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.

Subscribe to my blog to keep up with my Blue Apron recipe reviews and to find out when I’m next able to offer free meals!

Happy eating,

~Tamara

Blue Apron Box #3 | Review of Meals #7 - #9

Our third box was much better than the second.  This box was delivered on Saturday 3/21 and I cooked the meals during the following week.

Blue Apron Meal #7

First up was the Tom Yum-Style Shrimp & Noodles with Gai Lan & Thai Basil. I think this one was my favorite meal since ordering Blue Apron. It totally reminded me of a meal that I'd get from my local Thai restaurant! The Thai basil was just amazing and the coconut milk was rich, creamy and total decadent. The Tom-Yum paste had the perfect amount of heat and it all balanced perfectly.

The meal looks pretty ordinary as the color pallet isn't very appealing, but trust me. This. Taste. Amazing.

The recipe made 3 meals and we got 3 meals out of it. My husband doesn't love Thai food, so I took the leftovers for lunch and they were just as amazing reheated the next day.  This meal is rated a 5 out of 5 forks!

 

Blue Apron Meal #8

The second meal of the week was Turkey Chili with Avocado & Cheddar Cheese. While I loved this meal, I owe it to all the recipe tweaking that I did. The turkey tasted better this time (as my last experience with their turkey wasn't great), but the seasoning was seriously lacking. I added chili powder, cumin, and red pepper. I would have added bell pepper if I had it, it seemed like the onion and celery alone wasn't enough. I also wasn't sure about the chili texture that this recipe made, it's probably due to the crushed tomatoes.  I use diced tomatoes instead and it's more chunky than just thick.

I also think that it could have been a little better had I let it simmer for longer than the recipe indicated, maybe an hour would have allowed the flavors to meld better.

I wouldn't have thought to add avocado on top, but it was wonderful, so I'll be adding that garnish to future bowls of chili. This meal is rated a 4 out of 5 forks.

Blue Apron Meal #9

The third dish was Corned Beef-Spiced Flank Steaks with Braised Cabbage & Buttered Red Potatoes. I was really looking forward to this dish. I ended up cooking this almost a week after St.Patrick's Day as the holiday fell on the Tuesday before my box was delivered. I thought the timing was a bit off for a holiday themed meal, but I was looking forward to it regardless.

You'll notice in my ingredients photo, I have another steak that I purchased there. I figured that if they stuffed two steaks into that tiny package, they were pretty small servings, so I picked up another steak and I'm glad that I did. The two flank steaks were indeed small but it worked for the meal. My husband ate the larger steak and I had the second steak for lunch the next day with the left over cabbage and potatoes.  This recipe is for 2, but there was more than enough veggies for a 3rd meal, so the extra steak came in handy!  You'll also notice a photo of the bad parts of the potatoes that I cut off. I wasn't happy with the quality of potatoes we received, as you can see, they were less than stellar.

I notice that many of these meals include Whole Grain Dijon Mustard, apparently the Blue Apron chefs love the stuff. I wasn't sure how that would be in cabbage, but I guess it worked. The champagne vinegar was very strong in the cabbage, almost overwhelming.  The buttered potatoes were underwhelming, it could have used some herbs, it also would have been better roasted. The best part of this meal was the meat seasoning. I really enjoyed the flavor profile on the meat, just perfect. I have to admit, while this recipe was good, my cabbage recipe would have made this dish amazing!

Overall I liked it well enough and my husband liked it.  This meal is rated a 3 out of 5 forks.

I just finished cooking the last meal from our fourth box, and I'm looking forward to sharing that with you soon!

Happy eating,
~Tamara

Blue Apron Box #2 | Review of Meals #4 - #6

I'm a tad behind with my Blue Apron posts, so I decided to do a 3 in 1.  I'll review the entire box in one post instead of splitting it up like I did with my first box.

This box was my least favorite so far.  I've just finished cooking my last meal from the 3rd box and the box that I'm discussing in this post was delivered on March 7th, so I'm a few weeks behind.  

Let me point out that when this box arrived, all of the produce appeared to be intact and nothing was visibly spoiled or wilted.  All of the ingredients were there, so I was good to go!  This week's recipes include: Miso Yuzu-Glazed Cod with Black Rice & Water Spinach, Italian Wedding Soup with Fregola Sarda & Spinach, and Za’atar-Spiced Steaks with Rutabaga-Barberry Tabbouleh & Labneh Cheese.

Blue Apron Meal #4

First up is the Miso Yuzu-Glazed Cod with Black Rice & Water Spinach. This was a very different meal.  With exception of the cod itself, I’ve never cooked with any of these ingredients before. Red Miso paste? Yuzu juice? Black rice? Water spinach? All very different.

