Thursday, May 16, 2019

happy birthday from blue apron!

I just adore this bag!
"Knick knacks" is a phrase that
always conjures thoughts of a loan-seeking frog and a bank officer named Paddy.
That's definitely worth a smile...
and no doubt that inspired my
Kiva loans
today!
Blue Apron uses the term for the miscellaneous small items needed for a recipe.
I joined them through a discount code with WW.

This is my first Freestyle recipe: Seared Chicken Over Vegetable Farro with Lemon-Dijon Sauce.
Quite a mouthful, isn't it?
The dish also features currants, carrots, beets, and spring onions.
I omitted the Fromage Blanc from the sauce, but it still looks very much like their photo.
The taste was quite good and I look forward to the second helping later this week!

This photo, of the meal as I served it, varies greatly from theirs.
The Chicken & Quinoa Salad with Sweet Peppers & Radishes was meant to have all ingredients combined together as one higgledy-pigglety concoction.
Well, I know that snow peas have strings, making them a mess to eat.
Served my way, I could eat those troublesome things separately.
The dish was otherwise quite delicious and I'll have a second serving of it, too!

As with SunBasket, this program assumes you are cooking for at least two people.
The smallest program they offer involves a shipment of two meals weekly...
which equates to four meals for bachelorettes like me.
Still, it does allow me a bit of variety, especially with these grains I never buy.
As an introduction to their goods, I'm only paying half-price for my first two shipments.
That means these four meals - from 2 recipes - this week will cost me $27.97 instead of the usual $47.95.
I've taken next week off from the shipments, as I wanted plenty of time to test-drive it, to see how I liked the recipes.
I will say this: SunBasket was much easier to use.
With that company, I could give them food preferences, such as "no dairy".
Blue Apron does not offer that tailoring option.
Blue Apron also assumes I have kitchen gadgets which I do not, such as a mesh sieve.
That made draining the quinoa much messier than it needed to be.
I'll have to be sure to be mindful of their lapses with my next order.
Meanwhile, for my birthday60+1 prelude, this has been a nice change of pace!

2 comments:

faustina said...

Yesterday, I received a call from Blue Apron, asking for feedback.

Did I like the recipes? Yes, except they contained dairy and I am lactose intolerant. How can I note that for future recipes?
(Apparently, the website does not yet allow the notation of dietary restrictions. I was sure to tell them that SunBasket does.
Meanwhile, I will need to be on guard for such items in the recipes and decide my course of action - to omit, as I did this time, or to decline those recipes.)

Did I find the recipes easy to prepare? Yes, except there was the chef's presumption that I had kitchen tools which I do not. Specifically, the chef assumed I would have a fine-mesh strainer to use with the quinoa in one of the recipes.
(The website does not list the need for specialty items such as that. The representative made sure to note that lack.
Meanwhile, I am to avoid recipes which use those seeds.)

Where all of the ingredients fresh and present? Yes, they were, even though I did not unpack the package until the evening of their arrival. Good job! The flavors were good, too, and the servings plentiful.

just lil ol me said...

I had the Chicken & Quinoa Salad for lunch today and ate it cold. It was pretty good, too! In fact, I think it was maybe just a bit better than it had been the day I made it.