Has anyone ever done Plated or Blue Apron?

[Purple]

Or anything like this?
Someone I know did it as a stay at home date night after the kids went to bed.

[redheadk]

We did Plated once. The meals were pretty good. I did not like having to dispose of the huge amount of packaging waste, though.

ETA: We haven't done it again because we get our CSA delivery on Thursday and that is my grocery shopping day. Delivery days are Wednesday and Saturday, neither of which really work for us.

[ssmjlm]

I think CloudBee and rikki have done one or the other from previous threads.

One of them now offers family size meals now, which makes me more curious about them.

[arch01]

ijack does blue apron.

we've done blue apron and i wasn't impressed. small servings and it took forever. there was one meal that took me 45 minutes just to prep-but i will admit i'm no speed chopper. i'm going to do plated when i see a week that looks good-so far i've seen just 1 recipe/wk that we'd eat. i'll do the promo with 4 free meals WYB 2.

[brooklyn]

I did blue apron for 3 weeks and hated it. Soooooooo much prep work for tiny meals that my H would refuse to eat.

[thejen626]

We did Plated and liked it well enough. It was expensive for what it was.

[mlt]

We have done Hello Fresh several times for weeks when we are both busy at work and we love it. It's three meals per shipment that are just the right portion size for two of us. On the nights we use it we give DS1 something different. The recipes are mostly really good. We love to cook but don't have time to shop or plan elaborate meals so we love that the ingredients show up in the proper amounts and all you have to do is chop and cook. Highly recommend. I also like that it has forced us to try some new stuff - we often get in a meal planning rut.

[rikki]

I get 4 meals a week from Plated. It is the only way that I have found that actually gets me to cook. I tried Fresh20, looking up recipes, etc. but nothing worked. The meals are easy, a lot of the ingredients they send are organic and they're always very fresh, they never take me more than 30 minutes or so to cook, and they have made me try things that I would not have otherwise eaten. It is always enough for me, my husband and Eli, even though I order just 2 plates.

If you want, I can send you a code for a trial, I think.

[ijack]

I've done blue apron and green chef. I like blue apron a lot. For the most part it works out to be enough food for all 4 of us (my kids aren't huge dinner eaters) and we've liked the flavor of everything. I didn't like green chef as much because the ingredients don't have dates or anything on them so I can't tell how fresh they are. My only issue is that there is SO much shipping waste and it makes me feel guilty. And I would probably like it better if they would let me pick my meals each week.

[rikki]

I can also take pictures of the recipe cards and send you examples if you want.

[ijack]

Mar 2, 2015 17:23:45 GMT -5 rikki said:

I get 4 meals a week from Plated. It is the only way that I have found that actually gets me to cook. I tried Fresh20, looking up recipes, etc. but nothing worked. The meals are easy, a lot of the ingredients they send are organic and they're always very fresh, they never take me more than 30 minutes or so to cook, and they have made me try things that I would not have otherwise eaten. It is always enough for me, my husband and Eli, even though I order just 2 plates.

If you want, I can send you a code for a trial, I think.

I would love a code if you have one, thank you!

[SJ]

We do Hello Fresh, and I have referral discounts if anyone wants to try it.

[ijack]

Mar 2, 2015 17:29:42 GMT -5 SJ said:

We do Hello Fresh, and I have referral discounts if anyone wants to try it.

me please!

[rikki]

Mar 2, 2015 17:26:13 GMT -5 ijack said:

Mar 2, 2015 17:23:45 GMT -5 rikki said:

I get 4 meals a week from Plated. It is the only way that I have found that actually gets me to cook. I tried Fresh20, looking up recipes, etc. but nothing worked. The meals are easy, a lot of the ingredients they send are organic and they're always very fresh, they never take me more than 30 minutes or so to cook, and they have made me try things that I would not have otherwise eaten. It is always enough for me, my husband and Eli, even though I order just 2 plates.

If you want, I can send you a code for a trial, I think.

I would love a code if you have one, thank you!

www.plated.com/invites/f818ed  

I think that should give you 2 plates free (when you buy 4) at checkout with free shipping.  Anyone is welcome to use it! 

[SJ]

Mar 2, 2015 17:31:24 GMT -5 ijack said:

Mar 2, 2015 17:29:42 GMT -5 SJ said:

We do Hello Fresh, and I have referral discounts if anyone wants to try it.

me please!

Sent to your gmail! Should be $40 off (normal price $69) so $29.

