Blue Apron Meal Review

As I mentioned earlier this week in my menu planner, my friend Whitney gifted me three free Blue Apron meals. You can pick the delivery day and we selected Tuesday. Around mid-day Tuesday this package showed up on our front door step. 

 Everything was neatly packaged and labeled inside this insulated cardboard box with a huge freezer ice pack. 

 Blue Apron recommends making the fish meal first so we prepared the Salmon Pastrami on Rye on Tuesday. 

 This was the favorite out of the three for both Michael and me. 

Next up on Wednesday, I served the Vietnamese Bun Chai. 

We both thought this meal was pretty good. Michael thought the meatballs lacked flavor but loved the noodles and bean sprouts. I, on the other hand, loved the meatballs but disliked the bean spouts and the consistency of the noodles. Go figure! 

 So last but not least, on Thursday, I served the Pan Seared Chicken. This was the meal we both were least excited about. 

And it turned out to be my second favorite out of the three. Michael isn't a fan of bone-in chicken but he loved the quinoa. I may try to re-create something similar as a side dish in future meals. 

Here's what we loved out the Blue Apron meals....
*All the ingredients were so fresh!
*I would have never made meals like these without Blue Apron because some of the ingredients are hard to find or you don't want to buy a huge amount for just one meal (ie thai basil, dried cherries, pistachios). This was a great way to try something outside of our "meal planning" box!
*It is nice to have everything measured and prepped for dinner. And there was minimal chopping...an added bonus!
*The instructions are very easy to follow with pictures.
*Most took less than 30 minutes of prep and cook time.

Really my only negative is the cost....I can't find the exact price on their website but I think it was around $55 for 3 meals for 2 people. And I am not sure that my grocery bill went down by $55 dollars this week...maybe $25 or $30. But there is a huge convenience factor to consider! I will say Michael is super thrifty and he said perhaps we could treat ourselves to this service one week a month! It was definitely fun to try (Thank you Whitney & Blue Apron)

Oh and Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Banner that I made last year! Still using it this year but with snow out my window! 

We are going out to Pearl to celebrate a couple birthdays tomorrow night so tonight we are staying in for Valentine's dinner. I plan to make veal saltimbocca and brussels sprouts as well as heart shaped brownie sundaes! Stay warm!