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November 13, 2014

Blue Apron Review + Free Meal Code

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Thank you to Blue Apron for sponsoring this post!

Have you guys heard of Blue Apron? It’s a nationwide company that sends a box of fresh, pre-portioned ingredients and accompanying recipes to your door every week. No grocery shopping, no meal planning, no searching for recipes – all you have to do is make it!

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You can get the deliveries whenever is convenient for you, and skip a week if you like – there’s no commitment. In terms of portion size, each week you order the ingredients for 3 meals, in either 2, 4, or 6 serving portions. You can also choose between the meat and fish (you can deselect fish or a specific kind of meat you don’t eat) or vegetarian plans; meals range from 500 to 700 calories (noted on the recipe card).

The following week’s menu is posted a week in advance so you can make sure the menu looks good before ordering. For our trial week, we received:

  • Blackened Chili-Dusted Chicken with Zucchini rice Pilaf & Corn-Tomato Salsa
  • Beef Meatloaf with Roasted Potatoes and Lemon-Horseradish Green Beans
  • Furikake-Topped Salmon with Fresh Edamame and Miso-Sesame Black Noodles

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Our meals came neatly packaged in a cardboard box lined with ice packs to keep the contents fresh and cold. The packaging is made from post-consumer waste and mostly recyclable material.

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In addition to the recipes, we also received an introductory letter with some cooking tips and details about that week’s meals, and a step-by-step color photo recipe card for each meal.

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Overall, we really loved Blue Apron and gave it two enthusiastic thumbs up. Some things we especially loved about it:

1) Convenience. Not having to grocery shop is amazing. The only thing they don’t include is olive oil, salt, and pepper! I also really love that you don’t have a ton of random leftover ingredients like you usually do with recipes – you only get exactly what you need.

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2) Taste. Each meal was absolutely delicious – it’s hard to pick a favorite, but maybe the salmon since it was so unique. The meatloaf rocked too, though. I kind of <3 meatloaf a lot and had never made it before at home!

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3) Creativity/getting out of our cooking comfort zone. I mean, furikake? I’d never even heard of that before this meal! So cool to try some different stuff and branch out a bit. Furikake, in case you are wondering, is apparently a commonplace seasoning in Japan – it’s a mix of seaweed, dried shiso leaf and sesame seeds. Yum!

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4) Learning some new tips and cooking skills. One of the things Matt and I both liked about Blue Apron compared to other similar services that we’re tried is that there was a focus on learning new skills. I really liked that Blue Apron added in explanations for why they had you doing certain things, like sautéing the onions and garlic before adding them to the meatloaf. Apparently you do this rather than adding them raw because if they were raw, the water would evaporate inside the meatloaf and steam it, making it fall apart and take longer to cook. Sautéing them first also mellows the garlic and partially caramelizes the onion. Such a good tip!

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5) Price. The meals start at $9.99/person/meal, which I thought was a good deal, especially given how much it would cost to buy all these ingredients separately, or to go out to a similar dinner in DC.

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There are only two things I’d like to see change about Blue Apron:

1) The recipe cards need to be laminated. Messy chefs (cough, cough, Matt) tend to get them wet, and since they were paper (thick/fancy paper, but still paper) they aren’t in the best shape now. We want to keep them for future reference to re-make our favorites!

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2) I would love to see an option to do less than 3 meals per week. I would prefer to get less meals but with extra servings (e.g. 2 meals per week with 4 servings each instead of 3 with only 2 servings each) so that we could enjoy leftovers and not have to cook 3 separate nights. The meals were definitely a bit involved – each of them probably took about an hour to prepare from start to finish, which isn’t always going to be something we want to do 3 nights out of the week. That said, Matt, the real chef of the family, enjoyed feeling like a kitchen wizard. 🙂

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Bottom line: would we sign up for/pay for this ourselves? Yes, absolutely, and in fact we already have! I receive their weekly newsletter with the upcoming meals so anytime the meals strike our fancy I’ll go for it. We purchased another round a few weeks ago and it was just as good! We especially loved the salmon dish – and Matt normally isn’t a huge salmon person, either.

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Thank you to Blue Apron for the opportunity to check them out! If you’re interested in trying them, the first 50 people to sign up using this affiliate link will get 2 free meals. They ship (for free) to over 85% of the country (here’s a full map of delivery zones). Enjoy!

