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I had planned on sharing a different post today but am switching things up a bit! I recently tried Blue Apron for the first time, and as part of my subscription, I had three free boxes I could share with friends. I decided to offer them up to my Instagram friends (follow me here if you don’t already!)
I had probably 30 of you DM me within the first 5-10 minutes of posting the IG story asking for the free box. First of all, you ladies really ARE my tribe…. y’all love free stuff as much as I do and I love it! Second, I was bummed I couldn’t share more with you because everyone was so excited to try it.
I got to work & was able to get a discount for my readers, and am so excited to share it with you! It’s a good one too! $40 OFF your first two weeks!
If you’re here for the deal & don’t want to read the full review, you can click here to get the discount! There is no code needed when using this link.
About Blue Apron
Blue Apron is a meal kit delivery service. You get all the ingredients you need to prepare meals in convenient, pre-portioned containers with super easy step by step instructions for preparation delivered straight to your door.
You can choose between a two or four-person box and you can choose between receiving two or three meals per week. Each week there are several meal options to choose from based upon your preferences (vegetarian, no beef, no pork, etc.).
The pricing is currently $9.99 per serving with free delivery.
My Completely Honest Review
I love a subscription service, and have tried a ton of them! I’ve never really done the meal kit services, though, and want to try several different ones and compare them in a post here on the blog.
I went with Blue Apron first 100% due to their collaboration with Chrissy Teigen. I’m a huge Chrissy fan & love pretty much everything she does. All of the meals she cooks and shares on social media look SO good, and I decided to try Blue Apron during the six-week collaboration with her. Unfortunately, that’s ending but I’m hoping they team up again. Fingers crossed!
I really like convenience, and I really hate grocery shopping. Kevin & I always do grocery pickup at Kroger or Walmart anyway so having the exact ingredients I need for nice dinners delivered to my door is a dream!
Stepping outside of my comfort zone and trying new meals is REALLY fun, and I definitely have learned a few tricks I’ll use in the future.
THE PROS
Ingredient Quality: I was absolutely blown away by the quality of the produce and meat. Everything was fresh and nothing was brown or past its prime. The meat also appeared to be higher quality than some you find at your regular grocery stores.
Trying new things: I often get stuck in a cooking rut, making the same few meals over and over. I really enjoy cooking and learning new recipes but don’t always take the time to research options, buy the new ingredients and test the recipes. Blue Apron takes away all the guesswork and makes it super easy to pick and choose which recipes you want to try.
They also include a lot of ingredients I’ve never used (or even heard of) in recipes, so it’s really fun to try things that are completely new to me.
Ease of Use: The website is super easy to use, allowing you to pick your preferences on your profile and then allowing you to select the exact meals you want to receive each week. It’s also
Convenience: You literally get everything you need to make three high quality and tasty meals on your doorstep. Can’t beat that!
The Yummy Factor: Everything we have tried so far has been delicious! My personal favorites have been a steak dish and Chrissy Teigen’s lettuce wraps.
New Techniques: I’m a pretty experienced cook, but for anyone who doesn’t know how to cook, it’s an awesome way to learn. They tell you exactly what steps to take and help you with timing when to do what. It’s SO nice to have everything finish cooking at the right times and have foolproof instructions on how to make it happen.
THE CONS
Damaged During Delivery: I was sooo excited for our second delivery to come this week and was bummed to find a crushed box on our front doorstep. I had hoped everything was OK given that the meals are packed pretty well with multiple ice packs, but unfortunately with the crazy hot temperatures both ice packs had completely melted. I was concerned about food safety, so I contacted Blue Apron customer support. They immediately refunded me since we couldn’t be sure that the food was safe to eat, no questions asked.
I literally went out and bought all of the ingredients to make Chrissy Teigen’s fajitas that were in the box anyway so that we could try them – spoiler alert… THEY WERE DELICIOUS!
Waste:
Although most of the packaging is recyclable, I can’t help but to feel a little bit guilty about all of the small plastic baggies, bottles, boxes, ice packs, etc. that are used for a delivery.