[pinkdutchtulips]

BT and I have done it .. well I supervised since he's the one learning how to cook

the meals were good, great if you live in a downtown apartment w/ few to zero grocery stores handy (SF SOMA/China Basin). I wouldn't do it for myself ... I like recipe hunting way too much !

[arch01]

Me please SJ!

[SJ]

Mar 2, 2015 17:53:36 GMT -5 arch01 said:

Me please SJ!

sent!

[anna7602]

Wait, you have to do the chopping for all these services? The chopping is the part I hate. I can just find recipes and put in a Fresh Direct order otherwise. Or is there another benefit I'm missing?

[SJ]

Mar 2, 2015 18:01:17 GMT -5 anna7602 said:

Wait, you have to do the chopping for all these services? The chopping is the part I hate. I can just find recipes and put in a Fresh Direct order otherwise. Or is there another benefit I'm missing?

Yes, you have to chop. 

It would be the same as recipes + grocery delivery I think.

[LoveTrains]

I had a friend send me a code for a free week of Blue Apron, so my delivery is coming next week. I was able to choose delivery from Wednesday, Thursday, Friday or Saturday. It looks like the normal price for 3 meals for 2 people is $59. They also have a four serving option that was a little less expensive. I was also able to pick my meals out of a few available for the week.

[mannah]

We just tried Plated for the first time and I loved it. It was three good sized meals and fun to make. I loved not having to measure things out and but buy an entire package if thyme for one sprig in a recipe. The food was good and fresh, and the intro deal we got was $20 for three meals, I think the usual price is $73, which for what it was I thought was reasonable. It was also nice not to have to think about what those three meals were going to be.

[madringal]

We got 3 free meals from Blue Apron. We really enjoyed the food, but the prep time was ridiculous. I make dinner almost every night, I am not opposed to some prep work, but this was over the top.

[jln]

I've done Plated a few times. I specifically chose meals that I would have never made from a recipe book so I could learn something new and they all turned out well. I liked how easy the directions were to follow.

[bronxgirl]

ijack sent me a free trial of Blue Apron (thanks!) but I haven't had a chance to use it yet. Based on the other responses I don't think I'll be a big fan.

[niemand88f]

/lurker

I've used Blue Apron many times and love it. I've learned a lot of new techniques and gotten to try tons of new produce and spices. I don't have kids so the prep time doesn't bother me, I actually kind of enjoy it to unwind after work. Some of the recipes are really long prep, but there have been several that are fairly quick.

But I'm mostly posting this because I have 4 free boxes to give away if anyone wants to try, PM me your email. ETA - all claimed

[VillainV]

We have done Hello Fresh for about a month, and really like it. The recipes each take about 30-35 minutes. I usually do the prep/chopping while my husband feeds C his dinner, then cook the meal after C goes to bed. We've had 1 or 2 meals that were kind of duds, maybe 3-4 that were outstanding, and the rest were very good. We love how they send us fresh ingredients in the right amounts, and that we aren't wasting a ton of food by buying a lot of an ingredient when we only need a little. It has gotten us out of our rut of cooking the same things every week. And now that we have the recipe cards we can remake them with our own ingredients if we want to. Most of the meals really make enough for 3 people, or two dinners and at least one leftover lunch. We don't like the cost -- it comes to about $10/person/meal, which is WAY more than we would spend at the grocery store, but they are high-quality ingredients (especially the meats) and you pay for the convenience. 30-35 min is more time that I would normally spend cooking dinner on a weeknight, so we usually make the meals on Sat, Sun, and Mon.

ETA: I feel like the Hello Fresh recipes are really accessible and non-intimidating, and use really common ingredients in ways I've never used them before.  I like that.  I've looked at Blue Apron a little and most of the meals on there seem a little out-there for us.  Probably delicious, but a little intimidating.

[specialk]

I used to do Blue Apron and liked it. The food was really good and I thought portions were normally okay, but there was a lot of prep. I still have free week trials I can send out if anyone wants to try it. Just PM me your email address add they have to send you the invitation.

[arch01]

Mar 2, 2015 17:57:15 GMT -5 SJ said:

Mar 2, 2015 17:53:36 GMT -5 arch01 said:

Me please SJ!

sent!

I can't find it-which email did you send it to? Thanks

[SJ]

Mar 6, 2015 9:54:57 GMT -5 arch01 said:

Mar 2, 2015 17:57:15 GMT -5 SJ said:

sent!

I can't find it-which email did you send it to? Thanks

Hotmail. I can try to resend