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Blue Apron Subscription Box Review + Coupon – September 2017

Marne Orenich
ByMarne OrenichSep 5, 2017 | 7 comments

Blue Apron
4.5 overall rating
27 Ratings | 18 Reviews

Blue Apron is a subscription meal delivery service. Every week, they send seasonal recipes created by their culinary team and the pre-measured ingredients you need to make them at home.

Check out all of our reviews of Meal Delivery Services to see every meal kit subscription box option!

Blue Apron really cares about sustainability, high-quality produce, responsibly raised meats, the success of smaller farmers, and reducing food waste—which is all important to consider when choosing a meal kit subscription to go with.

Blue Apron ingredients come packaged inside a big silver bag that's a lot like bubble wrap. Along with the plastic-wrapped ice packs in the box, the bubble wrap bag keeps the ingredients cool while they travel.

In addition to their standard 2-Person subscription plan, which features three weekly seasonally-inspired meals for two, Blue Apron also offers a Family Plan that features kid-friendly recipes and family-style meals for four.

This is a review of the 2-Person subscription plan ($9.99 per serving, or $59.94 per week). I normally cook for myself, but having meal kits delivered to my home has given me a way to lure friends over to help and enjoy the recipes with me. It's so much more fun with a buddy if you can spare one. No buddies? You'll have some leftovers then, so this doubles your value!

My Subscription Addiction pays for this subscription. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)

The Subscription Box: Blue Apron

The Cost: $59.94 for 3 recipes on the 2-Person Plan, $69.92 for 2 recipes on the Family Plan, $139.84 for 4 recipes on the Family Plan.

The Products: Fresh ingredients and recipes to make healthy meals at home.

Ships to: U.S.

Check out all of our Blue Apron Reviews and find other meal boxes in the Meal Subscription Box Directory!

Keep Track of Your Subscriptions: Add this box to your subscription list or wishlist!

Blue Apron is partnering with MasterChef to bring five weeks of recipes that come straight from the show. Each week (between 8/24 - 9/21), they reveal a MasterChef recipe as one of your choices. If you order one as one of your meal choices, you'll be entered to win a seven-day getaway cruise.

They also include "Extra Helpings" which has extra tips n tricks to cook better! This particular week they talk about blistering and charring. I've used my gas stove burners to char peppers and tortillas, so I think this is a great tip!

Now on to the recipes!

When you receive your box, it will come with all of your different meal ingredients jumbled together. They are labeled by meal though, and they group smaller "knick knacks" together per recipe.

Seared Steaks & Thyme Pan Sauce

Calories per Serving (as prepared): 650

Total Time According to Blue Apron: 35-45 minutes

Actual Time: 45 minutes

This is a perfect meal for me! I love the classics, so if you offer up a steak with mashed potatoes and green beans, I will be pleased as pie.

The step-by-step instructions are always clear and easy to follow. They have photos to help as well.

Blanching and shocking produce is something I've never done before, so this was a whole new world (and a reason I love meal kits). I boiled the green beans for only 3 minutes before then thrusting them into an icy salted bowl of water. Here they are in their chilly bath.

I wondered why I would opt to cook veggies this way, and apparently, it allows you to partially cook vegetables and cool them quickly so they retain their crunch. I'm in!

After the green beans literally chilled, I tossed them with some of the vinegar, some olive oil, and salt and pepper. Look at them, huddled together for warmth. I'm sorry my little friends!

My boyfriend Tom happened to be my helper and dinner guest this evening, so I put him in charge of making the crispy shallots. Here, he was coating the sliced shallots with flour, salt, and pepper before they went into the frying pan.

Next, he threw them into a pan with some olive oil to fry 'em up. It only took about five minutes.

By this time, I had turned my attention to the steaks. Just some salt and peppering here.

I like them on the medium to rare side (as does Tom), so I cooked them for four minutes on each side. Once they were done, we left the fond (or leftover browned bits) in the pan for the sauce.

By this time, the potatoes and garlic that had been boiling in a pot were ready to get smashed up and have crème fraîche added. I think Tom did an excellent job here. I even let him take the picture. 😉 

The last thing to do was make the thyme pan sauce. Tom added the rest of the garlic and the whole thyme sprigs until fragrant (that's my favorite cooking direction, btw). He then added some water, the rest of the vinegar, and the pat of butter. This smelled glorious. All you have to do at this point is remove the thyme springs and garlic, and you're done!

We then sliced the steaks against the grain and plated the meal! Sadly there was no daylight left, so I had to work with my horrible indoor lighting. The sauce went over the meat and potatoes, and the crispy shallots went on top of the green beans.

