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Blue Apron has been a revelation for us in this regard. We went from rarely eating lousy food together to frequently eating great food together. Even when I try

by pbreit 11y ago

Blue Apron has been a revelation for us in this regard. We went from rarely eating lousy food together to frequently eating great food together. Even when I try to recreate the meals on my own it's a hassle. Also, something like this can really help: http://www.buzzfeed.com/christinebyrne/clean-eating-2015 http://www.buzzfeed.com/christinebyrne/clean-eating-2015

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
- mratzloff 11y ago
  Your condescending comment missing the point. Not all of us live in "walkable neighborhoods of low-rise apartments with little shops on the first floor," nor necessarily want to. I live in a single family house in a residential area of Seattle. I'm pretty happy here, but I have to drive 10 minutes to one of a few nearby grocery stores. Grocery shopping is my least favorite thing to do on the planet, so if I can pay a service to do it for me and think up meals for me to cook, I'm sold.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - matwood 11y ago
    I agree with you about grocery shopping being horrible. My local store offers an online service where I can pick what I want and just swing by and pick it up on the way home for a $5 fee. That has saved tons of time, but having to always think of things to cook can be annoying. I may give Blue Apron a shot and see how it works. It's just so easy to eat a frozen pizza or get take out instead of dealing the mental work of planning a meal after working all day.
  - pbreit 11y ago
    I didn't see the comment but sounds ill-informed. I can walk to Trader Joe's but that's not the point at all. First, it's figuring out what you want to eat. Then finding a recipe. Then getting the ingredients. Then figuring out the recipe since there's so much inconsistency on recipe quality. Etc. Blue Apron is $10/portion which is pretty reasonable. The recipes are easy to follow and fairly healthy. We don't get much choice but have been very pleased so far with all the meals for 6 months or so. I've picked a few which I can now prepare by myself with good results. One of the reasons I like Blue Apron vs Din (even though Din meals are much better) is that I actually do feel like I am learning to cook from scratch.
    - eropple 11y ago
      I'm glad it works for you, but $10/portion is crazy to me. I cook from scratch and average around $5/portion, and it adds up. (I cook in bulk a little more than Blue Apron wants you to, though, as it's mostly cooking for me.)
      - pbreit 11y ago
        For something that approaches restaurant quality and might include beef, lamb, seafood or fresh pasta, it's a decent price point, imo. Hardly "crazy" I would say.
        rmxt 11y ago
        I used a referral sample for one shipment of meals for two. There was a choice of 3 out of 6 options for your shipment. There were seafood, beef, chicken, and three vegetarian options on the menu. However, you were restricted in your choice of three, and couldn't do {Beef, Chicken, Seafood}, which basically meant you would be paying $20 for a pasta dish for two, because you also couldn't pick {Beef, chicken, heartier non-meat option}. The total cost of ingredients was probably less than $15, maybe less than $10, for the pasta dish. It's hard to justify that as a value proposition in my book. Overall, the quality of the ingredients wasn't anything more special than what a local, non-budget, supermarket would carry in my market (NYC). (In fact, some of the labels on the ingredients seemed familiar from local delivery trucks in the area.) I agree with the GP: $10 a portion for a home cooked meal is expensive, <$5 is ideal. At $10 a portion, why make your own food, when you can get a gourmet healthy meal when you eat out? When all was said and done, I felt that the best value proposition would be to just go on the Blue Apron website, look at the recipes, buy dry good ingredients in bulk, and make the recipes myself as time went on, buying the fresh ingredients as needed. As always, YMMV. Edit: as many others have also pointed out, the packaging is "neat", and probably necessary for their workflow, but it feels ever so wasteful. You could supply a kindergarten arts and craft class with leftover materials from each shipment.
        pbreit 11y ago
- comrh 11y ago
  The packaging is kind of crazy but they aren't "mostly-prepared", they only ship you the ingredients.
- harryh 11y ago
  I live in Manhattan, one of the most walkable places in the US. And I love Blue Apron. It saves me an enormous amount of time in planning & shopping, it's close to the same cost as shopping, and I end up making things I never would have thought of myself. I'll be the first to admit that it's cooking with training wheels, but I'm a busy professional with a young child. Anything that can save me time and stress is well worth it.
mratzloff 11y ago
Oh man, I wish I could up vote this comment more than once. I had never heard about this service but it looks perfect for me. I love to cook but hate grocery shopping or planning meals. I'm starting to get into other services like these. For example, I've started to use Trunk Club for clothing with good results.
- harryh 11y ago
  I just sent you a free week to try it out. I've been a customer for close to 3 years and love it.
  - mratzloff 11y ago
    Beautiful. Thanks!
  - onecommentjust 11y ago
    The guy you replied to doesn't have an email address in his profile. How did you "send him a free week to try it out"? Does Hacker News have some sort of user-to-user communication that I'm not aware of?
    - harryh 11y ago
      I googled his username and found his github which has his email.
stouset 11y ago
My bullshit detector is pinging wildly on the linked diet. Gluten-free, measured salt intake, 6 glasses of water per day, and the list goes on. No thanks — I'll take my diet advice from people that follow the science, not pop trends.
- pbreit 11y ago
  Fair enough but it's mostly just whole foods and quite a bit better than a lot of people's diets.

