A friend who uses Blue Apron offered me a voucher for a free box of meals. I figured why not give it a try? I had done the review of another meal in a box service so I thought it would be interesting to see what a dinner in a box competitor was like.
Blue Apron Dinner in a Box
The voucher was for dinner for a week which gave me the option of three meals for two or two meals for four. Since it’s just the two of us you can guess what I chose. At the time I chose my meals the number of options was less than are available now. To me that is a big improvement – the more choices, the better. When you sign up you let the company know if you have any food issues and then you pick which meals you would like to receive in your box. Blue Apron also offers the opportunity to purchase wine (if you are over 21 of course) to pair with your meals.
A Well Packed Box?
Blue Apron boxes arrive by FedEx. As with the other service I received one of my biggest issues was the volume of packaging. Everything is recyclable which is nice – if you live somewhere that has a system in place to deal with it. Here in the hinterlands we don’t so it’s just trash for the landfill.
The meat was at the bottom and separated from the vegetables. As you can see though, the can of tomato sauce attacked the cucumber. It wasn’t a real problem – I just cut off the damaged portion and there was plenty for the two of us but just tossing these other ingredients in is not the best way to pack a box.
Meal One – Pizza
I was intrigued by the Fresh Mozzarella Pizza with Romaine Salad because I’d never seen nor thought of serving a salad ON TOP of pizza before. Of course as this was just for us and I was under no obligation to review I could have just put the salad on the side but I figured why not try it as intended? I must admit that I am glad I did because it was really very tasty. This was our favorite meal out of the three in the box.
Meal Two – Pork Chops
I’ve mentioned before that pork is a real treat for us so when presented with an option for it in the choices I was all of it. The recipe for Pork Chops and Honey Mustard Pan Sauce was very good. It was served on a creamy barley salad. The whole meal was a delicious taste treat.
Meal Three – Chicken Thighs
The Soy Marinated Chicken Thighs were our least favorite meal. Neither one of us was fond of the overall taste of the chicken once it was cooked. The chicken was served over dressed cucumber and jasmine rice. I think it just had too much Chinese 5 spice powder.
Preparation
These meals were a bit more complicated to prepare than the meals from Home Chef. Not that they were difficult – there were just more steps to follow to bring them to the table. They also offered starches as part of the presentation which was different and that contributed to the additional work. The recipe cards included made the cooking easy; the steps were clearly defined so that a novice cook would be able to make the meal if they took their time.
Overall Thoughts
It is nice to have everything measured and ready ready to go for a dinner. Not having to come up with a meal plan and recipe is very nice sometimes. Overall these types of service just don’t fit into our current lifestyle except as a kind of treat. They would be like going out to dinner without the going out and I still have to do the dishes so truth be told – I’d rather go out!
That isn’t to say that I wouldn’t be all over a dinner in a box service if I was working or living somewhere that didn’t include a garden where all of my vegetable needs were met. I also think they are a great way to help someone learn to cook.
You can learn more at blueapron.com
