Blue Apron - Seared Chicken & Caramelized Vegetables

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My sister recently sent me a free trial of Blue Apron meals. The concept of Blue Apron is that they send you all of the necessary ingredients for 3 meals, already portioned out to make exactly 2 meals per recipe, along with a step-by-step recipe and guide to follow to prepare each meal. 

Initially I was most curious to see how the ingredients were packaged, since the Blue Apron website advertises the freshest of ingredients for healthy meals, and I couldn't imagine how they could keep them cool long enough to be safe to cook.

The ingredients arrived in the box shown above, all inside a sealed thermal insulated bag with two large, reusable ice packs. I didn't realize it had been delivered that day until about 3 hours after it was delivered, because my flatmate had received the package and left it on the counter amid several other boxes (we've just moved). Still, the ice packs were about 2/3 frozen!

Inside the package I found 3 recipe cards as promised:

3 packages of "knick knacks," one for each recipe:

And a cornucopia of fresh produce, proteins, packages of grains, and a can of tomatoes:

I was particularly excited to try the recipes because the sister who sent me the trial offer actually gave up her subscription just a few days before I received my box because she said the preparation took significantly longer than advertised, and not only was it not practical for a busy mother of two, but particularly so for an amateur cook. She was skeptical that even a trained chef could accomplish the meals in the advertised "30-40 minutes". Consider the challenge accepted!

I decided to work as quickly as I could with no distractions to get the most accurate idea of how long the meals would take. The first meal I tried was the Seared Chicken & Caramelized Vegetables, which also happened to be the most tempting of the three recipes provided. The pictured mise en place made it easy to figure out which ingredients were intended for the meal I was making:

The first step was to chop all the produce. As expected, this step took the longest. The instructions recommended that I first start the water boiling for the potatoes, and then begin chopping the produce, so I did that. Though I was not instructed to, I went ahead and added the potatoes to the water as soon as it began boiling, and finished slicing up the rest of the veggies to save myself a dish and make room on my chopping board. I was glad I did this because it saved a little time by overlapping tasks.

The next instruction was to coat and cook the chicken. I appreciated the beautiful cuts of meat provided in the package, which required no trimming at all. I also liked the specific instructions to help cooks of any experience level achieve a nice crust and sear. 

What I didn't appreciate was that the necessary ingredients weren't 100% provided. At first I thought it was just a bit inconvenient that they took for granted that you would have salt and pepper in your kitchen and not provide it. It's an understandable assumption, really, but I would have appreciated something somewhere in my order mentioning the need to have essential ingredients stocked, especially because in my case I had intentionally timed my delivery to be the day after we moved in so that I wouldn't have to worry about grocery shopping or getting the pantry/spices unpacked right away. Furthermore, it turned out that in order to cook the chicken I needed olive oil. In addition to my reasons above, I don't actually believe that amateur home cooks necessarily consider olive oil to be a kitchen staple, and they may not understand food science well enough to know what to substitute. It just seems to me that it wouldn't be too difficult for them to either list additional essentials the cook needs to provide for themselves in the confirmation email, or in the package, or just include a little bottle of olive oil and a little baggie of seasonings in the knick knacks.

The next steps were mashing the potatoes (pretty easy), and setting up the tomatoes and thyme to roast. Again I needed Olive oil, and I think they could have included a sentence about how to remove leaves from thyme. It seems like one goal of Blue Apron is to encourage people who don't know how to cook to learn to do so, and it would have been helpful to teach them that step.

Next I caramelized the veggies in the same skillet that I cooked the chicken in. I did appreciate Blue Apron's attempts to reuse skillets, though they still used 3 cooking pans and 3 plates, not including the plates the food was served on and the cutting board. 

It was at this point, however, that (as I suspected would happen but I followed the directions exactly to make my review completely fair) my smoke alarm went off because the "roasting" tomatoes and thyme caused the thyme to burn. Any time you put a dry herb at high temperatures without mixing it with something or wetting it or something, that's likely to occur. Moreover, I was a bit annoyed at this step, because I feel like I could have just as easily blistered my tomatoes in the mashed potato pan or even the skillet I cooked the veggies in really quickly on a high heat after plating- the thyme added nothing but aroma. So that step felt extraneous and an unnecessary hassle between the extra dirtied pan and the smoke. 

Here was my finished product before plating:

I have to say it looked exactly like the photos, even down to the cut and sear of the chicken; Blue Apron really does set you up to be able to succeed at these recipes.

I'd rank the kitchen and dish aftermath at about a 6.5; it wasn't as bad as baking with five year olds, but it wasn't a one-pot wonder either.

