Our Week With Blue Apron

Two weeks ago we were gifted a free week (thanks to my fabulous mama) of meals from Blue Apron.  The concept of meal kit delivery has always intrigued me and I honestly have always wanted to see what it was all about.  The problem for me always came down to picking one to try!!  Free always sounds good to me so Blue Apron it was! 

For those of you who aren't familiar, Blue Apron is a service that delivers a meal kit to you complete with just about everything possible you would need to make a meal and a step-by-step recipe to follow.  There was zero grocery shopping involved and you can choose from various meals on their site, along with the option for a family sized meal or one for 2.  I chose the meal-for-2 option knowing full well my children (one of which is SUPER picky) would not have eaten the meals listed for a family.  I chose three different meals and the whole kit was delivered on Saturday to our doorstep!  As I said before, this was a free kit for us but regularly it is $59.94 (or $69.92 for family). 

For me it was like a dream come true...meal planning-DONE...grocery shopping-DONE...Sunday afternoon food prep-DONE!  Bad blogger move though is that I posted most of my pictures on my Instagram Story so I don't have most of them!  Blogger fail!  Our meals were chicken under a brick with roasted veggies and potatoes, fontina stuffed pork chops, and a spinach and ricotta flatbread.  Day 1 I did the chicken....and quickly realized some things about myself one of which is that new recipes during the week STRESS ME OUT!  I didn't realize this about myself before!  Quickly my house was filled with smoke!  The meal tasted great (their sauces all week were awesome!) but boy did I look like a mess by the time I got everything onto the table! 

Day 2 were pork chops....this went much better!  Minimal smoke and a slightly easier recipe skill-wise to follow.  Again the sauce was delicious and they couldn't be easier since there is ZERO measuring because everything comes in tiny serving sizes...you just dump it in!  Day 3 I have to admit I went off script!  I looked at the recipe for a flatbread pizza with spinach and ricotta cheese and knew that my very patient husband had had about his fill of this experiment!  So I made the sauce that came along with the kit (which again was fabulous) and made the pizza as a traditional one using the ingredients that came with the kit (minus the spinach-that was saved for our morning smoothies).  It turned out great and was really actually the easiest recipe of the kit. 

My thoughts....

• The food really tasted amazing from start to finish...My mom made a different recipe when we were down visiting and it was amazing too!  The quality of the food that I got was great (with the exception of one pepper that was getting squishy) and having all the ingredients included and measured out was awesome.
• The convenience of not having to meal plan, shop, and prep was awesome especially considering I scheduled it to come after we had had a busy weekend.  It was great knowing that I had everything I needed right there.  
• I thought the price was right for us....we normally spend about that much for three meals anyway.  The added advantage was that I didn't have to buy whole bottles of spices and other things to just use a teaspoon so that saved in the budget department!
• Ok now there are a few negatives....the biggest one for us was the portion sizes.  The plan was for 2 people but the portion sizes, especially the meats were very small.  I think that if this was improved upon we definitely would get it again, but once the meat cooked down there really wasn't much there.  
• Skills....I am ok at chopping and what-not but the amount of chopping or other things took me much longer...plus with two hungry chickies coming into the kitchen every 2 minutes while I make dinner to ask for a snack (please tell me my children are not the only ones who ask for a snack while I'm LITERALLY cooking dinner!!!) it made for a stressful situation.  Here I am trying to make sure I press down my chicken like a brick and they're rummaging through the cabinets!
• Because of my children, I was making two meals every night...one for them and then one from the kit.  Now this isn't all that much different from the norm (I know I need Super Nanny) but it did add to the craziness of the time!  

 Have you ever tried Blue Apron or another food kit delivery service before?  What were your thoughts?