Thank you to Blue Apron for sponsoring this post! The first 25 readers to order using this link will get three free meals on their first Blue Apron order.
You know what was awesome? Coming home from our Canadian vacation to a Blue Apron box waiting on our doorstep. Best thing ever, especially when you arrive back home at 8 p.m. to an empty fridge, hungry and totally uninterested in going to the grocery store! No shopping or extra trips required – just drop your suitcases, unpack your Blue Apron goodies, and start cooking.
As you guys know, Blue Apron allows you to create delicious, chef-designed meals at home, delivering all the fresh ingredients you need in exactly the right proportions for the recipes. It also arrives in a refrigerated box, so in the case that you are at work (or on planes back from Canada) when it’s delivered, it will still be fresh and kept cold until you arrive home.
Not having to plan out dinners and shop for the ingredients is amazing – as is the fact that there’s no waste from unused ingredients – everything comes in just the right amounts!
Matt and I have been subscribers to Blue Apron’s 2 person plan (3 meals, 2 servings each per week) for a couple years now and pay for it on our own outside of these occasional review posts. We love it. It has made weeknight dinnertime SO much less stressful – and more creative – for us. FYI – if you have a bigger family/kids, they also offer a “family plan” – you can receive either 2 or 4 meals per week and both feed 4 people.
Pictured above: Steakhouse Salmon with Thyme-Sautéed Potatoes, Green Beans & Mushrooms (<—recipe)
We have a lot of travel coming up this summer, and another thing that I love about Blue Apron is that you can skip weeks anytime you need to with no fees involved. We obviously skipped the week we were in Canada – and I’ve gone in to our delivery schedule and skipped a couple more weeks coming up when we’ll be out of town or won’t be able to make all the meals. Super convenient!
Summertime is my favorite time to get Blue Apron, though – not just because we’re even busier than usual, but also because the meals get even more veggie-heavy due to what’s in season!
These Spicy Miso-Glazed Baked Chicken Wings with Purple Rice and Zucchini & Cucumber Salad (<- recipe) were what we had upon our arrival back from the airport/Canada – all those fresh veggies were amazing after a long day of airport food and we both loved the flavor of the chicken wings, too! Delicious. The zucchini was lightly sauteed and the cucumber was fresh and crunchy – yummy flavor/texture combo!
Have you guys ever had black rice before? I loved that they sent this – I’m a big fan of its chewy texture! I also learned from the little handout included (they include these every week highlighting a different ingredient – so neat!) that black rice is a type of pigmented rice that stores anthocyanins (natural pigment) in its outer layers. It’s very nutritious – lots of antioxidants!
Blue Apron also does a fair amount of Mexican-themed recipes come summer – my fave! Their recipe for Beef Arepas with Pickled Onion, Avocado, and Radishes had us making our own arepas – flat, round cornbreads (like thicker tortillas) – using masarepa (corn flour), water, and salt. Remember when we learned to make our own arepas while on our honeymoon in Costa Rica? This was a fun trip down memory lane!
The final result was delicious, too – loved the crunchy radishes and the sweet pickled onions!
I can’t wait to see what Blue Apron has in store for us recipe-wise the rest of the summer!
Which of the recipes on Blue Apron’s website (or in this post) are you most intrigued by? I love how creative they get!
Happy cooking, my friends – and don’t forget that the first 25 readers to order using this link will get three free meals on their first Blue Apron order!