I took screen shots of the counter when I started cooking and when I finished cooking to get an accurate and impartial measure of how long it took me to make this meal from start to finish:

That was 11:44-12:46, so 62 minutes from start to finish. Even subtracting 2 minutes for posing the plate and pulling out my phone, and even subtracting 2 minutes for fanning the smoke detector (though I really think it should count because I think it was their method error that caused the smoke in the first place), I still took 8-18 minutes longer than the given prep/cook times. That includes the fact that on the recipe, prep time and cook time are listed separately and add up to 40-50 minutes, though all over the website and advertisements it's indicated that these are 30-40 minute recipes. In general and especially in the case of something that is claiming to help people make cooking at home easier to pull off, I think it is more important to give an honest indication of prep AND cook time, rather than playing semantics games "well it only takes 30 minutes to cook!" because ultimately the customer is going to go off of your recommendations and set aside that amount of time for prepping and cooking.

8-18 minutes longer, and I'm a professional, trained chef. Someone less experienced, even with zero outside distractions, would likely take 10-20 minutes longer to prepare this meal.

Ultimately it was delicious. It was super guilt-free, and I never would have prepared it without Blue Apron. In fact, this recipe cured me of a strong dislike of fennel!

So I think it's worth a try for most people, just set aside a little extra time and realize that the main benefits gained are healthier food, less grocery shopping hassle, added variety to your diet, and a LOT  less waste. To me, that's actually pretty worth the price of about $10 per serving.

My biggest feedback for Blue Apron if they see this review is this: 

1) Include a list of ANY ingredients provided by the customer (water, oil, salt, pepper)
2) Include a list of tools used in the recipe (knife, cutting board, extra plates, skillets, pots, paper towels)
3) Be a bit more realistic about cook times- not how fast a chef that's made the dish before can do it, but a normal, every-day cook who's never seen the recipe
4) Consider offering limited ingredient substitution options
5) Embrace your position as an educational subscription for new cooks, and provide basic food safety facts and tips in or on each box- you take for granted that home cooks know not to cross-contaminate, and to wash their hands after handling raw meat. Don't. You're uniquely able to make everyone a little healthier and safer.

Pros:
Super Healthy
Super Delicious
Low Hassle
Nearly Eliminated food waste
Variety
Adventure
Pretty Fun
Perfect for dieting or trying to eat at home more often- very motivational

Cons:
Literally every ingredient is not provided
Moderate to high number of dishes used
Takes about an Hour
Lots of prep
No room for pickiness

My last recommendations if you try Blue Apron is to consider the recipe and instructions like an SAT reading prep course. It's the ultimate test of reading comprehension and application. I think I might have sped up my meal just a tiny bit if I had read all the instructions completely, from start to finish, before I started cooking, so that I wouldn't have to stop between each step to know what was coming next. Some of that was my desire to execute it exactly as it was intended so that my review could be completely fair- but a novice cook would likely put as much care if not more into reading the directions, too. You also might consider pre-prepping your veggies on like a Sunday evening so that you can just pull them out when you're ready to cook. That would cut back significantly on your execution time before serving the meals.

All in all, I will likely get my own subscription for Blue Apron as soon as I can budget it.

And please share/retweet this review and tag @BlueApron to encourage them to acknowledge the feedback please!

Chocolate Pancakes & Homemade Syrup

I'm in the middle of packing for a move, so my home-cooked meals have been a bit on the makeshift side lately. The other night I was making dinner for my husband, myself, and one of our friends, and I decided to make breakfast. My friend is allergic to corn, which is in almost everything store bought, so I decided to just make the pancakes from scratch, and make a syrup for her since the bottled one I had contained corn syrup. 

I gave my husband a choice between normal pancakes and chocolate pancakes, and he opted for the chocolate ones. 

The batter smelled exactly like melted chocolate ice cream, though since it's a pancake recipe and not a cake batter, it's not very sweet at all- definitely best served with syrup.

Here is the recipe:

Chocolate Pancakes

1 cup AP flour

1/2 cup cocoa (sifted)

1.5 tsp bkng soda

1 tsp OJ or vinegar (to activate the soda)

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

1.25 cup milk

1 egg

3 tbsp melted butter

- Combine dry ingredients

- Add liquid ingredients and whisk together

- Use an ice cream scoop for consistent size

You may notice how very little sugar is actually in the recipe- it isn't a terribly sweet recipe, even though it's decadent chocolate. These pancakes would also be excellent served with whipped cream. If you want to make them chocolate-orange, just substitute half of the milk for orange juice- but add them to the batter separately.

