In just a few weeks, Michael and I will celebrate our thirteenth dating anniversary. Having all those years behind us means we’ve had plenty of time to grow up together and work out some of the more stubborn kinks in our relationship (communication skills, fighting kindly, and laundry—for starters). But the flip side is that the things we’re terrible at, well, sometimes it feels like if we haven’t figured it out by now, maybe we never will (as I resignedly explained to Michael last week that I’m pretty sure we’ll just never have a clean bedroom, ever. He respectfully disagrees).
As I’ve discussed before, meal planning has been a longstanding hurdle for us, and the cause of more fights than I should probably admit (as in, when we decided to try couples counseling last year to get better at our communication skills, what we mostly talked about was grocery shopping). The problem? Michael and I both love food, but we loathe meal planning. And neither of us was willing to sit down each week and figure out what we should have for dinner in the days that follow. And since I’m our primary grocery shopper (a job I enjoy too much, if you ask Michael), I was also becoming our default chef, and the balance of responsibilities in the kitchen was starting to tip in a direction I was not thrilled about. Cue: hangry fighting.
So, after our last APW trial with Blue Apron, we decided to throw in the towel and sign up for the weekly deliveries already (which you may recall I wrote about last week as part of the steps we’ve taken to improve the quality of our marriage). If you’re new here, Blue Apron sends a box of recipe ingredients to your house each week (enough for three meals including everything except salt, pepper, and oil), and then you just do the cooking part. And so far, it has been a game-changer. It turns out, all we needed was a third party to plan our meals for us, and we could take it over from there. In fact, now that we’ve gotten the hang of it, our former battleground has become one of the most enjoyable parts of our day. Now both of us initiate mealtime, and cooking dinner has become a way that we can treat each other during the week. (Plus, it’s kind of fun exploring the new recipes and then bragging to your partner about how you made them something fancy.)
And it turns out I’m not the only one. Since Blue Apron lets you share meals with friends and family, I sent referral codes to both my mom and sister (stay tuned, because Blue Apron has a hundred free meals to give away to APW readers at the end of this post). My mom originally signed up with the hopes that she could save some money on her weekly night out with her husband by turning it into a night in, but then was surprised to find that Blue Apron had prompted him to up his game in the kitchen (he even bought new wine glasses because he felt that fancy dinners deserved matching stemware). In short, Blue Apron has been prompting more egalitarian kitchens for my family, all across the country.
But figuring out how to make Blue Apron work for us did involve a bit of a learning curve (two trial runs, to be exact). So I figured I should pay it forward, and give you some insight into what’s been working (and what hasn’t):
- Blue Apron is best for people who like All Kinds Of food: Since the menu changes from week to week and utilizes seasonal ingredients, Blue Apron is best for people with adventurous (or at least curious) palates. While Blue Apron does offer the option to set your preferences to exclude any no fly items in your diet (i.e. no shellfish, or no meat if you’re vegetarian), we’ve realized that the reason it’s working out so well for us is that we’re generally not picky, and are excited to try new food each week (and the good news? I have yet to receive a recycled recipe, so if we didn’t like one week’s offerings, the next would be something totally different). Bonus discovery: Blue Apron’s chefs know what they are doing, so some of the items previously on our own no fly list (chicken, mostly) are now household favorites. Turns out? I was mostly against dry, flavorless chicken. Who knew?
- You should read through the recipe cards at least once before starting: Ugh, I know this sounds obvious, but Michael and I haven’t totally broken out of our bad habits in the kitchen yet. While I can tell that Blue Apron is working hard at simplifying their recipes, there’s still a lot of flavors going into each one. Ever the over-achiever, I’m always trying to skip ahead or cut corners while prepping, and I’ve accidentally missed a key flavor or ingredient a few times while doing it (or, for example, wasted time prepping a garnish I wasn’t actually planning on using). So read through the recipe at least once before you start cooking, and figure out what you’re going to need and when. Help me help you to not repeat my mistakes.
- Blue Apron is Saving us Money (your mileage may vary): One of the key concerns raised in our last Blue Apron post was whether the service was cost effective. If you’re a strategic shopper, and weekly meal planner… it might not be. But we were spending so much money on wasted food, and then even more on dinners out, that the $240 we’re spending each month on Blue Apron is easily saving us $400 in groceries, dinners out, and pizza delivery. That last fact is possibly embarrassing, but it’s also true.
- You might have a learning curve too: I knew I liked the idea of Blue Apron, but it took us a few tries to get the hang of how it would work into our routine. It’s been an ongoing process of figuring out which flavors we like, how much prep work we’re comfortable with, and which days are best to receive our deliveries. After a few months, we’ve got a routine down, and I now get thrice weekly texts from Michael that go something like, “Blue Apron and a board game tonight?”
- Good tools make all the difference: There are a few regular kitchen tools in rotation on our Blue Apron days, and having them handy has made all the difference. If you plan on sticking with Blue Apron, I recommend getting a good non-stick pan, a zester, a garlic press, and a solid chef’s knife. You don’t have to spend a lot of money on these tools (Blue Apron even has some affordable options in their new marketplace), but you’ll save a ton of prep and clean up time by having them around.
Working toward a more egalitarian marriage is often one of the hardest parts of partnership. It involves a lot of stressful conversations and hard work from both of us, plus usually some tears from me. But when it comes to our kitchen, Blue Apron has been better (and cheaper) than therapy. And it’s way more filling, too.
Want to try out the meal featured here? (Guys, you can cook steaks in a pan. I never knew.) All of Blue Apron’s recipes are available for free in their online cookbook. This one is the pan-seared steak with peppercorn sauce and creamed spinach. And my favorite deliveries so far have been the pan-roasted chicken, crispy catfish, and mushroom pot pie recipes.
This post was sponsored by Blue Apron. Thinking about trying it out for yourself? The first 100 APW readers to sign up with a new account will get two free meals with their first delivery. Click here to sign up!
