For the last few weeks we’ve been utilizing a fun Christmas gift we received! We got 2 weeks worth of vegetarian meals from Blue Apron, and it was tons of fun! I knew the minute the shipment arrived to our door that I had to do a review for you.

What is Blue Apron?

Blue Apron is a meal delivery company that sends right to your door yummy, fresh ingredients for fun new recipes to try. When you sign up, you have the ability to select what types of meals you do/do not want to receive. For us, we received only vegetarian meals, but you could even select “no red meat” if you want to get more specific!

You have the option of choosing meals for 2 or a family of 4. For our family of 2 adults + 1 toddler, the 2 person meals were the perfect serving size!

For more pricing and menu examples, check out the Blue Apron site!

What did we receive?

We got all three meal ingredients and recipes delivered in a large box on one day. The box was TONS of fun to open. All the fresh ingredients – veggies, sauces, cheeses, etc – were all packaged up and labeled well. I just tucked everything in one spot in my refrigerator so I could easily find it on cooking day!

Included in the box were 3 printed recipe cards. Each recipe had pictures (step-by-step and finished product) and instructions for prep.

What was it like to cook a meal?

To start – we received only vegetarian meals. So take that into account!

All the ingredients are fresh, but require preparation. This makes sense – if you ship prepared/washed veggies and herbs, they’ll be spoiled in days. This way you don’t have as much pressure to cook the meals ASAP! But you do need to take into account the chopping, roasting and prepping when you’re planning when to cook dinner.

You’ll also feel compelled to prep everything and put them in their own clear bowls, just like the pictures in the recipe. You will fill up your dishwasher faster that way, but it’s oh so satisfying.

The recipes are easy to follow and the instructions are clear. There is an assumption of a modest level of cooking knowledge. If you’re a true novice (unsure how to chop an onion), you may feel a little lost. But hey! Half the fun of this service is learning new skills and/or cooking new things!

One funny story of me cooking these meals! Our first meal was a roasted cauliflower and yellow curry. That’s a recipe right up our alley! The instructions at each step said “season with salt”. So I added a pinch each time. Nothing extravagant. By the end the meal was SO salty with the extra salt it just wasn’t edible! Oops! Rookie mistake – taste before the seasoning is added. HA!

To give you an idea of the menu, the meals we were sent were:

Cacciatore-style Baked Eggs with Lacinato Kale & Parmesan-Garlic Toasts

Apple & Blue Cheese Panzanella Salad with Smashed Purple Potatoes (one of our favorites!)

Butternut Squash & Poblano Chili with Toasted Pepitas & Charred Lime (yum!)

Three Cheese Calzones with Kale & Tomato Sauce

Curried Cauliflower Steaks with Black Rice & Thai Basil

Winter Squash & Baby Kale Quesadillas with Queso Oaxaca & Sunny Side-Up Eggs

Each dish wasn’t hard to make and took about 30 minutes to make, which is perfectly acceptable for a weeknight dinner!

And we loved how pretty each meal looked! Made me look like a real professional!

Who should TRY Blue Apron?

1. If you’re trying to eat healthy, but you are lacking time/energy to shop and find recipes for healthy meals, this is for you! One of the hardest things about trying to incorporate healthy eating into your week is just figuring out healthy recipes. Not to mention portion control. This service ticks both of those boxes. And if you’re struggling finding time to shop, this kills two birds with one stone.

2. If you find yourself lacking inspiration for the “What are we going to eat this week?” question, this is fun! You get sent three new recipes – recipes that you could replicate again. And you might even get a chance to try out a new ingredient or two that you haven’t tried before.

2. This would be a FUN date night gift for a couple that loves to cook. Nothing more adventurous and fun than having three new recipes to try out together in the kitchen.

Would I try Blue Apron again?

Short answer – No.

Long answer? It was such fun trying out new recipes! It was a fun gift idea, too. But would I pay for it myself? No. The point, in my mind, of a meal service is to save you time on the cooking part. And it was a bit of a bummer to still have to cook the meals, even though there was time saved in the meal planning and shopping. (#lazy)

You may remember me gushing about a place here in town where I can pick up 5 already-made dinners, plus salad AND dessert, for $100 (just heat and serve!). It’s just too convenient! So if I want a fun meal shake up, I’m using that service.

The food was yummy and different than our usual rotation! But if my goal is to give myself a break cooking dinner, this doesn’t fit the bill.

What about you? Have you tried Blue Apron yet? Tried anything else similar? Let me know!

For the record – we received our Blue Apron subscription as a Christmas gift from family, NOT from Blue Apron directly! Blue Apron in no way sponsored or paid for this review. All opinions are my own!

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