Between batches of pancakes, I threw together the syrup. I wanted to make it thicker than the classic 1:1 ratio of a simple syrup, so here is what I did:

Vanilla Cinnamon Simple Syrup

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup water

2 tbsp vanilla extract

2 dashes cinnamon

- Combine all ingredients into a small pot, bring to a rolling boil, stirring occasionally

- Boil until sugar is completely dissolved

In another skillet, I cooked turkey sausage, which requires draining to get a good sear on the meat. After the sausage was cooked, I used the same skillet to cook the scrambled eggs. This allowed all that awesome sausage residue to flavor the eggs.

I'd already packed the syrup pitcher, so I just served the homemade syrup in a mug with a spoon.

Pie Five

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I've been seeing Pie Fives popping up all over the metroplex, so I had to check it out. 

What immediately surprised and impressed me was the prices. I think for the most part we have come to expect customize-able sandwiches and salads at a reasonably low price, but, maybe it's the baking step or something, I kind of expect a personalized pizza to either be a little on the pricey side (at least $10) or to be insatiably small.

This was not the case, however, at Pie Five.

The first step is to select your pizza crust, which can come in Crispy Artisan Thin, Whole Grain Thin, Classic, or Gluten Free. Next you select from one of 6 sauces or plain olive oil. Then you have a choice of cheeses, including a vegan option, and any combination of 8 meats and 17 veggies and fruits.

You also have the option of making a salad.

While you wait for your pie to bake, you'll be strategically placed in front of the dessert display case with several tempting and decadent, mostly brownie-based desserts.

Then you get to add any cold toppings, sauces such as pesto, or just pile on the magic dust. I took this opportunity to ask the... pizza artist? to drizzle my pizza with the basalmic reduction offered for the salads. It really enhanced the flavors of my pizza.

I also found that they allowed me to do a half and half pizza so that I could taste more of their offerings in one sitting. On one half of my pizza, I got the alfredo sauce, chicken, tomato, basil pesto, shredded fresh basil, and basalmic drizzle. on the other half of my pizza I tried the buffalo sauce, chicken, and jalapenos.

I was also asked to order something for my grandmother because she was on her way, so I chose the alfredo sauce for her as well, and went for a more pork-themed pie with ham, bacon, chicken, and tomatoes. I also had them drizzle her pie with the balsamic reduction to offset some of the saltiness.

I was visiting with my husband and family, so here are some of their creations:

My husband tried the spicy marinara sauce and was really happy with his choice- he said he was surprised at how particularly well they balanced the heat in with the flavor of marinara.

All in all, I was impressed with several things. First was their ability to quickly service our group of 8 people. Second was the quality of the crust! It was delicious, and cooked to soft in the middle but not doughy at all. The combinations were excellent, but I take some credit for that! However if you aren't culinarily inclined, don't panic! They offer a whole menu of tried and tested pizza recommendations.

I recommend you go try Pie Five if you haven't been before, and whether it's a new experience or you go every week, let me know YOUR favorite pie recipe in the comments! Or Tweet them to me @WritingChef and I'll retweet your recipe to my followers!

Homemade: Asian Chicken Salad

I try to make meals that are varied, healthy, simple, and affordable. I feel like that's most people's goals. So I recently discovered the awesomeness that is the bagged salads at most grocery stores.

My favorite bagged salads are the ones heavy in cabbage. This is because it takes a LOT longer for cabbage salads to wilt than softer leaves. Still, a salad isn't enough sustenance for anyone, especially not a 23 year old man who works out regularly. My husband needs meat.

So I took some frozen chicken breasts, thawed them, and seasoned them with salt and pepper. I heated a greased skillet and lay the meat seasoning-side-down so that it seared in the flavor. then I seasoned the other side. After flipping chicken and sealing in all the lovely juices from both sides, I added a dash of soy sauce, because the bagged salad I would be pairing this chicken with was an Asian salad with a sesame dressing.

I sliced the chicken into manageable, thin pieces, added it to the salad, and tossed it all with the dressing.

Just before I served, I added the crunchy noodles and almonds into the mix, and served simply in a bowl.

Sometimes it's the super simple stuff that's most satisfying. It certainly doesn't hurt that I only dirtied one skillet and one large bowl making this meal. I think it's worth appreciating that we live in a time when it is easier than ever to eat good, healthy food that has been crafted by experts and put into a medium where we can fix it fresh for ourselves without excessive effort. Where will we be in another 10 years? Buying quality beef wellington in a box with 2-step baking instructions? How exciting that our experiences of food can be so broad, even at home!

What's your favorite gourmet-from-home option available nowadays? Let me know in the comments!

