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. For a limited time, they've collaborated with Chrissy Teigen to offer one of the meals from her book Cravings to the menu each week!
This is a review of the 2-person, 3-meal 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! In addition to their standard 2-Person subscription plan, Blue Apron also offers a Family Plan that features kid-friendly recipes and family-style meals for four.
My Subscription Addiction paid for this box. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)
About Blue Apron
The Subscription Box: Blue Apron
The Cost: You can choose from a 2 person plan or a family plan:
For the 2 person plan, it's $47.95 ($9.99 per serving + $7.99 shipping) for 2 meals per week or $59.94 ($9.99 per serving + FREE shipping) for the 3 meals per week.
Family plans start at $79.92 ($9.99 per serving + FREE shipping) for the 2 meals per week, $107.88 ($8.99 per serving + FREE shipping) for 3 meals per week, or $143.84 ($8.99 per serving + FREE shipping) for 4 meals per week.
COUPON New customers, save $50 off your first two boxes! No code needed, just use this link
The Products: Fresh ingredients and recipes to make healthy meals at home.
Ships to: U.S. only
Blue Apron + Chrissy Teigen Review
For six weeks, Blue Apron has teamed up with model, food enthusiast, and Twitter darling Chrissy Teigen to bring some of the recipes from her cookbook, Cravings, to their menu. When you sign up or log in to your account, you'll find one of Chrissy's recipes available each week so you can feel a little closer to her and her family as you follow her life on Instagram.
Time to dig into the box!
On the inside of the box you'll see that Blue Apron really cares about sustainability, high-quality produce, responsibly raised meats, the success of smaller farmers, and reducing food waste—all important factors to consider when choosing a meal kit subscription. You'll see the recipe cards right on top when you first open your box.
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Blue Apron ingredients come packaged in a big silver cooler 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.
A lot of the ingredients come in packed in labeled bags, but you have to check out the recipe cards to know which meal they go to. Smaller items like butter or sauces come in a *newly updated plastic* "knick knack" bag so they don't get lost in the shuffle, and those are labeled with the corresponding meal name as well. I'm actually pretty stoked that they switched to plastic from brown paper because there was often leakage that got all over everything. The plastic bags are the same as the larger ingredients come in and recyclable as well.
Are you ready to see the recipes? Let's dig in!
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Chrissy Teigen's Chinese Chicken Salad with Crispy Wonton Noodles
Calories per Serving (as prepared): 700 calories
Total Time According to Blue Apron: 30-40 minutes
Actual Time: 45 minutes
My first recipe is, of course, the Chrissy Teigen meal featured this week: Chinese Chicken Salad with Crispy Wonton Noodles! I don't normally go for salads, but this one looked super tasty and I'm interested to see how the different textures collide.
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All the ingredients neatly packaged.
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After preheating the oven, I got to work slicing the veggies. There is not one, but two kinds of cabbage to chop for the salad base!
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I peeled and then grated the carrots. I have to say that grating is probably my least favorite step in prepping, but it's clearly the only way to have it super fresh! This certainly took some time and made me wish I had a helper in the kitchen.
Here are the prepped veggies, awaiting further instructions.
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I chopped up this whole shallot but will need to remember that I only need 2 tablespoons for the recipe. Then, I sliced and separated the white bottoms of the scallion from the green tops to use at different times.
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I then laid the fresh wonton noodles out in a single layer on a baking sheet and drizzled them with olive oil, and added some salt and pepper. I made sure those noodles were nice n' coated by tossing them gently with my hands. Next, it was time for them to go into the oven for 10 minutes (stirring halfway through).
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The chicken was next up! I patted them dry and seasoned both sides with salt and pepper before adding them to a hot pan of oil. They cooked for about 6 minutes per side. Can you hear them sizzle?
They were then transferred to the cutting board to take a quick cat nap.
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While those chicken culets rested, I turned my attention to making the sauce by adding the chopped garlic, and sliced white bottoms of scallions to the pan (fond included) with a little more oil, plus some salt and pepper. I added the vinegar, and things really started heating up. The soy sauce, sesame oil, honey, and most of the sambal oelek followed.
