Blue Apron - first time unboxing & making a meal

Previously...

I wrote previously about getting a gift of "Blue Apron" meals from my kids. Well yesterday I received the first three meals, one of which I made last night.

Unboxing 3 meals

The meals were brought by Fedex yesterday (Friday) before noon, having been shipped Wednesday night from north of San Francisco. The box was fairly large and reportedly weighs 15 pounds.

They have taken a cue from other California (fruit) companies with their unboxing experience. The first thing you see!

Followed by these meal cards that have the gist of the meal frontside and directions on the backside for making the meals.

Those cards lay on top of the insulated bag containing all of the food.

And here is a view peering into the bag with its methodically placed food elements. Buried below much of this food was the sandwich of ice paks keeping the critical food elements really cold.

The meals were in transit for like 36 hours. To keep them cool, two super sized Nordic Ice ice pak bags sandwiched the contents that needed to be kept really cool (the chicken, fish and cheese). These massive ice pak bags are gonna prove to be very useful to me in the future for road trips.

Both ice paks were still quite frozen having yielded perhaps as much as 50% of their chill power ;-)

And here are the contents for three meals all laid out. Three brown paper bags held condiments or smaller amounds of food elements like flour and 1 ounce bottles of sherry vinegar, etc.

It is here that I noticed the only issue encountered with their system of food delivery. Two meals called for 1 oz containers of sherry vinegar. Both plastic bottles leaked part of their contents. I suspect either the person in charge of packaging those little plastic bottles had insufficient finger strength OR much more likely, the cheapness of the bottles make a good seal impossible, especially given the vibration inherent in transport systems.

Two more meals (in the near future)

Knowing what I know now about my first meal, I can't wait to try these next two meals. You'll have to wait until Monday to hear about my next choice given that I have delicious left overs from last night awaiting me tonight!

Making the first meal

So here is the meal guide for the first meal I chose to eat Seared Chicken & Caramelized Vegetables. I was a little "afraid" because I have never knowingly eaten fennell and I have never been a fan of cherry tomatoes.

Don't the ingredients look great! Well except for the strange looking fennel.

I managed to follow the directions pretty well. I think it took about 45 minutes, not including the mess cleanup. In hindsite, well worth the effort. There were really only two glitches for me.

The first glitch was that I stripped all of the thyme down to leaves (I bit of a chore in and of itself, though near the end, I was pretty good at it) -- but I was supposed to leave half the thyme on the twigs for the tomato roasting operation.

The second glitch was the tomato roasting operation. Not only was the pizza pan I used too large (solved by raising one edge with a stainless stell spoon). But I left the tomatoes in too long which nearly burned the place down. Thankfully, smoke and flames subsided quickly and I found the tomatoes came out perfectly roasted. So, maybe I actually did that right!

Time to eat!

I have to say, that might have been the best meal I have ever made for myself. I would definitely eat fennel again. Combined with onions and other ingredients, it was really good.

And the roast tomatoes were also really good.

And best of all, the chicken was so tender. And delicious. I can't wait for tonights leftovers!!

Conclusion

First off, I am not a shill for the guys at "Blue Apron". I don't own stock in them. I'm not getting paid by them. I am just an admirer of their business plan, offerings and execution.

Notice that Blue Apron are selling a complete, out of this world, healthy, delicious meal for 1 person for $10.00. All that person has to do is cook the meal. I think that is pretty amazing.

I have already proven to myself that I can eat for a lot less than $10 a day. I can definitely see getting on an every 2-3 week schedule with them to change stuff up. And teach myself how to recognize great ingredients at the store that I would then know how to cook.

So maybe what this is for me is cooking lessons and delicious meals at the same time. And for Blue Apron, maybe what they are really selling is how to cook (and cooking equipment).

About

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