Homemade: Monty Toast-o sandwich

The fun part about cooking for yourself and eating at home is that you get a chance to be creative, and try to simplify the dishes you love at restaurants. When you succeed, you save yourself money, time, and even hassle if you have kids.

I, for one, am a HUGE fan of the Monte Cristo sandwich. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Monte Cristo, it's a sandwich containing cheese, usually two kinds, either cheddar and swiss or cheddar and american, turkey, and ham, and then the whole sandwich is battered and deep fried. 

While I've actually made the real Monte Cristo at home before, it was a HUGE mess between the frying and the battering, not to mention decadently calorific. So I came up with something that would satisfy much the same cravings that is a lot cleaner and simpler.

First, I took 4 Hawaiian rolls, sliced them in half...

...And put turkey and cheddar on them. I didn't happen to have ham, but if you desire to get as close as possible to the real thing, you'll need that.

Then I warmed them in my toaster and sliced them into 4. I ended up adding about 15 seconds in the microwave to get the cheese totally melted without over-toasting the bread. I ate them with raspberry preserves...

But when I tried it again the next day, I actually spread mixed berry cream cheese onto the bread before warming the sandwich. It was EXCELLENT and I highly recommend the addition. Even with the cream cheese this is significantly more virtuous than a deep fried, battered sandwich (not that there's anything wrong with indulging every now and then).

This simple sandwich was additionally inspired by an easy meal my mom serves, where she takes a whole Hawaiian bread loaf, slices it cross-wise into 3 sections, and layers pepperjack cheese and turkey on the bottom section, inside the pan it comes in, then places the middle bread section on top, then layers cheddar and ham on top of the middle section, then sandwiches the top onto it, wraps it in foil and warms it in the oven. Just slice it like a pie and serve! It's a super hearty, warm, salty-sweet sandwich.

This is excellent with a little mustard or even raspberry jam (NOT both), and if you don't like spicy, you can totally use swiss cheese, or even mozzerella, instead of pepperjack. 

Tomatillo Tortilla Soup- Healthy Food For Picky People

Today I'm featuring the first recipe I invented after I got married, and it's become a long-term favorite. The thing I love most about this recipe is that it's so light, bright, and flavorful, it's delicious during summertime- but it's still a hearty, satiating hot soup, so works in all seasons. 

I created it with picky people in mind, taking care to eliminate the vegetable chunks and unwelcome textures that many children and picky adults don't like, and incorporating hiding places for powerful vitamins and greenery to add their goodness without turning off the kiddos. While it's a healthy green hue, you can sell it to your persnickety offspring by calling it "Hulk" soup, and the pop of lime should win them over if they give it that first taste. 

SOUP:
- 2 lbs tomatillos
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 2-5 chicken breasts (frozen is fine)
-several large handfuls whatever greens are on sale (you can use spinach, kale, or even mixed greens)
- 1-2 limes
- 1/2 bunch cilantro
- 3-6 fresh jalapenos

GARNISH
- sour cream or creme fresche
- Fresh Avocados
- tortilla chips or toasted tortillas of your choice
- Optional: fried or caramelized onions

NOTE there is no salt. You won't need it! Seriously trust me. Even if you use low sodium broth you will NOT miss the salt. In fact, I have used plain water when I realized halfway through making this that I was out of broth, and it was so flavorful on its own I may continue to make it that way!

INSTRUCTIONS
- Roast washed tomatillos & jalapeno halves with the seeds removed in a skillet, occasionally turning them until the skin begins to blister and blacken (Note: this soup really is not very spicy at all. If you want it spicy, add the seeds from the jalapenos, and/or a few fresh jalapenos for heat. You can also add cilantro if you'd like.)
- Throw half of the tomatillos, half of the jalapenos, half the cilantro, and a large handful of the greens into a blender and liquify. Add some chicken broth to the blender if the juice from the tomatillos is not sufficient to totally liquify all the contents
- Dump the delicious green liquid into the crock pot
- Liquify the remaining tomatillos, Jalapenos, and greens and add to the crock pot
- Add the chicken breasts, the remaining chicken broth, the juice of the lime(s) and jalapeno seeds if you like it spicy- if you don't include the seeds, the roasted jalapenos really don't make it very spicy at all.
- cook on low while you're at work or on High if you have less time
- shred cooked chicken with two forks and add it back to the liquid

- slice the avocados and toast your tortillas
- serve each bowl with a dollop of sour cream or creme fresche, 2-3 slices of fresh avocado, crispy or caramelized onions, and crispy strips of tortilla.

