I feel like not a day goes by lately where I don't hear an ad for a new meal prep company...Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, etc. Has anyone tried them, and if so, what did you think? We have used Dream Dinners for the past year but it is a supplement for us...we get 12 meals per six weeks and use two per week, on nights when I have to work a little late--we like them and hubby does well with clear directions. But they only serve 3, and now that my twins are 3 they are eating somewhat bigger portions (they always shared before). I like Dream Dinners but then you also have to go to the store and prep all your meals--it's fun but it's also another thing that somewhat cramps my time. So I'm thinking about trying other things and would love to hear some reviews.
-
Following because I'm interested too.
I've never tried any of these services, but I've heard from people who use Blue Apron that those meals can take a long time to prepare.
-
We got a gift certificate for Blue Apron and exactly what @catlady: said- it took awhile to prepare everything. Nice to have new recipes to try but it wasn't a time savings at all. Of course we did it during the throes of newborn days, so that might be part of it. It also only just made enough for me and Dh, not sure if they offer a family size.
-
I really love Hello Fresh. You can choose 3 of six meals that are available- which is nice since DH is gluten free and I don't eat chicken. They also give the recipes including amount so you can make a meal again. It's really easy to choose the weeks that you want to opt in or out, right now and there's a lot of fresh food available I only get it about once a month but during the winter it's more like every other week.
-
We really like Blue Apron because it saves us from having to meal plan! Dh is an amazing cook so they're very easy for him to prep but I think it'd be harder if you were less comfortable in the kitchen. We like it because I'm vegetarian but eat some kinds of seafood and we can choose which 3 of 6 meals to get. There are definitely some patterns of types of meals they send so sometimes it's a little repetitive even if the meals aren't exactly the same (like grain salads with just slight variations) but usually everything is delicious, and it's better than the ruts we get in ourselves without it. While dh is a great cook, he isn't good at planning meals ahead of time
-
I tried 8 Blue Apron meals. They were all delicious but they saved me almost no time (I already had to go to the grocery for other things). You have to chop everything and the prep time was fairly extensive. However, the upside was that they got us to try some new things like this delish Thai Coconut Curry Soup that we have actually made again. I recommend using them as more of a weekend treat than a frazzled weeknight meal.
-
Basically what @nana87: except for the vegetarian/seafood angle. DH and I love to cook and are comfortable in the kitchen, but hate meal planning, so it's great for us. We also get a delivery on Thursdays so we tend to have at-home date nights on weekend nights where we cook a Blue Apron meal, and therefore eat out less.
-
How do these work if you work outside the home? Can you schedule a delivery time?
-
I have tried a bunch of these and I'm a big advocate for using them if they fit into your budget... My favorite by far is Blue Apron- the recipes are varied every week and usually include ingredients that I don't typically use or wouldn't buy in large quantities. The recipes are super clear and I save all of the cards so I can make things again. I also like Plated for the same reasons, but they are a little more expensive (but often for good reason).
Both of these services do require quite a bit of prep time so they might not be great if you are used to doing Dream Dinners. The ingredients do not come prepped and I will often get a recipe that takes 45 minutes to complete. I love to cook, so this doesn't bother me since I would probably make something that took just as long but wouldn't be as interesting. Also, if your kids are picky the recipes might not be the best. I don't get Blue Apron or Plated that much any more because my 2 year old just isn't going to eat chile-orange braised kale.
I have also used HelloFresh in the past, and didn't like them as much because their recipes are more basic, but this might be a better option for you with toddlers (and now that I think about it, I should start getting these again!!).
-
I love cooking, but the mental effort it took to plan meals each week was really stressing me out. So we use Gobble, which has worked out pretty well. Most of the stuff comes prepped, though some chopping is involved. I hate when the recipe asks you to put something in the oven, but their 10 minute prep time is pretty accurate for the most part. Gobble is only available in certain states - they deliver to your door in ice packs, and you can cancel or put your subscription on hold any time. So it's flexible, and you can also freeze your meal kits.
As for the food, it's fairly basic, but that works out well for us since we have little ones. But there have been asian-themed ones that have been tasty.
If anybody's interested, let me know - I can do a referral so you can have 6 meals for free!
-
I have used HelloFresh and BlueApron - I heavily preferred HelloFresh for the following reasons:
1) More kid friendly food (in my opinion)
2) Easier Prep (Blue Apron was fancier meals requiring more hands on time)
3) Better delivery options (they had Monday delivery options, when I did Blue Apron it was W-Sat only I believe - we eat out on weekends so I needed it earlier in the work week).@yellowbird: They just leave the box - its insulated.
