my fling with blue apron

isn't my kitchen beautiful? jk, i stole this from groupon

"it's easy," they said. "you'll love it!" they said. and by "they," i mean the evil marketing geniuses at blue apron, arguably the most popular meal delivery service. so, i took the plunge and signed up, hoping that it would inspire me to cook more and branch out in terms of my recipe repertoire. i lasted approximately a week and a half, and made three of the six meals they sent me before admitting defeat.

yes, i will admit that it was extremely nice to receive perfectly-portioned ingredients for all of the meals (seriously, even flour and butter). but there were so. many. ingredients. and so. many. steps. and i'm pretty sure i used all of the pots and pans in my apartment for each of the recipes. oh, they try to trick you into believing there are only six or so steps, but do not be fooled! each "step" is actually like 20. exhibit a:

aw hell naw!

don't get me wrong, the dinners were delicious. i made the beef & shishito pepper open-faced sandwiches:

and the crispy catfish with kale-farro salad and warm grape relish:

and the pimento cheeseburgers with collard greens and carrot slaw, which i forgot to take a picture of. they were all great, but it was way too much food for one person, and i'm not much of a leftovers girl, so the whole thing became pretty damn overwhelming (and slightly depressing) pretty fast.

not to mention, by the time i finished washing dishes, i felt less like a spunky, childless 30 year-old woman and more like a jaded soccer mom who was ready to feign a headache to her husband for the third night in a row. one mini-existential crisis and a freezer full of abandoned meals later, i gleefully canceled my subscription and was filled with indescribable relief. grubhub, i'm back, baby!

for couples and families, blue apron seems like it could be a great way to get more creative with meals and potentially save a very small amount of time and money on grocery shopping. however, if you're slicing and sauteing solo, i'd stick to your own devices. but, to paraphrase the old adage, better to have blue aproned and lost than never to have blue aproned at all.