I am investigating different ways to go about eating. First up to try: Blue Apron.
There are a gazillion reviews of it, so I won’t focus there; instead I’ll go for my reaction.
Timelapse
First, here’s a timelapse of me preparing https://www.blueapron.com/recipes/potato-artichoke-quiches-with-romaine-orange-salad . The time covered is from 5:54pm to 7:15pm or so – from the time my wife picks the recipe to me plating the food.
Analysis
Going through the video at normal speed, and inventorying myself:
| Stage | Their Est | Me | Comments |
| analyze recipe so I don’t miss anything. | (none) | 5:56-6:04 8 min |
The text is pretty scrunchy, so I convert it to a flowchart of sorts. I don’t refer to the flowchart again, but connecting all the things in a flow helps me consider everything. |
| Get Hardware | (none) | 6:05-6:08 3 min |
Pots, pans, salt, pepper, oil, etc… and bowls for ingredients. |
| Unpack food | (none) | 6:08-6:11 3 min |
Sorting 2 recipes, I had already made one. |
| Arrange | (none) | 6:11-6:13 2 min |
I wanted everything easily visible and available in its own bowl. |
| Prep | 15 min | 6:13-6:31 18 min |
I slowed down on the orange, I think. It was frozen-ish and my hands got numb. |
| Cook: | 35-45 min | 6:32-7:14 48 min |
Broken down further |
| Taters | 12-13 min | 6:33-6:46 | 13 minutes |
| Taters+Art | 2-3 min | 6:46-6:49 | 3 minutes |
| Mix with Egg | 6:50-6:52 | Everything till starting to pour them in | |
| Pour them | 6:52-6:53 | I was afraid of missing. | |
| Bake | 18-20 min | 6:54-7:14 | 20 minutes. Thank you Timer. |
| Salad | 6:58-7:01 | (Extra Salad Chopping) | |
| Plating | 7:14-7:16 | 2 minutes | |
| (eating) | Not included in the time lapse. | ||
| Cleanup | 7:35-7:44 | Unload + Load Dishwasher, Clean stove. |
So end-to-end time with no technical debt: 2 hours.
It was quality time, with my wife hanging in the Kitchen with me as we chatted about stuff.
So Is It Worth It?
To try to analyze it more objectively, I think its a 3-D plot.
For Health Level, its a bit arbitrary. 1= bottom, 2=mid, 3=good. Circle size = bigger = healthier.
I did not include Tastiness.
The labels overlapped, its in the bottom right of the grid.
So,
- Its healthier but much more time-costly than going to a place like Noodles & Co which is 20 minutes away.
- Its better than costlier long-wait-restaurants like Mikato.
- Its about the same as driving 40 minutes to the Whole Foods to eat at the buffet there.
- Amortizing the cost over 4 meals, its probably the same as going to a grocery store to shop, and then cook, something healthy .. maybe. I don’t have actual samples on this yet. I will soon.
- I put Soylent on there.
- Assuming you don’t have an adverse reaction (I do)
- and you don’t have objections to the idea
- its “perfect” nutrition, very fast, and at fairly low cost.
- Its not friendly with my diabetes, either.
When viewed through this lens, I guess its okay. Its not earth-shatteringly better, its just.. more tuned.
Summary (so far)
You have to like, and have the time, for the cooking.
If you like cooking, and hate shopping, and like trying new things, it would be PERFECT for you.
For me, cooking is okay, the hard thing for me is the time.
I have one more recipe from them to try, then its off to Green Chef or something like that.
