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October 22, 2015 (Updated March 9, 2023)

5 Reasons Why We Love Blue Apron

by Anne Mauney, MPH, RD

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Thank you to Blue Apron for sponsoring this post!

As you guys know, Matt and I are huge Blue Apron fans. I’ve been partnering with them this year to share quarterly reviews (and I receive one free week as part of each blog review), but as of early this summer, Matt and I have been getting Blue Apron every single week outside of the partnership and paying for it ourselves. It’s safe to say we’re officially converts.

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Above recipe: Seared Chicken and Caramelized Fennel (loved this – we added the carrots)

That said, I thought for this quarter’s post it would be fun to share some reasons why we love it so much. Matt and I came up with this list together the other night while enjoying a Blue Apron dinner. 🙂

1) Less stress.

If you’ve missed my previous posts, Blue Apron is basically a way to make delicious meals at home – without the stress of meal planning and grocery shopping. This is SO huge for us because meal planning really stresses me out – and Matt doesn’t do any meal planning at all, so it’s usually all on me. As a result, Blue Apron means a ton less stress for both of us. Now I can just hit the grocery store quickly for staples/stuff we like to have on hand for breakfast/lunch/really fast dinners we already know how to make – rather than having to worry about finding new recipes and getting all sorts of random ingredients for them.

IMG_8632Above recipe: Pan Seared Salmon + Farro Salad with Brussels Sprouts and Apple

Each week we’re sent a menu of recipe options to choose from (there are six recipes per week, and they auto-assign you to receive 3 based on your selected dietary preferences but you can change it up if you want), and then all the fresh ingredients for the 3 meals arrive at your doorstep the next week in exactly the proportions you need. All you have to do is follow the instructions and cook! We love that it’s only 3 meals, too, since we travel a fair amount on weekends and on weeknights occasionally like winging it/making something quicker or going out and about.

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2) Makes cooking with a significant other more fun.

Matt and I enjoy cooking together – the part we didn’t enjoy was the planning/grocery shopping/standing in front of the fridge at 8 p.m. like “what should we make?” With Blue Apron, it’s easier because neither of us is the “keeper” of the dinner plans either – whoever gets home first knows they can easily grab Blue Apron ingredients from the fridge and start following the directions, and then whoever gets home last just joins in when they get there.

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3) Impress guests!

I love having my mom or a friend over for dinner on nights when Matt is out/busy and making a Blue Apron together. Cozy and fun to cook together, especially since it’s easy to follow the instructions. Just add cheese and crackers to snack on, music, and a little wine to the mix! 😉 Speaking of wine, I haven’t tried it yet, but Blue Apron just started offering wine pairings as an add-on option to your delivery! Totally want to check that out soon.

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A couple weeks ago, my mom came over and we made this (pictured below) Crispy Cajun Catfish with Dirty Rice + Spicy Remoulade. We both loved it!

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4) No random ingredients/bits left over.

When I make a recipe I find online/in a book, we always end up having random odds and ends left over – a bunch of this, a bit of that, half of another thing. Then I always feel bad worrying about wasting that stuff/not sure what to do with it. Not the case with Blue Apron! They send you exactly the ingredient quantities you need – no random remaining bits. We do generally have some leftovers of the whole meal, though, which is awesome – I make them into my lunch the next day a lot. (They claim to be 2 servings but often we find it’s more like 2.5 or 3.)

IMG_8582Pictured above: Southern-Style Chicken Cacciatore

5) Creative, unique meals.

When Matt and I wing it or cook on our own, we tend to make a lot of similar stuff just out of habit, so one thing we really love about Blue Apron is how different and creative the meals are compared to what we’d usually make. We made this delicious Za’atar Chicken and Farro Salad with Beets, Goat Cheese, and Pistachios last week – yummmm!

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This Spiced Turkey and Chickpea Chili was another one of my biggest faves recently, as was the chicken with caramelized fennel pictured first in this post!

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We also like that there’s some room for experimentation with the meals, though – Matt and I will sometimes add a little something to the recipes, especially if we have stuff on hand in the fridge that needs to get used up. The thing we add most often is more/extra veggies. 🙂

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So there you have it! The main reasons Blue Apron keeps us coming back every week on our own dime. We also love that there’s no commitment – you can cancel anytime – and you can pause/skip weeks anytime you need to, too. This is really helpful for us for travel!

One more thing: Blue Apron just launched a great recycling program! Thumbs up to that. We always recycle the packaging ourselves, but now you can actually send back your items (free of charge, and at no extra carbon footprint since USPS uses existing delivery routes) to them for recycling and reuse instead! You can read more about it here.

