What's Cooking Wednesday: Blue Apron

A couple weeks ago a friend of mine posted on Facebook that she had some free offers to Blue Apron and would love to share them. I messaged her and she sent the offer over to me. I had always considered trying a meal kit service, but never taken the plunge.

I figured with a free offer, even if I have to pay a small amount, it's worth the try. I signed up, didn't pay a dime, and received two four-serving meals on that upcoming Saturday. The value of the two meals through this service was a little over $70 - which breaks down to $35 a meal (that's about $9/person/meal). 

My box arrived that following Saturday morning. I jumped onto my Instagram Stories and shared a small "unboxing" of the two meal kits. Everything came in an insulated wrap - all the ingredients were packaged individually and labeled with the corresponding recipe. All the fresh ingredients were on the top of the packaging and all the meat was on the bottom with ice packs - and separated by cardboard from the fresh produce. The packaging was thought out and done appropriately to keep the meat separated and to ensure softer items are crushed. 

The first recipe I cooked was on Monday - BBQ Pork Burgers with Roasted Potatoes. The recipe was thorough and detailed. Definitely easy enough to follow for anyone of decent skill level in the kitchen. It took the appropriate amount of time described and dinner was ready. And basically, up until I ate the burger, I was pleased. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't impressive either. Honestly, the burger was just a sausage patty that lacked flavor. I had to lather the bbq sauce on to make it tasty. The kit also included a slaw that was just cabbage, peppers, and mayo - I love a good slaw, but this one was awful. And somehow, even the roasted potatoes weren't good enough for me to go back for seconds. 

It wasn't exactly kid-friendly either. They ate the potatoes, but didn't touch the burger or slaw - and my girls typically will eat what they are given. So at this point, I was disappointed, but since I had another meal kit to try out, I stayed open minded. 

Tonight, I cooked the Shanghai Stir Fry. Again, instructions were thorough and straight forward. Prep and cook time weren't too consuming - and I appreciated that the chicken was already diced up. I enjoyed this meal much more that the burger, but it still wasn't overwhelmingly great. It could have had more flavor for a stir fry - I actually added a little soy sauce to my bowl. It just needed something. I'm confident there are stir fry recipes out there that are comprable with the prep and cooking, but are much tastier. My girls did like the chicken a lot!

I hate to be a Negative Nancy with all of this, but I just wasn't as impressed as I hoped to be - and honestly, the best thing going for this experience was that I didn't have to go to the grocery store (or measure out ingredients!). That I greatly appreciated, but with all the grocery pick-up options available, it's just as easy to pick a recipe, order ingredients through a grocery pick-up service, and you're pretty much doing the same thing - for a lot less. 

Wrapping this up, I love the idea of a meal kit delivery service - it can make putting dinner on the table a lot easier in some aspects; however, any time you're cooking a new meal, things typically go a bit slower. I did like that everything was straight forward and easy enough for the beginner chef of the house. I honestly just want a good meal when I sit down for dinner - one of the meals was good and the other was not. Because of this, I'm hesitant to try it again because it's a toss up if the next box will have good meals that my whole family will eat. 

I also wish there were more options for selecting the recipes being delivered. When I took a look at my other meal choices for this week and next, there were only two other options. Four options for one meal a week is great, but when you're ordering two, it can get a bit tricky if you're tying to please four different people with limited options - and not to mention you're paying about $9 for each meal. 

Honestly, for a $35 meal, I'd rather pick up a nice take-out dinner that's already cooked. I'm not saying I will never try this type of subscription/service again and if you have a friend that has a free coupon for you to try out a couple meals - definitely give it a try! You might love it!

If anything, I realized I need to start using the grocery pick up service offered at different grocery stores. It was the BEST thing to have ingredients at the house and not even step foot in the store! 

I'm curious if anyone has tried Blue Apron or tried other meal kit service companies and loved or hated them?