“In the craziness of packing up our home in Pittsburgh and moving to Boston, meals and groceries were often an afterthought.” <– that was how I was originally starting this post, but the reality is that meal planning was an afterthought just in our every day life in general. It’s definitely not my spiritual gift.
My Aunt Rebecca gave me a great piece of advice when she learned we were moving, however: “your uncle and I have moved many times over the course of our marriage, and every time we moved to a new city, we made a point to think of habits we wanted to leave behind and new habits we wanted to create.” Those words of wisdom really lingered with me as I thought about ways I could improve our family’s dynamic through habits left behind and habits created.
Let’s just say it how it is: I’m awful at it. I’ve tried reading about the “20 crockpot meals in a day” or “45 freezer meals in a weekend.” When I really get down on myself about it, I’ll have about 30 tabs of Pinterest open to various ideas and recipes — but then I’ll end up on a kick of one specific thing (Moscow mules, for example) and end up down a rabbit hole of things that really have nothing to do with meal planning, even though I started out with the best intentions.
And then I would read through those crockpot recipes, and they just didn’t sound very good. Or on Sunday night as I planned meals, I struggled finding a balance between tried-and-true and try-something-new. The trying something new when it comes to something food is something that terrifies me for a few reasons:
- It often means that I’m buying a slew of ingredients for a specific recipe. Those ingredients add up and may or may not be used again frequently.
- What if it’s awful? I have a family waiting to eat.
- Forgetting an ingredient — what if I get half way through preparing it only to realize that I forgot to grab one of the most important things? Shopping with two kids? Definitely more than a possibility.
So needless to say, I’ve been terrible and boring in the meal planning and dinner department.
That all changed when my friend, Audra, introduced me to Blue Apron. I signed up thinking of it as a bit of a splurge, but after receiving a box for a few weeks, my outlook completely changed. We now get Blue Apron 2-3 weeks a month. During the weeks we don’t receive a box, I typically make recipes we received (and loved!) in previous shipments or from their database of recipes. I’ve never enjoyed cooking so much, and these are a few reasons why:
- Blue Apron forces me to meal plan. A week’s box includes 3 meals, so it means I’m only planning dinners for 3-4 evenings. I can plan what we will eat around the meals we are eating when I prepare Blue Apron meals.
- We get to try so many new recipes, without spending a ton on new ingredients or large quantities. Living in a tiny apartment, this has been huge for us as well! I didn’t bring many spices, nor do I have room for very many.
- I feel empowered as a cook — and Harlow loves to help! I absolutely love the new groove that we’ve started with Blue Apron. Harlow and I chop and prepare the ingredients while Jones takes his afternoon nap, and then we head to the park or to meet Andy at the station. Harlow has started being so exploratory in her eating, asking about various ingredients and spices as she asks to “try new foods ’cause it might taste goooood!” <– she sings what she says whenever possible. And who can name that tune!?
- No commitment. None. Nada. Never. I look ahead and see what Blue Apron is cooking up and decide if it’s a good fit for us. If it’s not, I skip that week.
- Shipping is always free. Who likes to pay for shipping!?
- Harlow loves opening the Knick-Knacks Bags. :) “It’s like a present, mommy!!” Ah to be three again!
- Blue Apron takes pride in where they source their farm fresh ingredients. That makes me proud to feed my family — especially after watching this video from an insert they included in a box a few weeks back:
If you talk to me long enough, you’ll hear me singing the praises of Blue Apron. I can really say it’s been a game changer for us, and I’m so excited for you guys to try it too! The first 50 of you will get TWO FREE meals off your first Blue Apron order. Not sure if Blue Apron delivers to your zipcode? You can check out the full map of delivery zones here! And here is some news for you: Blue Apron is launching in Texas and will soon ship to even more of the country very soon! So go ahead and sign up!
These fish tacos we made during Cinco De Mayo week — they were so delicious and the guacamole was ridiculous–in the best way possible. We will definitely be making them again!
Want to know what’s on our menu this week? I’ll be cooking the three meals for the week – Flat Iron Steaks, Turkey Kibbeh, and Rice-Flake Crusted Hake – along with 2 recipes from the Blue Apron recipe database. (yup! You can get ALL of their recipes online!) I made the Hearty Chicken Salad last night and it was awesome.
Struggling with meal planning this week?
I have two ways to help: go sign up and get TWO free meals! And then plan this week’s meals using all the recipes at your fingertips. I promise you won’t be sorry you did!
Sponsored by Blue Apron.
You gotta try new food cause it might taste good, soooo good. Thank you Daniel Tiger (and Fred Rogers)!
You gotta try new food cause it might taste gooood, soooo good! Thank you Daniel Tiger (and Fred Rogers)! The popular one around this house is, “clean up, pick up, put away, clean up every day” ????
Do you do the meals for two? Is it enough to feed you guys and Harlow?
Yup! We do the 2 person plan, and it’s been the perfect amount! Sometimes I add in an extra fish fillet or chicken breast, I want to try to stretch it even more!
Is the a max it will feed up to?? I have heard so many great things about Blue apron!!!
Is there a way to cancelled like after you have already gotten it a couple times?
yup! you can cancel whenever :) even after the first week, if you wish!
Wow – I didn’t even know something like this was an option! How cool. I struggle with the same things with meal planning. And I get so easily BORED with food, which doesn’t help. For a while, what was working for me was to have a theme night for each day of the week….that way it at least limited my options for what to choose…
Monday – pasta/rice
Tuesday – Mexican
Wednesday – soup and/or salad
Thursday – hot sandwiches
Friday – homemade pizza
And then freebie weekends. But now I’m even bored of that :( I may have to try the free meals and see if that helps me out! Thanks for your tip and best luck on meal planning :)
Daniel Tiger has an appropriate song for each life situation. “Grown ups come back to you, grown ups come back they do, grown ups come back!”
Just signed up to get two meals for my family. Thanks for sharing, I have always wanted to try this.
I’m glad you like it…Heather introduced me to it a while back, and I ended up cancelling because I felt like it wasn’t worth it at all for veggie-only meals. But I could see how it would be if they were sending you steaks instead of chickpeas. :)
yes! I have thought the same thing, Jenny! I sometimes do one veggie meal, but I don’t think I could do it with only veggie meals for the price! I agree!