Recent Posts

party

Blue Apron Delivery Service

We tried out Blue Apron Ingredient Delivery Service a couple weeks ago and I am seriously obsessed with it. This is a sponsored post but I promise they aren’t paying me to say that! I feel like it is an answer to my cooking conundrum. My dilemma is that I really love to cook. I usually have my kids help and it’s a really great part of the day for our family. When I have time and am on top of things I also really enjoy meal planning and going to the Farmer’s Market to get groceries. In an ideal world I would do it every week and everything would run smoothly. The problem is if I miss the one day of meal planning or the grocery trip then the entire week is thrown off course and we end up getting take out (which is expensive and is usually not super healthy.) What Blue Apron does is makes a meal plan for you (you get to decide if you want fish, meat or vegetarian etc.) and then they ship the ingredients to you for the week . What I love about it is I still get to cook and have that time with my family but I never have that terrifying moment where I don’t know what to do for dinner and there is no food in the house. I also like that it’s flexible. If we have plans to go out with friends then we can make the meals the next day according to our schedule.

Blue Apron Delivery Service | Oh Happy Day!

My two main concerns before I tried it were the quality of the ingredients and the fact that I didn’t get to plan the menu. We are really lucky to live near some great farmer’s markets and grocery co-ops that have really amazing produce so my standards are high. When the package arrived I was really impressed with the quality, they were all seasonal (they had heirloom tomatoes!) and locally sourced ingredients. It’s obviously not the same as handpicking out interesting ingredients myself at the Farmer’s Market but I give the quality of the produce two big thumbs up. My other concern about not having control over the menu planning was probably the biggest surprise. I’m not super adventurous with planning my own meals so when we made meals that we wouldn’t have normally considered I actually think that’s a major plus of the service. It gets us to try new things and out of our cooking rut.

The other thing I really loved is that they give you the exact amount of ingredients you need. For example, usually I buy a big tub of miso paste and end up only using a small portion of it for the recipe I’m making. It then sits in my fridge until it goes past it’s expiration date a month later. It feels like such a waste! This way I’m able to cook with a diverse amount of ingredients but not have to cook with miso paste all month.

The portions are big. We tried out the 2-person meal plans even though there are four of us and there was plenty of food for two adults and two small kids but there wasn’t a ton for leftovers. When I take the time to cook I usually make a large amount so it lasts for lunches the next day. After the trial I actually signed up for the service myself (proof I’m obsessed) but I signed up for the 4-person meal plans so we would have leftovers. For our family the service will cover dinners three nights a week plus additional lunches with leftovers and then we can still fill in the other few evenings with an occasional night for take out and I can still plan and cook a few nights meals myself.

The meals are $9.99/person. Cost-wise there is no question that Blue Apron is cheaper than what we spend on groceries (especially if you are counting all the specialty ingredients) and is much cheaper than take-out. Initially the waste of all the packaging was a concern for me but when our meal was over I realized I was able to recycle all of the packaging and that the waste was significantly less than if you order take-out 3x a week. (Which we do!)

I’m a huge fan and feel like this idea is a godsend for busy families that care about eating good homecooked meals. Right now, Blue Apron is having a deal for Oh Happy Day readers. The first 100 readers to sign up will get two free meals on their first order! Click here to sign up.

Blue Apron Delivery Service | Oh Happy Day!Blue Apron Delivery Service | Oh Happy Day!Blue Apron Delivery Service | Oh Happy Day!Blue Apron Delivery Service | Oh Happy Day!Blue Apron Delivery Service | Oh Happy Day!Blue Apron Delivery Service | Oh Happy Day!Blue Apron Delivery Service | Oh Happy Day!Blue Apron Delivery Service | Oh Happy Day!

This post is sponsored by Blue Apron

Photos by Paul Ferney for Oh Happy Day

  1. Kimberley

    July 29, 2014

    I actually just signed up for Blue Apron last week for the same reasons you noted. I sometimes don’t have a lot of time to do a whole week’s plan and then feel out of step if I get behind. It’s just hard when you work and have a family. I’m excited to get my first shipment next week and try it out. Just curious…what meals did you prepare in your pictures above?

    I’m excited to try this out!

  2. Jordan

    July 29, 2014

    I love Blue Apron, and the idea of it. Makes it so simple to create great meals in a short amount of time!

  3. christina

    July 29, 2014

    Those noodles look soooo gooood.

    – Christina http://www.cityloveee.blogspot.com

  4. Carissa

    July 29, 2014

    I signed up for Blue Apron after reading about the service on another blog. I’m super excited for my first delivery next week! Just peeked at the menu and it looks yummy. My husband loves to cook (and I love when we cook together), so I signed up as a surprise for him. I’m glad to read another rave review about Blue Apron!

  5. Lindsay

    July 29, 2014

    Is the $9.99 per person per meal? So you’re paying $40 per meal? I’m surprised that this is less than what you pay for regular groceries, but I guess that’s San Francisco!

      • jordan
      • July 29, 2014

      We spend $200/week on all meals. The Blue Apron meal leftovers will cover lunches and a couple dinners on the other nights. For us it is cheaper and the quality of the meals is much higher (than just quesadillas and steamed veggies!)

