Product Review: Blue Apron Meal Delivery Service

Members of the Jerd-Herd should already know that I believe diet is 80% of the fitness battle.

Not only does eating a clean and healthy diet help keep the pounds off, it helps you feel great and gives you the energy you need to smash super-heroic workouts on a regular basis.

But sometimes finding the time to cook a good meal is hard!

Even when you know it is the “right” thing to do…

This is where meal planning and delivery services come in! I have already championed the eMeals planning service, which sends you weekly shopping lists and recipes based on your dietary requirements, but Blue Apron takes things a step farther!

So how does this service work? Glad you asked!

Blue Apron Meal Delivery Service

A year ago if you would have told me that for $60 a week I could have the recipe and makings for three, relatively healthy, “gourmet” meals for two delivered right to my doorstep, I would have rolled my eyes at you.

But you would have been right!

Blue Apron just does that.

Editor’s Note: My wife and I subscribed for three months to try the service out; and this is not an affiliate program endorsement. I receive no incentives or kickbacks for touting their service. Just wanted to make that clear up front!

So what does the service entail?

You get a pretty large box, packed with some heavy duty ice packs and all the contents nicely bundled so nothing gets damaged or wet during shipping.

To test the ice packs and insulation, I let a box sit for three days on my counter after arrival and shockingly the contents were still well refrigerated. So there should be no worry if you get a shipment on a day you might not be home. The contents will keep, no problem!

Inside said box are three recipes, an informational sheet about one of the ingredients (each time for us it was about a particular type of produce) and all the ingredients.

The ingredients are all perfectly portioned, labeled and packaged.

Recipe calls for a pad of butter? There will be a little, labeled container with just the right amount of butter. A dash of some random spice you have never heard of? It is there in a little baggie. 2.345 cups of rice? 2.345 cups will be pre-measured out for you.

It’s pretty fantastic!

You will still need to have the usual kitchen utensils on hand. Knives, vegetable peelers, mixing bowls, etc… but nothing crazy. Pretty much all the stuff I detail in the Kitchen Essentials section of the Heroes’ Transformation Guide.

There were only three things I ran into that almost all the recipes called for, that they never provided – salt, pepper, and olive oil.

So keep that in mind!

Here’s the breakdown of how the 9 recipes went:

• We liked 8 of them. (Neither of us really like Polenta, so that one recipe was a bust)
• We loved 4 of them.
• Out of the 4 we loved, we kept 3 of the recipes for revisiting (the fourth’s ingredients were a bit too specific and we didn’t want to bother hunting at multiple grocery stores)
• They all underestimated the prep/cook times by 10-15 minutes.

I am pretty sure the prep time could be trimmed down, but there are a lot of moving parts to some of these recipes and I was constantly stopping and referring back to the recipe so I didn’t miss a step. And, truth be told, there were at least two recipes where I got down to step 8 or 9 and cursed up a storm because it was supposed to be done partway through step 2.

Regardless, even my inability to read ahead couldn’t stop these meals from being tasty!

So listen up Jerdlings.

If you are someone who wants to cook but are having issues with time management and priorities, or someone who sucks at coming up with tasty and reasonably healthy recipes, then this might be the service for you!

Pros:

• Extremely well packaged, fresh, ingredients shipped directly to your door. You don’t even need to put on pants to go shopping!
• Perfect portions; 500-700 calories per serving and always filling.
• Recipes that are sometimes bold, always flavorful, and never take longer than 45 minutes to prepare.

Cons:

• The recipes are random, you very well can end up with meals containing ingredients you aren’t fond of.
• If you are being super strict about eating clean, some of these recipes might have to be a cheat meal.
• You still will need a stocked kitchen filled with utensils (and olive oil… every recipe seems to require it, yet it is the one ingredient they don’t provide)
• You can’t cancel your subscription online, you actually have to call. And speak to a person. What the actual $#@%? Is this 1994?

While I don’t use any sort of defined grading scale, I am giving Blue Apron the official “Jerd Stamp of Approval” (it’s a thing, I swear!)

So if you are one of those people who wants to cook at home, but don’t know any good recipes and/or hate grocery shopping, then try it out!

I guarantee you won’t be disappointed with the service, or how happy your stomach will be.

Have you tried a meal delivery service like Blue Apron? Let me know in the comments below!

P.S. – Make sure to get your free e-book, “The 7 Fitness Obstacles Newbies Face” by subscribing to our newsletter… no spam, I promise!