The beef was SO so buttery and delicious. We cooked it perfectly. The mashed potatoes were creamy but chunky, and the sauce was divine. It was interesting to eat the green beans cold, but I did like that they were still nice and crunchy instead of soggy like they can be if I steam them too long. Fantastic meal all around!

Next up, this Spicy Summer Vegetable Curry! I was a little overwhelmed by the number of ingredients, but most of the work was in prepping all the veggies.

Spicy Summer Vegetable Curry

Calories per Serving (as prepared): 580

Total Time According to Blue Apron: 35-45 minutes

Actual Time: 35 minutes

I really enjoy coconut milk, and curries in general, so this was an exciting meal to make at home!

I had my friend Nicole over to eat this, and she was super excited when she came in to find me already cooking. Her first words were "it smells so good in here!".

Marne is my name and toasting coconut is my game.

Side story: One time I was visiting a friend in the hospital and asked what she wanted from Whole Foods to eat (she's vegan which means there was close to nothing for her to eat at the hospital). I swear to gosh that she asked for a coconut (among other things) and when I presented her with it, she made fun of me for a straight 20 minutes. Laughing and asking "What the heck am I going to do with a whole coconut in the hospital?!". Well, look. I don't know, but far be it for me to deny my sick friend a darned coconut! I took it home, determined to make lemonade out of lemons (or in this case macaroons out of a coconut). I looked up a recipe online and got to work. It took me probably close to two hours to crack that baby open, and shred BY HAND to have enough shaved coconut to then toast. The result was some of the best macaroons I've ever eaten, but I will never do that again. Lucky for me, Blue Apron delivered already shredded coconut and I toasted it on the stovetop.

Here begins a favorite way to make a meal. Just throwing a ton of stuff into a huge pan in various stages. This time we started with the mushrooms and eggplant, then added the corn, pepper, and garlic. I love all of those things!!

After they all cooked together for a while, and probably caught each other up on their lives, I drown them in coconut milk.

Then added the golden mountain sauce, lime leaf, and as much as the curry paste as I liked (read: all of the curry paste).

Unbenounced to all of you, I was secretly cooking rice this whole time. When it was done, I added cilantro (plus, some salt and pepper) to it.

I removed the lime leaf from the curry, squeezed in half a lime, and it was time to plate (or bowl, as it were) our meal! The toasted coconut I made earlier went on top, as well as some fresh mint.

This was the perfect curry for the end of the summer! Nicole and I enjoyed this on my porch with a cocktail (Sage (RIP) + mint limeade + ginger beer) on my porch while puffy clouds drifted by in the sky. The mix of the spicy curry and vegetables, and the fresh mint and lime was just wonderful. I could see myself making this on my own without the help of Blue Apron because it was quite simple!

Verdict: I thoroughly enjoyed my Blue Apron recipes this month! I got a nice heavy meat n potatoes meal as well as a light summery curry, so I feel like I got the best of both worlds. Both were a cinch to prepare, and I learned how to blanch and shock vegetables! They are still one of the best-priced meal kits at $9.99 per person per serving and I'm coming around to them after a rocky start

What did you get from Blue Apron this week

Starting at $60.95
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Blue Apron (starting at $47.95 per week) is one of the most well-known meal kit delivery service subscription boxes. Blue Apron creates bistro-inspired recipes (for 2 or 4 people) and sends members the pre-portioned ingredients and easy-to-follow instructions they need to complete up to 4 of them... read more.

Marne Orenich
Marne Orenich
Marne is a lipstick connoisseur, record collector, and twice over cat mom. She loves discovering new clean beauty brands and has quite the collection of beautifully packaged serums and moisturizers.

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7 comments

JacLyn

haha I loved your coconut story! 🙂 Btw, doesn’t Blue Apron give you three meals?

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Michele

Blue Apron is getting shoddy in its packing of meals and even delivery. My last 4 deliveries were all missing items, then I had moldy produce & the last box took 5 days to arrive because someone messed up down there with the shipping label.

Yes, they refund and give you credit, but that doesn’t help when you have planned meals around this service. I am about to get rid of them if they don’t improve.

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Alex

Most fun review and the mealslook delicious.

The whole coconut! Hahaha you are a great friend for making her the macaroons 😊

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Marne

Oh, I ate them all. I don’t think they were vegan. Hahaha!

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Cynm

I love Blue Apron!!

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Kc

I love your sense of humor. Fun review.

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Marne

Thanks Kc!

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