by pbreit 11y ago

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

mratzloff 11y ago
Your condescending comment missing the point. Not all of us live in "walkable neighborhoods of low-rise apartments with little shops on the first floor," nor necessarily want to. I live in a single family house in a residential area of Seattle. I'm pretty happy here, but I have to drive 10 minutes to one of a few nearby grocery stores. Grocery shopping is my least favorite thing to do on the planet, so if I can pay a service to do it for me and think up meals for me to cook, I'm sold.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- matwood 11y ago
  I agree with you about grocery shopping being horrible. My local store offers an online service where I can pick what I want and just swing by and pick it up on the way home for a $5 fee. That has saved tons of time, but having to always think of things to cook can be annoying. I may give Blue Apron a shot and see how it works. It's just so easy to eat a frozen pizza or get take out instead of dealing the mental work of planning a meal after working all day.
- pbreit 11y ago
  I didn't see the comment but sounds ill-informed. I can walk to Trader Joe's but that's not the point at all. First, it's figuring out what you want to eat. Then finding a recipe. Then getting the ingredients. Then figuring out the recipe since there's so much inconsistency on recipe quality. Etc. Blue Apron is $10/portion which is pretty reasonable. The recipes are easy to follow and fairly healthy. We don't get much choice but have been very pleased so far with all the meals for 6 months or so. I've picked a few which I can now prepare by myself with good results. One of the reasons I like Blue Apron vs Din (even though Din meals are much better) is that I actually do feel like I am learning to cook from scratch.
  - eropple 11y ago
    I'm glad it works for you, but $10/portion is crazy to me. I cook from scratch and average around $5/portion, and it adds up. (I cook in bulk a little more than Blue Apron wants you to, though, as it's mostly cooking for me.)
    - pbreit 11y ago
      For something that approaches restaurant quality and might include beef, lamb, seafood or fresh pasta, it's a decent price point, imo. Hardly "crazy" I would say.
      - rmxt 11y ago
        I used a referral sample for one shipment of meals for two. There was a choice of 3 out of 6 options for your shipment. There were seafood, beef, chicken, and three vegetarian options on the menu. However, you were restricted in your choice of three, and couldn't do {Beef, Chicken, Seafood}, which basically meant you would be paying $20 for a pasta dish for two, because you also couldn't pick {Beef, chicken, heartier non-meat option}. The total cost of ingredients was probably less than $15, maybe less than $10, for the pasta dish. It's hard to justify that as a value proposition in my book. Overall, the quality of the ingredients wasn't anything more special than what a local, non-budget, supermarket would carry in my market (NYC). (In fact, some of the labels on the ingredients seemed familiar from local delivery trucks in the area.) I agree with the GP: $10 a portion for a home cooked meal is expensive, <$5 is ideal. At $10 a portion, why make your own food, when you can get a gourmet healthy meal when you eat out? When all was said and done, I felt that the best value proposition would be to just go on the Blue Apron website, look at the recipes, buy dry good ingredients in bulk, and make the recipes myself as time went on, buying the fresh ingredients as needed. As always, YMMV. Edit: as many others have also pointed out, the packaging is "neat", and probably necessary for their workflow, but it feels ever so wasteful. You could supply a kindergarten arts and craft class with leftover materials from each shipment.
        pbreit 11y ago
comrh 11y ago
The packaging is kind of crazy but they aren't "mostly-prepared", they only ship you the ingredients.
harryh 11y ago
I live in Manhattan, one of the most walkable places in the US. And I love Blue Apron. It saves me an enormous amount of time in planning & shopping, it's close to the same cost as shopping, and I end up making things I never would have thought of myself. I'll be the first to admit that it's cooking with training wheels, but I'm a busy professional with a young child. Anything that can save me time and stress is well worth it.

mratzloff 11y ago

Oh man, I wish I could up vote this comment more than once. I had never heard about this service but it looks perfect for me. I love to cook but hate grocery shopping or planning meals. I'm starting to get into other services like these. For example, I've started to use Trunk Club for clothing with good results.

harryh 11y ago
I just sent you a free week to try it out. I've been a customer for close to 3 years and love it.
- mratzloff 11y ago
  Beautiful. Thanks!
- onecommentjust 11y ago
  The guy you replied to doesn't have an email address in his profile. How did you "send him a free week to try it out"? Does Hacker News have some sort of user-to-user communication that I'm not aware of?
  - harryh 11y ago
    I googled his username and found his github which has his email.

stouset 11y ago

My bullshit detector is pinging wildly on the linked diet. Gluten-free, measured salt intake, 6 glasses of water per day, and the list goes on. No thanks — I'll take my diet advice from people that follow the science, not pop trends.

pbreit 11y ago
Fair enough but it's mostly just whole foods and quite a bit better than a lot of people's diets.