Blue Apron, Plated, Hello Fresh or other meal service?

9 years ago

I am thinking of ordering a 3x a week meal service for our family over the summer and then continuing the subscription for my daughter when she goes back to college in the fall. My thinking is that my daughter and I can prepare the meals together over the summer and she will be more comfortable cooking for herself when she goes back to school. Our friends have been using Blue Apron for several months and have been very pleased with it. The husband, who has never cooked before, has really enjoyed learning to cook with the recipes cards and highly recommends Blue Apron for my daughter, a beginner cook. She will still have a limited meal plan at school, but because of her class schedule and team commitments, she prefers to make some meals at home.

Does anyone have any experience with Blue Apron, Plated or Hello Fresh? Are there other meal services that I should look into? Thanks!

Comments (3)

lmsscs
9 years ago
We just started Blue Apron. We have done a few weeks now. What I find is that it plans the meal for me, a big plus. Does the grocery shopping and sends fresh ready to cook ingredients (like ripe avocado, we don't find those in the store), very nice. The recipes haven't always been home runs for my tastes, the only down side. I love to cook, but finding the time to plan out an entire meal, shop for it, prep and live our busy lives hasn't been happening. I view this as an easy way to get 3 home cooked meals on the table a week without having to do too much other work.

It has also exposed us to new foods which I like. For instance Lingonberry jam was part of a recipe the other week. I'd never heard of it, but it was yummy and worked perfectly with the dish it was paired with.

A side note, we have been ordering 2 meals for 2 adults and 2 kids, if I throw in a bag of veggies it feeds us all without leftovers. We are going to try 4 meals in an upcoming week. You can only order in increments of 2, so I'm not sure if your daughter wants leftovers of everything once she is back to school.
lianned
9 years ago
I signed up with HelloFresh not too long ago and have had a very positive experience so far! The meals are creative without being difficult, and the quality of the ingredients is really excellent.

The only downside is the cost -- it comes out to about $10 per person per meal, but considering they take all the planning and shopping out the equation it's not so bad! I used a coupon code when I signed up, which made it a lot more reasonable. I will definitely continue with the service!

Here is a link that might be useful: HelloFresh coupons
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Elisabeth0326
9 years ago
I've been using Blue Apron now for almost 3 months, and I love it. I decided to start just before the holiday season began because I was feeling overwhelmed with all of the "stuff" that needed to be done. Meal planning felt like the straw that broke the camel's back.

As Imsscs mentioned, I also find it super convenient to have all of the ingredients on-hand, and to be able to try out some new things that I wouldn't have otherwise tried. As parents to 2 toddlers, we found ourselves often eating whatever the kids were eating, and if you know anything about toddlers...well...we were sick of Chick-Fil-A and grilled cheese.

Even if the kids aren't interested in Macadamia Crusted Cod, we parents can cook a Blue Apron meal, crack a bottle of red wine, and feel like we're eating a fancy meal out (while the kids eat their PBJ). haha.