For this post, I’ve partnered with Blue Apron to bring you my review and be able to offer you a $60 discount over your first 3 boxes!
Now that I’ve been enjoying meals being delivered to my door by Blue Apron for a couple of months, I wanted share with you what I love about Blue Apron’s Menu and how it’s helped me stay excited about mealtimes at home.
You can read my full Blue Apron Review here.
For us, Blue Apron has been a full family affair -not something we order for the adults only- and has introduced my kids to new recipes at mealtimes.
To celebrate the release of Disney’s and Pixar’s new film, Soul, streaming now on Disney+, Blue Apron introduced four limited-time recipes (available to add to your order until January 8th!) my family and I have enjoyed. The meals are kid-friendly and always a great solution for dinner time.
But first, let me share a little bit with you on how Blue Apron works and how it’s helped me introduce new meals to my family without having to buy a lot of ingredients I’d only use once or twice. In this post, I also share photos of the Maple Miso Salmon from my most recent delivery.
How Blue Apron Works
The concept is simple: you start by selecting the number of servings you need delivered and then select your meals from a selection of photographed menu options.
What’s great is that you can select a few weeks ahead if needed and then plan other meals around what’s coming to your door. This is a terrific option for those bi-weekly meal planners!
Having a few Blue Apron meals delivered has made me a more efficient meal planner because I went from meal planning weekly to twice a month!
Plus, I can adjust my delivery day to a day that works for me. For example, I used to think I wanted meals to start my week by Monday but the thing is that a Wednesday delivery helped me stay motivated to eat healthy once mid-week cooking fatigue set in.
Most importantly, Blue Apron’s service works for my family and lifestyle because I can pause my subscription at any time, skipping a week or two at times when I’ve been testing recipes, or the kids were home during thanksgiving week.
What Comes in the Blue Apron Box?
Everything you need to make the recipe you select is inside your Blue Apron box. The biggest advantage of having pre-measured and portioned ingredients is that no food goes to waste.
How many times have you purchased fresh herbs for a recipe, saved half of them for another recipe, only to find them lost in the back of the produce drawer a couple of weeks later and end up in the trash?
Little by little, without having the intention of being wasteful, it’s easy to throw money away when we toss out ingredients once purchased for one recipe and never use again.
I will admit that the first few meals I also had the same thought most people say “but there is so much packaging waste with the pre-measured portions.” And then, I took a look at how much waste one has from a single order of take-out or restaurant delivery at home and it’s significantly more.
The good news is that the box and nearly all ingredient packaging is recyclable -in addition to using gel packs made from water you can pour outside our empty down the drain.
Does the Food Stay Fresh in the Box?
Living in the south where temperatures are hot and not optimal for food delivery, one of my concerns was the food staying fresh in the box until I had a chance to open it and transfer the contents to my fridge.
For weeks now, I’ve had zero items spoiled and everything was still cold upon arrival. Even the ice packs were still frozen. And a couple of times where I was not home when FedEx delivered my box, the contents were fresh hours later.
How Long Do Blue Apron Meals Stay Fresh?
You should unpack your box as soon as you can after receiving it and refrigerating any cold items. The foods are also labeled with an expiration date. The good news is that no meal or ingredient should sit in your fridge too long since they are getting delivered weekly. I’ve always consumed our delivered meals within 4 days of receiving them.
Is Blue Apron Easy to Cook?
For this task, I had my husband follow the recipe cards a few times and my 14 year old daughter twice. They both said that the step-by-step cards made the Blue Apron meals very easy to cook. I wanted to let them weigh in since I create and develop recipes for a living.
As someone that taught herself how to cook by following recipes on cookbooks and watching Food Network, I can say that nothing will grow your kitchen confidence more than using well written recipes for delicious meals.
You can watch me follow the recipe card and cook one of Blue Apron’s meals in this video, which I created because I was curious (and my community as well) if the meals actually turned out like the recipe on the card.
What Kind of Meals Does Blue Apron Offer?
One of my favorite things about selecting which Blue Apron meals I want to get delivered is the type of variety they offer. They have an exclusively vegetarian menu for 2 and meatless options in their 4-person menu each week.
From meatless meals, to chicken, pork, seafood, beef, and everything in between, Blue Apron offers a variety of meals made with simple and fresh ingredients each week.
Most importantly, the reason I use Blue Apron is because their meals are aligned with my food values: weekly meal plans should include fresh and simple meals with a variety of fresh ingredients. That said, I nearly always take advantage of their premium protein selection and always order 1-2 seafood items per week since seafood is my least favorite proteins to cook and shop for.
Miso Salmon Blue Apron Review
I have to say that the Miso Salmon from Blue Apron was delicious and definitely a recipe I would order again. The salmon was high quality, wild caught, and once cooked it tasted delicious.
Blue Apron Meal Selection
Before deciding on a meal delivery service, I spent weeks looking at Blue Apron’s Meal Selection in their online menu. I wondered if my kids would eat it, if I was better off try to recreate the recipe myself (which requires buying some ingredients I’d rarely use again).
I also read a lot of Blue Apron recipe reviews both online and from friends that use their service.
What I particularly like is that Blue Apron lets you choose from a variety of chef-designed, ready-to-cook meals with perfectly portioned ingredients and lots of flavorful options.
Serving my family recipes with flavor is one of the best ways to introducing new meals and ingredients into our rotation, which is why I chose Blue Apron.
What’s great about the limited time meals celebrating Disney and Pixar’s Soul, is the variety of recipes to feed your soul, which you’ll easily spot in the menu by the “Jazz up Dinner” tag over the meal image. Blue Apron has integrated one inspired meal a week since the movie release but don’t worry you still have time to grab one of the final two!
Still available for your enjoyment!
- Cool Cajun Chicken Lettuce Cups with Pickled Pepper Yogurt & Peanuts
- Smooth Salmon & Homemade BBQ Sauce with Roasted Vegetable, Romaine & Kale Salad
Questions About Blue Apron
Since my last post, I’ve received many questions about Blue Apron and whether they would be a good choice for families. Here are the answers to my top asked questions:
Is Blue Apron a Good Option for Picky Eaters
I’ve experienced first-hand my kids trying a new meal or recipe simply because it was delivered to us and not “picked out by mom.” For this reason, I feel that any parent that is looking to introduce new recipes to their picky eaters would benefit from delegating the recipe selection to a chef, and therefore, Blue Apron is a good choice. And while the recipes are created by chefs; they taste homemade.
What is the Blue Apron Cost Per Week?
Depending on the serving size and number of recipes per week, Blue Apron meals start at per serving to $7.49 per serving.
You can try out Blue Apron and save $60 over your first 3 boxes here for less than the cost of takeout.
Make sure to select one of the recipes celebrating Disney and Pixar’s Soul and stream the movie only on Disney+.
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