Taking a break from the When I Grow Up series this week to tell you about my latest experiment: Blue Apron. I was going to wait to write about this until next week but when I shared some photos last night I had several people express interest in it. So I decided to tell you about it today!

Blue Apron is a company that I've been hearing about for awhile. They sponsor a few podcasts I listen to, and I've always thought about trying them. When a friend from college posted on Facebook that she had some free vouchers to give out, I jumped on the chance. (Which means this post is in NO WAY sponsored by Blue Apron - they don't know who I am or that I'm writing this. So it's all my opinion and I got no compensation for it.)

Basically Blue Apron sends you everything (well, almost) you need to prepare three amazing meals a week. You receive a box once a week full of fresh produce and meat, measured to exactly what you need for each recipe. All you have to do is chop it up and prepare it. (But it does take longer than you'd think!)

When I signed up I was given a few options. First, I was able to decide what day the delivery would take place. I chose Tuesday. Next I was able to choose three meals from their menu. Each week they offer 6 options, half of which are vegetarian. For this week I chose Chicken Milanese, Vadouvan-Spiced Lamb Burgers, and Cod & Miso Soba Noodles. And then I had to wait.

On Monday I got an email letting me know my meals had shipped, and they arrived around 3 pm on Tuesday. The box was left on my front stoop by the FedEx delivery man, and probably would've been fine there for the entire afternoon. Since I was home I brought the box inside and started going through it.

The box held a shiny refrigerated bag and three recipe cards. Once I opened that I found the produce and knick-knacks were on top. They weren't super cold which worried me, but now I realize it was packed perfectly because some of the items (like the buns) shouldn't be kept super cold. I pulled out all the produce and found a huge ice pack. When I removed that I found the fish, chicken, and lamb meat resting on top of another ice pack, so everything was still super cold!

Blue Apron recommends cooking seafood dishes first, because obviously it doesn't last as long as other items. So around 5:15 I started dinner. This meal was supposed to take about 35 to 45 minutes, but it took me closer to an hour. That's one common complaint I've heard from other people - for cooking novices like me, it will take longer than their estimate.

To get started I laid everything out to make sure it was all there. I was surprised to see white eggplant, which I've never had before. (Spoiler: it was delicious!)

Once I verified everything was there, I started chopping. It didn't take too long - peeling and mincing the ginger took the longest, mostly because it was more delicate than chopping up everything else.

I won't walk you step by step, but after cutting everything up and mixing up the sauce, the cooking actually began.

After cooking the first batch of veggies I moved onto the eggplant and started boiling the noodles. They finished up about the same time, and then it was time to cook the fish. I got them in the pan and got to work putting together the noodles, sauce, and veggies, as well as the toppings (peanuts, basil, etc). Cooking the fish was the worst part. I've yet to master cooking fish - it always sticks!

Despite the sticky fish and the oil that splashed onto my hand giving me a nice little burn, everything turned out great! The noodles weren't anything I'd had before, but they were surprisingly delicious. The flavor of everything was great, and I was super happy with it! Even James liked it, and he's more of a meat and potatoes kinda guy. (He was skeptical about the noodles, though!)

I think we ate around 6ish, so it took me closer to an hour to prepare it. But it was worth it!

More details on Blue Apron:

You can choose a two-person or a family plan.
You can choose your 3 weekly meals from 6 options.
You can skip a week at any time - and you can cancel at anytime. No contracts.
You can choose your dietary preferences - will you eat beef, poultry, seafood, lamb, etc.
You can pick which day you'd like your box delivered.
You keep the recipe cards and can use them over and over again on your own!

I'm not sure how much the family plan is, but the two-person plan is about $60 a week. I know that's pricey for some - it's a little pricey for us! But that's about $10 per person per meal, which isn't bad for such an amazing meal.

Even though I've only cooked one meal so far I've decided to go ahead and have another box delivered next week. Mostly because one of the meals is steak and I'm so excited to see how that works out! I'll let you know how I feel after I cook the other two meals this week.

So have you tried Blue Apron? Or another similar company? What did you think?