As you can see, my sauce is quite a bit darker than it should be because I was so busy squeezing packets that I wasn't paying attention to how high my heat was! I normally use non-stick pans so this stainless one heats differently and I was a little out of my element. Live and learn, folx!
With the sauce finished, I just needed to slice the chicken and mix everything up in the bowl of veggies together!
Voila! I feel just like Chrissy (only a lot shorter)!
I piled the sauced chicken salad onto a plate and then topped it with the crispy wonton noodles and some scallions for a pop of color. Even though I didn't perfect the sauce, this was still quite tasty and the crispy wontons really brought a fun element to the table. This made a HUGE amount of food that was really more than 2 servings if you ask me.
Here I am, doing my best Chrissy impersonation waiting for her husband, John Legend😍, to join me.
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Cajun Shrimp Tacos with Marinated Vegetables & Cotija Cheese
Calories per Serving (as prepared): 520 calories
Total Time According to Blue Apron: 30-40 minutes
Actual Time: 40 minutes
The other (non-Teigen) recipe I chose was this yummy-looking cajun shrimp taco meal!
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Everything I needed, all neatly packed. For this recipe, Blue Apron is getting their summer grilling on, so they recommend cooking the shrimp in a pan or on the grill. I thought I'd meet in the middle and use my grill pan!
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Hellooooo sweet peppers! Look at all of that color! Everyone went into a bowl with the cherry tomatoes I also halved with half of the vinegar to marinate. I intermittently stirred this while prepping the other items as well.
Slicy slice slice. I love celery!
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More carrot peeling happened for this recipe. And more of my... favorite... grating! 😖
I may not be able to pronounce "piquante", but I chopped these cute little peppers up pretty well.
The celery, white scallions, carrots, piquante peppers, and remaining vinegar was all mixed together with mayo and some salt and pepper in a bowl to create the slaw that will be paired with the tacos on the side.
Enter: scrimps.
After patting those shrimpies dry, I added about half of the cajun seasoning packet to them and made sure they were well-coated.
I had my grill pan heating up (with some oil) for about 10 minutes prior to this to ensure it was nice n' hot. See that sweet sizzle as I place the shrimp in there?
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After three minutes, I flipped them to cook for another three. Look at those gorgeous grill lines! Once they were opaque and fully cooked, I transferred them to a cutting board where I could cut off the tails.
The last step was to warm the tortillas! I decided to also do this in my grill pan (as opposed to the microwave or outdoor grill instructions that Blue Apron provided). Once again: beautiful coloring!
Time to plate! Shrimp goes first.
Then the marinated tomatoes, and sweet peppers...
And finally, channel a slightly outdated meme to garnish with green scallion (and cotija cheese) so you can show off your cool taco tattoo.
Awwww yes. Look at these colorful tacos and matching slaw!
These were superb! I think using the cast iron grill pan was definitely the way to go on these, and everything was quite simple. These tacos were light and flavorful. Truly a perfect summer meal! I don't even love slaw that much, but this one was really tasty and not too heavy.
Verdict: The Blue Apron recipes I chose this month were both perfect for summer and I was so excited to try out one of Chrissy Teigen's meals! I feel closer to her and am intrigued to take a closer look at her cookbook (she also has a new one coming out later this year) as well as her future Blue Apron recipes!
To Wrap Up:
Can you still get this box if you sign up today? Sadly the cutoff for this meal was a while ago but you can sign up now to receive her week 5 meal: Chipotle-Lime Chicken Fajitas with Mushrooms, Monterey Jack, & Crema or week 6 meal: Pork Banh Mi Sandwiches with Pickled Cucumbers & Carrots! 🤤
DEAL – New customers, save $50 off your first two boxes! No code needed, just use this link
Value Breakdown: At $47.95 ($9.99 per serving + $7.99 shipping), you're paying $11.99 per serving.
Check out all of our Blue Apron Reviews and find other meal boxes in the Meal Subscription Box Directory!
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What do you think of the Blue Apron collaboration with Chrissy Teigen this week?
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