Team Blue Apron
I've raved here about our experiments using Blue Apron, the meal delivery service. As always, when I get interested in something I sort of obsessively read and research it...so I'd read not just about Blue Apron, but about other services. One of the other companiesa that seemed most comparable to Blue Apron was Hello Fresh. I thought I'd give it a try. One of the things I liked about it was that they have several options for meals for four, not just the so called 'family' menus, but also their standard or classic menus. We got our first box, of three meals on Saturday, and thus far, I am definitely still Team Blue Apron.
The box from Hello Fresh arrived when expected and we began to unpack it. I didn't particularly care for their packaging as much. Even though it seems as though sometimes Blue Apron is overpackaging...this was more difficult. Everything apart from the meat, for each meal, came in one box. The boxes were too big to store in our refrigerator though so I had to take things that weren't packaged from within the box and figure out what to do with them. The asparagus we received was loose in the box so I found a plastic bag to put it in for the time being. More importantly though, the asparagus was somewhat broken and the tips were starting to get that mushy-gone by texture. Whereas in Blue Apron all the incidentals for a recipe are in a small bag, here they weren't leading to numerous little bottles of various condiments lined up to be sorted into what goes with what.
We, or I should say Ernie and Owen, made the meal with the asparagus first as we figured we should use that immediately. Ernie's a pretty good cook, but twice he came in with instructions asking my opinion on what exactly they meant....and I couldn't quite figure it out either. The meal ended up being pretty good. The meat was excellent but overall not a terribly satisfying experience. Owen, who has been helping with some of the Blue Apron groaned when we mentioned the other meals, saying he didn't want to do any of these again.
Sunday we had the lamb chops so yesterday we decided to use one of the other Hello Fresh meals. Now perhaps this issue is my fault, but I have always been taught NOT to refrigerate tomatoes, unless they've already been cut or chopped. With this shipment we received two small boxes of grape tomatoes and two Roma tomatoes, and according to habit, I set them on the counter instead of the refrigerator. Ernie had said the grape tomatoes weren't looking good so we figured we should use those last night....went to get the tomatoes of the counter and found both boxes of them moldy. Yeuch. So we turned to the other meal.
Owen had pulled Ernie down into the basement for some kind of project so I started the dinner. You were supposed to chop (after coring and seeding) the tomatoes. Well these were winter tomatoes no doubt, with that somewhat cottony interior. I would have had to go in there with tweezers to get seeds out...I just went ahead and chopped. The tomato was for a onion-tomato jam made of sliced red onion, a bit of sugar and balsamic vinegar. I obediently followed the directions, but without a juicy tomato nothing was particularly happening. I added a bit of wine and a bit more sugar and it came out so-so. The salad dressing for the salad was fine, roasted garlic with mayo and balsamic vinegar. The salad greens were fine. Ernie ended up making the burgers, which had cheese stuffed inside them. The burgers themselves were great but despite the brioche buns being nice quality, I thought the burger was totally overwhelmed by the bun. All in all. Eh.
So far, Blue Apron 2, Hello Fresh 0. Today Ernie will pick up fresh grape tomatoes at the store so we can try the last meal. Perhaps using fresh tomatoes in March just isn't the best idea? I don't know. We shall see. I've got one more week of Hello Fresh, then I'm switching back to Blue Apron...unless Hello Fresh comes from behind.....
Anyone else had experience with comparing these services?
Oh yeah, and I also find the Blue Apron website much easier to navigate.....