Blue Apron Box #4 | Review of Meals #10 - #12

If you're reading this, I'm guessing that either your curious about Blue Apron, or you've got the subscription yourself. If you received this box, please let me know what your thoughts are on these meals.

This was our fourth box and even though there was one clear fail, over all we enjoyed it.  This box was delivered on Saturday 3/28 and I cooked the meals for it in the following week. We're still enjoying Blue Apron and doing it every other week is good for us. This way we are able to enjoy new recipes and expand our horizons yet still return to our regular meals. Alternating prevents both my husband and I from getting sick of trying new things.

The fish option didn't look that appealing to me, so I decided to pick up one of the vegetarian options instead, Read on to see what we ate.

Blue Apron Meal #10

First up is the Spicy Thai Chicken Noodle Soup with Red Curry & Mushrooms.  It looked good but the taste...well, let's just say it was very, very bland.

I seasoned it very well, so I came to the conclusion that there were three things wrong with the meal. First, there needed to be more than substantial veggies in addition to the bell peppers. It needed a second veggie to balance it.

Second, the recipe card calls for red curry, but I received green curry.  I'm sure that altered the flavor a bit as well. Third but not least was the embarrassing amount of chicken in this dish.  There was so little protein, that after serving my husband, my serving was severely lacking of meat. I also have to mention that he was actually hungry an hour after eating this...and no, that's not the norm for him. It's an exception.

I wanted to love this meal. When I reviewed the recipe I was expecting another excellent Thai dish like we got in the previous box. Sadly that wasn't the case.


This meal makes 2 servings and we got exactly that. This meal was a fail, but  I see the potential of this recipe so this meal is rated 2 out of 5 forks!

Blue Apron Meal #11

Our second meal of the week was Short Rib Burgers on Pretzel Buns with Hoppy Cheddar Sauce & Roasted Sweet Potato Rounds.

This was the best dish of the week.  The cheese sauce was awesome and decadent, I've never cooked with hops flowers, so I was a bit thrown by it. Yet those flowers were the perfect addition to the cheese sauce.

As for the onions, I don't like raw onions so I sauteed them. But because I sauteed the onions, the burger still needed a little crunch for texture, so after I photographed the plate, I added some lettuce and tomato.   

 

While I really loved it, I had issue with the sweet potatoes, of which I'm sure was my error.  I peeled the potatoes. In the recipe card photo, clearly the potatoes aren't peeled, so I'm thinking that the floppiness of the potatoes might have been due to that. I also think that I sliced them a little too thinly, so it didn't turn out at crispy as I would have liked.

This recipe makes 2 servings. We probably got 3 servings of potatoes, but with only 2 burgers, the rest of the potatoes were thrown out. This meal is rated a 5 out of 5 forks! 

Blue Apron Meal #12

Mushroom & Vegetable Pot Pie with Cheddar Cheese Biscuits was the third meal for the week.  My husband and I are split on this dish and that's mainly because he doesn't really like mushrooms. He also isn't a fan of vegetarian dishes so I decided to add chicken for his benefit.  It was unfortunate because the flavor of the mushrooms was so strong that it took over everything and we couldn't taste the chicken at all.  Personally I charge that to the dried Shiitake mushrooms.  Anything dried tends to have a intensified flavor.  Maybe if I had used a richer meat like lamb it would have held up against the mushrooms.

In addition to my issues above, following the directions, my biscuit mix was very crumbly and didn't come out looking like the photo at all.  Despite the crumbly texture, it still tasted great, so that's a good thing.

This recipe makes 2 servings, but we got 3 out of it, so I at leftovers for lunch. I love when that happens.  I do think that the meal when a little further thanks to the addition of meat to the recipe, This meal is rated 3 out of 5 forks!

Overall this was a decent box. Did you cook these meals as well? If so, please share what you thought of the dishes.

If you'd like to try Blue Apron, comment on this post with your email address.  Your first box is 100% free with my referral.  Same as in my previous Blue Apron free box offer, the first three to respond will get the free box!

In full disclosure, I pay for my Blue Apron subscription. Blue Apron is not paying me, and I have not gotten any money or extras for talking about Blue Apron. I like the service, so I talk about it on my blog. I will ALWAYS, be completely up front and honest with my opinions of any product or service that I try out and talk about on my blog.

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Happy eating,

~Tamara