Contrary to New York City tradition, my oven is not used for storage, and I love to cook. I love everything about cooking in fact--the way my knife sounds when slicing an onion, the spoonfuls of sauce I taste before deciding it is just right, licking the batter spoon before putting cookies in the oven, and the way my kitchen smells when I've been simmering apple sauce in my slow cooker all day long. One thing I don't like though is schlepping home heavy bags of carefully selected groceries home only to find my perfect tomato smushed at the bottom of the bag or finally getting upstairs to realize I forgot the ground turkey and have to go back out.
Enter Blue Apron. As a base description I would say this online recipe/ingredient delivery service is a cross between Birchbox, the Food Network, and Fresh Direct. Basically, the company sends out weekly emails describing their recipes for the next week (typically 3 meals a week for either a meat or vegetarian menu) and you can opt in to receive all the ingredients you need (minus only basics like salt, pepper and olive oil and basic pots and pans) hand delivered to your door. Busy that week or don't like the menu items? No problem, just opt out with no consequences. It's not a diet service so don't think of it like that, but the recipes are generally for healthy and wholesome meals (500-700 calories each).
Convenience, fresh ingredients, new recipes? I was sold and decided to give it a try (well, my coworker giving me a free week was also an added incentive!). I've been traveling a lot lately so finding a week I was going to dedicate to cooking in at least three times was not as easy as I thought it would be. My shipment looked a little like this, after I'd arranged it all pretty of course:
On first glance, I was really pleased with the quality of the food. The produce seemed as it was just plucked from the farm, the meat was all high-quality Pat LaFreida, and all of the condiment type ingredients were measured exactly to how much I needed so there would be minimal prep required on my part.
For my first meal, I went with the beef and millet stuffed bell peppers. Laying out all the ingredients was kind of fun and made me feel like I was the host of a cooking show.
The recipe cards were easy to follow and included pictures of each step along the way so you would know if you were doing something wrong before you got to the final product. For someone who never cooks, this would probably be the most advanced recipe of the week because there were several steps, but I'm confident that anyone who could slice and dice some veggies and follow instructions could complete this just fine. The finished product was scrumptious and made so much food! Each meal is supposed to be for 2 people but I easily made 3.5 meals out of it after adding another bell pepper I picked up from the grocery store.
The next meal was Italian inspired but with a twist: Spaghettini with shrimp, lemon and mint. I have never thought to use mint in a savory dish, but I loved it especially with the addition of spicy red pepper flakes. This dish also turned into 2 rather large portions and I loved that they give you enough ingredients in order to garnish your plates as well.
The last menu item was Mexican-style chopped salad with chicken and corn--a fairly basic salad, but something I've never really made like this before. The queso fresco was a nice touch as were the 2 different types of lettuce and the lime mayo dressing. Also, who knew you could slice corn fresh off the cob without cooking it? I certainly didn't.
All in all, Blue Apron was a hit in my kitchen and I will most likely try it again. This service would be perfect for someone who likes to cook but doesn't know how or doesn't have the time to shop for ingredients. It would also probably be better for a couple, because I had A LOT of food to eat that week and felt bad going out at all because I didn't want anything in my fridge to go bad. At $9.99 per person, per meal, it's cheaper than going out but potentially a bit more money than just going grocery shopping yourself. But really, who's going to measure your ketchup for you or make sure that you're cooking something new every week otherwise?
Blue Apron is available all over the country, but they are based in Brooklyn so support a local NYC company and place your order today :)
I was not paid by Blue Apron for this post. The opinions expressed here are completely my own.
