A Blue Apron Review

I spend most of my day at work sitting at my computer listening to podcasts while I work.  It helps me drowned out the office chatter and I enjoy hearing people having real conversations in a long format.  One of my favorites is Joe Rogan, though his are so long and intense that I often just save them for long car rides.  Since Rogan has provided me with so much free entertainment, I decided to show him some love and check out one of his sponsors, Blue Apron.  Here is what I thought.

Blue Apron is a food delivery service that provides weekly deliveries of fresh ingredients and supplies for you to cook meals at home.  And when I say supplies, I mean supplies.  Everything from the meat to the skewers are provided, along with detailed instructions on how to make the meals.  You can pick between Thursday or Friday delivery and you can skip any week you don’t want delivery.  So far we have received one box and are on hiatus until we have more time free on the weekend to cook.   

 

It’s possible to pick the number of meals too; each meal is $9.99 per person, with shipping included.  The meals are between 500-700 calories and there is a set menu each week.  Our first shipment had salmon, chicken and beef recipes, each with a side too.  All the material comes packed in a box with icepacks to keep it fresh and

Meal one, pictured above, was chicken sate with peanut sauce & marinated green tomatoes.  This was the best of the three in my opinion.  The chicken in peanut sauce was amazing and the green tomatoes added a crunch I wouldn’t have thought of.  The creative sides were a nice change from the usual “fixins” we make along with our main courses.  I think it would have benefited from a little cabbage too but a very good meal.

Meal number two was rice and beef-stuffed Poblano peppers with lime-crema sauce.  This too was a very good meal and pretty easy to prepare.  I thought it would be lacking without an additional side however it made enough extra rice to have a side serving of the pepper stuffing.  It left my wife and I quite full.  The pepper was good but the star of the meal was the sauce.  It was very fresh and very tasty and really brought the meal together.

Our final meal was pan-seared salmon with fennel and heirloom potato salad.  It was another good meal but not my favorite.  The salmon was great, especially with our addition of some capers, but I wasn’t too keen on the fennel fronds being turned into a salad.  I think it’s more of an acquired taste.  The fresh mustard spread for the potato salad was really good though.

In the end I really enjoyed the service that Blue Apron provided.  We probably won’t use it regularly since we are pretty cheap when it comes to grocery shopping but I can foresee getting a delivery every couple of months to get some new recipe ideas and save time grocery shopping.  We enjoyed not only the fine ingredients and the service but also taking the time to cook together and try out new foods.  After all a happy home is often a home of full stomachs.  

Geno must have smelled the salmon.