One of the biggest trends in food right now are home delivery services, companies that claim to ‘make cooking easy.’ While I’m actually a huge fan of cooking meals at home for Kyle and I (and now Cassidy for the next few months☺), I’ve noticed that what I cook has become less creative and I’m relying heavily on a few go-to recipes (this, this, and grilling various fish & turkey burgers). When I first learned about the potential to have fresh, and mostly healthy, ingredients delivered right to my door with all of the instructions needed for a full meal, I thought it would be WAY out of our budget. I was {sort of} wrong. Initially I tried the meal service Plated back in February but after 3 weeks of deliveries, we weren’t thrilled so I cancelled the subscription and moved on.
Just about a month ago I received an email from Blue Apron saying that they were now delivering to my zip code–shocking that middle America was behind on something!?–and they would give me 3 free meals for signing up. I figured what the heck and set up my first delivery for June 8. The 3 meals arrived just before 5pm and came in a tightly packed cooler with enough dry-ice to keep a small village cold. This week’s menu included Pan-Seared Cod, Turkey Steam Buns, and Seared Pork along with all needed sides, seasonings, etc. Of course I immediately threw away the 2 onions and pack of scallions that came as ingredients because gross.
With just Kyle and I eating, I chose to make the Pan-Seared Cod with Curried Basmati Rice, Snow Peas and Mint first. The directions said the prep/cook time was 25-35 minutes which proved to be right, taking me 28 minutes from start to finish. There wasn’t too much to prep other than some chopping of veggies, however mincing the ginger was a total nightmare {Great reminder of why I only juice ginger–my fingers STILL have that faint scent on them}. After everything was ready to go, I added the aromatics and rice to a pot to boil/simmer while cooking the snow peas in a separate pan with salt and pepper. Once the snow peas were done, I set those to the side and in the same pan (with a little EVOO) cooked the cod filets for about 3 minutes on each side. Once the rice was ready I filled our bowls, added the snow peas and topped with the cod; Kyle added cilantro to this bowl and I added mint to mine. Overall the cooking process wasn’t too horrible, though the kitchen smelled like fish for a few hours (which is why I prefer grill ALL seafood) and the oil was a bit messy. I’d rate the taste of the meal a 6/10…better than average but not amazing. I wouldn’t volunteer to make this again but if it was prepared for me I wouldn’t be opposed to trying it again.
Hopefully the next two meals exceed this one in taste and are even easy at preparing. Stay tuned for reviews of the upcoming meals, but in the mean time, check outwww.blueparon.com to see if your zip code is eligible for delivery or if you qualify for any free meals!!!
This post is not sponsored by Blue Apron, just solely my opinion of their services 🙂
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