Blue Apron Subscription Box Review & Coupon – May 2016

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2016-03-25 13.13.05

Blue Apron is a subscription box for making great meals at home.  If you’re like me, you periodically find yourself in a serious cooking rut.  You make the same things every week, but the thought of researching a recipe and acquiring all of the ingredients is just too much work.  Blue Apron is the solution!  Each week, Blue Apron sends you a refrigerated box with all the fresh ingredients you need to make the included recipes.  You can select the 2-person plan–3 meals a week of 2 portions each–or the family plan–2 to 4 meals a week of 4 portions each.  The menus are set, but you can ask Blue Apron to avoid ingredients you don’t eat–shellfish and lamb, in my case.

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We got the Family Plan for 2 meals.  I set the delivery date and it arrived right on time, securely packaged in a heavy-duty box.  All of the ingredients are wrapped in an adorable insulated blanket and cooled with ice packs.  Mine took a day to arrive and sat on my porch for 3 hours, and everything was perfectly cool inside.

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The meat is at the bottom, surrounded by still-frozen gel ice packs.  I didn’t worry for one second about the temperature of the food.  It was cold to the touch when I pulled it out.  Most of the packing materials (and there are a lot) are recyclable or reusable.

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The first recipe in our box was the Crispy Cod Teriyaki.  This is a nice, neutral fish recipe with some asparagus for seasonal flair.  As you can see, everything is included, even sliver of ginger and teeny bottles of sesame oil and teriyaki sauce.

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All of the ingredients were in good condition.  The ginger was a little on the hairy side, usually suggesting it’s past its prime, but this can happen at the grocery store, too.  Gnarly roots are hard to age with accuracy.  Blue Apron does a great job of sending you just the amount you need for the recipe, so you don’t waste anything; nor do you have to think about how much to add to the recipe.  Easy peasy.

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Each recipe comes with these easy-to-follow instructions.  Even if you are new to knife skills, you will be able to do everything on this list.  This recipe did a good job of estimating the prep time.  Nothing complicated here: just chop, soak, chop, and stir.

This all came together pretty well.  Our cod stuck to the pan and lost most of its coating, but the flavor was still pretty good.  The rice with the asparagus was straight up-delicious.  My eats-fish-under-protest husband thought the whole meal was tasty; high praise in our house.

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The lesson here is that teriyaki solves.  There was plenty left over to have the next night.  On to the next recipe!

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Our next recipe was Chicken Parmesean and Bucatini Pasta.  This was a peace offering to the fish-meh husband; it’s hard go wrong with tomato sauce and cheese.  We were excited about this one!

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Blue Apron partners with farmers who practice sustainable agriculture and treat their animals humanely.  The chicken thighs in this recipe were antibiotic-free and vegetarian fed.  Like the cod, the recipe card had straightforward instructions that were easy to follow.

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The zucchini in the box was well past its prime, unfortunately, and the spinach was packed in a way which could (and did) result in it getting smashed against the side and turning slimy.  This meant that the zucchini/spinach pasta had to stay plain in our recipe, a disappointment in a low-veggie box.

The other ingredients were in good shape.  This recipe came together very quickly, which was a relief on a busy Monday night.

This was comfort food at its best.  The sauce was delicious and not too sweet, and the chicken thighs had great flavor from being cooked in the skillet first.  The fresh mozzarella was a nice touch that added a terrific chewiness to the finished recipe.  Everyone had seconds, with more for lunch the next day.

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This box had some hiccups with the dicey zucchini and spinach, which has not been my experience prior to this month.  Hopefully, just an outlier.  The recipes still worked fine, and we ate well this weekend.  I certainly would not have made anything like these recipes on my own, so we consider this box a win.  It was really fun, and got us out of our boring dinner routine.  Honestly, you can forget how fun cooking can be, and we were reminded of that this week.  Interesting ingredients, easy recipes, and delicious food.  What more could you want?  We can’t wait to see what we get next time!

Visit Blue Apron to subscribe or find out more! Save $20 on your first order! Use this link – no coupon code required!

The Subscription: Blue Apron
The Description: Get healthy delicious ingredients ready to be made into a meal! Each meal is 500-700 calories per serving and takes about half an hour to prepare. Each box has 3 meals per week for 2. Blue Apron only assumes you have olive oil, salt, and pepper, and basic pots & pans.
The Price: $59.00 every week
See Blue Apron in the Hello Subscription Box Directory!
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The Reviews: See all our Blue Apron Reviews.

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