Blue Apron is a subscription meal delivery service. Every week, they send seasonally inspired 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.
COUPON: New customers, save $50 over your first two boxes! No code needed, just sign up here!
The Products: Fresh ingredients and recipes to make healthy meals at home.
Ships to: U.S. only
Blue Apron August 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.
Now that it's getting hot outside, they've reconfigured how they pack their boxes. That's something I can appreciate!
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 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.
If you get recipes with meat, you'll always find it at the very bottom of the box, up against more ice packs to keep them extra chilly.
Are you ready to see the food? Let's dig in!
Mexican-Spiced Salmon & Green Beans with Corn on the Cob
Calories per Serving (as prepared): 620 calories
Total Time According to Blue Apron: 20-30 minutes
Actual Time: 30 minutes
I totally forgot to choose my recipes this week, but Blue Apron will always suggest ones automatically based on how you rated past meals. They must know how much I love salmon!
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 other side of the recipe card has step by step instructions and photos, all in the correct order you'll need to get this meal prepared in the least amount of time!
After prepping all the veggies, I patted the salmon fillets dry and heavily seasoned both sides with the Mexican spice included, as well as salt and pepper.
They went into my trusty non-stick pan, flesh-side down to start for 5 minutes.
While they cooked, I quickly whipped up the lime cream for the corn which was just sour cream and the juice from two lime wedges (plus, salt + pepper). It was a little thinner than I was imagining, so next time I may start with one lime wedge and slowly add more.
I then flipped the salmon to cook on the other side for an additional 4 minutes.
Once the salmon was cooked, I set them aside and used the same pan (without cleaning) for the green beans. I added 2 tablespoons of water, salt + pepper, and loosely covered them with foil to cook for 5 minutes.
I then turned the heat off and added the peppers. Love these two together!
By this time, the corn I had been boiling for a mere 3 minutes was also done.
Everything was plated and the lime crema topped the corn cob (and salmon), along with a dusting of the leftover Mexican spice and cotija cheese.
This was super delicious! I couldn't believe how quickly this was done, and it was soooo simple! It was also great to not have to use my oven. I really love corn prepared this way and now that I've made it, I know how easy it is to make!
Verdict: Blue Apron chose my meals for me this time since I forgot to check and set the recipes myself. They ended up picking a salmon and corn dish that was right up my alley! I loved the lime crema, as always, and learned how to prepare the Mexican-style corn that I have always found tasty. At 30 minutes, this was a quick meal to make on a weeknight after work.
I also received a vegetarian ramen bowl recipe this week. While it was also quick to prepare, I sadly overcooked my noodles by mistake. I did love the marinated cucumbers that were featured in this recipe– and I learned how important it is to follow the directions and rinse your noodles in cool water after cooking!
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 over 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?
