Sponsored post by Blue Apron. All thoughts are my own.
One of the most important, if not most important, things we do as a family each day is sit down together for dinner. I love that time around the table to recount the days events, share a meal and spend quality time as a family. However, making dinner has become one of my least favorite things to do. It didn’t always used to be that way. Trying to find a meal that 5 different palettes enjoy is next to impossible. Inevitably there is always at least one person who complains about the dinner I’ve just labored over and begs for cereal. Maddening! Then I go in to the whole, “DO YOU KNOW THERE ARE STARVING PEOPLE…” lecture which never goes over well.
When Blue Apron reached out to see if we’d like to try their meal service I was totally on board. Anything to help me try and fall in love with cooking again as well as see if could find something my little men would enjoy would be a welcomed challenge.
2 dinners for 4 people were delivered in a box right to my doorstep. Just the ingredients was a change to my old stand-by dinners I’ve gotten used to making to suite palette’s under 10 years old. There were no boxed meals with artificial powders…everything was farm-fresh.
Night 1 I made Cantonese-Style Beef & Vegie Stir Fry. The recipe was printed on a color page with pictured instructions. It was like Cooking for Dummies and super helpful.
Okay, so a carrot is a carrot, right? No lie, I swear this carrot must have been grown in Heaven’s garden. That sounds ludicrous, I know. These ingredients were fancy, high quality ingredients that I wasn’t expecting. I could have eaten everything raw they were so good.
It took about 45 minutes start to table which was a little longer than I normally like to spend on a meal but I was very careful to follow the instructions. Last thing I wanted was to show off a slop of a meal for the camera.
Wouldn’t ya know they all ate it (except my youngest who I still have to force vegetables upon).
Night 2, I was swamped with work and the crew was hungry. I had a deadline so I told the Mr. where the ingredients were, gave him the recipe card and let him loose to make Chicken Mole with Sweet Potatoes.
People, the Mr. doesn’t ask for much at all. The one thing he would love every night is to know what the plan is for dinner…even if he has to cook it himself.
When he called everyone in for dinner I was shocked. Like fall off my seat shocked.
HE MADE THIS ALL BY HIMSELF! Tell me this doesn’t look like a restaurant made it!
A+ on presentation.
Obviously he made no attempt at hiding any pride in his “cookery-ship” (word he invented).
The verdict: The Mr. and I loved it…the little men…we’re working on it.
So here’s how it works:
Blue Apron is a meal delivery service where you are the chef. You can pick from a 2-person or family plan which serves 4. The price for this plan is $8.74 per meal, or $69.92 per eight serving delivery. Free shipping. No commitment, cancel anytime. Each meal is between 500-700 calories per person.
Would we do it again?
Price. How do I say this without sounding like a poor cheapskate? Our allotted food budget is a lot less than $8.74 per person, per meal. I totally think the price of the meal is on point but for our young family it’s a bit high to eat like that every night. Having said that, I was so busy with work on night 2 that if we didn’t have the meal for the Mr. to prepare I would have sent him to get take-out which would have been the same price as the Blue Apron price and our take-out would have been less healthy.
Taste. My little men weren’t as dazzled by the meals as the Mr. and I were. Probably because they were a lot of vegetables (which most kids think are poison). But listen, your kids get used to eating what you prepare most. These Blue Apron recipes are the ideal way I’d like to feed my family all the time.
Convenience. This is the biggest seller for me. For as many excuses for price and complaining kids I have, you just can’t put a price tag on convenience in this day and age. We’re just so busy that anything that helps us put a healthy meal with fresh ingredients on the table without having to plan or shop is priceless in my book.
We always ending up eating out at least once a week when schedules are just too hectic. I would much prefer to have a healthy meal in the fridge on stand-by to prepare than running out for something which would take the same amount of time and be less healthy. Having one meal delivered a week would be completely doable.
So here’s an exciting offer I get to extend. If you’d like to try Blue Apron the first 50 readers will get two meals off their first Blue Apron order free! Click here.
To explore some of Blue Apron’s dishes go here to their recipe page.
So tell me, with dinner time becoming some-what of a novelty these days how do you make dinner work at your house?
Hey there! I’m Michelle; I’m an Passionate DIY’er and in constant pursuit of how to bring beauty to my house full of men (3 boys + 1 hubby). Stick around and see what I’ve got up my hard-working sleaves!