Blue Apron Follow-Up

About a month ago I posted that I decided to try Blue Apron and now I am a month in and I have to say, I really love it.  The meals we've had in the last month are: stuffed peppers, Vietnamese chicken wings, summer soba salad, curry lamb burgers, chicken milanese, cod w/ miso soba noodles, steaks and potatoes, mexican chicken tortas (sandwiches), crispy catfish, pork chops, tandoori chicken, and rigatoni puttanesca. 2 out of 12 meals were vegetarian and 10 out of 12 were things I never would have cooked without Blue Apron.

The convenience of not having to plan any meals or buy the ingredients is phenomenal. I do have to say that I wish there was a 2 meal per week option instead of 3 but there isn't.  In the summertime we're gone pretty much every weekend which eliminates Friday-Sunday nights, the delivery comes anytime between 4 and 8 on Monday so sometimes it comes in time to cook it but if the Blue Apron box isn't on the porch by 6 we order something. That leaves exactly 3 nights a week we're home to cook assuming no social plans and I'm gone at least one night a week doing volunteer stuff so it's very tight to get all 3 meals made.  Sometimes I pick the one that will make the best leftovers and cook 2 meals in one night and just package the second meal for next day lunches. On the bright side, you can skip a week very easily just by logging into your account and viewing your delivery schedule and there's no limits or rules on how much you can skip so we might just go with an every other week situation. On the whole, the recipes have been awesome, the ingredients are fresh and it's a nice change from the grilled chicken salad, zucchini noodles, and homemade pizza pattern we had fallen into! 

Again, it's $60/week or $20/meal for two people which is a little more than a standard grocery trip but cheaper than a meal out and still convenient. The meals are healthy and average 600-700 calories per serving but usually I eat closer to 1/3rd of the total food and Joe eat's 2/3rds of the food which works out to about what we should each be consuming for dinner. If you are stuck in a food rut or find yourself going out to dinner more than you should, I would definitely recommend Blue Apron as a way to spice up your diet and force yourself to eat at home more. 

I decided to try Blue Apron...

A few months ago I had what I thought was a great business idea; delivering fresh-made meals to people's houses that they just have to pop in the oven and voila they can feed their family a healthy, homemade meal with minimal effort. Many people told me this service already exists and it's called Blue Apron, so I decided to check them out. Blue Apron does not make your meals for you, but it does all the grocery shopping and meal planning for you. You pick the delivery day and they deliver the ingredients for 3 meals complete with the recipes and cooking instructions right to your front door (in a refrigerated box so you don't have to worry about being home to get the delivery).  It's $20/meal (for 2) which is probably more than we'd spend in a grocery store but definitely less than we'd spend in a restaurant so I decided to sign up and give it a try!

My first delivery came around 4:00 on Monday (it was guaranteed to be delivered by 8pm but I was excited it came early enough for me to make one of the meals for Monday's dinner). The ingredients were all fresh and labeled so I could easily look at the recipe cards and tell which ingredients went with which meals. The package even came with 2 giant ice packs that are reusable!  Very exciting, Blue Apron should mention this as part of their marketing because I was almost as excited about the free ice packs as I was about the food. 

The first meal I tried was the summer soba salad, it took me about a half hour to prepare all the ingredients, cook the noodles and put everything together.  It was a delicious meal and definitely nothing I would have ever tried to make on my own.  I was worried about the portion sizes being too small with some of these meals (tomorrow is stuffed peppers and you literally get 1 pepper each with no sides...definitely not enough food for Joe!) but there was tons of pasta to go around here.  I ate less than 1/3rd of the dish and was full so I have plenty left for lunch tomorrow! 

We'll see how the next few meals go but after meal #1 with Blue Apron I am pretty impressed with the service and definitely think it's worth the cost! 

Nachos are a breakfast food

When Joe is working nights, we only see each other for about an hour in the morning when I eat breakfast and he eats dinner and an hour after work when he eats breakfast and I eat dinner.  We try to make the most of our times and eating meals together is important to me...but when it's dinner for one of us and breakfast for the other it can be tough to figure out what to eat. Enter, BREAKFAST NACHOS:

There's nothing really too complicated here, I used all the normal nacho ingredients (shredded cheese, salsa, japanenos, sour cream, I also like to add a little bbq sauce because I eat it on everything) but I substituted the chicken/beef for...you guessed it...scrambled eggs!  It was delicious and you can eat it for breakfast OR dinner!  For a lower fat version, you can just use egg whites and substitute greek yogurt instead of the sour cream (that's what I did...pictured above). 

Mexican Egg Fried Rice

Tonight I tried to whip up a dish with things we already had in the kitchen and garden, and it turned out pretty well! Ingredients:

3 cups brown rice (cooked)
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 a red onion
1 green pepper
4 eggs
1 can of black beans
2 tomatoes
Cilantro
1/4 Jar of jalapenos
Cumin powder
Garlic powder

1. Heat water on the stovetop for rice according to the instructions on the box.
2. While the water is heating, chop the onion and peppers into small pieces (whatever size you want to eat works).
3. Saute the onions and peppers in the olive oil over medium heat in a large frying pan or wok. (All the ingredients will end up in this dish so make sure it's big enough!) Season with cumin powder.
3. Rinse the black beans in a strainer to get the yucky stuff from the can off.
4. When there is about 5 minutes left for the rice to cook, add the 4 eggs into the same container as the onions & peppers. Scramble it all up together.
5. When the rice is done, add the rice, black beans and tomatoes to the frying pan. Add garlic powder and more cumin powder to taste.
6. Chop the cilantro and add it to the frying pan, also add in the jalapenos. Let heat for another minute and viola! You are ready to eat!

Of course any of these ingredients can be removed and other ingredients can be added to your liking.  My husband finished his portion off with hot sauce and sour cream, I finished mine off with some shredded cheese.  We both liked it and have plenty left for lunch tomorrow!