I tried Blue Apron and saw why the company will be a smash success

Meal kits — or deliveries that contain groceries and accompanying recipes — can get a bad rap. One of the biggest complaints from first-time users that I often hear is that they require too much work. (This is partially due to the widespread misunderstanding that the service targets "lazy" consumers).

Some critics also complain about the excessive packaging, since many of the ingredients are individually wrapped.

About 100 companies are now offering meal kits, but analysts are still unsure as to whether they are a passing fad.

Blue Apron is the biggest meal-kit service in the US,

After three years and hundreds of meals of cooking with Blue Apron, I wholeheartedly disagree with all the critics. I think meal kits are permanently changing how we eat and buy food, and I don't think they are ever going to go away. (Before I explain why, let me clarify that I was not paid to write this review. I have never received free food from Blue Apron and I have no affiliation with the company whatsoever.)

Before Blue Apron, I thought I knew how to cookI mainly stuck to simple recipes like casserole dishes and I often used a crock pot, which requires no cooking skills.

I wanted to learn more about making food, but I didn't want to pay for — or make time for — expensive cooking classes and no matter how many cooking shows I watched I just couldn't find the motivation to try and replicate a celebrity chef's meal in my own kitchen.

Then I tried Blue Apron and everything changed.

The beginning — as any novice chef who has tried Blue Apron knows — was rough. The food prep alone, which consisted mostly of washing, chopping, slicing, and dicing ingredients, took me 45 minutes per meal at first, and I got three meals a week. The process was exhausting and confusing at times, and for the first couple weeks, I questioned whether it was more work than it was worth to eat some home-cooked yuzu kosho-glazed chicken drumsticks or pistachio-crusted catfish with date vinaigrette.

Over the course of a couple months, and with the help of Blue Apron's "how-to" videos on knife skills, I cut my prep time down to about 10 minutes or less per meal.

As consumer tastes continue shifting toward healthier eating, the opportunity for these companies will only get bigger.

I tried Blue Apron and saw why the company will be a smash success

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