So earlier in January, I told the folks on Facebook that I would be trying out some of the meal prep delivery services. I started with Hello Fresh and while the service was far from perfect, we enjoyed the process and the food that week.
My second test was with Blue Apron, which seems to be the more popular of these services around. I see lots of my friends using them and posting on Facebook. Blue Apron works similarly to Hello Fresh – they deliver all the ingredients you need to make a meal complete with easy instructions. Blue Apron does 2 meals in a week to Hello Fresh’s 3 meals though and the price obviously reflects that.
It’s $69.95 for 2 meals for a family of four with Blue Apron; it’s $105 for 3 meals for a family of four with Hello Fresh when you do their “Classic Box,” but if you want the “Family Box” to have a choice of 3/5 meals, then it’s $120.
I liked that with Blue Apron, I could exclude foods. I was able to check a box and say we didn’t want any beef: something I could not do with Hello Fresh. (You need to get that more expensive Family Box to be able to opt out of choosing meals that have something in it that you may not eat.)
We didn’t love either of the meals that came from Blue Apron. To be fair, one was a Wild Salmon with Farro. The box was delivered on an extremely cold day and the fish, which I expect was supposed to be fresh, was frozen solid. I had to thaw it out in the fridge for a day and we cooked it day two and it didn’t taste very fresh to us so that let a bad impression.
The other meal was a White Turkey Chili – Jon and I both liked it but it was very spicy (despite me only putting half the spice it called for in!) and my boys wouldn’t touch it.
Overall, it’s still a great concept. But I did love having 3 meals (you can get 2 or 4 with Blue Apron) and I also appreciated that Hello Fresh divides all of the meals into containers so you know what each ingredient is for. With Blue Apron, everything’s tossed in the box that you open and you have to sort out what’s for which recipe.
I’ll probably go back to Hello Fresh – or potentially try a third option shortly and share those findings! Has anyone tried any of the other meal prep services and love them?
Some of the others I have found include Plated (but only for 2 people so that option doesn’t work for us), Marley Spoon and Green Chef (all organic, slightly pricier).
Hello Fresh teamed up with Jamie Oliver for the recipes. It’s no wonder you prefer that to Blue Apron.
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