Last week, I blogged and bragged about cooking steak dinners from Avril-Bleh's Meat Market.
Well this past week, I was back in the kitchen!
Have you ever heard of Blue Apron?
.
Every thing you need to create 3 healthy, fresh and seasonal meals (including the step-by-step recipes) magically arrives on your doorstep with the help of a eco-friendly refrigerated box. The Meat and Fish or Vegetarian meals you receive are based on your own personal dietary preferences, and the properly proportioned ingredients are always “in-season” and “guaranteed fresh” from local farms and artisans. Each ingredient is washed, packed, sealed and labeled. Each meal is between 500-700 calories and will introduce you to new ingredients, flavors and cooking methods you never knew existed. The three meal plan for two people costs $59.94 (including shipping).
- Could this be the answer to my "I suck at grocery shopping" problem?
- Could this be cheaper than eating out every night?
- Am I a good enough cook to really make the meals?
- Will I make one meal and never get around to making the others?
I asked my friend, Tracey, if she'd be interested in test driving the Blue Apron delivery with me. She is loads of fun, a great cook and loves trying new things. By recruiting a Blue Apron Buddy, the "fun factor", my confidence, my commitment to making all of the meals went way up, the workload went way down and Tracey's husband, Mark, was willing to photograph the process....BONUS! Tracey and I love to try new things and aren't afraid of any ingredients. Mark....not so much. Like Captain John, he has a salt, pepper and butter kind of palate. So, Tracey added a "Protein" to our menu and prepared Grilled Salmon with Butter and Lemon Pepper and corn on the cob.
This was our Blue Apron menu (I chose the vegetarian selection):
OUR BLUE APRON VERDICT:
The Fusilli Con Buco Pasta, a lemony, buttery, zucchini pasta dish garnished with fresh mint, was slightly bland but really came alive when eaten with the Kachumber Salad, an heirloom tomato, cucumber, mint and red onion salad with a lemony Masala spice dressing.
The Palak Paneer, is a classic Indian dish that combines sauteed spinach, Paneer (an unaged cheese), garlic, ginger and warmed Indian spices with yogurt. The result is creamy, flavorful and delicious!
Tracey's Grilled Salmon with Butter and Lemon Pepper was outstanding and a great addition to the menu. Tracey and Mark lived in Alaska for quite a while and they claim this is their favorite way to cook fresh salmon. She says she just tells Mark to rub butter on the salmon plank, stick it on the grill (skin side down), sprinkle with lemon pepper and flip it when it looks browned.
The Blue Apron process was so much fun, pretty darn easy and very convenient! Tracey was a big part of that--she had all of the bowls, knives, pot & pans and utensils ready. The only ingredients not included were salt, pepper and olive oil--and again, Tracey took care of all of that!
The ingredients were super fresh, high quality and perfectly portioned. Because the amount of food that shows up is exactly the right measure of each ingredient, there are fewer moments of realizing that you really weren't able to come up with three more meals that use up that bunch of cilantro this week, and end up throwing the rest away.
The Blue Apron Recipes are printed on a single two-sided sheet of paper with great photos and well-thought-out instructions. But even better, they are laid out for simplicity, speed and minimal use of pots/pans/dishes. As someone who tends to use every dish in the kitchen when I cook and not always getting the timing of different steps right, I really appreciated the tips.
Because the Blue Apron folks pick the meals for you (within your stated dietary constraints), you're likely to try new tastes and combinations of ingredients that you wouldn't necessarily seek out yourself, like the Patak Paneer, which was our favorite.
I'm going to order Blue Apron meals ONCE every month and plan to continue sharing the "prep, chop, cook and eat" duties with friends. More frequent deliveries and cooking solo may sour the fun and anticipation.
Is it worth the cost? I say "Yes!"--- but share the experience with family and friend for a true Great Plate Experience!
For more information on Blue Apron, check out their website and be sure to look at their wonderful selection of recipes. After a few more deliveries, I'll be getting my free meals for Friends, send me a comment if you're interested.
Click HERE for our Blue Apron Recipes.
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