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.
This is a review of the 2-person, 2-meal subscription plan ($9.99 per serving, or $47.95 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. You can now switch between 2 and 4 person meals easily with each delivery!
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 $71.92 ($8.99 per serving + FREE shipping) for the 2 meals per week, $95.88 ($7.99 per serving + FREE shipping) for 3 meals per week, or $119.84 ($7.49 per serving + FREE shipping) for 4 meals per week.
The Products: Fresh ingredients and recipes to make healthy meals at home.
Ships to: U.S. only
Blue Apron October 2018 Review
They recently redesigned their box to have a more traditional four flaps instead of a lid with two smaller flaps like before. The recipes are right on top and the first things you see as you open it up.
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 from Blue Apron come in bags, labeled, 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 *recently updated plastic* "knick knack" bag so they don't get lost in the shuffle, and those are labeled with the meals 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.
If you get recipes with meat, you'll always find it at the very bottom of the box, up against ice packs to keep them extra chilly.
Are you ready to see the recipes? Let's dig in!
Seared Chicken & Brown Rice Bowl with Kale, Beets, & Goat Cheese
Calories per Serving (as prepared): 800 calories
Total Time According to Blue Apron: 30 minutes
Actual Time: 35 minutes
The front of the recipe card has a nice plated photo, an overview of all the ingredients, and even suggests a wine pairing. There's also a short description of the dish, the number of servings, and total cook time.
The back of the card has step-by-step instructions on how to prepare the meal. If you go to their website, there are usually additional tips and videos as well.
After getting the water boiling for the rice, I turned my attention to the dressing for the kale. I whisked together the goat cheese, a drizzle of olive oil, and half the vinegar to make what you see above in a large bowl.
Then, I added the kale I had chopped up and mixed it to coat.
Next, I took the beet and chopped into small cubes on a paper towel to soak up all the juices.
Once the veggies were prepped, I took the chicken breasts and coated both sides with the spice blend along with salt + pepper.
About this time, my rice was done and I strained it and returned it to the pot.
I added the chicken to a hot pan (starting skin-side down) and cooked each side for 6 minutes until nice n brown. Normally I would use olive oil, but I had just run out and forgot to get more so I used an olive oil spray that I had on hand. It wasn't ideal but worked pretty well.
While the chicken cooked, I made the second dressing by whisking together the creamy mustard sauce, remaining vinegar, honey, and 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil (since I was out of the desired olive oil).
Half of the dressing was added to the cooked rice before plating.
Here we have the finished meal with the dressed kale, rice, beets, and sliced chicken.
This meal turned out really well but honestly just wasn't a taste I personally enjoyed. I liked the kale and rice but don't love beets and the spice used with the chicken wasn't my fave. My roommate ate the leftovers though and enjoyed it more than me, I think.
Pesto & Zucchini Paninis with Tangy Roasted Romanesco
Calories per Serving (as prepared): 590 calories
Total Time According to Blue Apron: 35 minutes
Actual Time: 35 minutes
Every now and again, I'll choose to make a sandwich for one of my recipes. I'm a huge pesto fan, so this one was irresistible.
Making sandwiches usually take less time and effort too which I can appreciate when I'm cooking for myself after work.
After slicing the zucchini, they were added to a pan that I sprayed with that same olive oil spray because wouldn't you know, I kept forgetting to buy more olive oil. Sheesh. Look at how brown and lovely they look after 3 minutes per side.
Once they were done, I sliced the rolls and slathered both sides with pesto. I then added a nice layer of zucchini slices, the included peppers that I had chopped up, and a bunch of parmesan cheese, plus salt + pepper. Here, I only made one since I was alone and saved the other for my roommate to make later.
A-ha! I had cauliflower in the oven this whole time! I chopped it all up and tossed it with (vegetable) oil and salt + pepper before laying it out in a single layer on a baking sheet. It was in the 450-degree oven for 20 minutes (the longest part of this recipe).
When I took it out, I tossed it with vinegar, remaining cheese, a drizzle of olive oil, and a ton of the garlic paste I made.
Now it's time to SMOOSH the panini! I placed it into a hot pan and then used my roommate's super heavy cast iron pan to press down on it for about 3 minutes per side. It mostly sat there, but every once in a while I'd give it an extra SQUISH.
Once the panini was toasty, it was ready to plate! Here is is cut diagonally with the cauliflower side. Did I smoosh it too much? One may think.
This panini was really really delicious! I thought the cauliflower was just ok. It was roasted well but I didn't love the vinegar taste of it. Next time, I'd maybe skip it or not use as much. I wouldn't think to use parmesan cheese in a sandwich like this since it isn't very melty, but it worked out well. I also really enjoyed the zucchini and pesto together! The best part was that I was a bit rushed for time making it to a movie, so I took the second half to go and ate it in the car.
Verdict: My Blue Apron meals this week were half & half for delighting my taste buds. The chicken with beets just wasn't my thing, but looked beautiful on a plate and the pesto panini was delicious but didn't look so pretty. Funny how that happens, right? Both were super simple to make though and beats me spending $30.00 on a Postmates to deliver me a meal or me eating something not very healthy in an effort to save time and money.
To Wrap Up:
Can you still get this box if you sign up today? Recipes change every week, so these are gone for now, but popular ones always come back in the future. Sign up today to choose for a whole new crop of meals.
Coupon – 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 recipes I got this week?
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