How Does Blue Apron Get in Your Appartment if You Dont Have a Doorman

I'm not what you would call a whiz in the kitchen. I put ketchup on my eggs and most of my meals into the microwave. Seamless is my friend. When I was a kid, my family's specialty was what we called an "if it" dinner: "If you can find it, you can eat it."

Part of my aversion to cooking is that recipes oftentimes call for a tablespoon or a quarter of a cup of something that is only sold in 28 ounces or what seems like gallon form. After I cook the latest dish that's making the rounds on Pinterest, what am I supposed to do with the rest of the fish oil or this mountain of cilantro?

Meanwhile, I will admit to not knowing what some of the ingredients listed in popular recipes actually are, or where I might find them in the local supermarket. If a recipe has more than a handful of ingredients, it's usually not for me.

And so, I was intrigued when my sister started using Blue Apron(Opens in a new window), a food delivery service that provides you with exactly the amount of ingredients you will need to make a given meal for two, four, or six people. If you only need a tablespoon of soy sauce, that's all you get. No more feeling like you're wasting food.

But is it really that simple? Surely, having food delivered to your door has to be prohibitively expensive. And won't it go bad? I signed on for Blue Apron to find out.

Setting Up an Account
The minimum plan on Blue Apron is three meals per week, each of which feed two people, for $60. But you can also opt for food to feed four or six people.

Blue Apron will ask if you're a vegetarian, but also provides the option to opt-out of meals with beef, lamb, poultry, pork, fish, or shellfish. I don't have any food restrictions, so I signed up for whatever they wanted to give me.

Blue Apron will automatically sign you up for weekly deliveries, but you can cancel at any time, provided you give them 6-7 days notice since they start packing up your weekly delivery a few days in advance. You can also skip a week if you're going out of town, or want a break from culinary adventures.

Delivery
As for delivery, you can select from a number of delivery windows, on Monday through Friday. My sister lives in a house in Northern Virginia, and FedEx drops the package on her front step every Friday. Since I live in a Brooklyn apartment and don't have a doorman, I didn't want the package to be stolen or ransacked by area critters, so I had it delivered to the PCMag offices on Thursdays. Blue Apron will ask you if your package is being delivered to a residence or a business, so even though my delivery window is 8am to 8pm, it's always arrived during business hours with our office's regular FedEx deliveries.

The box looks big, but most of the bulk and heft is due to the padding, as well as the ice packs that keep the food cold and fresh. Get rid of that, and I've been able to fit all the ingredients for three days in a reusable grocery bag and transport them home without incident.

But is the food any good? Read on to find out what's cooking.

Let's Cook!

Let's Cook!
Each meal comes with a large recipe card. On the front: a photo of what your meal should look like, as well as a list and photos of the necessary ingredients. On the back: step-by-step directions broken into six sections with photos of what each step should look like. If you manage to keep these cards clean during the cooking process, they can be saved for later if you want to recreate a favorite meal. The only thing you'll need that's not provided by Blue Apron is olive oil.

( Edit: I should note that after taking 15 minutes to mince the fresh garlic during my first recipe, I switched to the pre-minced garlic in the little plastic jars for all subsequent cooking sessions. My sanity and fingertips thanked me.)

By now, I've had a dozen Blue Apron meals - some successful, others not. Admittedly, the unsuccessful ones were largely due to my own laziness and/or impatience, but they can't all be winners. There were also a few that I loved after I made a few adjustments (because chefs love that). What made the cut?

THE WINNERS

Lamb, Mint & Pea Orecchiette
This was tasty and simple: two things I love. Just saute the onion and garlic, throw in the lamb, add the pasta, some butter, lemon juice, and parmesan cheese, and you're good to go. Technically, this should've also included mint, but I don't really love mint (I know, I know) so it turned into Lamb & Pea Orecchiette. But you can't really go wrong with pasta, butter, cheese, and lamb, so two thumbs up.

Filipino-Style Beef Picadillo
This was my first Blue Apron meal, and turned out to be one of my favorites. Probably because it was a carb explosion with rice AND potatoes. Throw in the ground beef, and it was filling enough to last for three meals. And I learned what chayote squash is (not a misshapen pear, as I'd first thought).

Pan-Seared Chicken & Sauteed Bulger
Bulger: it's what's for dinner. Blue Apron described it has having a "nutty chew" (yarf), but it was actually pretty tasty mixed in with a tomato and cucumber salad, chicken, and Greek yogurt. And it was even better when served cold the next day for lunch.

Braised Pork Chops & Roasted Leeks
Another night, another new grain. This time, it was kasha, which was kind of like … large couscous? Sure, let's go with that. At any rate, the pork chops were the standout here, after simmering in a sauce of mustard, vinegar, cherries, and tarragon. I also had to roast some leeks, which were good (especially the crunchy ends) but I might have used less olive oil because they were tad oily.

RUNNERS UP

Salmon Burgers & Corn on the Cob
So, during this week, we got a salmon filet we were supposed to shred into burgers and also some chicken we were supposed to make into parmesan patties. I wanted a burger, but was more in the mood for chicken than salmon one night, so I ended up making chicken burgers instead of salmon ones. Mix in the chicken with some shallots, breadcrumbs, and garlic and cook in a skillet. Make an aioli with mayo, garlic, lemon, and olive oil. Put that on a bun with a tomato slice et voila! And what's better than corn on the cob during the summer? Nothing. That's what.

Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps
We were supposed to add chicken seasoned with sweet chili sauce and sesame oil to lettuce wraps with a watermelon radish salad and black "forbidden" rice on the side. First of all, I think my watermelon radish got lost in transit on the way home, so I was left with some jicama that didn't look all that appetizing. And from past experiences with kitchen klutziness, I had the feeling that my lettuce wraps would fall apart between the plate and my mouth (Never forget(Opens in a new window)). So instead, I shredded the lettuce, and mixed it with the chicken, forbidden rice, and an avocado I had for a sort-of fancy Chipotle bowl. Yum.

WHOOPSIES

Cod & Pattypan Squash En Papillote
"Bag it up, chefs!" reads the directions on this recipe. And really, I should've bagged it up and handed it over to a real chef because I'm clearly not skilled when it comes to cooking things in parchment paper sacks. To be fair, the day I cooked this, it was about 85 degrees out, and the recipe required me to crank the oven to 400 degrees in my non-air conditioned kitchen. So after boiling my tri-color quinoa, chopping up a bunch of squash, and using my limited counter space to try to fashion parchment paper into neat little sacks that could properly cook the cod, I was ready to put my apron into a stupid parchment sack and see what Seamless had to offer. It wasn't exactly a disaster, but my parchment packets were sad enough that I didn't even take a photo. My sister and brother-in-law are apparently not as spazzy in the kitchen as I am, and they had better luck (pictured) .

Oven-Fried Chicken
You would think this one would be super simple, right? Dip the chicken in buttermilk and panko, place on a baking sheet, and let the oven do its magic. The chicken breasts, however, were pretty thick, so they definitely didn't cook in the 13 to 15 minutes the recipe called for, and after I left them for another 10-15 minutes, the bread crumbs got a little burnt and patchy in places. But I got some corn on the cob again, so I survived.

A Blue Apron Convert?
So am I sticking with it? I think I might use Blue Apron every other week. I'm still not Ina Garten, so cooking three grown-up meals every week might get to be a bit much. Sometimes you just need to eat a sleeve of Pringles for dinner, you know? But Blue Apron did introduce me to recipes and combinations I probably would have never tried before, and it's nice to have something fancy to bring for lunch the next day rather than having the usual deli salad.

That being said (and jokes about Pringles for dinner aside), the ingredients are fresh, but not all recipes will help you stick to a diet. As mentioned above, some of my Blue Apron recipes include buttermilk and butter, not to mention red meat and pasta. You could go vegetarian, of course, and the portion control it provides is helpful for those who routinely go in for seconds or thirds. But this is another reason why every other week will probably be the way to go for me.

But Blue Apron is not the only food delivery service out there. Check out some other options on the next page.

Rival Services

Plated
Plated(Opens in a new window) is similar to Blue Apron, with a slightly different pricing structure. Each week, a chef will design seven meals: four meat and fish options and three vegetarian dishes. You go to the Menu page(Opens in a new window), select a delivery date, and then add to your cart. Select two, four, or six plates: the minimum is two plates.

Cost: Plated offers annual and monthly memberships, or you can pay on a meal-by-meal basis. But if you buy a yearly membership at $8 per month or a monthly membership at $10 per month, it's $12 per meal. With no membership, it's $15 per meal. Like Blue Apron, you can skip a week, if necessary (up to four weeks in advance). Use the code 15FromPlated to get $15 off your first order.

Delivery Zone: Plated says it delivers to 80 percent of the continental U.S.: enter your ZIP code on the Plated website(Opens in a new window) to find out if you're eligible.

HelloFresh
HelloFresh(Opens in a new window) offers two delivery options: a Classic Box for omnivores or a Veggie Box for herbivores. Like Blue Apron, HelloFresh will send you a new box every week unless you cancel your subscription or skip a week, but there's no monthly fee. Those who opt for Classic can choose from three of five meals; vegetarians must stick with the three weekly options.

Cost: Each Classic Box costs $10.75 and each Veggie Box is $9.08. The minimum is three boxes for two each week ($69 for classic/$59 for vegetarian).

Delivery Zone: HelloFresh is currently operational throughout the East Coast and Midwest. Check your ZIP code on the company's website(Opens in a new window).

PeachDish
Every week, Atlanta-based PeachDish(Opens in a new window) sends out boxes with two meals that will feed two or four people. Right now, there are no vegetarian options, though PeachDish says it hopes to add more diet-specific options in the future.

Cost: Two meals for two people is $50, while two meals for four people is $90, putting it on the expensive end (and probably why PeachDish doesn't show pricing info until you hand over your email and delivery details).

Delivery Zone: PeachDish only delivers on Wednesdays (in Atlanta) and Thursdays (nationwide).

Home Chef
Chicago-based Home Chef(Opens in a new window) delivers meals once a week, and provides members with eight recipe options(Opens in a new window) based on dietary preferences (vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, and dairy-free). Like Blue Apron, Home Chef will automatically select meals for you each week based on those preferences, but you can switch it up.

Cost: Meals are $9.95 per serving. Home Chef is offering a $20 discount off your first order if you use the code PCMAG20

Delivery Zone: Deliveries go out Tuesday through Friday, and the company says it covers about 60 percent of the U.S.

Editor's Note: This story was updated on Aug. 22 with details about Home Chef.

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Source: https://www.pcmag.com/news/a-terrible-cook-tries-blue-apron

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