Do you ever feel like you put the same food on your family’s dinner table week after week — roasted chicken with baked potatoes or pasta with Bolognese sauce, anyone? I’ve found that meal-subscription boxes are an ideal solution when I’m in a meal-planning rut or just stressed about getting a healthy and delicious family dinner on the table. Blue Apron is a meal subscription service that delivers neatly packed boxes of produce and meat/poultry/fish, plus the recipes and step-by-step instructions you need to get a delicious and different meal on the table at least a couple of nights a week. Yes, you still have to do the chopping, mixing and cooking, but most meals go from box to table in about 30 to 45 minutes. Signing up is also easy. You have the option between a “Two-person plan” and a “Family plan.” From there, you’ll choose whether you want two or three meals a week (for the two-person plan) or two, three or four meals a week (for the family plan). You can also choose a vegetarian option. From there, you’ll complete the rest of the sign-up form, which asks for your name, delivery address, and credit card information. Once you’re signed up, you’ll get to specify any dietary likes and dislikes. There are six ingredients — pork, beef, lamb, shellfish, fish and poultry — which you can accept or reject. From there, Blue Apron will create meal kits just for you. (Click here to learn more about the Everyday Health Wellness Code used for all products and services reviews.)
How It Helps Boost Your Wellness
Besides the convenience of not having to plan every meal (making stress-free weeknights possible!), trying new flavors and finding new recipes your family will love is one of the best reasons to try Blue Apron. Blue Apron introduced my family to at least a dozen flavors they’d never had. In any given week, there are recipes with an Asian, Mediterranean, Greek, or Mexican influence. Blue Apron posts the recipes for the upcoming deliveries about a week before the delivery date. One recent week featured “Florentine Pork Chops & Salsa Verde,” “Cheesy Chicken Pizza with Cauliflower-Caper Salad” and “Broccoli & Ricotta Tartines.” Blue Apron helps takes the stress out of putting dinner on the table, but it also takes the stress out of making sure the meals you serve are healthy and packed with high-quality ingredients.
How It Helps Make Wellness Possible
Blue Apron puts emphasis on the quality of its ingredients and where they come from. You’ll only get sustainable seafood, antibiotic- and hormone-free meats, and non-GMO foods in your box. Ultimately, Blue Apron’s goal is to build a better food system. It’s working to source all of the ingredients needed for its 8 million delivered meals a month from small-scale sustainable producers. The company even has a resident agroecologist who works with family-run farms to grow produce specifically for Blue Apron’s meal subscription boxes. She works with a team of soil scientists and agronomists to time harvests, troubleshoot problems, and optimize crops. There’s so much more that goes into your Blue Apron box than a simple trip to the store. Blue Apron also guarantees it won’t repeat any recipe within a given year. Like its competitors, Blue Apron has “guest” chefs who help create some of the recipes. Blue Apron has recently added the option to add wine to any subscription.
How Much Does It Cost?
Blue Apron breaks down the cost of its meal plans by servings, and gives you a weekly total as well. The two-person plan is $10.99 per serving for either the meat/poultry/fish meal or the vegetarian option. If you go with the entry-level plan — two recipes with enough ingredients to serve two people (four meals, total), you’ll also pay $7.99 for shipping, which rings in at $51.95 total. If you bump up to three recipes a week, the shipping is free, and the weekly fee is $65.94 per week. If you’re cooking for four people, the pricing gets a little more complicated — only because the more you buy, the less you pay per meal. For example, two weekly recipes with enough ingredients to serve four people (eight meals, total) are $9.99 per serving, or $79.92/week. Three recipes (12 meals) is $107.88/week and four recipes (16 meals) is $143.84. You always get free shipping when you commit to a four-person plan. Serving sizes are not skimpy, either. We are a family of five — including three teenagers — and ordered the four-person plan many times. We almost always had enough leftovers for at least one person to have lunch the next day.
The Bottom Line
One of the first questions people ask me about my experience with meal-delivery kits is: “Is it worth the price?” Here’s the deal: It’s more expensive to subscribe to Blue Apron (or any other similar service) than it would be to buy the ingredients at the grocery store. So it comes down to time and effort. If you absolutely love planning and prepping seven meals a week, these services aren’t for you. If you wouldn’t mind having a little assist a couple of nights a week, you’ll love Blue Apron. Learn more at BlueApron.com.
The Competition
HelloFresh relies on revamping a lot family dinner classics. You’ll see pasta dishes, meatloaf, burgers, tacos, stir fries, soups, pork chops, and more — with a twist. Plated has a huge selection of recipes each week — there are 20 — and even offers a few dessert options. The ideas are innovative without being too over the top. Home Chef lets you cook up to six meals per week for up to six people, which is far more than any of the other meal subscriptions boxes.
