SmartPoints with Blue Apron Weight Watchers Approved Meals

We have tried and reviewed many different kinds of home meal kits over the years, but we always seem to come back to Blue Apron. We’ve been Blue Apron customers since January 2015 and their meals and prices have consistent quality and flavor, week after week. 

Affiliate Disclosure: This page contains links that may earn us a commission from CJ Affiliate, Shareasale and Awin affiliate marketing programs.

As we’ve tried other services, we’ve also come to enjoy Martha & Marley Spoon, so lately we have been bouncing back and forth between the two based on menu and our schedule. 

Both companies have great recipes and the prices are pretty similar. Martha & Marley Spoon recently started charging a delivery fee on every box, though they reduced the per-portion price at the same time, so it is just a few dollars more than a two-portion, three-meal box from Blue Apron with free shipping. The meal kit business is hyper-competitive right now but it feels like the number of new entrants has really slowed down since Amazon bought Whole Foods in June 2017. One thing we have noticed as we have tried all the different kits is that the number of calories per meal (and not surprisingly, the portion size) has really creeped up in the past few years. When we first started getting Blue Apron meals, we remember them being in the 400-700 calorie range, but now we regularly see meals that have as many as 1100 calories for one portion. Sure, it’s delicious, but that is way more than we should be eating for a regular home cooked meal. We could be more disciplined and save leftovers to cut back, but not all of these dishes lend themselves to eating the next day, and well, as we said, they are delicious.  

Weight Watchers Partnership

So we were pleased when we learned about Blue Apron’s partnership with Weight Watchers to create WW Approved meal options. The two companies have worked together to create meals that use the Weight Watchers SmartPoints system and integrate directly with the popular weight loss app. We don’t use Weight Watchers, but we are still interested in consuming less calories but still having delicious fresh food we can cook at home.

So far we have tried a dozen different WW Approved meals:

All of our meals we have tried have been delicious – with the ultimate compliment from Mark, “I didn’t know these were diet meals.” There is no skimping on the quality of ingredients or portion size. There are noticeably more vegetables, but there is also rice, pasta, sauces and oils. 

The meals we’ve had have ranged from about 380 to 640 calories cooked, reasonable for a weeknight meal. It makes it much easier and guilt-free to enjoy a glass of wine with dinner. Of all the “low-calorie” meal offerings we have tried, Blue Apron definitely wins in terms of taste. 

Each WW approved meal has a point score, ranging from about 4 to 15 SmartPoints per meal depending on the entree, to make it easy for Weight Watchers members to plan their meals for the day. Each menu card includes a barcode to make it easier for members to track their SmartPoints within the WW App. We do not follow the Weight Watchers plan, but we do use the LoseIt app to track meals, and the barcode works in that app as well for easy tracking.

You can choose from several WW Approved meals every week from the Blue Apron Signature menu. There are usually both meat-based and vegetarian options available. Blue Apron is flexible so you can change your meals whenever you like, as long as you do it before their shipping deadline.

The other two companies we’ve used lately, Sun Basket and Martha & Marley Spoon, also offer low-calorie choices every week, so you can mix up Paleo, low-fat, Carb-Conscious, and all kinds of meals with many more choices compared to Blue Apron. Next week, Sun Basket has 14 dinners available, and Martha & Marley Spoon has 22, compared to Blue Apron’s 12. We understand that more choices doesn’t always mean better meals; often the very best restaurants have small menus, but in this competitive market, we think Blue Apron would be better served to have as much flexibility as possible.

Conclusion

If you are looking for a meal-kit to help you keep on track with your diet, we would definitely recommend the Blue Apron WW Approved meal. If you are using the Weight Watchers app already, run, don’t walk to your computer and order it now. It will take so much guesswork out of your weekly meal planning and you will be delighted with the fresh and fun-to-prepare meals. Even if you aren’t using Weight Watchers, you will love the flavor and portion size of these healthy options.

---