I found the that the miso paste and soy sauce made the cod pretty salty.  The yuzu juice was tangy which was an interesting addition to the saltiness.  The flavor of the topping was so strong that the flavor of the mild cod was lost.  I think that there was a little too much ginger. The flavors were decent, but overpowering. While I couldn't taste the fish, the texture was meaty enough for me to feel like the meal was more substantial.


I enjoyed the black rice. The texture was different that white or brown rice, but I enjoyed it, it really beefed up the meal and made it more hearty.  The water spinach was yummy and lightened up the dish so that the starchy carbs were balanced with a vegetable.  We ended up with a lot of rice and spinach left over, but we didn’t eat the rest. Had we had a third piece of fish, it could have made a third meal.

The meal was pretty easy to cook. Cooking the rice freed up time to do all the chopping.  We enjoyed the dish, but it wasn’t one of our favorites.  I would rate this dish 3 forks out of 5.

Blue Apron Meal #5

The second meal of the week was Italian Wedding Soup with Fregola Sarda & Spinach.  I'm sad to report that I found this meal pretty gross. I could barely choke it down.  The raw ground turkey was a consistency I’d never experienced before, it was almost minced, or mashed? Basically it was extremely mushy, which made assembling the balls very difficult because it was extra sticky. It surely wasn't ground and it didn't look anything like the photo on the recipe card. We eat ground turkey in our house frequently and it looks nothing like this did. The consistency was a super sticky brick of raw meat I wish I could have photographed it better.   It had a funny flavor and aftertaste.

A few months ago I took a cooking class featuring soups. One of the recipes was a traditional Italian Wedding Soup and it was soooooo much better than this! With ingredients like ground turkey sausage, escarole, oregano, basil, thyme, etc - it was a thousand times better. Blue Apron's version calls for spinach. Who puts spinach in Italian Wedding? Yuck. Overall it was pretty bland. Even my husband had to give this the thumbs down.

I ended up making 23 meatballs the recipe called for 24 to 28.  The recipe calls for one whole onion I use my brain and knew that would be too much so I ended up using half the onion. The broth was a bland so I ended up adding a little bit of garlic powder and a little more salt and pepper then I would have normally used.  I was really thrown by the spinach. The spinach changed the flavors and not in a good way.  Not only didn't I like the turkey consistency, as I previously mentioned, but as I ate the dish I found that the turkey had an odd flavor to it....gross.

This recipe made two generous servings. We got 3 servings out of it, but nobody wanted to eat the 3rd serving so it got tossed.  This dish looked better than it taste. I would rate this dish 1 forks out of 5.

Blue Apron Meal #6

The third and final meal of the week was Za’atar-Spiced Steaks with Rutabaga-Barberry Tabbouleh & Labneh Cheese.  This was my favorite meal of the week. Even writing about it several weeks later, I'm remembering it. It's an Iranian-inspired meal and I enjoyed it. While he ate it, my husband felt that it was very fruity.  And it was, but I drank a nice red wine which seems to help cut the fruity flavor.

This was another meal where there were tons of ingredients that were new to me.  The seasonings on the steak was perfection. The barberries were tart and melded with the rutabaga and parsley. The rutabaga was hearty and reminded me of turnip-ish root vegetable. You may notice that I have my own garlic in the photograph. If you're wondering why that is, the bulb of garlic that I received was bad and I could only use part of it, so I opted to use my own instead.

The Lebneh cheese was another odd thing.  The cheese was mixed with lemon, garlic, and parsley. It was essentially a sauce served on the side. I didn't love it or hate it. It was something new to try, so I added some to my meal.  I personally felt that the meal was yummy without it.

The meal was very easy to cook, which is always a plus.The house just smelled amazing while cooking this meal.  I would rate this dish 5 forks out of 5.

Overall, this box wasn't our favorite. The first box was a much better selection. With any type of subscription service there are bound to be hits and misses, but I'm still happy with the service and the variety of food I get to cook.  Stay tuned to find out what I thought of our third Blue Apron delivery.

Does Blue Apron look like something you’d like to try out? Here’s your chance. Blue Apron has provided me with a few free meals for me to give to friends! As readers of my blog, you are totally my friends, so I’m going to extend the free meals to the first 3 people who reply with your email address. The only stipulation is that you must be NEW to Blue Apron. The free meal is available for first timers only! You’ll need to claim the free meal offer via email, so leave your address in this format: address at yahoo dot com.  Again the first 3 email address will get the meals! I'll only contact you to get your full name for the offer. Your information will not be shared (other than with Blue Apron).

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.

Subscribe to my blog to keep up with my Blue Apron recipe reviews and to find out when I’m next able to offer free meals! 

Happy eating,

~Tamara