-
@yellowbird: they are packed with ice and good for 3 days. Shipping only takes 2. I save and use the freezer bags for camping or travel.
-
I tried a trial of Blue Apron and it wasn't a good fit for us. Too bad I forgot to cancel before our next delivery today. Oops.
So here's my take: I don't mind meal planning and grocery shopping. I work full time so I prefer being able to prep/cook on Sundays because I have maybe 20 min between when dd and I get home and when we want to eat. So for those reasons, blue apron wasn't a good fit because the meals were involved and took too much time to prep. Also, I'm in the first tri and some of the recipes are just too adventurous for me and my nose right now!
One other: you can specify no fish or no red meat with blue apron, but there's no gluten free option! I'm gf and very comfortable modifying things but that was a huge downside for me. -
@Eminthevalley: we tried blue apron for a week. I would give it a 7 out of 10. The food was delicious and made me want to get more creative in the kitchen but the recipes were laborious! I found those instructions a little bit confusing. I also was shocked at all the waste it came with. So much plastic and packaging! We probably won't do it again.
-
Has anyone tried Peach Dish? I'm about to sign up. I really like how they source their ingredients.
-
We've used Hello Fresh for about 6 months or so now and really like it. We choose 3 of the 6 meals to be delivered each week. They're all healthy, easy and really tasty. We still do have to make it but we enjoy cooking and having all the ingredients easily at hand with the directions makes it a lot easier. Yes, we could make the meals for cheaper than what we pay for them but having all the ingredients for a meal delivered is well worth the price for the convenience. Plus, we're not wasting the excess ingredients since they only send what's needed for the meal. It's also very good portions, my husband and two 2 year olds have plenty for the 2 person meal provided.
-
I echo everything @Mrs D said about Hello Fresh vs. Blue Apron. We tried both recently and HF is far and away the winner for us. BA recipes were a little more inventive but honestly I never had one that I thought was super tasty (which is disappointing when you are still prepping/cooking for a good 30 mins). HF offers more of a choice, and while the recipes aren't as exotic, they've tasted much better to me and the portions are also bigger than BA. Oh, and this is a small thing but the HF box is much better organized. Each recipe has its own box, whereas BA kind of just threw everything in there and you had to hunt through it more, grouping things up.
I will also second everyone on the time savings. It's only a time saver if you're sinking a lot of time into grocery shopping, but there isn't really any on the cooking side. But still ideal for people like me who may not mind taking a little time to cook, but really resent spending the time to meal plan and shop.
-
@Mrs. Yoyo: I've never used Blue Apron so I don't have the experience with their packaging but one thing I a absolutely about HF is how easy it is to grab a box from the fridge and having all ingredients inside.
-
I've never tried any of the delivery services, but Blue Apron has all their recipes online so you could always try a few out to see if it's your thing before deciding whether to subscribe. I use BA recipes pretty frequently, just buy ingredients myself at the grocery store since I'm there anyway. I often sub in frozen or precut veggies to save time...sometimes I see BA recipes that require you to shell peas and other such nonsense, which is a big old "nope!" for me right now (but totally doable with frozen).
-
@Mrs. Yoyo: thanks for the review! Someone should do a blog post about these...*hint*
-
@Mrs D: thanks! I'm thinking Blue Apron is too adventurous for my boys & too time-consuming.
-
@lemong: ok, I'm interested! One pan & ten minutes sounds right up our alley, and it looks like they'll deliver to my area!
-
I actually preferred Blue Apron to Hello Fresh. The HF delivery wasn't very fresh and some of the produce was bad (To their credit, they did give me a credit towards my next box) and I preferred the BA recipes.
I found that the portions were small for both.
Yes the HF delivery comes and packages everything you need for the recipe in 1 box, but I found that it took up too much space in my fridge and I actually preferred the BA packaging.
-
@Eminthevalley: I posted on your wall.
-
I did Blue Apron for a couple months. Dinners were good and it was fun using ingredients and cooking techniques that we never used before but SO MUCH PREP WORK. No time saving at all. Also I prefer organic fruit and veggies but they did seem to have good meat.
- Google Plus
- Stumbleupon
- Twitter
- Facebook
- Pinterest
- Favorite0
24 comments