Photo Worthy Cooking: A Blue Apron Review
I would say I am an OK home cook. I have a few tricks up my sleeve and I can prepare a decent meal for myself. They are not usually photo worthy, and in a world where everyone is snapping pictures of their food, I needed some help in the visual department.
This is one of the many amazing advantages of a meal delivery service! We’ve all heard the commercials and seen the ads for Blue Apron so I decided to give them a shot. Do not be frightened of the “meals for 2” “subscription” or even the “cooking at home”. Seriously, anyone can do this and as a single lady myself, the meals for 2 worked out great! Dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow!
There were so many options to choose from when selecting my meals for the week, vegetarian, stews, steaks, seafood, they even have wine if you so choose! (As a separate subscription.) For the week of my delivery, I chose the Seared Steak, Masala-Spiced Chicken, and Spicy Cauliflower, Potato & Egg Tostadas.
I specifically picked a non-meat option as well as a difficult looking option in the Masala-Spiced Chicken. This is one of my go-to freezer section picks at Trader Joe’s and I wanted to see how hard it is to make fresh.
The box came Tuesday morning as requested. One of the first awesome things about Blue Apron, I can choose which day of the week I want my box. Tuesday was perfect! It meant I’d have dinner and lunch for the rest of the week. 🙂 The box came with everything in it, all together so it is up to me and the recipe cards to pick out which items go to which meal.
To keep the ingredients fresh, they include ice packs which are really handy to keep one or two in the freezer if you ever need them for your own cooler outings later. If you don’t need them you can recycle or return to Blue Apron with their How To Recycle program.
For those of you who just want to know if Blue Apron is worth a try, the short answer is yes! I highly recommend experiencing it and since you can cancel anytime, you really have nothing to lose. Plus – you get 3 meals FREE on your first box!
Now back to my cooking. First up, I wanted to make the Masala Chicken. I had time that evening to make it and it looked so delicious. I thought I would go big on the first attempt and knock out the hardest looking meal!
I gathered all the items needed for this recipe and got to chopping. Then, I realized I needed to zest a lime. Have you ever zested anything? Yea, me either. I happened to remember my cheese grater had that side on it that I think is a zester. Either way, I used it as one. Worked out alright, but I definitely would consider getting a zester if this thing turned out.
The best part about this whole experience was that it is, for the most part, a one pan meal! I hate doing dishes so this was great! Less things to clean. I boiled my water for rice and the rice is already pre-measured for me so all I had to do was dump it in! Amazing.
Sautéing the kale and cooking the chicken was super simple. I couldn’t believe the sauce I love so much is just a can of tomato sauce and spices. Again, everything is measured out and you just dump it in the pan.
Honestly, it was very easy to make this seemingly hard dish, which is what I was most shocked about with all the meals. They seem very complicated but Blue Apron makes it really easy and I even learn new techniques. I would have never thought to add lime zest to rice! So delicious!
Another bonus, you have the recipe cards with all the measurements so you can make it again! The only hard part to replicating the Masala Chicken again is the spice packet. But Blue Apron tells you everything it contains and so you could easily make your own mix.
Oh AND, because I am working on counting my macros lately, Blue Apron gives you the nutrition information for each meal as well so you can make sure it is IIFYM friendly. Hardest part of making this meal, chopping the vegetables, which is not that hard but time consuming.
Summary – Blue Apron was a lot of fun, surprisingly simple, and turned me into a photo worthy home cook! I even felt really confident and fancy too.
I do wish some of the meals came with a little more protein (one steak for two people? One egg for each person? Little bit lacking.) Other than that, they make it so simple to order, skip weeks, pick your best delivery day, and cancel any time if you need to. Try it out for yourself with 3 meals FREE!
What else did I learn?
- Tostadas are delicious and so easy to make, why haven’t I been making them all my life? I have definitely been frying up corn tortillas every morning with my eggs since making this!
- You don’t need
to flip an egg! Haha! Don’t ask me why but I always flip my eggs, now I know I don’t have to and they are delicious! - Spiced cauliflower and potatoes make a great meatless taco/tostada filling!
- You don’t have to make all the parts of the meal. I didn’t have time to make the marinated salad that went with my egg tostadas and I actually didn’t even miss it as a part of the meal.
- Steak does not microwave…. I already knew this but just thought I would throw it in for you all. If you are doing steak leftovers, 30 seconds, tops.
Lastly, Blue Apron also makes cooking items and utensils, I know this because they sent me this handy little cooking catalog. They also sent a flyer on vegetable roasting techniques, I am already a master roaster, so this wasn’t needed but nice to have if you are totally new to it or just in the market for some cooking tips and techniques.
More Images from my cooking adventures!
