This week I had the pleasure of receiving a free trial from Blue Apron gifted by my friends Lilia and Steve! I was seriously way too excited to get my delivery on Sunday. If you aren’t familiar with Blue Apron, it’s like culinary genius meets Fedex. Blue Apron sends fresh, pre-measured ingredients along with recipes for the dishes you will create.

A few things I love about Blue Apron:

• The pre-measured ingredients save a lot of time. I learned at a Central Market cooking class that you should measure your ingredients in advance to prepare for cooking a recipe, so they get an A+ for this convenience.
• The instructions are detailed. They provide step-by-step instructions that you can easily follow, along with helpful supplements on their app and website.
• The recipes are non-standard. These are not your everyday recipes that you would think of on your own and find a recipe for on Pinterest. My husband and I are really into cooking different dishes right now, so I enjoyed this experience so much. The recipes made me feel like I was almost ready to submit my application for Top Chef and they tasted delicious! I definitely expanded my palate.
• They’re flexible. You can log into your account and change the recipes you receive or skip a week if you don’t like the choices.
• It’s cost-effective. We did the 3 meals for 2 people for which is about $60 and there is also an option of 2 meals for 4 for the same price. When we were doing special cooking nights on our own, we were spending about $100 just for one night so I love that this is so much cheaper and I get the same satisfaction.

Here’s a peek at the meals I created.
Spicy Ponzu-Glazed Catfish with Zucchini, Garlic Rice & Ginger Peanuts

When I saw this item I was initially not thrilled because I was thinking “what can you really do with fish?” I don’t normally eat catfish unless it’s battered and fried, but this was a yummy spin on a fish dish plus I used all of the Sambal Oelek so it was nice and spicy.

 
Chicken & Buttermilk Biscuit Sandwiches with Shredded Collard Green & Carrot Slaw

In my mind this was a gourmet Chick-fil-a sandwich, but my chicken didn’t have quite enough flour to be fried. Nonetheless, it was a tasty meal. It has inspired me to make  biscuits from scratch so be on the lookout for that in future posts!

 
Beef Albondigas with Sautéed Summer Squash & Pan Con Tomate

When would I have ever selected a recipe of Mexican meatballs??? Probably never, but I loved this dish! I was leery of the recipe because raisins are used in the meatballs, but I trusted the recipe and it was great.

Overall, I loved it because I didn’t have to think about anything or go to the grocery store, a plus for a person on the go. If you want to experiment with cooking and try some great meals, I highly recommend trying Blue Apron. Keep an open mind and you will definitely enjoy it!