  6. MFree

    July 29, 2014

    Totally agree! We love Blue Apron. I’m a faithful farmer’s market shopper and meal planner but there are just some weeks when it doesn’t work out. I really love that Blue Apron let’s you skip weeks as fits your schedule. The meals are incredibly tasty so that makes it easy to like as well. 🙂

  7. Mari

    July 29, 2014

    Thanks! Going to give it a try. Definitely the cheaper route for us who live in the Bay Area. We are terrible about getting take out so this will be great.

  8. Jaime

    July 29, 2014

    We’ve been doing blue apron now for about six weeks. We really like it but it’s definitely a lot of chopping!! The food is very fresh and always comes ready to eat but doesn’t seem to go bad quickly. I can’t get over how much packaging there is, and I kind of wish it was more eco-friendly. Also, we have a limited diet over here and I wish that we could order up to five meals per week instead of only three meals per week. I would do a double order, but sometimes we don’t want to eat the same things… overall, we are pleased and we appreciate the service because we are extremely busy and don’t always have time to figure out what to make!

  9. Sarah

    July 29, 2014

    Jordan, have you tried Sprig? Curious how you think it compares to Blue Apon… I still haven’t tried Blue Apon but am now more curious than ever!

  10. shey

    July 29, 2014

    That’s a ridiculous amount of money to spend on one meal that you still have to cook. For as much as 10 bucks per person, you might as well get take out.

    When you cook at home, healthy meals can average out to as low as 2$ per person.

  11. Alia

    July 29, 2014

    In case Blue Apron is reading your blog, please work on the packaging issue! It’s been often discussed on sponsored posts on Cup of Jo already. It really turns some people off and being able to recycle packaging is not the same as not creating the waste in the first place. Otherwise it does look like a great service but that is the one thing I’m hung up on before trying it!

  12. Caroline

    July 30, 2014

    I don’t like this at all, sorry, it’s an ecological nightmare and hugely expensive! Of course, people can spend money however they like, but it doesn’t seem like a good solution to me. $40 a meal on a normal workaday night is excessive.

    Every meal doesn’t have to be planned and specially bought for. Why not just have lots of staples at home so that on nights you haven’t planned you can have cheese and beans on toast, or a simple pasta dish with tomatoes, red onions and tuna, falafel wraps, or one of a billion other simple meals that can be kept in your freezer and lovely pantry!

    Have a weekly delivery of vegetables and fruit that you always enjoy and you’ll always have fresh produce you know you’ll use. Keep veggies in your freezer. Frozen peas and sweetcorn for instance are just as good as fresh. Big bags of potatoes for baked potatoes and mash.

    The packaging makes me shiver too. Not everyone will dutifully recycle, I am sure. It’s so wasteful.

    Sorry – I had strong feelings about this and had to respond.

      • jordan
      • July 30, 2014

      I know it isn’t for everyone but for families like mine that live in a city and parents work. This is seriously a godsend. When we cook in without meal planning now we eat very simply (like quesadillas and steamed veggies.) Regarding the waste: after I tried this for the first time I started paying more attention to the waste we create from the Farmer’s Market and takeout and grocery stores and for us it isn’t more than the service.

  13. Irene from Freshleesqueez'd

    July 30, 2014

    We just had our first baby and have been hearing great things about Blue Apron. Happy to hear you enjoy it so much. The price seems reasonable too (I am a fellow SF-er) and right now the convenience is a total plus for us! Curious if you or anyone else has tried other food delivery services to compare it to? (ie. Munchery, Plated, etc) and which is preferred? Thanks for sharing!

    http://freshleesqueezd.blogspot.com/

  14. Alex

    July 30, 2014

    I love those bowls! Who makes them? Thank you!!

      • jordan
      • July 30, 2014

      Mud Australia!

  15. Caroline

    July 31, 2014

    Hi Jordan – responding to you above: I live in London and we have a toddler son and both work, so similar deal with the hectic schedule. I just find doing a big shop for lots of staples and a weekly organic fruit and veg box being delivered a simple and more environmentally friendly solution. This meal delivery service just seems to be a step backwards in a food system that really needs to get simpler.

  16. Miss Wanderer

    July 31, 2014

    I have been wanting to check out Blue Apron for a while now. I agree if you miss a day to go grocery shopping the whole week is thrown off! The food looks great too!

  17. Diane

    July 31, 2014

    I remember looking into this service a while ago when it was only offered in the NY area. I was so excited to read your post and see we could have the delivery to our home in Truckee, CA (Lake Tahoe Basin). We have our groceries delivered weekly by Whole Foods in Reno and supplement with our small local farmers market. I always struggle to come up with menus to try that we don’t have to run out and buy key ingredients that we will only use a little of. This looks beyond perfect! Our first shipment arrives next Wednesday! Yay!

  18. Mindy

    July 31, 2014

    My husband and I live in downtown Chicago and have been using Blue Apron on and off for about 3 months. We love the flexibilty of being able to choose which weeks you want delivery and skip weeks in between. For us, we got bored making the same meals over and over. We love to cook, but on busy work weeks put us in a rut and we were tired of our normal staples. The recipes allowed us to try new things and we’ve actually added quite a few dishes to our regular routine.

Comments are Closed

More Recent Posts