The new Blue Apron Prepared & Ready line saved us HOURS of time grocery shopping, cooking, and cleaning. The best part is these fresh meals taste like they were made from scratch!
Time is our most valuable non-renewable resource.
And I don’t know anyone who doesn’t want more time in their day! Before I had children I had all the time in the world to cook everything from scratch. Now when we do plan/shop/cook our own meals, they tend to be super basic and simple. For years now, Blue Apron has been our solution to save time. We’ve ordered their meal kits to have recipes and ingredients sent right to our doorstep, saving us the time we would have spent researching new recipes, making ingredient lists, and grocery shopping. And we’ve always ordered four servings so we could cook once and eat twice. So this saves us cooking and cleaning time a few nights a week.
Blue Apron Prepared & Ready
Recently Blue Apron introduced its Prepared & Ready line of sous vide refrigerated (not frozen) meals that have blown our minds with how fresh and delicious they are – they seriously taste like we made them from scratch. The meals arrive refrigerated and you simply heat them up and dinner is served. This is an even bigger time saver that I’m mixing into our meals sporadically. Choose from 20 meals and a variety of cuisines each week. It’s the next best thing to having a personal chef (and way less expensive than that option).
They are also great for anyone who doesn’t like the same flavors as their spouse (one is vegetarian, one isn’t, for example) or looking for portion control. Or if you need options for lunch and/or dinner. Mix and match – we eat them at both.
Some of the different styles include Carb Conscious, 30g of Protein, or 600 Calories or Less.
In the recipes you’ll find sauces, fresh produce, and meats prepared sous vide, a French technique that locks in flavor and freshness for a tender and juicy result. The meals are all designed to be good being cooked in the microwave (vs. something like fried chicken which ideally needs to be fried).
How do they taste?
We raved about how they tasted like we’d cooked dinner from scratch but had literally saved an hour and a half of time not cooking or cleaning. I’ve been ordering them instead of meal kits on weeks when we know we will be extra busy or one of us will be traveling. They are also great for lunch!
I love that you can switch your plan back and forth between meal kits and prepared & ready. (You can also add prepared & ready onto meal kit plans now.) I’ve been alternating between meal kits and prepared & ready depending on if we have a busier week or one of us will be away for a few days. I will admit that I’d probably get a little tired of these if I only did them. But the weeks I mix them in are extra exciting because we feel like we have so much more time.
I put greek yogurt on everything savory : )
If you want to give the Prepared & Ready line a try, you can save 15% off the first 4 weeks of your subscription! Click here to get the promo.
Sarah says
How many people does each one serve?
Kath Younger says
They are individual servings – so 1!
Sarah says
Ok, thanks, so kind of like an upscale microwave meal? (Bougie lean cuisine?)
Kath Younger says
Yes, but they aren’t frozen so they don’t have any of that watery freezer burn texture or flavor. It’s almost like a prepared meal. You would get from the grocery store.
Cait says
I have heard that they are really salty! Did you find that to be the case?
I love the idea of them but I can’t stand too much salt!
Kath Younger says
I didn’t find them to be particularly salty at all
Cait says
Thank you! I feel like we share the same flavor tastes so this is helpful 🙂