out a lot. Now she has the ingredients for interesting meals delivered to her house along with the recipes, and her young adult son can help her get dinner on the table. So when I saw a “special offer” for 2 free meals, I decided to check it out. I’m curious if anyone else has and what you think of it.
My hair stylist uses it three nights a week for her and her high school athlete son (who unsurprisingly eats her out of house and home) and loves it. She also really values that the ingredients are fresh and healthy. On the nights her son is with his father, I suspect it’s easier for her to fix something just for herself, but when he’s home, she loves it.
A friend of mine uses it and likes it for two reasons-she doesn’t like the stress of planing meals and it keeps her kids from whining about what she fixed. She says the food is good and it saves her time on busy nights.
I have a good friend who loves Blue Apron. Says the variety is nice and she appreciates the fact that the ingredients are measured out, allowing for absolutely no waste. If the recipe calls for 1 garlic clove, that’s what you get in your box. She is surprised at the low cost as well, comparatively speaking. Highly recommends it!
The meals are great and have given me good ideas for new seasonings and ways to prepare food. I have decided to skip a few weeks coming up when the meals look like something I could easily (and cheaply) fix with local ingredients. The prep time can be considerable so now I work ahead when I have time (for example, made today’s burgers last night and put them on the grill).
How much does it cost per meal?
We got the family plan (feeds 4) with two meals per week and it comes out to around $8.75 per person. My son is a vegetarian so he just eats the sides or we modify the main dish (hummus wrap without the meat, for example). H and I will take leftovers for lunch, so we are fine with having extra. It’s less than eating out.
It’s not for me, just because how much the prep takes. I don’t like cooking, and even though I cook from scratch, just for health reasons, I purposefully choose things that take minimal prep time and can just be rinsed and then steamed/boiled/popped in the oven with some salt/pepper. The time commitment is not worth it to me - I know I would just not end up doing it.
I’m with acollegestudent, even though I’m aretiredperson. A friend gave me an introduction with several free meals, but with DH a vegetarian and me an omnivore, and with both of us having fairly provincial tastes, I couldn’t even pick 2 of the offered meals per week. I use a rotating list of simple meals, which are cheaper than Blue Apron; we save the $ to eat out.
My D has subscribed to Blue Apron for almost six months and loves it. She had been raving about it to her dad and me, so I was starting to be keen on experiencing it myself. As it so happens, I’m visiting D for an extended stay to help her deal with some health issues, so I’ve been the one preparing the meals, including those that come in the Blue Apron deliveries. I’ve got to say that I’m impressed with the quality of the ingredients and the tastiness of the entrees. The recipes are well written and easy to follow. They do tend to take some time to prepare for those of us whose knife skills leave something to be desired, and virtually every recipe starts with the instruction to wash and dry the fresh produce. Bunches of fresh cilantro, fennel, Rosemary, tarragon, scallions, marjoram, Napa cabbage, etc., take time to wash and hand dry prior to mincing and chopping, and the overall cooking times stated on the recipe cards are what I would term, well…optimistic. It’s a good thing the meals all come with everything you need to prepare the dish (with the the exception of things like ordinary cooking oil), including little “knick-knack bags” for each recipe that include things like Tamarind Concentrate and Apricot Chutney Spice Blend. And I’d hate to have to search for pea shoots at my local grocery store (one of the ingredients used to make Seared Salmon & preserved Lemon with Red Quinoa and Pea Shoot Salad).
If you’re looking to get out of your food rut and stretch your culinary comfort zone, Blue Apron is wonderful. Dishes are from all over the world, with intriguing offerings like Turkey Steam Buns with Quick Cucumber-Radish Kimchi, and Piri-Piri Chicken with Coconut-Smashed Plantains & Stewed Collard Greens. I’ve yet to be disappointed by any of the offerings I’ve prepared so far, so chances are good that H and I will be hoping aboard the Blue Apron Train when I return home.
I tried it but found that the recipes were too time consuming and I realized that I had most of the ingredients. Also, I LIKE food shopping so having expensive ingredients shipped seemed wrong. I can see how it would work for people that don’t have fresh food available locally, don’t like to shop and maybe don’t like to look up recipes. None of that applied to me.
I am one of three folks I know (me, a friend,and a daughter) who received a gift week and decided to cancel. We all found the packaging excessive, particularly for small plastic bottles with say 2 teaspoons of red wine vinegar…some things should be in a recommended pantry list - they only expect you have salt, pepper and olive oil.
I live alone and found the 3 meals for two was way more than I needed, and with the fresh produce was difficult to prepare and freeze for a later date.
They were also inflexible in allowing me to order 2 of the same meal in order to prepare a dinner party for 4.
Jeannemar, is that $8.75 for one meal or two?
$8.75 per meal when you subscribe. (Price varies based on plan size).
What I don’t like about concept is the lack of flexibility. You get what they send without choice (subject to limited dietary restriction flexibility). I’ve followed the menus and usually there’s only one meal that really appeals to me in any given week’s menu. And it is not like you can reorder the dishes that you like.
I’d be much more interested in the service if they allowed ordering from a fairly extensive menu, with flexibility as to the number of meals, and more prep such as pre-washed produce. I assume there are services that offer those options.
I was at my sister’s when she did a family-sized trial. The recipe was just okay; it was a Thai dish that wasn’t nearly as good as the local Thai place that delivers for about the same price (given the size of the portions). The portions were fairly skimpy for four adults.
The price per meal is per person. Here is the pricing: https://www.blueapron.com/pages/pricing
The recipes are online:
Wow, that’s expensive! You are paying a LOT extra for the convenience, and the not-great-for-the-planet overpackaging.
I guess if you have a lot of extra money…
We can make a huge pan of lasagna for 10bucks or so (that will give 8 servings or so) add a salad and a nice baguette for a few bucks more.
Cooking from scratch saves soooo much money vs eating out, or vs any of these gimmicky convenience things.
I think it’s very expensive too. Last night I bought two 1 pd l1/4 pd lobsters for $5.99lb (which I had market steam,) 4 ears of corn from farm stand and I made a salad of farm’s tomatoes and cucs. Total for the two of us was approx $18 and change for lobster dinner and the only “cooking” I did was boiling pot of water and cutting up the veggies and a few wedges of lemon.
I would not try Blue Apron. But then again, I enjoy cooking, grilling, experimenting with new recipes, etc.
It’s obviously set up as a convenience for people who choose not to cook, don’t know how or want to, or waste the time. People who have money to shell out for someone to take the guess work out of meals and grocery shopping. Could be for people who cannot physically get to grocery stores too…that would not be me. I enjoy the shopping & experimenting (both my parents were chefs and owned a restaurant) so they taught me how to make many meals without recipes. I really don’t enjoy baking, though. Too precise in measurements.
Now, I would use them if they had a kitchen cleanup service to wash pots & pans! Just kidding 
“$8.75 per meal when you subscribe. (Price varies based on plan size).”
I hate cooking and food prep, so I’d rather buy a premade salad with protein at Trader Joes for the same amount and then I have NO prep. To pay for “convenience” when I still have to prepare something doesn’t compute. It’s like paying to have a vacuum cleaner delivered to my door once a week but I still have to push it around!!
Ha! Great analogy, Pizzagirl.
(And damn, I sure wish we had a Trader Joe’s around here!)