If you have tried Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, etc.

DH brought up the idea of signing up for one of those meal delivery services (Blue Apron, Sun Basket, Hello Fresh etc.). Has anyone tried any of them? If so, which one? Likes? Dislikes?

We are not particularly savvy in the kitchen (we can do basic stuff, but aren't terribly creative and would like to try new things). Plus, we just remodeled our kitchen, so we want to use it!

Re: If you have tried Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, etc.

We just signed up for Home Chef, our delivery starts next week so no comment yet on service, but we relied on the comments on this article:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/alisonroman/all-the-boxes?bffbfood&utm_term=.mneyqeq1K2#.ppRndKdZP0

If you have tried Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, etc.

We've tried Blue Apron and Hello Fresh. The food was good for both but, I found Hello Fresh less labor intensive (for Blue Apron - it was a very active 30 minutes).

If you have tried Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, etc.

I've tried hello fresh & blue apron. I personally did not like blue apron at all. The set up was not as organized as hello fresh and the produce started going bad within two days of delivery. As far as cost and portions they are very similar. When they say its two portions, they mean it. I personally like it to change things up here and there but I don't find it economical to do weekly. I would recommend Hello Fresh over Blue Apron

Re: If you have tried Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, etc.

I've only tried Hello Fresh and it's been easy. So easy that DH now does the three meals a week that come from Hello Fresh. Most have been good, but some have been not the best. I also think the price is crazy what is charged in the US.

Re: If you have tried Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, etc.

I tried Blue Apron because I had a code for a free week.

I am pretty creative in the kitchen, and while the food was delicious, the recipes certainly stifled my creativity. I doctored everything to make it how I wanted it. Also, even my DH, who is an average-sized guy who eats average-sized meals, was sooooo hungry after each dinner.

I'm not going to lie; I have a big appetite, so yes, I thought the portions were too small from the start. When my DH said it though, I knew it wasn't just me.

It is also way more expensive than my regular groceries, so I would not pay for this type of service.

Re: If you have tried Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, etc.

I did Hello Fresh for quite some time. The meals were great. The one and biggest downfall for me is I could only make the meals on the weekends because they were time consuming with a lot of cleanup. By the time I got out of work, picked up my son, went to baseball, did homework...there was no time to do anything other than a quick meal.
So overall it is a great service if you have the time at night to make a wonderful meal. Unfortunately I didn't.

If you have tried Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, etc.

Tried Blue Apron. I had the 2 serving plan and was able to feed DH, I and my 5 year old. But the 5 yo and I eat one portion between us with leftovers. I felt it was a lot of work for the meals. The second week when the food was delivered the ice had melted and it was no longer cool. I received a full refund, customer service was great about it. But I cancelled after that because I wasn't willing to take the chance again.

If you have tried Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, etc.

Thanks for the input everyone. I mentioned the smaller portion sizes to DH (he is a big eater) and he wants to lose weight, so he feels that something like this will help him cut down.

I'll be honest--he is the one who is all gung ho on this, not me. I'm not sure it is worth the money, but I'm willing to give a try, even for a few weeks. I'm not much of a cook, so maybe this will give me some inspiration/ideas.

I think we are leaning either toward Sun Basket or Marley Spoon (a Martha Stewart brand). He wanted to try Purple Carrot (a vegan service), but I nixed that because I hate tofu and I'm concerned that it will be heavy on tofu. Plus they don't seem to give you options if you don't like something on the menu.

If you have tried Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, etc.

We've been using Fresh Direct and it's been great. They recently started doing meal kits.

If you have tried Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, etc.

I haven't seen many mention it but Plated is our favorite and we've also done Hello Fresh and Blue Apron. Plated had the most variety of meals each week and the least amount of chopping (I felt like all I did with Hello Fresh is chop).

Re: If you have tried Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, etc.

I have tried 2-3 of them. Blue, fresh and Home Chef.

By FAR Home Chef is the best. I just like the way they lay out their meals. The way they pack them. The freshness. The variety.