 I LOVE the addition of the sweet, caramelized onion strings, or crispy, crunchy fried onion strings. It adds an unctuous umame flavor. I'm serious about no salt, too- between the sour cream, the broth, the sour lime and tomatillo, and the spicy cilantro and jalapenos, your taste buds will have plenty to focus on. This makes this recipe incidentally heart and blood pressure friendly, without tasting like something originally unhealthy that was altered beyond recognition to make it good for you. That's the kind of "improvements" I try to avoid in my kitchen.

Try it out and let me know how it works out for you in the comments! Did you add anything? Leave anything out? What's your favorite part? How did your picky dinner guests like it? I'm up to the challenge!

Homemade Pickle Chicken

I recently challenged myself with an Empty Pantry Challenge, resolving not to buy groceries until I've used up every item in my pantry. I've allowed myself to purchase essential and/or perishable protein (i.e. milk, eggs, cans of tuna) as I near the end of this challenge, because it turns out I am a bit of a starch hoarder (7 kinds of rice, anyone?). The tricky part of this is that I usually plan all my home cooked meals for the week as I grocery shop, getting inspired by the items that are in season, on sale, etc. So this challenge has forced me to flex my creative muscles in order to use whatever is in my spice cabinet and condiment shelf to make something exciting and delicious to serve my husband- bland, baked chicken and rice have no place in my home!

So this is what I made the other night:

My husband often wonders how I'm able to time things so that I finish preparing multiple elements of a meal at the same time, so that everything that should be hot is served hot and everything that should be cold is served cold. It's actually a skill I learned from my mom long before culinary school, and I'm still nowhere near as good at it as her, but to kind of show how it's done, I'll explain the process rather than just posting the recipe.

I had an old package of instant fettuccine alfredo in the pantry, so I started the water for that, and then I had about 12 minutes until the pasta was completely done to figure out a protein. I thawed some frozen chicken in the microwave, and while it was thawing, I started a tablespoon and a half of oil heating in my skillet. 

I also re-hydrated some dried, minced onion flakes. To do this I simply put about 2 tablespoons of the dried onions into about 1/4 cup of hot water and let it soak for a minute or so. I then added the minced onion and some minced garlic (from a jar in my fridge) to the oil to toast the onion and garlic and infuse the oil with their flavor. 

While they toasted, I took the thawed chicken, trimmed it, and chopped it into bite-sized pieces. While many people prefer to cook chicken breasts whole or in large portions, because it locks in the juices, I LOVE to pack a punch with the flavor, and I find if I shave it thin or chop it small, every bite is saturated it powerful flavor.

At this point the water for the fettuccine had come to a boil so I followed the directions on the package and added the contents to the water, stirring and reducing it to a simmer. 

By now the garlic and onions were nicely caramelizing and toasting, so I threw the chicken into the pan. By adding the chicken directly to the oil and flavors, without creating a sauce or marinade first, I was able to sear the outside of the chicken really quickly, sealing in the juiciness of the chicken. I have, in the past, done this using diced frozen chicken because I was in a hurry. While it will still cook, and quickly, the rapid change in temperature can cause the chicken to toughen up considerably, and become a bit rubbery in texture.

After the chicken was pretty well seared on all sides, I dug in my fridge for some kind of acid. I often throw some vinegar-based salad dressing on my chicken with other seasoning for a quick source of a lot of flavor, but all I had was raspberry vinaigrette, which didn't appeal to me for this meal. So I grabbed a jar of pickled Jalapenos and a jar of bread and butter pickles, and I poured a splash of juice from both jars into the skillet. I added a few shakes of my favorite spice blends (Garlic Pepper, Lemon Pepper, Jalapeno Seasoning) and sauteed the chicken at a low/medium heat for about 4-5 minutes until the liquid in the pan mostly evaporated.

Between stirring the chicken, I pulled out a stalk of romaine lettuce, washed, dried, and chopped it up, distributing it onto our plates.

The chicken finished about a minute before the pasta, so I turned the burner off and left the skillet on to keep it warm while I gave the pasta a final stir. 

I put a bottle of ranch on the table for the salad, and served.

The pickle juice made the chicken outstanding. the strong garlic flavor, juiciness, and burst of acid balanced well with the bland creaminess of the packaged pasta kit. My husband actually thought I had changed another recipe I've served before (after planning and intentionally shopping for it) to improve it, and succeeded!

So remember, when you're out of conventional ingredients, look for something of the same genre that might be less conventional for your purposes. If you don't have salt, add some soy sauce. If you don't have lemons or vinaigrette, use something else acidic!

Will you take up the Empty Pantry Challenge? What discoveries will you make? Try it out and let me know how it goes in the comments!