Cheating

A couple months ago I was on a plane on my way to New York and sat next to a lovely woman named Allison.  Our plane was late to take off and she was fretting that she might miss her NYC flight to London.  It was going to be tight.  So I tried to keep her distracted.  Two hours passed very quickly, talking about our kids, our towns, our jobs - it was one of those super easy stranger interactions.  At one point I said to her, if you lived in my town we would definitely be friends.

(She later wrote: "I can't thank you enough for being so supportive on the plane ride. I think I may have lost it if I didn't have you to talk to." Did I mention we would totally be friends if she was here?)

Food was definitely a common passion.  We traded tips and tricks and the names of favorite cookbooks, then she asked me if I'd ever used Blue Apron.  I had never heard of it.  So when she returned from London (she made the flight!), she sent me a coupon for a free order.

It's been a pretty fun experiment.   It's a fantastic concept and the company is hot - Under Armour's CFO just jumped ship from UA to BA.  The concept is simple and brilliant:  The Blue Apron food whizzes secure fresh, seasonal food from their sources, package it up perfectly, print up their original recipes with step-by-step instructions, and ship you your food in an insulated container.  Every single food item you need is included and pre-measured- all you need are the pots and pans.  So it's cooking, but it's all thought out, shopped and measured for you.  And it's pretty reasonable.  I did two shipments, each with two meals for a family of four (sob), and they were about $60/shipment.

So here's how it goes.  The doorbell rings, and this is on your stoop.  It's like StitchFix with food!

Which has this inside

which has this inside.  

Included are all the ingredients plus all two recipe cards.  Plus one card that contains interesting tidbits about some seasonal food. This one's for Julie:

 The recipe cards are gorgeous.

 So is the packaging.  And there is zero waste.  All these adorable little containers and labels are fantastic.

 Then you just follow the step-by-step instructions. 

 

Week one's meals were Chicken Tetrazzini and Seared Cod with Pickled Grapes.

The tettrazini was delicious. Doug literally had fifths. 

I thought the cod was ok, but Noah literally spit it out. 

 This week's menus were Cajun shrimp and cheesy grits, then a weeknight Bolognese   

Both were outstanding. 

 So it's been an interesting experiment.  Here are my observations:

The ingredients were gorgeous.  Fresh, beautifully packaged, and seasonally appropriate.  And the recipes were extremely healthy, limiting fat and sodium.  The packaging was pleasing, and it was very very convenient.

The cons?  A bit pricey, although not unreasonably so.  When I think of how much I spend at the grocery store every week, 30/meal for a family of four isn't bad.  And it's free shipping anywhere in the country.  It definitely got me cooking meals I had never tried before.  But a couple of the recipes were a bit bland unless they were zealously salted, and, fun as it was to try new things, they were all a bit labor intensive!   So although I appreciated the convenience of literally opening the box and following instructions, a coupe of the meals took longer than I'd normally spend on a weeknight meal.

The bottom line is, for people who like to cook and value fresh meals and ingredients  but find the hunting and menu-planing part of cooking a drag, this is an outstanding option.  For me, it was a fun experiement but at the end of the day it felt a little like cheating and, as it turns out, I like the planning and the shopping.  I"ll definitely try it again, just not every week.

But for some of you this might be a dream come true!  Thanks for the tip, Allison!