Blue Apron Meal Kit Review (I Tried 6 Recipes!)

Tuesday, September 15, 2020

Blue Apron Meal Kit Review (I Tried 6 Recipes!)

Last month, I tried Blue Apron, meal kit delivery service, for my first time because Rakuten (Ebates) was offering $30 cash back on your first order. I cooked 6 kinds of meals from Blue Apron recipes. Today, I'm going to share with you what I liked and didn't like about Blue Apron.

What I liked about Blue Apron

All meals I cooked from their recipes were delicious!

At first, I didn't expect too much about the tastes. However, all meals from their recipes turned out so delicious like high-quality restaurant meals.

Ingredients were very fresh.

Their ingredients were very fresh. Specifically, I really liked the quality of their beef and fish.

It's like taking cooking classes.

I tried six new recipes which I would probably never cook if I hadn't subscribed to Blue Apron. I really enjoyed learning new recipes.

First time order was very affordable.

Originally, it cost $59.94 for 3 recipes per week (6 servings in total), but it was on sale for $39.94 per week. In addition, I could save $30 ordering through Rakuten (Ebates), so the first time order cost me $9.94!

What I didn't like about Blue Apron

Actual cooking time was longer than it says.

The recipe read it can be done in 30 to 40 minutes, but it took me at least one hour for each recipe. To me, it's too long to spend an hour for just two servings because I usually cook several meals at a time to save my time. When I was very busy or tired, I didn't want to cook from Blue Apron recipe.

Too much plastic waste.

The meal kit box, which was a very large cardboard box, was delivered in the front of my entrance door. It contained all ingredients and two extra large ice packs in a huge insulated bag to keep fresh. In addition, every kind of ingredients including very small amount of condiments was in plastic bags or plastic bottles.

Conclusion

I think that Blue Apron is perfect for people who want to take cooking classes and learn new recipes or people who want to avoid grocery stores during the coronavirus pandemic. However, Blue Apron might be not good for people who want to save time for cooking. I wanted to save my time, so I eventually unsubscribed from it.

Finally, I'm going to share with you these Blue Apron meals I cooked. 😋

Smoked Gouda & Onion Burgers

Smoked Gouda & Onion Burgers

The first recipe I tried was very American! It reminded me of grilled burger I had at Pointe In Tyme, a restaurant at Hilton Hotel in Arizona last year.

The recipe included this useful card.

Spanish-Spiced Salmon & Vegetable Quinoa

Spanish-Spiced Salmon & Vegetable Quinoa

From this recipe, I learned how to arrange the food nicely on the plates.

Spicy Beef & Vegetables

Spicy Beef & Vegetables

This was Asian fusion food. It was my first time to cook such a small amount of rice in a saucepan! I usually cook large amount of rice at a time.

Seared Tilapia & Ancho-Honey Glaze

Seared Tilapia & Ancho-Honey Glaze

I enjoyed tilapia which is a kind of fish I don't usually cook, and I really liked that it had many kinds of vegetables.

Seared Steaks & Hot Honey Biscuits

Seared Steaks & Hot Honey Biscuits

At first, I didn't want to cook biscuit from scratch because I had never cooked it before and I thought that it takes time to make it, but it was easier than I thought. 😏 By the way, the quality of the beef was great!

Garlic Shrimp & Spanish-Style Potatoes