Blue Apron

I have been a member of Blue Apron for over a year. To truly test out these meal delivery services you need to use it for at least 3 weeks. Don't fall for the 1 free meal delivery as you will have to signup for the service anyways and it means if you did want to cancel you would have to do it before really trying out the service.

The quality of the food is excellent. I am almost 6' and my husband is over 6' and we are both a bit over weight. With Blue Apron we always have leftovers. My daughter is now back from college but I still get the same order as before but I add a little to the recipe like some extra meat or potato, this depends on the recipe obviously. The 3 of us eat well this way and 2 people will have no problems with the 2 person meals. The only thing you need your self is  salt, pepper and oil.

To organize things I have bought 3 plastic bins to separate the ingredients for each meal while I unpack the main box. I get our Blue Apron delivery on Saturday which I like and one of the main reasons we choose them initially since the other meal services did not offer this. I usually cook the Blue Apron meals on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday so I can use up all the fresh ingredients.

People have complained about the packaging, and there is a lot. You can signup for free recycling but I have yet to do this.

I first tried Blue Apron last month with a  Groupon I purchased for 3 x 2-person meals. I am on week 4 and I am always excited to get our next delivery and have enjoyed the meals I have cooked from their recipes and ingredients.

I do have a few small issues though. I bought the Groupon for the week of meals and I didn't realize that I would need to signup for a subscription at Blue Apron before I could get the meals. Customer service told me I could cancel as long as I did it before being billed for the next weeks meals. So I thought that was okay but still it required an extra step for me. I understand their logic behind it to retain customers but if you are trying to get people to try the service it would be good if they allowed you just to order one week's worth of meals with out the subscription. I almost didn't try it for this very reason.

The packaging Blue Apron works well and keeps the meals cool even if left out for a number of hours which happened to me when I was away. I wish the packaging wasn't as wasteful in terms of the cold packs, insulation, plastic bottles, and plastic wrap but everything for the most part is recyclable.

Where Blue Apron really stands out though is the recipes and ingredients. The meats and vegetables sent are of high quality and fresh and the recipes are very tasty.  I was getting bored with my own cooking as I found it difficult to find recipes I like. In the 4 weeks I have been using Blue Apron I haven't had a meal yet that I didn't really enjoy.

I used a Groupon and signed up when Blue Apron had a $30 deal. The meals I received where awesome but the shipping by FedEx is a bit of a pain. FedEx only comes around my neighborhood at a specific time which means I would have to rush home from work to be on time to  get the delivery. In a few cases I was minutes from missing the delivery which is not good as I don't want the box sitting ins some warehouse over night just because I wasn't home for the delivery.

Other than that the food has been fresh and I always have gotten the ingredients I needed for the meals (I have read other reviews of some people missing ingredients). I really enjoy most of the recipes but would like to see a few more options every week to add a bit of variety.

I find these meal kit services a little expensive. I don't mind paying for the meals as they are good but it is only me and my husband. If I had kids I would think twice about spending so much.