I’ve been wanting to try Blue Apron for a while now. Especially since there’s a plug/ad for it during every How Stuff Works podcast episode. …does anyone else love the podcasts where you learn random stuff? My current favorites are TED Talks from NPR and How Stuff Works. I actually trained for last fall’s marathon relay listening to them – totally thought I would always and only be a music run person, but I guess I’ve changed. Any way, back to the foods. After being so uninspired with cooking lately, I finally just bit the bullet and ordered my first box (and dumbly didn’t use the STUFF code for a free box – total fail).  Whatever I guess, it was worth it. 

 The Friday before my birthday we got our first box. I hadn’t requested vegetarian, but selected no beef, so everything that week came vegetarian. …Apparently all the meals that week contained beef? Can I get a discount for that mistake? C was not entirely thrilled with there being no meat options, so he bought steaks to cook with each dish. With the exception of salt, pepper, and water, everything you need for the meal (including measured to the correct quantities) is included in the box – I love not having leftover waste! The recipes were really easy to put together and look amazing when they’re all done.  

The first dish we tried was the lemon linguine. I thought it was delicious, and although it says serves two… It’s definitely two very large portions – like one and a half Ingrid sized portions and one C sized portions. If you’re looking to use this as a weight loss tool – it’s definitely not, unless you adjust portions slightly.   

Our second meal was the Tuscan Ribollita – basically bean stew with French bread cooking in, topped with a soft boiled egg.  Only one note – timing soft boiled eggs at high altitude if different than at sea level – we ended up with some runny white (which I abhor) the first time around. Adding about 30 second seemed to do the trick. 

I had forgotten how delicious runny yoke over stew, pasta, or polenta could be – still not a sunny side up or over easy girl though (weird, I don’t like just fried eggs). 

 
Last of the week was a stuffed squash – I loved the warm farro salad so much I made it again the following week and threw it over kale. 

After skipping a week, none of the meals really struck my fancy for that particular week, another box arrived in the mail.   

The first meal was chicken, mashed potatoes, and glazed carrots – which apparently I failed to get a picture of (but it was incredibly tasty, if not very simple and easy to replicate).  Second was the blacked salmon with black rice citrus salad – another winner in my book! 

  
And last but not least, tonight we made beet linguine tossed with onion and Swiss chard and topped with walnuts and goat cheese. Yum!!

After two weeks of delicious food, I think I’ll probably keep going with the membership, although probably not every week – because I do like to experiment with my own recipes as well. Final review – delicious food, easy to make, convenient, and more cost effective than going out to eat. One aspect I love is that even if you skip a week, you still have access to the recipes and can make items on your own – you’ll just have to do the shopping yourself. 

This type of meal service wins in my book!