stay sane during the holidays: Blue Apron makes feeding family easy and fun

Our family loves food.

We love food.

We love to make food, talk about food, celebrate with food, and eat food.

My kids are food adventurous, and we are basically always up for trying a new things.

But we’re busy.

We’re juggling work and school and homework and activities and lessons and church. So finding time for creating healthy meals for our family is not always easy.

Add the holidays looming, and life is nuts.

Enter: Blue Apron.

We had a chance to give Blue Apron a try, and we loved it.

Our meals arrived the week of Thanksgiving–a super-busy holiday week–and it was a life-saver. So much fun to have the box of healthy foods arrive, and it forced the kids and I to hang together in the kitchen, reading a new recipe and experimenting with new foods.

All from the comfort of our home.

Blue Apron can be that treat you need–the help you need to make busy December a bit easier, more manageable, and even more memorable.

Here’s the skinny. . .

Stay Sane During the Holidays — Blue Apron Makes Feeding Family Easy and Fun:

Blue Apron is:

a fresh ingredient and recipe delivery service that helps chefs of all levels cook incredible meals at home;
available in 2-person plans or 4-person family plans;
commitment-free;
designed to teach you how to cook new recipes you may not have tried before;
focused on introducing you to seasonal, farm-fresh ingredients;
geared toward reducing food waste.

Check out a quick video about it:

How does it all work? Simple.

1. Head to the Blue Apron site and make your food preferences.

Thankfully, this part is easy for us. We’re game for anything.

But if you’re not, that’s cool. They’ll find recipes that work for you!

2. Choose your menu.

This is seriously the fun part. There are new, seasonal recipes each week, and they all look amazing.

3. Set your menu delivery preferences.

Choose the day you want your meals delivered. All meals will be delivered on the same day, and all ingredients will be perfectly portioned for the recipe.

Love it. No waste. No weird leftovers.

4. Wait for your delivery.

Your box will arrive at your doorstep.

And you will want to dance.

5. Get cookin’!

Never, ever in a million years did I expect that the food from Blue Apron would be as fresh as it was when it arrived at our door. Never.

The greens in our Pork Meatloaf box were damp. Like they had just been cleaned, then placed in a bag and immediately delivered to my kitchen counter.

Everything was perfectly proportioned and labeled.

And we had no leftover, random ingredients. I love that.

Cora took the reigns for the Port Meatloaf recipe.

She cooked the ‘aromatics’–the onions, garlic, and oil–and she cut the collard greens and cooked them, too.

I shaped the meat into a loaf, then I stuck it in the oven!

Super easy.

And honestly, the smell as we were making dinner was enough to make our mouths water.

It’s amazing how good it feels to cook a meal like this from scratch.

The house smells great.

The atmosphere is comfortable.

And it’s just an altogether nice way to spend an early evening with family.

The Pork Meatloaf was so flavorful, and the recipe introduced us to a totally new-to-us food: rutabaga.

We have never, ever cooked with a rutabaga. We boiled it and mashed it, and it was delicious!

Owen took the lead for our Seared Salmon recipe.

He rocked it.

I helped with chopping the carrots, but he made the veggies, and he seared the salmon!

The recipes include a step-by-step photo which is super-helpful.

6. Enjoy!

We loved, loved, loved the Pork Meatloaf.

The collard greens were super easy to make, and they were flavored with a bit of onion and maple syrup.

And we also had the Seared Salmon & Chestnut-Butter Sauce.

Check out all of the Blue Apron recipes here: Blue Apron recipes

Do you want a Blue Apron special? Sure you do!

How about one of these:

What do you think?

Have you tried a meal service like this before? How did it go?

fyi: This post was written as part of a partnership with the great folks at Blue Apron, but, as always, my opinions and ideas are all my own, influenced only by my experience as a parent and educator and by my foodie familia.

fyi: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Forever and always I recommend only products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” For more information, please see teachmama media, llc. disclosure policy.