It still blows my mind that Blue Apron figured out to how send out fresh ingredients for delicious, low-fuss recipes for just $9.99 per meal per person (I roll with the weekly box containing three meals for two at $59.94 per box).

But the real boon to me (as an occasionally lapsing health-conscious quasi-foodie) isn’t the convenience, it’s the variety Blue Apron regularly provides—ingredients I’ve never heard of and ways to prepare ingredients I almost always have on hand. And that’s why I’ll be a Blue Apron chef for a while—Blue Apron is a fantastic resource for culinary neophiles, in resonance with our omnivoracious heritage, nicely described in Go Wild as follows…

Because we are omnivores and because we range over the entire planet, it is in our interests to exploit as many food sources as possible. This means that an important characteristic of omnivores is bred to the bone in humans: we are neophiliacs. We have to be. We have an innate love of novelty, of variety, a need to sample new things.

 Aug. 15th Addendum: Here are the Blue Apron recipes I’ll be cooking this weekend.