Everyone knows what it’s like to face the dreaded question “What’s for dinner?” at the end of a busy day. Blue Apron answers that question without you having to spend time meal planning and grocery shopping or spend money on take-out.

Simply choose the plan you’d like: two-person meals two or three times a week or four-person meals two, three, or four times a week. The two-person plan has eight recipes to choose from and the family plan has five.

Customer Favorites

• Spicy chicken and vegetable stir-fry with persimmon rice – 25 minutes
• Seared steaks and garlic kale with cheesy roasted potatoes – 45 minutes
• Cheesy chipotle black bean quesadillas with caramelized onion and carrot salad – vegetarian, 50 minutes
• Zesty pork burgers with mustard and fontina cheese – 20 minutes
• Spiced cauliflower and chickpea bowl with avocado, dates, and harissa yogurt – vegetarian, 40 minutes
• Cilantro beef tacos with fresh tomatoes and spiced rice – 20 minutes
• Seared steaks and mashed potatoes with roasted carrots and homemade steak sauce – 40 minutes
• Cheesy veggie enchiladas with mushrooms, kale, and Mexican rice – vegetarian, 50 minutes
• Pork chops and honey-glazed apples with creamy orzo – 20 minutes
• Greek chicken with roasted broccoli and potatoes – 35 minutes

Vegetarian meals marked as so but the family plan may not have any every week. Recipes that take less than 30 minutes to make are highlighted so you’ll know how much time to set aside for cooking. Ingredients are listed and a calorie count is shown on each recipe page.

Blue Apron delivers to all U.S. states except Alaska and Hawaii. Delivery is available seven days a week in most areas. It’s easy to skip weeks and Blue Apron sends regular emails to remind you to select your meals before the weekly deadlines. You can manage your account through an app on your phone, too.

The Perks of Using Blue Apron

Blue Apron doesn’t just send you the ingredients for a great meal – you can order everything you need to go with it, too, from a vegetable peeler to a bottle of wine.

The Blue Apron Marketplace has a huge selection of kitchen accessories, high-end pantry items, and artisanal treats. As you’re browsing through recipes you’ll also see some of the tools you’ll need and be able to add them to your shopping cart directly from the recipe page.

Each recipe suggests wine pairings and you can buy some of those wines through Blue Apron’s Wine Club. Each monthly box contains six 500-mL bottles, which is the perfect amount of wine for two people to share with a meal. The wine subscription is $60 per month plus $5.99 shipping.

Blue Apron has a blog that features the farms it sources from, ideas for recipes that use some of the same ingredients they send you, and lots of tutorials to help you learn how to cook your best.

To reduce packaging and processing, ingredients arrive in the box not organized by meal so it’s up to the customer to sort them out upon arrival. Most elements are the packaging are recyclable, and Blue Apron provides information for you to look up the recycling guidelines in your community, because some plastics can be placed in your curbside bins and some need to be taken to specific recycling spots.

Pricing

• The two-person plan is $9.99 per serving. Shipping is free for the three-recipe box and for the two-recipe box shipping is $7.99.
• The family plan ranges from $8.99 to $7.49 per serving depending on how many recipes you’re ordering. Shipping is always free for the family plan.

Pros and Cons

Blue Apron offers restaurant-quality meals for much less money than restaurant prices but it doesn’t cater to specific diet plans and some users say it’s cumbersome to find the allergen information for specific dishes. It’s one of the better options for families compared to some of the other meal kit delivery services, with some of the less-expensive meal options and free shipping.

The wine club is expensive at $10 per bottle for bottles are only 500 mL each as opposed to the standard 750 mL bottle. It’s easy to use their suggestions, however, to find similar bottles at the right price for your budget in your local wine shop. Some of the Marketplace items ship from separate suppliers, so there are additional shipping fees and deliveries to manage

Bottom Line

Blue Apron was one of the first meal kit delivery services to become popular in the United States and they consistently remain one of the top rated due to their commitment to keeping their customers happy and well-fed.