Have you guys tried Blue Apron yet? 🙂 Happy cooking!

- anne
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11 comments
  • Jamie October 22, 2015 · 11:59AM:
    I enjoyed Blue Apron too (thanks to your awesome promo code a few months back!). However, we have had many issue with the delivery service, Lasership. There were several times that it arrived the next day (spoiled food) or that it was never delivered at all. Sadly, after too many disappointments we had to cancel. Have you and Matt had any issues with Lasership that then got later resolved? I miss Blue Apron!
    Reply
    • Anne
      October 22, 2015 · 2:38PM:
      Really?! That's surprising! I don't know if it's just our area of the country or what, but we haven't had any problems at all with delivery. I'm sorry to hear you did! :(
      Reply
    • Liz
      October 23, 2015 · 1:56PM:
      I actually got my first Blue Apron delivery the last time from this blog, but I had issues too! Ours arrived on time, but the refrigerator pack wasn't sealed and some of our stuff didn't seem cold. Some of our veggies were already spoiling, and our pack was missing a few ingredients that were included on the cards. After reading other reviews, this seemed common... So we decided not to order again, especially since my husband wasn't impressed with the meals we did receive (I liked one meal out of three, but two were very plain, especially after having to leave the missing ingredients out).
      Reply
      • Anne
        October 23, 2015 · 2:42PM:
        I'm sorry you had a bad experience with it! We've been paying for the service on our own for months now every single week and have yet to have any delivery problems... fingers crossed we don't. I hope you told Blue Apron about the issues!
        Reply
  • Karin Carmack October 22, 2015 · 12:48PM:
    We used it for about a month. I have to admit I found a few of the recipes fairly cumbersome and time consuming on school nights with three kids. While I love the idea of chillin with a glass of wine and spending time cooking...on weeknights with varying schedules it just didn't work. Honestly after coming home from work and having to make sure homework is done, lunches are packed, house cleaned etc....I want something simple....like real simple. However, their customer service was excellent and they were very responsive. I did think it would be neat for them to create family friendly recipes that had a few less steps that you could cook with your kids. Even if they made the recipe cards more kids oriented as well. Also I thought it would have been neat if you could sign up for a program highlighting cuisines from different countries. They could send some info on the country and herbs/spices/meats that are popular and why there.
    Reply
    • Anne
      October 22, 2015 · 2:40PM:
      Great feedback and suggestions - thank you for sharing! We don't mind how long the recipes take to make (the grocery shopping/planning is the part we hate), but we also don't have to deal with getting three kids organized/to bed... :)
      Reply
    • Jen October 23, 2015 · 2:12PM:
      I really, really love these suggestions - did you actually write to blue apron and share them? If not, you should :) I think family friendly recipes would be a draw for adults who don't have an adventurous palate as well as kids. I know one struggle we have (we being me an SO - no kids haha) is that there is almost always something in every meal that is a bigger component that someone doesn't like: lentils, beets, etc. We try to pick and skip deliveries around the "yucky" ingredients lol
      Reply
      • Karin Carmack October 24, 2015 · 7:58AM:
        I did actually :-) Not sure they will follow up on any of the recs but we'll see. I also agree with the adventurous palate part. I will literally eat anything as long as it is not moving away from me. But there was always one person in the family that was like ehh not feeling this.
        Reply
  • Erin @ Her Heartland Soul
    October 22, 2015 · 10:14PM:
    I love Blue Apron!!
    Reply
  • Dani @ Dani California Cooks
    October 23, 2015 · 12:08AM:
    Dinner meal planning has been unsuccessful in my place too! I have staples for breakfast/lunch but I dunno, I haven't gotten the dinner meal planning down just yet.
    Reply
  • Ryhan April 7, 2019 · 3:26AM:
    Hi and thanks for sharing! I love the idea of finding creative ways to use up extra veggies in the fridge. I often use tofu simmered in soy/ terriyaki sauce with a touche of sweet chilli sauce, add some baby peas (in pods) bean sprouts and then whatever extra veggetables I have around...
    Reply
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anne mauney fannetastic food
Hi, I’m Anne! I'm a Washington D.C. based Registered Dietitian, mother, runner, and lover of travel, adventure, and the great outdoors. I've been blogging since 2009, sharing a mix of lifestyle content, recipes, and fitness tips. Come for the recipes – stay for the fun!
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anne mauney

I’m Anne, a Registered Dietitian and mother. I've been blogging since 2009 and love showing others that eating nutritious foods and staying active can actually be fun rather than overwhelming!

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