Have you ever watched a cooking show and thought to yourself, “Sure! If someone would do all the shopping for me and put all the separate ingredients into little bowls like that, I could cook this dish too!” Amber found Blue Apron and I immediately thought of that situation. It’s a service that ships ingredients and recipes to you that are really easy to cook but use fresh ingredients and reasonable portions.
Part of me says a service like this is foolish. Any good that comes out of buying ‘farm direct produce’ in New York goes out the window when they ship that produce in a plane to Louisville, KY. But the reality is that Amber and I have been cooking less and less and that’s not a good thing for our health or our budget. We needed some kind of kickstart back into the cooking game and like it or not, Blue Apron really did that for us.
Neither of us really enjoys cooking, but Amber likes the social aspect of cooking with another person and I like having decisions about everyday events (like meals) just made for me so I can keep it off my mind. We both really get what we want out of a dinner with these meals.
Most surprising of all? We’re cooking better than ever. Most of these meals have ended with us being full but wishing more was available because it was so tasty. Our normal cooking rarely gets that reaction from either of us. At worst, we occasionally have a meal that one of us flat-out refuses to eat more than one bite while the other is so hungry they force it down anyway. Blue Apron hasn’t failed like that yet and I’d be surprised if they do.
Seriously! Our food looks like the professionally cooked food on their website. Last Sunday we made Lemon and Black Pepper Shrimp with kale, fava leaves, and linguine.
Blue Apron said it would look like this:
And our’s looked good too:
We both have not stopped talking about that meal. So tasty.
Also last week we had their Potato & Leek Chowder and Wednesday was the Brown Butter Spaetzle. Those were good too:
The Mustachian side of me still says that one day, this needs to progress back into biking to the grocery store with bags of fresh produce in the bike trailer. But we’re really happy with how this is working out right now. When dinner comes and goes without frustration, with good nutrition, and the price is still cheaper than dining out — we’re beating where we were. Steps in the right direction eventually get you to your goal.
Alex Gustafson 