No Leftovers:
As much as I enjoy cooking, I REALLY don’t want to do it every night. With Blue Apron, I love that the ingredients are portioned in the exact amounts you need for the number of servings, but I really don’t want to have to cook a new meal every night…. we’re big leftovers people and we don’t have them with these meals. I guess we could purchase the four person subscription, but at $9.99/serving, I don’t think we would likely do that.
Will I keep going?
The answer is definitely yes. I won’t do weekly deliveries, but it’s SUCH a fun experience and the benefits by far outweigh the concerns for me. We maintain a pretty low grocery budget (soooo frugal), but I can see us doing a delivery once or twice per month to keep things interesting.
I can also tell you for sure that a couple of the recipes we’ve tried so far will be going into regular rotation so that alone is worth it!
Overall, I can recommend this service to you with confidence and with $40 off, it’s way more accessible to try it!
Click here to check it out!
One last thing…..
Do you think it would be fun if I continue trying different services and review them for you here? Once I try a few, I can create a post comparing them all…
Have you ever tried a meal kit delivery service? If so, which one? Do you love it? Hate it?
Your cons were the same as mine concerning Blue Apron! I get in a cooking rut, too, so I liked that it took me out of my comfort zone. But I often eat dinner leftovers for lunch, and there’s nothing left after these meals!
Yeah, the no leftovers is tough! If I am going to spend that much time cooking I want it to last! Haha.
I completely agree with you about Blue Apron! I loved the food, but the price for no leftovers makes it hard to do it every week. It also not fast enough for me on busy nights. But I love getting to try new recipes and flavors. Have you tried Dinnerly? I have seen a few ads for them and have been curious about the quality. I’ve tried Hello Fresh, Pantry Boy, and a few others.
I love this review and I would love it if you kept reviewing other services for us!!
Thank you! I will plan on doing more!
Please review more services ! I love your honesty and the review is real and that makes you a reliable source! I was wondering about the shipping as I live in a rural area. Loved it.
Thanks for your honest review – I want to try! And yes, I’d love it if you would continue to review services!
Ooh, thank you for the review. I’ve gone back and forth about whether or not I wanted to give a service like Blue Apron a try, but with your review, I think I’m inclined to give it a go!
You’ll have to let me know if you try it! It’s been fun for us to try something new.
We did Blue Apron for a while and all the recipes were so good! We didn’t end up keeping it though because it ended up being more expensive per meal than grocery shopping (because no leftovers like you said) and a lot of the recipes just took too long to make 😀
Yeah it’s def a little more expensive than our usual grocery shopping too. I think it’ll be fun to do it once or twice a month to change things up but I can’t see myself doing it all the time!
Agree re: time too! If they were making enough for leftovers I wouldn’t mind them taking the time but if I’m cooking every night I want super fast recipes!
I’ve always wanted to try it, but I just think it’s super expensive. I think it would be fun to do once a month or something. I’ve tried the Kroger meal kits that they have and loved them and was impressed about how fresh the ingredients and the recipes. I love grocery shopping though and I hate eating leftovers (it just never quite tastes the same haha)
Ive seen the Kroger meal kits but haven’t tried them! There were only a few options when I last checked but will have to look into them.
I don’t love leftovers either TBH but I definitely don’t want to cook every day! Lol.
I have been wanting to try Blue Apron so I am thankful for your review. While I am always in a rut for trying new things, after reading your review, I don’t think it’s for me. Thanks so much for sharing! I love reviews!
I hate to hear it discouraged you from trying! It’s pretty fun although for me it’s something I’ll only do on occasion. ❤️
We always use leftovers for our lunches. We may try it eventually but with 2 kids, saving money, by eating leftovers, is a must right now. It still sounds wonderful!
I definitely understand that!
Good to know that you can try it sporadically! I may have to check it out! No leftovers is a biggie for me too. I usually take leftovers to work the day after I fix something. Thanks for the info!
Definitely fun to try! Even one week per month would be fun! Just have to make sure you skip any week you don’t want a delivery!