For the longest time, I was very curious about mail order meal services.  As someone who cooks a lot, and almost always cooks for one, I find that I often waste ingredients that I’ve bought for one, specific recipe and don’t seem to find a second use for.  I decided to try out Blue Apron, and before I knew it a box of food arrived at my office.

What I liked about the service: all of the ingredients were provided for three full recipes (and I mean everything, including an individually and adorably packaged egg in one case) and when possible, already measured out.  The only prep work involved was cutting vegetables, which made the preparation time very short, especially compared to my normal prep time when cooking a full meal for myself.  I really appreciated only having one or two celery stalks (for example) for a recipe that called for one or two celery stalks, as opposed to having a huge bundle of celery sit in my fridge that I’d probably never use again.

As an avid cook, I also appreciated the opportunity to try out different ingredients that I may have been nervous to try on my own, in small amounts, without left overs.  For me, the portions for “two adults” were perfect for just me, even if I ended up eating the second portion for lunch the next day.  To be honest, most of the meals that were intended for two people could be eaten by one person, or as a one and a half sized portion.  If I actually served the meals to both myself and one other person, I don’t think there would have been enough food to fill us up.  I really enjoyed most of the recipes I tried over a two month period, and I have saved a few of the recipe cards and have made one of the recipes for a side dish a couple of times on my own.

The instructions and recipes were very easy to follow, and I noticed that using a service like Blue Apron would be a good idea for someone who was interested in learning how to cook.  Along with the recipes, the instructions included with the meals taught basic cooking techniques.  Utilizing the website, further and more detailed techniques were also included for each recipe.

What I didn’t like about the service:  It was actually difficult for me to schedule the meal delivery from week to week.  It sounds simple enough, but because the food was delivered on a Wednesday, I found that by mid-week, I usually had plans for the evenings and couldn’t dedicate those nights to cooking the fresh food that was in my fridge.  Several times when I tried to go online and change my delivery or skip a week, the deadline had passed and I received food I didn’t have time to cook, resulting in my original problem of wasting food.  I did make a point to use any meat that was delivered, but some of the veggies didn’t make it.

The boxes of food are well packaged, and very well insulated to keep the meat cold and usually still frozen, but this also made for an extremely heavy box of food to haul into my car and back into my house from work.  I also found myself feeling weird about throwing away the ice packs.

Another aspect of the service is the cost.  For my first order I received a special introductory price of $39.99 for three meals for two people, and then the regular pricing was $59.99 for the same amount of food.  For me, $20 meals at home are on the high end.  While I have been known to spare no expense for certain ingredients, those are usually for special occasions or for recipes that yield a large amount and create days of leftover meals.  Obviously, the main thing you are paying for is the convenience of having ingredients prepped and measured for you while still being able to prepare homemade food at home, but for me, in the end, I cancelled the service and have actually been making more of an effort to use one ingredient for multiple recipes whenever I can.  To me, part of the fun of cooking is being inventive with food and creating recipes out of whatever I have on hand.

Pictured is one of my favorite recipes from the Blue Apron experience, that actually yielded two perfect portions that I shared with a friend: Lemon Chicken and Green Beans.