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Blue Apron

Lisa Eirene

About Lisa Eirene Lisa lost 110 pounds through calorie counting and exercise. She swims, bikes, runs, hikes and is enjoying life in Portland, Oregon. Her weight loss story has been featured in First Magazine, Yahoo Health, Woman's Day and Glamour.com.

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14 Comments

  1. Carrie @ Season It Already!

    I wish they delivered to MN!!!

    I’ve tried Plated before, which is similar – check out my reviews.

    http://seasonitalready.com/2014/04/07/plated-have-you-tried-it/
    http://seasonitalready.com/2014/04/21/what-to-do-with-generous-portion-sizes/
    http://seasonitalready.com/2014/04/28/trying-something-gnudi/

    What I like about them, is that you get to choose or meals, so if you wanted vegetarian, you can get those. l;-)

    1. Lisa Eirene

      Interesting! I will check your links. I didn’t know there were other services like that.

  2. Carbzilla

    I’m really glad you tried it, and it’s fun seeing the meals you got. We haven’t had any of those. I’m with you on the fennel. I’m not such a fennel hater now, and it’s even better cooked!

    1. Lisa Eirene

      I *almost* bought some fennel at the grocery store recently to recreate that salad. So tasty!

      Michael was a big fan of the service. I was on the fence, like I said. I felt guilty for doing a service like that…but I am probably going to give it another try. Maybe when we get home from the honeymoon I’ll sign up for a few weeks and give it another try. Thanks for the referral!

  3. bethh

    I recommend you try roasting fennel sometime this fall. Ssoooooooooo tasty!

    It sounds like they meant to give you food for 6 meals (two servings each of 3 meals) but if they over-supplied, did it work out to more like nine meals? That would help lower the per-meal cost, though of course does nothing to address all the packaging, which would be my biggest concern, I think.

    Are you familiar with thefresh20 (.com)? It’s a meal planning service so you still do the shopping, but they base it on 20 ingredients per week which should be seasonally appropriate, and they organize the shopping list well. I joined that for a while but found out I didn’t really follow through on using it. I’m usually cooking for one and am extremely leftover-tolerant, so I usually just make a LOT of something and eat it for a few days. It’s probably a little weird to do that, but I’m looking forward to soup weather again!

    1. Lisa Eirene

      I’m not sure about the servings…I signed up for two people and it was supposed to be three meals. Or maybe we just ate less??

      I will look into the other website you suggested. I understand what you are saying about the follow through…when we got the Blue Apron box I planned on cooking them right away (for the next three nights I mean) and then stuff got busy, we went out, etc and all of a sudden there was pressure to cook the meals before everything spoiled!

  4. Claudia

    Consequently mouth watering! That appears to be irresistible.

  5. christi in ma

    $60 for three meals seems pretty good for this type of service given the variety of produce you got and that it made a full meal not just an entree!
    A friend gave us a gift card to Dream Dinners. I loved how organized the store was. It was neat to just move from station to station to assemble the dishes. The people were enthusiastic and helpful. Unfortunately, the entrees were pretty basic and bland. Clean up was really easy though! Just throw away the ziploc bags and wash one pot usually. I still had to make some veggies or salads for sides.

    After you try the intro offer of 18 entree servings, they have a minimum of 36 entree servings that you have to order (meals are either 3 or 6 serving sizes) which is at well over $150. I can see where it might be easier to pay upfront to have meals planned for the month with a family maybe. But I like to grocery shop and I like to cook. So it wasn’t really a good fit for us.

    1. Lisa Eirene

      I might try it again and really try and break down the cost to get a clear idea.

  6. Monique

    I didn’t understand, for the price, why things weren’t already washed and chopped. Seemed like a lot of work considering I was paying a premium for the food.

    1. Bridget

      I think it’s because a lot of foods and herbs lose their freshness and taste shortly after you cut them.

  7. Robert

    I enjoyed your review. So cool that you found something to like about each meal. And beautiful pictures! You plated them well. I wish I had the experience of being able to prepare the meals with my spouse as you and yours apparently do.

    You are the second reviewer I’ve read that felt the service has a snobbish aspect. I understand that this comes from the cost, packing materials, and how you feel about that, but still I feel compelled to comment because I doubt many users feel snobby at all.

    My wife had a mild stroke almost a year ago and Blue Apron has been a life saver. The meals are relatively healthy and it is difficult to beat them for variety. My wife started eating whole meals as I learned more about cooking and tailoring them to her taste. She wasn’t keen about my cooking before.

    And for me the time savings have been great. I don’t have to pre-plan meals, check the home inventory, nor shop for just the right ingredients. It is true that I still have to prepare and cook the meals, but I’d have to do that with unprepared grocery ingredients as well. We might eat restaurant food only one to two nights a week. The experience I’ve gained has given me confidence to venture generating a few meals on my own so maybe we’ll eat restaurant food even less in the future.

    I take the recipe cards to work and talk about how each meal went with my co-workers. They give me tips when I explain any new obstacles I’ve faced. They help celebrate the successes. Sometimes they like the recipes and take them home. There are many reasons why a service like Blue Apron is useful to someone with health, portion control, variety, time, and gaining experience being just a few.

    Anyway, the most important thing is I wanted to tell you how much I liked your review. Best wishes!

    1. Lisa Eirene

      I appreciate your comment! That’s a very good point about different lifestyles that could really benefit from a food service like Blue Apron. Thank you for sharing your experience with it and how it’s helped you and your wife.

      I have considered lately, trying it again!

  8. Linda

    I feel that Blue Apron is very cost effective. Some of the ingredients are unusual and I would have to buy them in much larger quantities and in many cases what wasn’t used would go to waste. I have this problem all the time when shopping in grocery stores. I am single and it is hard to buy food in small quantities.

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