Anyone try Blue Apron?

[mefordis]

I am curious to try Blue Apron. I love to cook but I could use a little guidance - I"m not all that great at it. I am thinking of getting a couple of weeks just to try something new.

Anyone try it? What did you think?

 

[usnuzuloose]

Curious,I never heard of it.

 

[MouseMomx2]

We loved the recipes and thought they were easy to follow. We ended up cancelling because every single shipment was missing an item. Blue Apron was great about dealing with the situation, but I just got tired of it.

 

[maxaroni]

Haven't used it but my cousin raves about it. My cousin loves to cook and can spend all day in the kitchen. However, she is a very active 79 yr old, as is her husband. This gives them time to cook together, fresh ingredients but takes out a lot of the time. Also, gives them new things to dry that they may not have done so before.

 

[mefordis]

We loved the recipes and thought they were easy to follow. We ended up cancelling because every single shipment was missing an item. Blue Apron was great about dealing with the situation, but I just got tired of it.

That would bum me out! Was that recent? Maybe they have improved their process and are better about making sure everything is included. At least I'm hoping they have. I just subscribed!

 

[stitch'sgirl]

I liked it at first, but then grew tired of it pretty quickly. I thought it was a good way to introduce my teen to cooking. It is generally an entree and a side, and the directions are so that everything is done at the same time, which is good for beginning cooks. The price was just prohibitive. We were on the family plan, 2 meals a week for $70. I was thinking, why would I pay $35 to serve my family patty melts?

 

[wilkeliza]

I tried it for about a month. We were on the 3 meals (maybe 4) a week. The problem I ended up having was that we can't do a lot of red meat and by the end of the week what we had left for options weren't something we had a craving for that day.

If you are easy going will eat anything as long as it is there type of family it works. Being somewhere that you can order or go pick up anything you fancy makes it harder to commit to the dinner you already have.

 

[Christine]

I tried it with a Groupon and got 2 meals for 4 people for the week. I thought the food was good/tasty. There was still a good bit of prep work involved (which is something I'd like to avoid) but it was good having all the ingredients there. The pitfalls:

My husband is a big eater, plus we like to have to have some leftover for lunches. We found that it only "just fed" me, my husband, and my adult daughter. But I realize that we eat larger portions that what is considered "normal."

The delivery days in my area were generally on Thursday evenings so by the time I got it, the work week was over and I wasn't interested in using Blue Apron on the weekends. By the time the next week rolled around, the food was past its prime.

Otherwise, I thought it tasted good.

 

[Micca]

It sounds good, but it's too expensive for me.

 

[smokeyblue]

I haven't tried Blue Apron, but I've done Plated and Hello Fresh. Generally, these subscription services are really fun and convenient. For me it isn't sustainable because of the cost. I can see the value for people who have a large disposable income and not a lot of time to get to the grocery store. I got a few discounted weeks of both, so It was still fun to try these out. I learned some things about cooking and I've added some of the dishes to my regulars that I make.

Plated definitely wins over Hello Fresh. The meals are more "gourmet" and the ingredients are higher quality. I do have to say I had problems with the quality of the protein from Hello Fresh. I think maybe one of the items was on the verge of being spoiled when it arrived and it tasted okay but I got kind of sick. I should have used better judgement and thrown it out.

If you are eligible for a promotional discount, I would try it. You can always cancel.

 

[MrsDuck]

I liked it but found the the preparation time stated on the recipe card was SIGNIFICANTLY underestimated. Some recipes said it would take only 20-25 minutes to prepare a dish and I'd be working for 45min-an hour. I'm not the most experienced cook but that really changed the experience for me.

I liked Hello Fresh better for that reason alone.

 

[gregokdisney]

We tried it and loved it. Everything was delicious. However, it was too expensive for small servings with no leftovers. Plus, if I'm going yo spend that much I want to go out.

 

[Maggie Lizer]

My neighbor likes it a lot for himself and his wife (empty-nesters who both still work and have a good income). I looked into it for my family, but decided to try a bunch of quick, healthy 5 ingredient recipes for weeknight dinners instead. I thought it was a little pricey for the meals on the menus.

 

[MickeySP]

We tried it & had trouble with missing anything or cost, 2 adults no kids left at home.
We cancelled due to most of the meals were not anything my DSO would eat. Also they presented 6 meal choices but you could always combine the ones you liked. You could pick combos like 1,3,4 but if you like 5 you couldn't change one out.

 

[georgina]

My sister and BIL love it. I received a $25 coupon in the mail to try it, but looking on the website the meals did not appeal to us so I never tried it.

 

[North of Mouse]

Looked into it. Too small portions, too expensive, too much preparation, still have clean ups (so no relaxation on those counts) no leftovers, etc. etc.

With all those 'cons' would rather eat out, not have to prepare it, nor clean up afterward, or shop and completely prepare it all.

 

[Princess_Meghan <3]

My boyfriend gets it and enjoys it quite a bit- he loves the opportunity to try new things. He has gotten behind with his meals because he doesn't always feel like cooking since the prep can take a while, but you do have the option to cancel a week. Every meal he's made for me with it has been quite good, though some have been extremely spicy (I think he spiced them to his tastes, though).

 

[lovin'fl]

I did it for a while. Most meals were pretty good...maybe 1 out of 10 were icky. But it was a LOT of work to make. Lots of prep. And we got the meals for 4 but were a family of 5 (3 teens) and the meals usually stretched to feed all 5 of us pretty well. It was expensive too so we stopped. When you spend that much money then you feel the need to use the meals and sometimes it is hard to find the time since the prep takes like 60-90 minutes (just prep, not cook time). Lots to clean up after as well.

 

[AquamarineSteph]

I've tried Blue Apron, Plated & Hello Fresh. They're all good services, but they are more expensive than buying things at the grocery store.

One advantage for me is that these services often feature dishes with ingredients that are not available locally. It's a fun way to try something new. Of the three, I think Plated is the most expensive. When I was using Blue Apron, they seemed to offer more food for the money spent, but I think they may have changed their plans since I used them.

One good thing is that customer service with Blue Apron is really good, and if you try it and don't want to continue it's easy to cancel the service.

 

[sonnyjane]

I got a free trial from a friend. I liked it, but since I don't eat meat, I found that their veggie options were not appealing (and very repetitive from week to week). Nothing ever looked good enough for me to continue ordering. I'm not going to pay $60 a week for salad and ramen.