*This post may contain affiliate links which means I earn a small commission if you purchase something by clicking my link, at no cost to you. Thank you!
I love to cook and plan meals. After seeing many ads for Blue Apron I was intrigued about the fresh ingredient and recipe delivery service but still not sold. I do my own menu planning (See my Weekly Menus Here) so I wasn’t sure how the service would fit into my planning. Finally one of my friends sold me on the idea of giving it a try and gave me a coupon for $30 Off my 1st Order. So I worked it into my menu plan and gave it a try. Here’s my Blue Apron Review from a busy mom’s perspective.
Blue Apron Review
Signing Up
Signing up for Blue Apron was quite simple. You simply go to their website and either enter your email address and a password or sign-in through Facebook.
From there select either the 2 Person or Family Plan. The 2 Person Plan sends you ingredients and recipes for 3 meals (each serves 2) a week and is $59.94/week. With the Family Plan you can select either 2 or 4 meals (each serves 4) a week. The 2 meal plan is $69.92 and the 4 meal plan is $139.84. Shipping is included or as they say FREE.
Depending on the plan you choose you can change your dietary preference if you’d prefer not to receive certain meats. From there you enter your delivery and billing information. When you sign-up you are automatically signing up to receive meals every week. You can choose to skip weeks, which I immediately went in and did except for the week I wanted to try it out. You can also cancel at any time. Once you’ve selected the week & delivery day for your 1st delivery you can pick which meals you would like. There are about 4-6 meal choices to choose from each week.
Delivery
Your ingredients ship right to your front door in a card board box packed with a thermal foil bubble wrap and ice packs. When I got to my box everything was still very cold.
What’s in the Box
Your Blue Apron box is filled with all the fresh ingredients you need and simple recipe cards with step by step instructions.
Cooking with Blue Apron
The recipes took about 45-60 minutes to cook. The instructions were divided into 6 steps and very easy to follow. I noticed there are also video tutorials on the Blue Apron website to help you as well.
Results
Blue Apron- Pan Seared Barramundi with Potatoes and Spinach
Blue Apron – Seared Chicken with Brown Rice and Glazed Carrots
Both meals turned out great and were delicious. The evidence: 3 Clean Plates.
Clean Plate – A sign of a delicious meal
Thoughts
I really like the fact that Blue Apron works to source high quality ingredients from family-farms. Many of their ingredients are organic and they work with farmers and ranchers who raise animals without added hormones. I like that the meal selections are healthy and include ingredients like spinach and kale that I wouldn’t normally put on the menu but are super good for you. I also like that you have just the right amount of each ingredient so there is no food waste. I’ve made meals before that call for special ingredients or oils that get used once then go to waste, so it’s nice to have just what you need.
I didn’t like how long the meals took to put together. I love to cook but during the week I don’t have or feel like spending an hour to put together a meal. If they had 30 minute meals I’d be all in. Also, a number of the meals don’t really appeal to me but I did love the ones we got. And while I like having just the right amount of ingredients there were some I wished I had more of like the glazed carrots. I guess that helps with portion control though.
Blue Apron is a great idea for people looking to expand their cooking horizons and who would like to learn how to cook restaurant quality meals with fresh, unique ingredients. I think it would be a fun date night idea. You can even sign up to have wine delivered with your meal.
If you’d like to give Blue Apron a try use my Referral Link for $30 Off your 1st order.