For those who don't know Blue Apron is a subscription service where you choose from a selection of meals and they send you the ingredients you need to make the meal.
We were gifted a tryout from a family member who LOVES it. The appeal is that you don't have to think about what to make, you pick a couple of selections from their menu, you get the ingredients in the mail and violia, no thinking required!! Winter had set in and our menus were getting pretty static so we decided to give them a go.
Getting Started
Our "sponsor" sent us a link to the Blue Apron site where we had to go and sign up for an account to get our free meal. This is their catch, to get the free account you basically need to sign up for Blue Apron. They have two different levels 2-person (2 portions) and Family (4 portions) that we had to select from, we entered our dietary requirements (would we eat fish, poultry, were we vegetarians, etc), we entered all our contact information and a Credit card and were good to go. As there are four of us we choose the family plan at about $70/shipment. At 8 meals (2 dinners x 4 portions) it came out to less than $10/person for the meal. Much less than dining out, but not quite as economical as shopping.
How it works
Each week they have 4 meals to choose from based on the preferences you selected when you entered your profile. For each shipment you receive you need to select two of the four meals to have delivered. They show you the meal options for about 4 weeks into the future that, by default, you are opted into receiving. They default you to two of the four meals and you need to log into your account (they have an app for your phone) to select your meals if you don't want the default or if you want to opt out of the meals for a week.
For instance this week our options are:
Sheet Pan BBQ Pork with Roasted Vegetables & Maple-Mustard Sauce(Default)
One-Pot Chicken Stir-Fry with Udon Noodles(Default)
Fig-Balsamic Chicken with Mashed Potatoes & Roasted Vegetables
Salmon Piccata with Garlic Rice and Roasted Broccoli
The Shipment
They pack 4 servings of both meals into a box that's about 24"x18"x18" and packed with frozen gel packs. I believe they ship via 2-day shipping and the packages arrived with the gel packs still frozen. The ingredients are divided up so that everything you need for each meal is are packaged individually and it's easy to sort out the ingredients for each meal. For instance if you need 2 TBS of flour they have a package that contains 2 TBS of flour, etc. All-in-all it's very convenient to just pull the ingredients for a menu out of the fridge and start making stuff. Also in the box are two 8.5 x 11 recipe cards that contain preparation instructions, along with pictures, for making the meals.
To be continued.....
In another post I'll let you know what I thought of the meals....
