Blue Apron Review

As I talked about last month I have decided this is the year I am finally going to try out all those meal prep delivery services that I am always hearing about. I love to cook but sometimes I find myself cooking the same things or the same types of things over and over again. In January I tried 3 weeks of Blue Apron and since each week they send you 3 meals I got to try 9 different dishes. I will talk about each meal I was sent and then I will talk about my experience as a whole.

The first meal I got was Spicy Korean Rice Cakes with Yu Choy and Soft Boiled Eggs. These were delicious.  I had never had Korean rice cakes and had never cooked a soft boiled egg so in addition to be delicious it took me out of my comfort zone.

The second recipe I made was a Roasted Sweet Potato Quesidilla with an Arugula Salad. This meal was also delicious.  I was given a whole sweet potato for this dish and there was no way the whole thing was going to fit in the two tortillas they gave me so I had lots left to just eat by themselves. This one was also delicious.

A Spinach and Mushroom Calzone was the last meal I cooked the first week.  This one was good but actually my least favorite of the week.  It made 3 servings so I had leftovers which was kind nice but the leftover calzone got kind of soggy in the microwave.

My second week started with Za'atar-Roasted Broccoli Salad. This dish was fantastic. I don't normally like broccoli but I discovered I actually like roasted broccoli so that was a win.

This was Indonesian Spiced Salmon with a marinated radish. This was the one dish I really just didn't like very much. I don't eat cooked salmon much but I thought it was because I just don't cook fish very much. I think I just don't like it much. I also wasn't a fan of the marinated radish that also had raw red onions in it. Bad breath city!

This Beet, Goat Cheese and Poppy Seed Fehttuchini was another one of my favorite dishes from Blue Apron. I know I like beets but they are not something I cook with too often and I love pasta so it was great to be able to cook something I make all the time with something I don't make but like. I have actually taken this recipe, altered it just and bit and made it again since I received it that week. 

This was Beef Tacos with a Radish Salsa and Roasted Sweet Potatoes. This was a good dish and while I am all for cheese with pretty much everything the sweet potatoes would have been just as good with the pepper sauce and not adding the cheese. If I made this again I would leave off the cheese to save a few calories.

Orange and Mirin Glazed Cod was my second meal in my third week. The cod, the sauce and the bed of barley it was all sitting on was delicious but this confirmed that I just don't like sautéed broccoli that much. I ate some of the broccoli but ended up eating around most of it.

This was West African Peanut Stew and while it was good it was nothing too exciting. The sauce was not quite as thick as I would have like it to be and just ended up all over the plate.












Overall I like my meals I got from Blue Apron. I can't compare them to any other companies yet since they were the first ones I tried so my pros and cons may be a little short this month. Come back next month when I have tried my second delivery service (Hello Fresh) and actually have something to compare to.

Pro:

• It was nice to only have the ingredients I needed for a recipe and not to have to buy a whole bottle of something I will only use once.
• Made me cook things out of my comfort zone and use ingredients I don't normally use.

Cons:

• When you go on the Blue Apron website to choose which 3 of the 6 meals they offer each week you can't choose any 3 you want.  If you choose certain recipes it doesn't allow you to choose certain other ones.  It looks like you can choose all 3 vegetarian or all 3 non-vegetarian but if you want to choose a mix of vegetarian and non-vegetarian you are limited as to combination. This limit was part of the reason one week I ended up all vegetarian and one week I ended up all meat.

Let me know if anyone has an tips on other meal delivery services I should try and I will be back next month to review my 3 weeks of Hello Fresh.