- anne
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25 comments
  • Lauren @ The Bikini Experiment
    November 13, 2014 · 9:42AM:
    I have heard of Blue Apron, but I have not tried them out yet. Your meals looks wonderful!
    Reply
  • Lindsey @ Simply Lindsey
    November 13, 2014 · 9:50AM:
    The salmon recipe and sides look so good!! Maybe I'll give this a try soon! This would make such a great gift idea for Christmas.
    Reply
    • Anne
      November 13, 2014 · 10:10AM:
      It definitely would!
      Reply
  • Kirtley @ The Gist of Fit
    November 13, 2014 · 10:04AM:
    I've always been a little wary about ordering food but that stuff looks pretty fresh and awesome!
    Reply
    • Anne
      November 13, 2014 · 11:13AM:
      It was just as fresh as anything you'd get from the grocery store!
      Reply
  • Christina @ The Beautiful Balance
    November 13, 2014 · 11:59AM:
    Furikake is so good on pretty much everything! This is an awesome idea and I sent Blue Apron's link to my cousin who is super intimidated by cooking.
    Reply
    • Anne
      November 13, 2014 · 12:13PM:
      I need to find some furikake - is it mostly at Asian grocery stores? Or do places like Whole Foods have it?
      Reply
  • Dana | fresh simple five
    November 13, 2014 · 12:26PM:
    I've seen a few reviews of Blue Apron and now I really want to try it! Like you, I think I'd enjoy not having to plan for groceries/meals a few nights a week and it would be a great way to try new foods/seasonings.
    Reply
    • Anne
      November 13, 2014 · 1:59PM:
      Yeah, we really liked that the meals were so creative and unique - different from things we would normally make! Great to break out of a rut.
      Reply
  • Jojo @ Run Fast Eat Lots
    November 13, 2014 · 12:29PM:
    Those meals look really good! This is a great service for people who are just learning to cook.
    Reply
  • Alysia @ Slim Sanity
    November 13, 2014 · 1:37PM:
    Interesting! This looks better than some of the other food services I have seen out there. But on a different note...I really need to pick up some asparagus! Looks so good
    Reply
  • Erin @ Her Heartland Soul
    November 13, 2014 · 2:35PM:
    I'm sad I'm in that 15% of the country.. :( Come to Nebraska Blue Apron!
    Reply
    • Anne
      November 13, 2014 · 3:05PM:
      Awww, bummer! I'm sorry!
      Reply
  • Erin November 13, 2014 · 3:02PM:
    Hi Anne - Fellow Dickinson 2004 alum. I've used Blue Apron many times and my biggest complaint is that you can't pick and choose your meals like Plated. Also, my ingredients have not always been fresh - greens have been on the verge of spoiling and they sent me rotten russet potatoes, etc. I agree with your list of things to change. I usually put the recipe card in a plastic sleeve and then put it in my recipe binder for later use. It works great!
    Reply
    • Anne
      November 13, 2014 · 4:22PM:
      Great idea re: the plastic sleeve! And yay Dickinson. :)
      Reply
  • Alisha @ Real Girl Running
    November 13, 2014 · 5:21PM:
    I've been looking for a service like this in my area. Sometimes I wish I lived in the US! :) THe meals look amazing :)
    Reply
  • LeAnne @ Thisismyfaster!
    November 13, 2014 · 8:52PM:
    I've never heard of Blue Apron before but it looks like it would be a great plan. I agree that laminating the cards might come in handy (I tend to spill things....). Awesome post!
    Reply
  • Roadrunner November 14, 2014 · 3:37AM:
    That looks like a great concept!
    Reply
  • Mark February 9, 2015 · 1:52PM:
    I am a customer of Blue Apron and overall am Extremely satisfied with the service. I believe the service is best for people who like to cook, but either 1) going to the grocery store is very time consuming, 2) they never seem to have all the ingredients for a recipe, 3) they are getting "bored" with the same old recipes and foods and need some variety, 4) are tired of going out to eat and getting take-out, and/or 5) want to get exposed to new dishes, ingredients and recipes. The food is very good. Basically you can sign up for 3 meals a week, either with meats (or chicken, fish, etc.) or vegetarian. If you don't like a particular meat dish for example, you can substitute a vegetarian and vice versa. Sure, it would be great to have more choices, but as a business Blue Apron has to draw the line somewhere. More importantly, Blue Apron does NOT repeat recipes in a single year. That's a lot of variety. Each meal is about 700 calories, and comes for 2 people. While I'm single, I understand that the economics wouldn't work for only one person per meal -- because they ship a box with refrigeration (ice) etc. Recipes say they take about 30 minutes to cook. My experience is that because they're all new recipes for you, it probably takes 45 min. If you were to cook the same thing twice it would indeed be about 30 minutes. A key to why the service works at current prices is there's no waste. Supermarkets waste a huge (30-50%) amount of fresh product when they don't sell it. Blue Apron's waste in their factory is probably less than a few percent. Also -- you, the cook, has no waste. It all proportioned out for you, and perhaps a bit extra for things like an onion, garlic, etc. As far as cooking skills needed -- I'd say about a 5-6 out of 10. But if you're a total novice or just not a good cook, this service will surely increase your cooking skills. For total disclosure, my cooking skills are about an 8 of 10. AND -- I've learned some great pointers by following their recipes and cooking suggestions which have increased my cooking skill level. The very BEST story about Blue Apron I can sell you is about their customer service. My very first order had a problem. I emailed in the issue (which was including some wrong items). They got back to me very quickly, were very apologetic, and gave me the next week Free (a $60 value). That says a lot about this company. On their comment board, there are surely people who want pure organic, or gluten free, etc. As you can imagine, the overall company/service can't work for the majority if there are too many options. Some people complain about the waste in packaging -- yes, to keep things separate and fresh there is a lot of packaging. But what else can they do? Personally, I reuse some of the packaging for other things. But when you consider all the packaging in supermarkets, it's probably about the same except for the ice packs -- which they have to use. The good news is there's no plastic grocery bags, which is great.
    Reply
    • Anne
      February 9, 2015 · 2:41PM:
      Thanks for this great overview, Mark! Agree with your points!
      Reply
  • Elaine July 6, 2015 · 11:32PM:
    How do you go about getting their 1 week free trial??
    Reply
    • Anne
      July 7, 2015 · 9:30AM:
      I'm sorry, the link/code in this blog post is old and no longer valid!
      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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