But they give REALLY good instructions on prep. WHY they have you do certain things. I LOVE Home Chef!

Re: If you have tried Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, etc.

Re: If you have tried Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, etc.

We had Hello Fresh and loved loved loved the food and the portions were just enough. Every once in a while an avocado was not ripe or something was rotted but it was rare. The issue we had was there was more prep than we wanted with both of us working and school aged kids. We wound up canceling and trying already prepared food service Personal Chef to Go. It's not as tasty as Hello Fresh, but we are much less stressed and it has been so worth it!!! You just put the food in the microwave, warm the bread in the oven and in 20 minutes you are ready to eat.

Re: If you have tried Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, etc.

Re: If you have tried Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, etc.

It's fresh - check it out

https://personalcheftogo.com/

Re: If you have tried Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, etc.

I did blue apron and loved it!!! There was only maybe 2 or 3 meals we didn't care for during the 6 months we did it! Some of the meals have a lot of prep but comes with great, easy to follow recipes. I would definitely recommend it!

If you have tried Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, etc.

I've done Hello Fresh and Sun Basket. I hated Sun Basket and cancelled after one week. Didn't like the food (I felt it was bland). Hello Fresh I have been using on and off for about a year. There hasn't been a recipe that I didn't like. There is a decent amount of chopping, but I find that most meals take 30ish minutes to prepare.

Re: If you have tried Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, etc.

LOVE hello fresh!

We tried Blue Apron too. Didn't like that one that much.

Love Hello fresh. you can postpone weeks which I like if we have a busy week. There hasn't been a recipe I haven't liked yet. Even things I didn't think I would like, I did!

We did the Groupon for 8 weeks for $300 with the coupon codes they were running in December. Can't beat that!

Re: If you have tried Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, etc.

I've been using Blue Apron for a few months now and I love it. The meat/fish is outstanding and the recipes are just delicious! My issue is cooking all three meals on Sundays and spending most of the day in the kitchen. Some meals are quick and simple and some are a lot of of prep work.

I was thinking of trying Hello Fresh but i got a sample recipe card in the mail and it looked like a lot more prep work and ingredients than Blue Apron. Could have been just that one in particular so I think I may try it out.

Re: If you have tried Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, etc.

If you have tried Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, etc.

I did Blue Apron for about 3 months. I liked not having to meal plan, and it was fun while it lasted.

BUT there are a ton of downfalls if you ask me. For the price, you get absolutely no leftovers. One regular sized chicken breast per person, let's say. When normally I would make an entire 1.25 lb package of chicken and have some pieces for lunch the next day. Honestly there were nights where my husband (who is not a big guy) would eat a bowl of cereal at 9 pm. They try to skimp on the meat, and then bulk up the potatoes, peppers, onions and "fluff" basically to make it look filling.

The other issue is that you can only select certain combinations each week. For instance, one week there was a gnocchi dish- you couldn't select that and also select the featured fish dish for that week. I think it's based on the price of the ingredients. There was always a vegetarian option which just doesn't work for us, unless it's a pasta or something. I had no interest in eating tofu tacos. So I ended up cancelling. Realizing I can make my own burgers and potatoes for $5/pp rather than $10 if that's the type of meal they are sending me.

If you have tried Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, etc.

We do home chef and love it. It takes a little prep time but the meals are pretty fantastic and different than what we would usually make. It gives us a nice variety 3x a week.

We used to do hello fresh but home chef gives a much better selection imo. Plus it's cheaper.

I would try blue apron but I haven't found a menu that we would enjoy.

Re: If you have tried Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, etc.

Message edited 1/6/2017 11:40:12 AM.

If you have tried Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, etc.

We do hello fresh. Negatives are that there is a fair amount of chopping, and it requires way too many pots/pans sometimes. On the other hand, I like that I can pause or unpause each week, according to my schedule and if I like the recipes or not. We do two meals a week on the family plan, which feeds four. So the week before I can check out the menu and pick the two meals I want. They offer a vegetarian option as well. I find that it makes a lot of food. I always have leftovers.